#12 Spring 1985

Issue 12 – Front cover

Animator. Spring 1985. Issue number 12. Front cover illustrations: A sequence of pencil animations from a South African TV commercial animated by Harold Whitaker.

Highlights of British animation 1985

The Year of Animation was officially launched on 24th January 1985 at the National Film Theatre in London with a special showing of Highlights of British Animation 1899 – 1974. […]

Disney Animator Ollie Johnston

Ollie Johnston is one of the legendary Nine Old Men of the Disney studios. He has worked on all the Disney feature films from Snow White to Fox and the […]

Disney Animator Ollie Johnston – Page 2

MURPHY: Is part of that too that there were lots of people working on it? JOHNSTON: Yes, definitely. Back on Pinocchio there were four of us working on the character […]

Disney Animator Ollie Johnston – Page 3

MURPHY: What was the first picture you worked on? JOHNSTON: “Pluto’s Judgement Day” or “Mickey’s Garden”. The first animation I did was on “Mickey’s Elephant”. I did a few sequences […]

Disney Animator Ollie Johnston – Page 4

MURPHY: In your biography notes, special attention is given to how you could perceive a character or a story point and see it through. Any examples jump to mind where […]

Harold Whitaker by John Halas

Introduction by Gary French-Powell: Some months ago I told John Halas I was compiling material for an article on Harold Whitaker, I asked him if he could help fill in […]

Harold Whitaker by John Halas – Page 2

A good number of other memorable productions followed with Harold Whitaker’s contribution. Here are just a few. The extremely expressive “Keystone Cops” chase in “History of the Cinema”. The brilliant […]

Harold Whitaker by John Halas – Page 4

Since he started animating, naturally the styles and range of techniques have broadened considerably. No matter. He is able to adapt his skills on a wide range of styles as […]

The making of Izzi Knott Cocky

John Guthrie started work painting cinema foyer displays and now designs labels for Scotch whisky bottles. Both jobs have set him in good stead when it comes to his hobby […]

Too much walking

Morris Lakin reports on the progress of his first cartoon film and he makes an interesting discovery about walk cycles. I had got as far as scene two in my […]

Too much walking – Page 2

Marked on the tunnel is the start of the motion – there seemed to be little point in doing the drawings before this because they would be too small to […]

Growing up with Hanna-Barbera

The first of a series of articles on peoples cartoon favourites put together by Mike Lewis begins with Dave Dursley’s opinion of TV’s biggest supplier of cartoon entertainment. Insofar as […]

Growing up with Hanna-Barbera – Page 2

The alley they lived in was a great setting for their urban adventures, beautifully rendered in early decay and immortalised in the unforgettable opening credits – some of H-B’s most […]

Trace and paint with Maggy Clark

Maggy Clark tells Animator what paint and trace is all about. It is based on a taped interview conducted by David Jefferson. I started at Halas and Batchelor, like a […]