Animation Artifacts 01 Sep 2006 07:59 am
Levitan Book
The other day I wrote about bar sheets and posted some examples from Halas’ Technique of Film Animation and Eli Levitan’s Animation Art in the Commercial Film. I realized that that may be a book that’s unfamiliar to most people and would like to give it some attention here.
– When I was a kid, I was determined to work in animation. By the time I was 12 and had saved enough to buy an 8mm camera (these are the prehistoric days before the invention of video tape – nevermind dvd’s), I had already animated some films and had a gang of characters. I’d learned everything I knew about animation from books, really.
There was the Disneyland show every couple of weeks about animation, and they gave you some information about how the work was done. In fact, though, that was more entertainment than informational. The same was true of the Walter Lantz segments on the Woody Woodpecker show.
So, it was books. I went to the library a dozen times a week to read through the books I couldn’t take out, and I memorized the books I could bring home. The Halas book, Techniques of Film Animation, was the real deal. Heavy information (some of it I still don’t understand – all those equations in the back of the book). A Christmas Present brought Bob Thomas’ The Art of Animation, which focussed on Sleeping Beauty‘s production. This started my book collection.
There were only a couple of others at the library. I knew all the titles by heart in that small section. There weren’t a lot of animation books back in the late fifties. Animation Art in the Commercial Film (1960) was an oddity that showed up one visit. It was by a NY cameraman/producer, Eli Levitan and highlighted the technical parts of animation. It used a GE commercial for all of its illustrations. The technical aspects of the book were good, but anything to do with drawing or animation, itself, seemed forced. Unfortunately, it didn’t name- drop animators from Disney – or even NY – as the Thomas or Halas books did. It didn’t even name the people who posed in the photographs printed. This is something I religiously sought in my books. I wanted to know who those people were.
Of course, in time, I memorized this book as well. There was a lot in it for someone who understand most of the mechanical aspects of the medium and was interested in learning more.
Levitan had at least two more books about animation: A Handbook of Animation Techniques (1979) and Electronic Imaging Techniques: A Handbook of Conventional and Computer-Controlled Animation, Optical, and Editing Processes (1977)
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on 01 Sep 2006 at 7:33 pm 1.Rudy Agresta said …
Hi Michael,
I found Eli Levitan’s 2 books ANIMATION ART IN THE COMMERCIAL FILM & A HANDBOOK OF ANIMATION TECHNIQUES on ebay and scooped them up – many years after I knew of their existence. Like you, I got the Thomas book on Disney Animation and the Halas/Manvell Technique book and savored them as there was very little in print back in the day. I recently got from a bookseller in England THE ANIMATED FILM by Roger Manvell (19540. I’ve searched for this one for years! It predates the Thomas book where they feature the making of Sleeping Beauty by about 4 years. I say this because it is focused on the making of ANIMAL FARM and from what I can tell it is the first bookS EVER PUBLISHED on the making of any one animated film. All of the pictures are, unfortunately, in B & W but there are beautiful layout drawings, background art, storyboards, animation sequential drawings and photos of the crew at work. a GREAT find!
on 01 Sep 2006 at 8:51 pm 2.hans bacher said …
hello michael,
it looks like we started at the same time our book collection with the
same books. in my case – in germany. it was an adventure to find these
books. there was no easy internet search! you probably have DESIGN IN
MOTION and ART IN MOVEMENT by halas$manvell as well.
your blog is pure gold! thank you for posting all these lectures.
my best
hans
on 01 Sep 2006 at 9:20 pm 3.Michael said …
Hi Rudy & Hans:
I’m sure there were a number of us who searched out and dug around for these wonderful books. No wonder we probably cherish them more than the books in publication today; it was so much more complicated to get them. (Though I also think they were probably better books – they offered more than just a sell of some film.) Today it’s rare to come upon a treasure that really told yo how a film was made and offered wonderful illustrations as well.
I don’t have the Manvell book, The Animated Film, but haven’t given up the search. I’m a love-hate fan of Animal Farm.
Michael
on 01 Sep 2006 at 11:06 pm 4.Nadia said …
My grandfather showed me the book “The Art of Animation” (the one that focused on Sleeping Beauty). As a matter of fact he too was the one who also introduced me to Sleeping Beauty as my first intro to animation. He also taught me to color.
on 05 Sep 2006 at 9:12 pm 5.David Nethery said …
Michael,
I’m another one who seems to have followed in your footsteps with “The Art of Walt Disney” by Bob Thomas and “Animation Art in the Commercial Film & A Handbook of Animation Techniques” by Eli Levitan, both checked out many, many times by me from the Ashland, KY Public Library. The first cel I ever painted was a copy of “Mr. Wimple” from the GE Commercial featured in the Levitan book . I also traced off the walk cycle of the Wimple character and filmed it with my Bell & Howell Super-8mm camera.
A couple of years ago I was lucky enough to have scored a copy of Eli Levitan’s “Animation Art in the Commercial Film & A Handbook of Animation Techniques” on eBay . Still looking for the Bob Thomas book. The ones that have appeared on eBay are a bit beyond my price range !
on 07 Sep 2006 at 3:44 pm 6.Craig Davison said …
OHMYGAWD! That’s the book I took out of the library all those decade ago! (The “ANIMATION ART IN THE COMMERCIAL FILM” one, that is!) As a 12 year-old I didn’t note the title or author, but I did devour its contents for a month until I had to return it. I sat at the dining room table and drew Mr. Whipple in-between for hours on end!
Thanks for the memory jog!