Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- Here is the second part of this scene from 101 Dalmatians. Roger is at the piano; Pongo has moved the mantle clock ahead by a ½ hour. Roger turns, yawns and checks his watch against the clock.

Milt Kahl animated Roger. Bill Peet did the storyboard drawing to the right. (In fact, he did the entire storyboard by himself.) This is the first of four scenes, I’ll post here – Sequence 1 Scene 45. The animation is, for the most part, on twos. There are a couple of ones at the very end ot the scene as Roger shakes his wrist. (Much of the rest of that will come with the conclusion, next week.

We start today with the last drawing from the first post.

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An inbetween is missing from this part.

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The goes on ones for a few frames as Roger shakes his wrist.

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The following QT incorporates all the drawings from
this post and those in Part 1 as well.
All posts will be combined in the final piece.

All drawings were exposed on twos unless indicated otherwise.

The registration is a bit loose. Sorry but, these are copies of
copies and there’s plenty of shrinkage.

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For more on 101 Dalmatians check out the animator drafts on Hans Perk‘s great and resourceful site, A Film LA. Hans has also posted Bill Peet‘s story treatment for the film several years ago. See it here.
For a look at the art direction of the film including some beautiful reconstructions of the BGs as well as some of the BG layouts go to Hans Bacher‘s great site One1More2Time3.
Andreas Deja has one of the more extraordinary blogs to visit. He just posted some beautiful drawings by some of the key animators on 101 Dalmatians as they set about to find the characters. See them here as well as a comparison of Milt Kahl‘s characters against Bill Peet‘s version. here

For those who own Fraser MacLean‘s excellent book, Setting the Scene, you’ll know that on pages 182-188 there’s an extensive discussion of this opening sequence from the film with plenty of beautiful images of the set.

Ken Anderson’s sketch of the room.

- Did I ever tell you that I love 101 Dalmatians? This film hit me hard at just the right time in my life; I was susceptible. Here was a new way of animating humans, almost a caricature but not quite. Those opening scenes of Roger playing the piano and Pongo looking out the window in search of two mates (one for him; one for Roger) are just first rate.

Milt Kahl did Roger, the human, and I have four scenes all used within the first fifteen minutes. They’re good. This is the first of them, Sequence 1 Scene 45. He’s turned to look at the clock, yawns and checks his watch. We’ll take it up to the yawn today. The animation is all on twos. The assistants were told to leave the line a bit rough, so some of Milt’s scratches were left to be xeroxed onto the cels.

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The chair pops to its own level behind Roger.

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______________________

The following QT incorporates all the drawings from this post
All posts will be combined in the final piece.

All drawings were exposed on twos as indicated by the numbers.

The registration is a bit loose. Sorry but, these are
copies of copies and there’s some shrinkage.

.
For more on 101 Dalmatians check out the animator drafts on Hans Perk‘s great and resourceful site, A Film LA. Hans also noted, in the comments section below, that he had posted Bill Peet’s story treatment for the film several years ago. See it here.
For a look at the art direction of the film including some beautiful reconstructions of the BGs as well as some of the BG layouts go to Hans Bacher‘s great site One1More2Time3.
Andreas Deja has one of the more extraordinary blogs to visit. He just posted some beautiful drawings by some of the key animators on 101 Dalmatians as they set about to find the characters. See them here.

Seeing my post of Bill Peet‘s storyboard for Ben & Me, Bill Peckmann followed up with this note and artwork:

I remember as a kid when “Ben and Me” came out it was “big doin’s”, those were the years where you had to wait 5 years between Disney features, a long time for a youngster. The short was great, it had feature length quality and it seemed that Amos the mouse just stepped off of the back lot of Cinderella.

Needless to say when the comic book adaptation came out it was added very quickly to the stack of Disney comics at home. It was done by Al Hubbard, one of my favorite Disney comic book artists (like Carl Barks and other Disney comic book gents at the time, we did not know his name then). With his wonderful brush line, Hubbard was the next best thing to Walt Kelly. (He had successfully taken over Kelly’s “Peter Wheat” bakery character.) He also did the “Mary Jane and Sniffles” feature in the Looney Tunes Merrie Melodies comic books.

The comic book coloring was done in the simplistic style/way of it’s day, so unfortunately, the color richness of the film is totally missing.

Cover

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This is the first half of the magazine. There are another 16 pages to go. Tomorrow.
Many thanks to Bill Peckmann for scanning and sending the images to post and for sharing his collection with us.

- Bill Peet was one of the prime artists who shaped many of the Disney features. He has been an enormous influence on me and thanks to John Canemaker, who has loaned me the following storyboard, I’m pleased to post some of Mr. Peet’s excellent artwork.

Ben and Me was a 20 min short produced in 1953. It’s an oddity in the Disney canon. The story of a mouse who influences Benjamin Franklin through many of his most famous moments was originally a book by Robert Lawson and was adapted by Bill Peet for the studio.

The photostats of the storyboard, like others I’ve posted, is extremely long. Hence, I’m posting them as large as I possibly can so that you’ll be able to read them once you’ve enlarged the images.

These three panels are followed by a couple more revisions. The revisions I only have as xeroxes – lesser quality.

(Click any image to enlarge.)

This image is a recreation of the extraordinary pan as seen in the first row of the storyboard posted above. It’ll enlarge to a size where you can properly see it. A couple of the objects were on secondary overlays creating a minimal multiplane effect.

Bill Peet offered great drawings in his storyboards, and I’m sure he brought a lot of inspiration to the animators.

This is an excedingly long pan (30 inches), and is almost invisible in this minimal thumbnail. Rather than break it up into shorter bits, I’m posting it as is and hope it won’t be too much of a problem for you to follow in its enlarged state. You have to click on it to see it.

The image below is a recreation of this pan from the final film done using multiple frame grabs.

(Click any image to enlarge.)

There’s an excellent article about the making of Ben and Me by Wade Sampson at Jim Hill Media. It gives quite a bit of information about this odd short and is well worth reading as a companion to these boards.

Continuing the celebration of Bill Tytla’s magnificent artrwork, I’m reposting this piece on Dumbo’s bath.

- Thanks to a loan from John Canemaker, I can continue posting some of the brilliant storyboard work of Bill Peet. The guy was a masterful artist. Every panel gives so much inspiration and information to the animators, directors and artists who’ll follow up on his work.

This is the sequence from Dumbo wherein baby Dumbo plays around the feet of his mother. Brilliantly animated by Bill Tytla, this sequence is one of the greatest ever animated. No rotoscoping, no MoCap. Just brilliant artists collaborating with perfect timing, perfect structure, perfect everything. Tytla said he watched his young son at home to learn how to animate Dumbo. Bill Peet told Mike Barrier that he was a big fan of circuses, so he was delighted to be working on this piece. Both used their excitement and enthusiasm to bring something brilliant to the screen, and it stands as a masterpiece of the medium.

Of this sequence and Tytla’s animation, Mike Barrier says in Hollywood Cartoons, “What might otherwise be mere cuteness acquires poignance because it is always shaded by a parent’s knowledge of pain and risk. If Dumbo “acted” more, he would almost certainly be a less successful character—’cuter,’ probably, in the cookie-cutter manner of so many other animated characters, but far more superficial.”

I had to take the one very long photstat and reconfigure it in photoshop so that you could enlarge these frames to see them well. I tried to keep the feel of these drawings pinned to that board in tact.

(Click any image to enlarge.)

Bill Peet at his desk on Dumbo.

Here are frame grabs from the very same sequence of the film showing how closely the cuts were followed. Even in stills the sequence is stunning.

(Click any image to enlarge.)
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This film is a gem.
The dvd also has one of my favorite commentary tracks throughout.
John Canemaker, by himself, talking about the film. It’s great!

From Hans Perk’s A Film LA:

Dumbo being washed by Mrs. Jumbo, animated by Bill Tytla, with effects by Art Palmer, Cornett Wood and Sandy Strother.

- Here are some storyboard drawings from Cinderella. A number of them are by Bill Peet (known as “William Peed” on this film

May I suggest that you check with Hans Perk‘s excellent site A Film LA to find the drafts for the film. You can use those to find out who animated what scenes.

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- I feel very fortunate. Jason Hand, following my posts on Bill Peet’s great book illustrations, has sent me the illustrations to the book, Goliath II. This book grew out of the Disney featurette. Peet, in his autobiography, says he pulled the story from one he had written to be made into a book. When he was in the doghouse at Disney, sentenced to working on commercials for the likes of Peter Pan Peanut Butter, he stopped Walt in the hallway and showed him the story outline. Disney put it into production immediately.

It was an important film in that it was the first to use Xerography to copy the animators’ lines onto the cels. This was an extremely important step before they moved onto 101 Dalmatians.

I thought this was a great invitation for me to add some frame grabs from the film which match the illustrations of the book, to see how closely the two matched. After looking at the book, one can see that the film is very two dimensional. Every action happens east – west. None of the action moves in perspective (toward or away from you). This, of course, is a product of the limited budget. The film is also all closeups. Little of the action takes place in Long Shot (the better to keep the budget down.) The film, naturally, is a disappointment when compared to Peet’s illustrations.

Here are the illustrations followed by the correlative frame grabs:

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A delicate drawing of something that doesn’t appear in the film.

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The closest thing to floating dandelions is Goliath watching
a couple of fireflies toward the last half of the film.

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This scene isn’t played well in the film.
It’s perfectly clear in the book.

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They couldn’t handle this scene in a single shot.
They broke it into two closeups. TV direction.

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Shades of Dumbo.

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This is about as close as I can come to a match.
Peet’s drawing is so full of life.

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This scene actually comes later in the film.
There was no bathing scene early on.

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No relation to this scene is in the film.

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There’s no real correlative to this illustration in the film.
The closest appears toward the beginning.

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More John Lounsbery than Bill Peet.

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Mama throws the tiger.

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A very different approach in the film.

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The elephant pile up illustrated by Bill Peet has to be broken
into a number of short scenes cutting back past the elephants.

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This makes animation easier to do and, consequently, fewer drawings.

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The elephants end up in water, but they jump in
one at a time. Better for the reuse of animation.

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The mouse enters the story.

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The mouse throws Goliath in a very different way.

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Unfortunately they’ve plotted the entire move
with an overlay that cuts up part of the action.

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On posting some of Grant Wood‘s illustrations last weeik, Eddie Fitzgerald commented that:”‘Death on the Ridge Road’ might have been the inspiration for one of my favotite Bill Peet illustrations in (I think) ‘Chester the Worldly Pig.’” Bill Peckmann pointed out that the book is probably not “Chester the Worldly Pig” but “Jennifer and Josephine.”

Bill’s scanned a good half of the book’s illustrations leading up to the point where the Wood painting and the Peet illustrations come close to matching. It’s good to see what was so obviously Peet’s influences.

Grant Wood’s DEATH ON RIDGE ROW.

Cover of the book.

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Thanks go to Eddie Fitzgerald for the reference in the comments.
A bigger thanks goes out to Bill Peckmann for the search and the scans.

- Bill Peet‘s Capyboppy was published in 1962. It’s one of the best examples of his book illustrations. The images are all B&W and are strong drawings, all.

The book feels like a close relative to Bill Peet: An Autobiography. (For those of you in animation, you ought to have a copy of this book on your bookshelf. It’s one of the finest biographical books by an animation veteran, and it’s completely illustrated by him. It’s an original.)

Once again, I don’t post Peet’s writing; you’ll have to get the book for that (and it’s worth it.) I do, however, summarize the story under each illustration so that they make sense.

To view the other parts of this post: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

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We worried about Capy’s depression. He just sat there
doing nothing and couldn’t be pulled out of it.

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The same continued the next day. Steve was already there feeding him and
giving him water, but Capy didn’t move. We only knew he was alive by the breathing.

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On the second morning, things remained the same. we heard from Tommy.
His head was better and he wasn’t mad at Capy for hurting him.

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By the third day, Capy had gotten better. He sat up and was
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Meanwhile Tommy had become a local celebrity. His scar from Capy’s scratch
was a hit and every kid wanted to see. We were afraid other children would
want to be scratched by Capy and we began to think how we could avoid this.

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I suggested donating Capy to the Los Angeles Zoo.
Margaret said that’d be like sending him to prison. Why not send him
back to South America with a note that he should be released into the jungle?
Then she suggested we bring him there, ourselves.

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We agreed. But we worried that Capy wouldn’t survive in the jungle.
He’d want to play with the other animals, and they’d want to eat him.

At this point, Bill, our son, returned from Mexico.

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We discussed the problem with Bill and we tossed and turned
over the decision for many days. Finally, one day Bill picked up
Capy and put him into his jeep. He drove him to the Zoo.

Margaret cried, but aI reminded her that the Zoo was only a half-hour’s
drive away and we could visit him any time we wanted.
On the third visit, Capy shared his pen with a pair of huge hippos.

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The zookeeper told us it wasn’t a mistake, and
Capy even rode around on their backs.

We watched as Capy and a hippo fought over some grass to eat.
The hippo won and we worried that Capy would go hungry in this pen.

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So we sat across the way on a park bench until feeding time.
The hippos were playing in the pool and Capy was having a feast.
We should have known the ultimately Capy would have his way.
If anyone was to have his way in the pen it’d be our Capyboppy.

This posting concludes Capyboppy. Many thanks to Bill Peckmann for introducing the book to me and sharing it with all of us.

- Last week I posted samples from half of the Bill Peet books in Bill Peckmann‘s collection. Here, I give you a sampler of the other half. They add up to 26 books. Not bad considering 34 of them were published by Peet. This puts him just behind Maurice Sendak and Dr. Seuss as the third most prolific American children’s book author/illustrator.

As with the other Peet postings, I’ve eliminated the text from the illustrations. I hope this will encourage many of you to buy some of these books. Personally, I’d start with Bill Peet: An Autobiography.

Many thanks to Bill Peckmann, of course, for sharing.

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The Caboose Who Got Loose – 1971

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The Spooky Tail of Prewitt Peacock – 1973

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Merle the High Flying Squirrel – 1974

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The Gnats of Knotty Pine” – 1975

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Cyrus the Unsinkable Sea Serpent – 1975

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Big Bad Bruce – 1977

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Eli – 1978

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Cowardly Clyde – 1979

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No Such Things – 1983

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Pamela Camel – 1984

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The Kweeks of Kookatumdee – 1985

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Bill Peet – An Autobiography – 1989 #1

Bill Peet – An Autobiography – 1989 #2

Bill Peet – An Autobiography – 1989 #3

Bill Peet – An Autobiography – 1989 #4

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Cock-a-doodle Dudley – 1990