I love Disney's 101 Dalmatians - especially the first third as the characters are so well introduced and established. Milt's animation of Roger and Anita is amazing as always and I have lots of great pencil tests which I will share over the next week or so. Here are 2 to get us started.
Michael Sporn's fantastic blog had some great high res scans from a Milt Kahl scene from Peter Pan. I decided to re-register them and put together a pencil test with audio so we could watch it.
Milt Kahl did some amazing work on Alice In Wonderland. I came across the full res scans for these pencil tests on the awesome Michael Sporn Blog, but found the pencil test and scans he had were really out of register and some of the timing was not what was used in the final film.
So I decided to put together some pencil tests of the scans with them back in register and in the timing from the animation in the film. I have included the original scans and with the background from the film.
Video reference has always been a very important part of the animation process and has become much more of an understood tool with people like Jeff Garbor and his great reference for Blue Sky's Horton Hears A Who and Ice Age. Interestingly, it is something that has not really been spoken about or seen in the same light in relation to 2D animation.
But i think with further research and understanding, the way in which video reference was often used by Disney in the old days is very similar to how it can be used today in 2D or CGI animation.
(Once again, please remember I am also just an animation student and I am still learning like you. These are just things I have found that have worked for me and I am sure there are many other great ways of working.)
The first person to make use of and come up with the idea to use video reference for animation was Art Babbitt. In the mid-1930's, Babbitt was working at the Walt Disney Studio on the original lot in Hyperion Avenue (which is unfortunately now a parking lot for a grocery store!). These guys were creating an art form and where pushing each other to constantly improve. This included Babbitt bringing in an art teacher (more on that in a future post) and purchasing a 16mm camera for him to shoot film reference to study movement.
Frank Thomas and Art Babbitt talking about video reference.
Often at Disney comedians, vaudeville actors, and the voice actors themselves where shot on a stage in costume for the animators reference (Cinderella was the first Disney feature where the whole film was shot in live action prior to animation). However, when the frames of the reference was traced, the resulting animation was lacking in life and felt flat (which is the same result you get when importing the video reference into a CG package and positioning the character over the reference).
Snow White Video Reference
But the animators found it extremely helpful in coming up with different or unique acting choices, understanding how difficult shapes turn in space, costume follow through and overlap and to study the body mechanics.
I love these two clips from Alice In Wonderland which show the comparison between the live action reference footage and the final animation. This really made me understand how I could best use video reference. You can see in the first clip (at 20 seconds) where the animator has found great inspiration in how the foot drags along the floor, the hands coming up and then dropping to her lap in frustration and the little head shake. But you can also see where they have pushed the poses, made the hands clearer as she holds them up before dropping them back into her lap and how the timing and spacing is different to get more spark and life.
This second clip from the mad hatter tea party is fantastic (they actually ended up using the audio recorded from this session for the film as it was better than when they got the actors back in to record it in the booth). Its also great to see animators like Freddie Moore and Ward Kimball working away on set.
Another great clip of reference is from Sleeping Beauty with Marc Davis and Milt Kahl drawing at the boards and doing studies of the hands, poses and dress movements of the actress.
Video reference continued to be used in the more recent Disney 2D features including The Little Mermaid. This clip shows Glen Keane directing an actress on what he wants and he talks about what he was able to utilise from the reference in his Ariel scenes.
This is a process I have found really helpful in my animation where I shoot video reference (sometimes of myself, and sometimes of a person I know that I think has qualities similar to the character I want to create). I then go through the following steps:
• I take screen grabs from the reference of the keys where there accents in the dialogue, changes in emotion, contacts and changes in direction in the movements.
• I draw out these key poses and really try to push them. I find the line of action and go further. I tilt the head more, I push the shoulders etc. I usually do quite a few drawings of each pose and simplify and exaggerate the pose until it is as clear as possible.
• I then use the drawings as my reference in Maya to pose out my animation.
Lots more to come in the coming days with some very cool Disney pencil tests.
Jungle Book has to be one of my favorite Disney animated films. The characters are so well established and have personalities that you just want to spend time with and watch them interact with each other.
The King Louie musical number is just one of the amazing classic Disney songs in the film. Milt's animation of King Louie is fantastic. I loved the character designs that Andrea's Deja posted on his blog that Milt did along with some of Frank Thomas' animation too: Andreas Deja Blog
I decided to put some drawings I have together as a pencil test against the pan background from the film. These drawings are full res scans from the fantastic Michael Sporn Blog.
Included is the recreated pan BG which I pieced together in photoshop which is well worth a look at apart from the animation.
I have a bunch of pencil tests from The Jungle Book, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Fantasia, 101 Dalmatians and Pinocchio which I will start to post soon as I analyse and break them down. So lots more to come soon!
Adding these drawings and model sheets for a good friend of mine who was nice enough to help promote this blog on facebook (something which I am still not on!). I know his favorite Disney film is Robin Hood... so enjoy Matthias!
Another big post coming in the next few days on designing appealing mouth shapes.
