Published between 1982 and 1995
Stained glass windows, gun cotton, incendiaries and Celluloid By Brian Clark of Film Sales Ltd. The West window of the Church of the House of Prayer, Newark, New Jersey bears a spiritual likeness and Latin inscription dedicated to the Reverend Hannibal Goodwin. The motivation for this stained glass dedication was not so much related to … Read more
At this level triacetate has shown itself to be in with more than a good chance. Film Sales’ search for an animation-copy-suitable triacetate cel concentrated on a formulation that provided the highest softening point to withstand that temperature, and one whose production ensures the absolute minimum of residual solvent. Removal of casting solvent could never … Read more
Karen Rosenberg reviews the work of professional flip-book-maker Ruth Hayes. These days the flip book is generally considered kiddie fare, if it is considered at all. What’s a flip book? Well, the Germans call it Daumenkino, thumb cinema, because it’s a form of animation: a series of sequential images on a bound stack of paper … Read more
From the California Institute of the Arts, where she is currently studying film, Hayes told me by phone how she came to concentrate on flip books. After graduating from Harvard in 1978, where she studied with George Griffin, Hayes put two of her short animated films on the festival circuit. They made the rounds and … Read more
In her unabashed exploration of the body, Hayes stands within a tradition of women animators in the USA that began in the 1970s. Susan Pill’s film Asparagus, with its clear reference to the smells of piss and the shapes of shit, the dancing penises in Mary Beams’ short film Seed reel, and Ruth Hayes’ own … Read more
David Jefferson tries his hand at computer animation with a software package for personal computers. DeluxPaint Animation is a comprehensive animation program for personal computers. It runs in 320 x 200 lines mode with 256 colours. This resolution is good enough for line testing animation, producing computer based business presentations or adding animated titles to … Read more
Backgrounds can be drawn and painted separately and then added to a sequence of animation once it is complete. The background can also be saved in an artwork file and used for other sequences. Several sequences with a common background can be linked at the player stage to form a longer sequence. A scanner may … Read more
Two events on the subject of computer graphics were held recently in London: the Time Multimedia exhibition, and Computer Graphics 1991 – a two day conference on computer animation. Report by Ken Clark. “If asked four years ago about the future of computer animation,” said Jan Carlee of Don Bluth Entertainment, “I couldn’t see where … Read more
Edwin Lutz on the subject of animation believability Taken from Edwin Lutz’s book: Animated Cartoons (published in 1920) By experience the artist will learn to know where to slight – “slight” isn’t exactly the word, but it will do – the drawing. With respect to this latter point, suppose there is some arm movement, with … Read more
Jerry Hibbert is a director of Hibbert Ralph Animation in London. He gave a talk at Computer Graphics ‘91 entitled The Computer as a traditional animator’s tool. At Hibbert Ralph they are still fundamentally working on paper and painted cel. However, they have embraced the use of computers to manipulate the hand created images. “Animation … Read more
The sets were placed on a giant rotating table with the cels held vertically in front. As filming progressed the table was rotated. “It gave some great effects but was a very limited approach,” declared Carlee. “The camera couldn’t move around the character, but it still gave a great multiplane effect. Disney, of course, used … Read more
“When you do something brand new it takes a bit of research,” declared Goldberg. “You need to spend a lot of time on it and you are not going to produce footage as quickly as you would by hand. This has to be counterbalanced by introducing efficiencies, having other elements that can be turned out … Read more
Animator. Autumn 1991. Issue number 28. Front cover illustration: Peter Lord in the Aardman Animations’ studio working on a chocolate egg commercial.
Report by Graham Ralph. The lurid pink jacket climbed the short flight of steps and turned to confront the three hundred guests. Compare for the evening; writer comedian Tony Slattery, welcomed Rolf Harris. The occasion was the 1990 British Animation Awards held in the Assembly Rooms, Cardiff on November 29th. For the next two hours, … Read more
It was the intention of the 50th Anniversary re-release of Fantasia to restore the film to its full original form. However, a subtle form of censorship has been used to remove a potentially embarrassing character, reports David Williams. The new print of the Disney film Fantasia, which has been meticulously restored to bring back the … Read more
From a small flat in Moscow. By Karen Rosenberg. January 1988. A modern complex of high-rise apartments in outer Moscow. A small flat has been partitioned to create more living and working space for animator Youri Norstein, his wife Francesca Iarboussova, who is the artist for his films, and their family. By the dining-room table … Read more
It is obvious from the way Norstein speaks these words that they are not empty platitudes for him. The power of his films may well come from the intensity of his beliefs. His work is not mere graphic design or a personal “recherche du temps perdu” although his films draw on folk motifs and his … Read more
For Norstein, the denigration of human beings is not a historical problem. “In ‘The Overcoat’, Gogol chose the most painful situation in the modern world,” reads the published scenario for the film, written by Ludmila Petrushevskaia with Norstein’s help. Yet that doesn’t mean that Norstein sees his film as a coded attack on the Soviet … Read more
Animation, like any art form, is a medium for presenting ideas. A lot of psychology is concerned with the study of communication, the way we perceive the world around us, how we attend to it, and how we process and react to sensory stimuli. Some understanding of psychology can thus help animators when communicating their … Read more
Howard Beckerman is a New York animator who worked at Terrytoons and the now legendary Famous Studios. Graham Webb met him at an animation festival and has documented some of his experiences. The one thing that clinched the deal for young Howard Beckerman and put him on the rocky road to becoming an animator for … Read more
Inspired by the goings-on at Terrytoons, young Beckerman took an evening class in animation at a local New York college, much to the Terry artists’ bemusement who couldn’t figure out why anyone who worked all day in an animation studio should want to study the subject in his own time. The class instructor, Irving Spector, … Read more
Tony James was one of the finalists in the BBC television Showreel 88 competition with Goblin. He explains the background to the film. As a pre-TV child I grew up with a love of cinema and theatre, and recall performing, writing and painting scenery for my brother’s amateur company in Birmingham. My father made me … Read more
I constructed a rostrum from chip-board and wood scraps, which did not look too bad once it had a coat of matt-black emulsion. It had four planes, each with wooden sliding bars and a window of plate glass. The only tool I use well is a hammer, so after a hard days filming, my rostrum … Read more
Computerised video graphics have strongly challenged practitioners of diagrammatic film animation. They have also been used by Disney and Hanna-Barbera to create animation for segments of cartoon feature films. Ken Clark gives an overview of computer graphic systems available today and some advice about bridging the gap between traditional animators and computer technicians. When I … Read more
At the Odeon, Marble Arch that same evening I watched a succession of short sequences which they called idents and stings, all demonstrating the current state of the art and competing for the annual awards. The most memorable effects were those which simulated water; raindrops falling on to dry sand and building up to a … Read more
John Halas combined computer animated effects with cartoon animation in Autobahn (1979), a little classic of its kind. A fantasy, featuring a green space boy wearing dark goggles, with the ability to fly through surreal space, the film is pure inventive imagery. As a mixture of old and new techniques it is completely successful. As … Read more
Paul Thomas is probably the most independent of London’s independent animators. He has turned his back on commercial work to follow his own dreams. He talks to David Jefferson about his latest production based on black and white photographs animated against painted backgrounds. If you have read past issues of Animator you may know something … Read more
The production team was culled from various phases of Paul’s career. Co-animator/scriptwriter, David Skinner was an old school chum. He previously worked with Paul on RAM, a film for Channel 4. David’s fine art backgrounds add a maturity and logic that compliments Paul’s way out state of mind. David spent long days and nights working … Read more
Paul has been determined to get a break with his own studio and it has taken many years to get this far. When he first entered the profession he worked at Bob Godfrey’s studio for a while. “It was important to me at that time to be at a studio where they could make their … Read more
Aardman Animations the plasticine puppeteers. Plasticine animators Peter Lord and David Sproxton gained their early experience animating Morph for a children’s television show. Nowadays their studio is in great demand for television commercial work but they still find time to produce entertainment animation, such as their Lip Synch series shown recently on Channel Four. Report … Read more
The brief called for something of a pliable nature with the ability to change shape, to metamorphosis, something the producer was very keen about, so Morph was born. “I’ve never liked it when he changes shape,” confesses Peter. “When he has changed into a duck or a goose or something, he has stopped being a … Read more
I ask Peter how talented young people can train to become model animators. “Well, we do have students here but I couldn’t claim to be doing much training. It is easy to say I believe in it but it is difficult to put into practice. We get students in quite a lot, but as far … Read more
There is a deal of preparation before the animation can start. “On this particular job the model makers upstairs are contributing a great deal by making special inbetweens. The chaps head changes into a lion’s head so they have made me ten heads for changing. It is probably a bit more Vintoney to make all … Read more
“I set it in a maze to make it claustrophobic. He eventually gets out of the maze through a window. I worked with two professional comics on the soundtrack. The sequence in the pub was a bit of their act. I wanted them to expand that to five minutes but it has taken them years … Read more
Animator. Summer 1990. Issue number 27. Front cover illustration: Rolf Harris on the set of Rolf’s Cartoon Club. See the article The Rolf Harris Cartoon Club.
Time for Melody by Robin Allan The fortieth anniversary of Melody Time (1948) serves as an opportunity – and much more than an excuse – to reassess one of Walt Disney’s neglected animated feature films; it was not a success either critically or commercially, and like its predecessor Make Mine Music (1946) with which it … Read more
There were more package films to follow: Song of the South (1946), Fun and Fancy Free (1947), Melody Time (1948), and The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr Toad (1949). All these films are interesting, but for experiment and adventure in animation Melody Time is the most rewarding. It lacks The musical quality of Make Mine … Read more
Once Upon a Wintertime (Director Hamilton Luske) This is a stylised story, sung by Frances Langford, of boy and girl romance on the ice, the human lovers echoed by two rabbits who travel to a frozen river on the young couple’s sleigh. The girl and her rabbit counterpart are trapped on an ice floe (one … Read more
Johnny Appleseed (Director Wilfred Jackson) This is the story of “a real life pioneer” called John Chapman (1776 – 1847) who, “with a tin pot hat, a bag of apple seed and a holy book.., all alone set out to meet the great unknown… without no knife, without no gun”. The film chronicles his courage … Read more
Trees (Director Hamilton Luske) This is a visualisation of Joyce Kilmer’s famous poem, with Oscar Rasbach’s music, sung by Fred Waring’s Pennsylvanians. The music is too lush and we are subjected to one of those lapses in taste to which Disney is prone, but otherwise, this little section is a gem. It is the direct … Read more