Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

____________________________Happy Mother’s Day
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- Lyle, Lyle Crocodile was one of my favorite experiences since forming my own company. I’d like to revisit two posts of photos that I posted back in October, 2006.

This is the group in 1987 on Lyle Lyle Crocodile: the House on East 88th St. that worked in house. The studio at the time was located between Fifth & Sixth Aves, and I was there from 1985 thru 1988.

These are, Back row L to R : Lisa Crafts – animator, Tom Repasky – coloring, Susan Tremblay – coloring, Madeline Fan (full pic w/T-shirt) coloring, Caroline Skaife (leaning on Madeline) – coloring, Mark Baldo (w/puppet Lyle) coloring, Doug Vitarelli (leaning on Caroline) runner, Theresa Smythe – asst. animator.

Front row, sitting, L to R: Caroline Zegart – coloring, Steven Dovas – animator, John Schnall – Prod. Coordinator/Animator, Ray Kosarin – Asst. Animator/coloring, Michael Zodorozny – Layout, Bridget Thorne – Art Director/Bgs.

Some of the others who worked in the studio and not pictured in the group are: Elizabeth Seidman – ran the rendering and supervised the production, Greg Perler – editor, Kit Hawkins – studio coordinator, and me.

Working out of the studio on the artwork were: Tissa David – animator, John Dilworth – animator, John Canemaker – animator. Of course there were also actors, musicians, camera guys, and engineers.

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(Click on any image to enlarge.)

1) Lisa Crafts animating at her desk. Steve Dovas behind her.
2) Me at my desk with Mark Sottnick a producer of Santa Bear. Theresa Smythe on the right.

The studio was a good one. It was just over a music rehearsal studio where Tito Puente’s group practiced every afternoon. All we could hear was the endless bass line over and over and over and over and over and over. At one point, late night, we heard Bob Dylan and Mark Knopfler rehearsing the new album they’d just done.

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Unfortunately, the large skylight made it easy for people to break in. It happened three times in one month, and all that was stolen were walkman radios from the crew. Ultimately, I gave up, and we moved downtown.

A shot of the whole studio from the door. (Things were tight.)
In the BG from L to R: Mark Baldo, Steve Dovas, Lisa Crafts, Ray Kosarin.
At the center table L to R: Susan Tremblay, Madeline Fan, Doug Vitarelli, John Schnall – behind Doug and Liz Seidman (in pink).

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- Here are two more corners of the room in this 38th Street studio, back in 1988.

Greg Perler had a particularly crowded corner of the studio where he edited all of the films we were producing. You’ll note that he was using an upright movieola. (I prized those two uprights and have kept them to this day, though they’re used predominantly for holding things upright.)

Greg, at the time of these photos, was editing Abel’s Island. There was a hurried rush for the mix which was fast approaching, and I was encroaching on his day to take these snaps.

Greg left NY to go to LA. He started as the Asst. Editor on Beauty & The Beast and became top dog on Tarzan. Currently, he’s editing The Love Guru for Mike Myers.
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(Click any image to enlarge.)

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1. Greg’s corner from another angle
2. Greg and Ray Kosarin, an assistant in the studio. who worked with Greg in assisting him in the rush to the mix.

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3. Ray Kosarin drawing on Abel’s Island.
4. Bridget Thorne‘s corner – diagonally across the studio from Greg’s – where she did backgrounds. Bridget, Greg and Ray.

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5. HBO threw a party to screen Lyle Lyle Crocodile. Pictured here L to R: me, Liz Callaway (the singing voice of Mrs. Primm), Bernard Waber (the author, illustrator of the book), and Arnold Stang (the voice of a parrot – he was also the voice of Top Cat among hundreds of voices he’s done over the years.)
6. Pictured L to R: Rick Parks (multiple voices), me, Arnold Stang, Bernard Waber, Carole Rosen (an Exec from HBO with whom I did many films), and someone dressed as Lyle.
We’re about to cut a cake shaped to look like Lyle, the crocodile. The knife was given to Bernard Waber who said he couldn’t cut into his own creation. We had the costumed Lyle cut himself – the cake, I mean. (The head went first!)

- As I noted in a recent post, Frank Thomas/Ollie Johnston’s book, Bambi: the Story and the Film, came with a flipbook of four animated bits from Bambi. It was an extra added attraction and somewhat better than the flipbook corners of their previous books. The images were larger and more readable. I’m posting the drawings of Thumper laughing and a QT movie at the bottom. The images were exposed on two’s.

This is an excellent laugh and should be studied by anyone interested in animation. It’s hard not to use any of the obvious approaches to animate a laugh, but here Frank Thomas not only uses those obvious choices, but he exploits them. There can be no doubt that it’s a child laughing – just a little too hard. It’s a real character choice, and it’s brilliantly and intelligently done. You can also FEEL the softness of the rabbit. Like any great piece of animation, so much more shows up when it’s in motion.

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– At the start of Disney’s production of Bambi, Rico LeBrun, an established Italian artist, who was teaching at Chouinard Institute, was employed to help teach the studio’s artists to learn how to draw animals. He created some intense classes where animators concentrated on the anatomy of deer and other animals. The story goes that LeBrun went so far as to cut open a deer’s corpse and slowly peel away parts of the animal for drawing and study. Over days, as the smell grew more putrid, fewer and fewer people attended.

LeBrun prepared a book of some 40 or so pages of the skeletal system of deer for the artists to use as reference in learning to manipulate the animal characters. His art was copied onto animation paper with typed notes added.

I had posted one of these pages which I located on ebay (reposted above right) and am quite pleased with this original piece. Presumably the others are all, also, on animation paper.

Sky-David had contacted me after a recent item I had posted about the Tyrus Wong drawings on Bambi. Sky
told me that he had a copy of all of the pages of LeBrun’s study. Furthermore, he shared it with me and I’m sharing it with you. At least, here are the first 18 pages. I can post more at a future time.

(Click any image to enlarge.)______________

Rico LeBrun (standing), in his class, advising Eric Larsen.

Animators in LeBrun’s drawing class. (Left to Right) Louie Schmitt, Ollie Johnston,
Milt Kahl, Bill Shull, and Jack Bradbury.

For futher information on Rico LeBrun’s biography, go here.

- Hans Perk has been the source for much of the animation history we’ve been sharing on these blogs. His posting the drafts to Pinocchio and numerous Silly Symphonies led Mark Mayerson to prepare “Mosaics” which visualized these drafts and gave Mark an excuse for some detailed comments on that film. At the same time, I was able to post some of the storyboards from John Canemaker‘s collection which joined well with the two.

Recently, the same has been true of material for 101 Dalmatians. For this film, Hans not only posted the drafts but the legendary script by Bill Peet, as well. Mark is currently posting his Mosaics.

Now, I’d like to call attention to what I consider an enormously valuable post by Hans. He calls it Synchronizing Mickey and its follow up, More on Synchronizing Mickey. There you’ll find some historic patent documents which help to describe the Disney studio’s development of synchronized sound. Hans writes in clear detail how the few at the studio were able to go from silent film to Steamboat Willie at the Colony Theater in 1928.

It’s an informative and instructive piece well worth your look.

- Harvey Deneroff offers an extended and informative piece on the Independent animator, Joanna Priestly. It’s an older article but worth the read. Harvey’s site is unlike most others and should be explored if you haven’t already, and it’s nice to see Joanna’s work given a nice appreciation.

- In the past couple of weeks I’ve posted some images sent to me by Robert Cowan from his collection of cels, artwork and memorabilia. They’re all astounding pieces. I’m pleased to say that he’s created a new website around this collection, and I encourage you to visit if you want to look at some beautiful animation art.

- There’s another excellent animated piece by Jeff Scher on the NYTimes website. This month’s edition is certainly one of the better films in the series. These are not Flash films that are knocked out in an afternoon; they’re obviously the product of good hard work, and Jeff is providing some real creativity to the Times’ OP ED page. To quote Jeff from the post:
___“All the Wrong Reasons” is an experiment in making a film
___that feels as if it has percolated up from the subconscious;
___a dream you can watch with your eyes open. It’s one of
___those big cathartic dreams, a labyrinth of fleeting moments
___full of metaphor and mischief. I wanted it to feel like a bumpy roller coaster ride in
___and out of the dark side of the brain where all the wrong reasons reside. And, as with all
___dreams, the meaning and significance are open to interpretation.

___There are almost 3,000 paintings and collages in this film. I used rapidly changing color
___to give a shimmer to the animation and lots of collage to create a visually percussive
___texture.

The score by Shay Lynch perfectly captures the mood of the piece. They’re so in synch that I wondered which came first the score or the animation. Take a look and a listen.

- Last Saturday, I was able to post some images of Mickey in The Sorcerer’s Apprentice taken from Robert Cowan‘s excellent collection.

This led me to search down some old xerox copies I have of animation keys from one of the great scenes from this sequence. It was animated by Disney legend, Les Clark.

These drawings are probably all over the net; I haven’t looked. Part of this sequence was printed (rather small) in Frank Thomas/Ollie Johnston‘s book, Illusions of Life. I do know that Hans Perk posted the drafts for this film on his site back in 2006. However, I thought it worth posting just in case.

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I’ve also made a QT copy of the the extremes (assuming that the drawing number represented the frame number – as was usually done at Disney.) Here it is, below.

- I have an advanced board for the sequence in 101 Dalmatians wherein Pongo goes to the kitchen to comfort Perdita who’s worrying about Cruella’s threat to buy up all her pups.

This relates to Bill Peet‘s original board (posted here on April 1), but is composed of BG layouts and animation dwng cutouts. I’m posting the new board and juxtaposing it with the Peet original so you can see how it’s changed.

I also suggest you check out Mark Mayerson‘s invaluable Mosaics for this film and sequence.

This was Ollie Johnston‘s sequence, and he probably drew the dogs.
This is how the full LO board looks:

________(Click any image to enlarge.)

This is Bill Peet’s version of the sequence:

This is a breakdown of both to keep the images as large as I can:

Johnston

Peet

Johnston

Johnston

Peet

Johnston

Peet
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Johnston

Peet

Johnston

- Last night, ASIFA East held its 39th annual Festival at the New School. There were over two hours of award winners, and it was one of the better shows of the past few years. I’m not going to report on any of the award winners or titles, but I did take a bunch of amateur photos. To find out the winning films go to the ASIFA East website; they’ll post titles today or tomorrow._____________________________________________(Click images to enlarge.)

Here are the pics and apologies to all for the slapdash quality.

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Shooting from the back of the house, I wasn’t able to get the best shots of award winners. Here are two of the less fuzzy pics.
(1) Dave Levy looks on as Mike and Tim Rauch receive the award for their film, Germans In The Woods.
(2) Bill Plympton thanks all the people who helped him make Hot Dog.

Heidi Stallings and Debra Solomon.

- Drivers around the country are used to the site of the traffic cone. Those orange, rubber cones guide us in our cars from one lane to the next or blockade protected areas from our drivers. Somehow, I’ve always associated the orange cone with the automobile.

Recently, I”ve noticed that New York City use these cones for everything under the sun, and I was surprised to see so many of them on the short walk I take daily. __________________(Click any image to enlarge.)
Lately, I’ve been walking about
half a mile to an express subway stop.That’s about 10 city blocks (which pulls me through and across Madison Square Park), and I came to realize that NY uses the cone as much for the ambulator as the automobile.

I took all these snaps Sunday morning on my walk.

These three cones sit in the middle of a sidewalk just outside
a fenced construction area. I don’t know what use they are
in the center of the sidewalk, but there they are every day.

The most frequent sighting of the orange cones is usually around construction sites
and fencing. Here, on the right, they use a cone-extender. Something new.

Turning the corner, there’s the long stretch of street that’s been completely coned off.
It’s a movie. This Sunday, four blocks were completely coned off. It’s a big movie.
The standing poles have sheets of paper which tell you what film they’re going to shoot.
The movie is Duplicity, Julia Roberts’ next film. It costars Clive Owen
and is directed by Tony Gilroy, who did Michael Clayton, last year.

The cones usually block off an area, and they film on the following day. Cars replace the cones overnight, and trailers move in early morning to set up.

I’m not quite sure what purpose the cone serves on top of the car,
but this is a common site on these movie preps.

Here, I guess this construction site is using the cone to prevent anyone
from going behind the red door. It stops me.

I pass this cone daily. It sits outside an outdoor parking lot. Up close, you can see that
the cone covers and protects a stand pipe (check the top of the cone) and doesn’t move.

My favorite, on this trip, is the pile of three cones at the local bodega.
The attached wire, I guess, protects anyone from stealing them, and
prevents anyone from tripping over the basement grating.

- I’m overwhelmed by the wealth of artwork that Robert Cowan continues to send me from his collection for use on this site. He’s put together a number of pieces from The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, and given me the opportunity of, not only viewing them, but sharing them.

Take a look, and be prepared for a couple of gems. Don’t forget to click any of them for a larger view.

Here’s a storyboard drawing used in a LEICA assembly reel. This is a beauty. What a great bit of art.

This is a stunning cel setup of Mickey trying to bail water out the window. Beautiful EFFX work rarely seen, I think, in these setups.

Above and below are two animation drawings of Mickey from the sequence. They look like cleanups to me, though I’m not certain of the one above.

Here’s a framed cel setup of Mickey and the original broom, loading up.
Also framed is a note from Walt Disney to Irene Kanelstein. This is a great story. Irene was a 13 year old student who won an essay prize and the reward was this cel.

Below is the newspaper report and the winning essay. These three pieces are a treasure. Mr. Cowan wrote about the three pieces:
____ I was really amazed with the Kanelstein pieces. Frankly, the only item described
____ in the auction was of the cel and Walt’s signature. The other stuff was in an
____ envelope on the back and I was amazed to read it. It was so unique that I had
____ the items framed and they sit next to the Mickey/Walt piece.

It doesn’t get any better than this if you ask me.

I must remind you about The Ingeborg Willy Scrapbook a publication that uses extensive material from the Cowan Collection and, given how fabulous the images I’ve been posting are, it’s obvious that this book has to be a gem.

Hans Perk also verifies, on his site, that the reproductions and the images are all extraordinary. I’m salivating already.

– The release of the dvd for The Jungle Book inspired my posting of these animation drawings by the brilliant, Milt Kahl.

These are some of the animation drawings by Kahl from a sequence featuring King Louie doing a dance. It’s interesting that I think immediately of Shere Kahn as Milt Kahl’s work, and I don’t think of Louie. Yet I’ve had these copies for the past 25 years.

Somewhere – I have to find it – I remember Walt Disney being quoted as having said the one thing you should never animate is a monkey. They’re funny enough in real life; animation can’t improve on them. I remember thinking of that quote the day I first saw this film. I also wondered how Louis Prima felt knowing that they were representing him as an orangutan. I suppose that’s not a monkey.

The copies of these drawings I have are xeroxes. I’m posting them for the magnificent drawing alone; I don’t have timing sheets to be able to work out the movement. Honestly, with Milt Kahl’s work, looking at the images alone should be enough. I apologize if these are at all fuzzy or grey; that’s the quality of the images I have. They’re also not full sheets of animation paper. I copied only the peg holes and drawings.

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(Click any image you’d like to enlarge.)

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Talk about breaking of joints,
_______________this scene couldn’t be a greater lesson in animation for you.

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I know I don’t have to say, but I will; these drawings are extraordinary.
#100, here on the left, is a masterpiece in weight, balance, forshortening and sheer brilliance. And it’s only one frame from a scene.

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A large thank you to the inestimable Robert Cowan sent me the cel setup, pictured above, from his amazing collection of animation art. It consist of three cels over a master background: Baloo, Louie & 4 monkeys.