Brian Mitchell's Sketchbook

More stuff....

2015年06月15日T12:49:00.002-07:00

More sketches...kinda liked these so I figured I'd share......

Goofy Guy

2015年06月08日T20:29:00.003-07:00

More drawings on the Cintiq. I've been playing around with a few different programs and I've found that Sketchbook Pro by Autodesk gives me the closest feel to drawing with a pencil out of all the ones I've tried. Toon Boom Storyboard Pro gives me a pretty good line quality too, but still not as good as Sketchbook Pro and it's about a tenth of the price. Now, if only Autodesk updated the software with some storyboard templates within the program!

RAMBLINGS....AND SOME DRAWINGS......

2015年06月01日T18:23:00.000-07:00

I know, it's been a while since I posted some drawings. So here's a few to tide you over. Most of the time when I post some stuff, it's from sketches done on a sketchpad. Lately, I've been drawing more on the Cintiq and I have to say, I think I prefer to draw on it more than paper. It gives me a freedom that I haven't had with pencil and paper. That's because I used to press down hard to get the line quality I wanted.

With the Cintiq, I draw faster and lighter and am still able to get the quality that I want....and I'm not breaking any pencil tips to do it. What's even better is that my fingers don't cramp up like they used to!

PHONE CALLS WITH GREATNESS: HAL AMBRO AND VIRGIL ROSS

2015年05月06日T18:07:00.001-07:00

Over the years, especially when I was trying to learn things about becoming an animator back in the good ol 70's, the phone became a way of contacting people to gain some insight. I must have been a real pain in the butt to many silver age animators, but there were really no books out there to learn from. I mean there was the Cartoon Animation Book by Preston Blair, which believe it or not, I picked up from a local Hardware store called Pergament in Bethpage, NY. Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston's Disney Animation: The Illusion Of Life was still in the planning stages. Aside from some pages of color stills from The World Book Encyclopedia of Bill Melendez Studios and his production of Snoopy Come Home, it was hard to find real material about the process. I didn't even hear about Bob Thomas' The Art Of Animation book from the late 1950's, until sometime in the mid 80's.
I made a decision that the only way to find out any more information about the process was to use the White Pages to find the names that were prominent on the films I loved and call these talents directly. At first I called Los Angeles information to get these guys phone numbers but eventually my father called the phone company and ordered a Los Angeles, California directory.
I managed to contact quite a few from Disney like Eric Larson, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston.
I talked with Jack Hannah and Bob McCrea, former Disney staffers then at CalArts. Some of them would be curt and would rush you off the phone. This is absolutely understandable as some people were just very busy. But occasionally, you'd get someone on the phone who was nice and giving of their time.
On Andrea Deja's blog, he talks about how much he appreciates the work of Hal Ambro, but never met him. I never met Hal Ambro either, but I did manage to talk to him by phone at CalArts. Ambro was one of those animators who toiled under Disney's Nine Old Men since the mid 40's, but was a very capable animator and draughtsman in his own right.
He gave me plenty of time as I explained how I wanted to land a job in the animation industry and that there wasn't much material to use as a guide. Ambro asked for my address and sent me a thick packet of material including some of his discarded animation roughs and layouts. That was a real eye opener for me as I pawed through the material. His drawings were loose yet chock full of information..really nice animation ruffs. I remember asking him why he left Disney in the mid 60's and I got this response (I'm paraphrasing) 'Sometimes, you have to move on.'
Virgil Ross was another animator who gave me plenty of time on the phone. Mr. Ross was very helpful as he answered my many questions. The one thing that struck me about Virgil Ross was that he really downplayed the quality of his work. He didn't think of himself as a great draftsman or animator. Of course, I disagreed with him and told him that his work had plenty of personality and was brilliantly animated. But still, I don't think he bought it. He told me that he was amazed by some of the new talents that were entering the business. Thinking back on this I've come to this conclusion, there's people who have a lot of ability in drawing and can do great things with that talent. However, there are people who don't quite have the drawing skills but somehow use what they got to rise about their drawing weaknesses to do some fantastic animation. I think Virgil was one of those guys.
I don't think he realized how very talented he really was.
I still have a drawing of Bugs that he drew for me from the late 70's.

Some animation Drawings

2015年04月12日T08:36:00.000-07:00

Here's some animation drawings from a project I was developing that was inspired by Blake Edwards Classic Comedy 'The Great Race'. I went as far as animating a couple of scenes to some funny dialogue based off of Jack Lemmon's Comic creation from the movie. I was proud of the way it turned out and it came across as funny when completed. Unfortunately, it didn't go anywhere beyond these two scenes; mainly because Hanna/Barbera had already created a show that was inspired by this movie in the 60's called 'The Wacky Races' and the other wide spread belief that these characters weren't considered marketable/relatable to the small fry in the audience (which seems to be a necessary element in today's market). Now don't get me wrong, when I was a kid I loved The Three Stooges, Laurel and Hardy and many other things that in today's world aren't considered kid relatable. Well, when I was watching these things, I was looking for the sheer fun and entertainment value! It never bothered me that these characters were adults because they acted kid-like and did funny and goofy things! It didn't seem to concern other youngsters either. The fact is that many other kids loved this stuff too!

Chuck Jones' Off To See The Wizard! OH MY!

2015年03月25日T19:43:00.000-07:00

It's amazing what you can find on EBAY these days. About a week ago, I found this cel with the original animation drawing from Chuck Jones ABC series 'Off To See The Wizard' from the late 60's. It was offered with a buy it now option and I decided to grab it.
The sheer fact is that not a whole lot of these cels are readily available from this show. That's besides the other fact that a lot of people don't even remember the show. My sister, who's a little older than me and a Wizard Of Oz fan (she was featured in a book about Gumby...more of that in a later post) didn't even know the show existed! Well, I sure did cause I tuned in every week that it was on expecting to see an animated show with The Wizard Of Oz characters. All I got was a dazzling title sequence, neat wraparounds and end credits!
You see, the show was kind of a ABC/MGM version of The Wonderful World Of Color, where certain movies would be the featured attraction, with the animated title and wraparounds used as a device of tying everything together. Actually, to this frustrated youngster, I felt jipped. The show only got me angry, because there were no other cartoons to be found, once you got through the title and bridge sequences.
Like the village idiot, I tuned in every week expecting a different result! Guess the joke was on all the kids out there in TV land!
It's funny, after all these years, I never forgot about the animation on this show.

Fortunately, all this stuff is surfacing on You Tube. For years now, people thought I was nuts when I mentioned the show. Here's a black and white version of the opening with information about the featured Live Action movie!

Anyway back to my story about the animation art; when I received it, it was framed in an odd way. The cel was sealed in glue from the front, just behind the glass and the drawing was glued in the from the back of the frame. Whoever put it together as a presentation piece wanted you to see the drawing behind the cel. However, somehow in the process of art being mounted, the drawing ripped by the Wizards hand. I wasn't sure why it ripped, so I decided to take the frame apart so that no further damage would happen to the drawing.
Now this is where my story gets interesting.

Taking these pieces out from this frame was an absolute nightmare. Not only was the animation art trimmed down, both pieces were glued down and sealed with more glue. Gone were the peg holes as they were chopped off to fit in the frame! To make matters worse, the animation drawing overlapped the sides of the back of the frame when mounted and whoever did the framing job (Likely Larry, Moe and Curly Joe), put two hanging screws through each side of the animation drawing (see pictures). Probably, when the so called framer was tightening the screws, it put pressure on the paper to cause it to rip! Yikes!
Look, I try to have a sense of humor about stuff like this but it's tough. I consider these things works of art and when someone just sloppily puts something together like this, you can plainly see that there's no care or respect for the material. Maybe I'm too sensitive about this, but I can't help it; I love the material that much. Bottomline is that I have to keep reminding myself that animation drawings and cels were considered a by-product of the animation process; that the films themselves were the actual product. Looking at the bright side of the situation, I have to be thankful that even with the mediocre framing disaster that this was, it still somehow managed to preserve (almost) these pieces of art for almost 50 years...and now I am able to own it!
Here's the opening of the show, some of those wraparounds (one of which features this cel) and some of the closing credits. Enjoy!

Animating Mickey

2015年03月21日T05:00:00.000-07:00

Over the years, I've animated Mickey on a couple of occasions; one for the Disney Company working on Dale Baer's unit (outside of the studio) for The Prince and The Pauper. I did a few scenes with Mickey and Donald in the school house section where they are having an altercation. The second time I animated the character was when NBC's Saturday Night Live was doing their TV Funhouse animated segments and I was hired by David Wachtenheim and David Marianetti to animate a few scenes with the famous mouse. It was a funny cartoon, although I was shocked by some of the subject matter, which was definitely adult in nature. A week back, I found this sketch of the little guy sitting in a drawer. I don't remember there being any purpose for it other than I felt like drawing Mickey. He can be a little tricky to draw, mainly the proportions need to be right on for him to look correct. Most of all, his ears must retain the shape of two bowling balls on top of his head. They simply shift over a bit as the character turns his head. Over the years the design has continued to evolve. I personally enjoy the look of Fred Moore's designs of Mickey from the late 40's, where the character is softer and more appealing. In recent years, the character's eyes have become more oval and smaller. When I was working on these two shorts, I had to conform to that design, but actually, I like my take a little better.

BRUSHES WITH GREATNESS

2015年03月11日T08:52:00.001-07:00

When I finally landed a job in the animation industry, I ended up meeting and working with a lot of people who had created animated cartoons that I had grown up on. While not household names, they were very familiar to me from seeing their credits on various cartoon shorts or shows over the years. I ran into some of these people at Warner Bros Animation. People like Gerald Baldwin, who had worked on UPA and Jay Ward productions product and had created a sequence that I truly enjoyed from Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol. Art Leonardi, who worked as an animator on late 50's/Early 60's Warner Bros.Cartoons and became a jack of all trades with Friz Freleng on Pink Panther and Ant & The Aardvark cartoons. Tom Ray, a veteran animator from MGM and Warner Bros cartoons, would later work for Chuck Jones 'How The Grinch Stole Christmas' and 'Horton Hears A Who!'. Of course, there were many others, some of which I was surprised were still alive and actively working in the animation industry.

People like Alex Lovy, a longtime Lantz Director, who later worked on Hanna Barbera cartoons, Norm McCabe, an animator and Director of Looney Tunes from the late 30's thru early 40's,
and Charlie Downs, who started at Disney and worked on many of Ward Kimball's projects at the studio.

When I was working for Don Bluth on The Troll In Central Park in the early 90's. The studio was going through a difficult time with Goldcrest, the movie company that was funding the Troll movie. Apparently, Goldcrest had a new management team and they weren't pleased with the Bluth product (more on that in a future post).
Fortunately, the Bluth unit in Burbank had a special projects division that had just completed the character animation for a ride at Universal Studios called The Fantastic World Of Hanna Barbera and was now embarking on a new project for a theme park attraction in Japan.
One day, I had noticed an older gentleman in a corner of the studio who was toiling away on color keys for the new project. I went to introduce myself and he told me his name was Walt Peregoy.
Peregoy, a superior talent, had painted backgrounds for Disney's Sleeping Beauty, 101 Dalmations, Sword In The Stone and had designed the backgrounds for Hanna Barbera's late 60's/Early 70's product.
He eventually returned to Disney to work on projects for EPCOT center.
It was pretty much known in the business, even back then, that Peregoy was a volatile individual and wasn't afraid to voice his opinion about things. I didn't care much about that; I was in awe of being in his company. Every other day I would drop by talk to him a bit and would salivate at his beautiful paintings. He was 64 years old at the time. I developed a friendship with Peregoy while working at Bluth studios and got to hear plenty about Walt Disney (not all good things either from Peregoy's perspective!).
It still strikes me as a surreal experience that I got to work side by side with people who made the cartoon films that I grew up on.
Above, is a film that was featured on the old Disney TV show called Four Artists Paint A Tree. Walt Disney introduces four of his artists; Walt Peregoy, Marc Davis, Eyvine Earle and Josh Meador. Years before I met Peregoy, I actually saw this film in High School. It's good stuff! Enjoy!

Joining the team on Don Bluth's Rock A Doodle

2015年03月09日T04:00:00.000-07:00

I had just wrapped up animating duties on a television series called 'Slimer and the Ghostbusters' for DIC Enterprises back in 1989. These were cartoony segments where I was able to animate scenes with some full animation and cartoony poses. I was out of work and had just got married; not a good combination.

I had recently submitted my portfolio to Disney studios and was waiting for some sort of response. In the meantime, Bill Hanna of Hanna/Barbera Productions got my number from someone who labeled me as a hot talent and called me regarding a position as an animator on Jetsons: The Movie. I met with Mr. Hanna, accepted the position and was fired within a week. (More on that hilarious story in an upcoming post). The reason for the sacking was that I was assigned to a Rosie The Robot scene and Mr. Hanna was quite upset with the animation. "She moves too much!" he kept saying. (Really, no joke.) That may explain why the studios' product was so limited in movement as Mr. Hanna liked it that way. Actually, I was really proud of the work I had done. But none of that mattered now. I had lost my job on a major theatrical feature project. What now?

Well, here's a classic text book example of When one door closes, another opens.

Back in late 1979, I was excited about a new animation studio formed by a group of Disney animators led by Animator-Producer-Director Don Bluth. They had just released a theatrical fully animated half hour cartoon shown on HBO called 'Banjo The Woodpile Cat'. This little film looked fantastic. The designs were fresh, the backgrounds sparkled and the animation was top notch. On top of that, it had really nice effects animation. I had liked Bluth's animation in the recent Disney films and realized that this was where the magic was coming from. In my opinion, Bluth was beating Disney at their own game. Their next film would be 1982's The Secret Of NIMH; a sleeper of a movie that would forever change the business. I became an immediate fan and knew I had to work for them.

Fast forward to 1989.

A portion of Don Bluth's animation team had returned from Ireland and set up a small studio in Burbank, California called West Olive, Inc to work on sequences of Sullivan Bluth movies. The unit was set up by Producer/ Master animator John Pomeroy with Directing animators Lorna Cook, Linda Miller and Ken Duncan as key members of the new unit. I caught wind of this and found out that the studio was located within a few blocks of my apartment. I quickly put together a portfolio and dropped it off to the studio.

A few days later I was invited to the studio to do a clean up inbetween test. Now, I would love to say that I walked in and breezed through the test, no sweat.

The reality was that I actually stressed myself out before, during and after taking the test. I had second guessed my abilities all the way through it. I wanted the job that badly.

A day later, John Pomeroy himself called me back to say that the test looked good, but that there were no spots open for a rough in-betweener at the moment. However, he was looking for an animation trainee and wanted to know if I would come back and test for the job. Needless to say, I was excited about this and agreed to come back for the animation test. I felt more relaxed about this because I was more in my comfort zone when animating. The test was Charlie The Dog (from All Dogs Go To Heaven) jumping onto a box.

All I remember is enjoying the test and being satisfied with the results. I had finished the test in a timely fashion and even had time to finesse the drawings. The next day John called to tell me that the test looked good and... to see if I could start work Monday. I was elated to say the least. The next couple of months would be very challenging to me, mainly because of two facts. 1) I was now working with some of the top talents in the animation business and 2) I needed to make sure my work was of exceptional quality so that I didn't embarrass myself...or worse, get fired!

I'll save some of my experiences of working on that movie for a later time, but let's say, it wasn't a cake walk...But I did learn a helluva lot.

I really enjoyed working on Rock A Doodle. The picture had tremendous potential and I was excited about the possibilities. It was a fun concept with some terrific surprises and the characters seemed to be well formed. Unfortunately, shortly after I arrived, problems began to surface. Victor French, then known as an actor from Highway To Heaven, was brought in to direct the live action sequences for the film. He became very ill and had to exit the production (he died a short while afterwards). Don Bluth took over the live action direction. Goldcrest, the motion picture company that was funding the movie, stepped in to question story direction and design choices. Some very funny sequences ended up being cut from the picture and a portion of the movie had to be re-animated for being too risque. As the reels started taking shape, story problems became clear and it was decided that narration had to be added to make the story flow better.

Overall, the movie was plagued with problems.

I wish that I could say that the movie would go on to become an animated classic; it had all the makings of a hit movie. We had great animation talent, catchy songs, neat sequences, super voices and a retro cool concept that featured a Rooster that resembled Elvis Presley. Regardless, many people love this movie. I still have a fondness for it for many different reasons.

If you haven't seen it, here is a behind the scenes look at Rock A Doodles' production in Ireland (Part one is above, Part two is below). I also included the theatrical trailer which includes the neat computer animated/ classically animated effects opening to the picture. Unfortunately, you won't see me in any of the documentary footage, since this was shot at the main studio in Dublin, Ireland. I was on the other side of the pond at a small satellite studio in Burbank, California! Enjoy.

BACK TO BLOGGING ABOUT CARTOON ANIMATION!

2015年03月08日T16:20:00.000-07:00

As some of you know, I took off a couple of years from blogging to focus on other projects.
The time was well spent as I was/am working on a traditionally animated cartoon project that I was trying to get off the ground for a number of years. I finally have a handle on it and have been animating it the old fashioned way; with pencil on paper. I'm happy to say that rough animation is completed and I'm heading toward finishing it up by the Holidays. I will start revealing bits and pieces as it gets closer to completion. Expect to see making of materials right here on the blog in the near future!

Going forward, this blog is going to change directions a bit. What that means is that the focus is going to be directed more toward my personal experiences in the animation field, the challenges involved in creating a storyboard, animating a scene, designing a character or the headaches and triumphs of putting a whole film together.
I think that this will be more informative than posting a you tube video of The Osmond Brothers at Disneyland. Stuff like this will be removed from the site and posted onto a sister web site for Theme Park related posts (more on that to be announced soon!) I just want to make this blog more about the Animated Cartoon.

I feel (whether people believe it or not) that pure Cartoon Animation is disappearing from movie and Television screens all over the world...and that's just plain sad. What's worse is that the people in control of the purse strings in the entertainment world are killing the medium, simply by omitting it from being seen.

A few people are stepping up to the plate to help give the Animated Cartoon world a good kick in the pants. Glen Keane's classy DUET recently made a big splash on giant video screens in Times Square, New York City (where I saw it first hand!) and animator James Lopez is working on his Steampunk Animated film Hullabaloo that easily surpasssed its' target funding goal on Indiegogo. Mr. Lopez asked for $ 80,000, but instead raised $ 470,000! How's that for interest in Traditional Animated Cartoons!? The trailer is very impressive and the line up of animation talent even more so. Let's all get behind this and support James' project.

I know some of you have been visiting the blog for a while and have not seen anything new. I apologize for this and promise that I will be updating on a regular basis.
Thanks for staying tooned!

How To Make A Woody Woodpecker Cartoon

2012年02月11日T21:16:00.000-08:00

I'm a real sucker for classic how to material like this..Here's Walter Lantz explaining the traditional process of making an animated cartoon. In the old Woody Woodpecker show from the late 50's and early 60's, Walter Lantz would introduce the cartoons, much like Walt Disney did in his Wonderful World Of Color and Disneyland episodes; but Lantz would describe in short 4 minute sections like this, how a story was put together or how the backgrounds were made or how the pencil drawings got transferred to cels, etc. These real glimpses into the process fueled young people (like myself at the time) into learning more about the animation medium. Some would eventually be inspired enough to pursue a career into the cartoon arts! Material like this was pretty rare to see, especially at a time when there was no you tube or DVDs. If they aired a piece like this and you missed it, you'd have to watch the show on a steady basis to see the re-run of the episode. Fortunately, a bunch of these clips are available on The Woody Woodpecker DVD boxed set #2. In this bit, Lantz explains the job of an animation director. The Director I believe, is none other than Alex Lovy. Lovy was a key director for Lantz and later for Hanna-Barbera. Sometime in the early, early 90's, Alex was still working, directly across the aisle from me at Warner Bros. Animation. Don't know why, but I should have asked for an autograph at the time.....missed opportunities!

Disneyland Showtime 1970 Behind The Scenes At The Haunted Mansion

2012年01月01日T12:36:00.000-08:00

If you know me well or have been following the blog, I have a big love for Disneyland.
It's the only Disney park that Walt actually walked in. In a sense, Disneyland is an extention of the animation work done for the Disney motion pictures, mainly because it was designed by the very people who created all those wonderful Disney animated films! It's pretty obvious in places like Fantasyland where the rides are based off the animated features. But classic attractions like The Jungle Cruise, Pirates Of The Caribbean and The Haunted Mansion, it's not so apparent. In my animation classes, I told students to go to the Disney parks to study the art direction, composition of the scenes inside the attractions and the actual animation of posing of the animatronics. There's a tremendous amount of education to be had there!
In this clip from The Wonderful World Of Disney episode, Disneyland Showtime (1970), Kurt Russell takes us on a behind the scenes tour of Disneylands' Haunted Mansion. What's really great about this clip is that some of the imagineers who made this attraction a reality are in it. You'll see animator Bill Justice cutting discs to control the ghosts that shoot at each other continuously throughout the ride and then you'll see layout artist Yale Gracey setting up the haunted bust illusion featuring Thurl Ravenscrofts' projected image. Then it's off to a complete ride through of the then new Disneyland attraction. Missing from the clip are the key designers of the ride, background artist, Claude Coats, who was the main designer of the interiors, Master Animator, Marc Davis who designed a good amount of the scenes and characters, Blaine Gibson, who did a good amount of the sculpting of the figures and Rolly Crump who came up with a good portion of creepy ideas. Animator X. Atencio provided the script and probably one of the most important and memorable elements of the attraction, the lyrics of the song Grim Grinning Ghosts. Buddy Baker, also equally important to the mood of the attraction provided the creepy music. Believe it or not, I remember seeing this episode when it first aired in 1970, and being 8 yrs old and living in New York at the time, couldn't wait to get to California to see it first hand. It would be five years before I could see the Disney World version of the attraction and another eleven to see it it at Disneyland. The full version of Disneyland Showtime featuring the Osmond Brothers, Kurt Russell and E.J. Peaker can be viewed here...but beware!!!!!!!!It's slightly dated but still a fun look back at a more innocent time at Disneyland Park.

BITTEN BY THE MUPPET BUG!

2011年11月22日T21:06:00.000-08:00

The Muppets comes out this week, and it looks and feels very much like the Muppets that I grew up with; fresh, fun and humorous. I'm going to see it with my daughter around the holiday and it should be pretty entertaining. I'm glad in that respect, but it bothers me that Jim Henson's name is not in bold, above the title. It may be called Disney's The Muppets, but even though they own the property, it's still not Disney to me.
Jim Henson was the heart and soul of The Muppets.
Many moons ago when I was just about 11 or twelve, I was a big Muppet Fan and very much into puppets for that reason. Henson was involved with creating delightfully bizarre sketches for The Ed Sullivan Show, For Commercials, for Sesame Street and was creating hour long specials for CBS and for syndication. Each of these projects were a whole lot of fun and I got caught up into it. In fact, I was so bitten by it that I decided that when I grew up, I wanted to work for Jim Henson!
My father saw that interest and nurtured it by enrolling me in some puppetry classes at The Museum Of New York with a professional puppeteer named Rod Young. For a number of weeks, we built puppets, wrote a show, recorded it and then performed it on a beautiful stage at the Museum. I took the experience and ran with it by performing my own little shows on a giant stage that my father had built me. I even entered a puppetry competition and won three 2nd place prizes. Professional puppeteers attended this and made a point to tell my father that I was a natural for the medium.
For a time there, I would write to Jim Henson in NYC, and he would actually answer these little letters personally. These letters would be typed up on Henson Associates stationery and signed by Mr. Henson in green pen. To say I was thrilled when I received these would be a major understatement. I even got the number to Jim Hensons' workshop on East 67th Street in NYC, and called him a few times on the weekends...he always picked up the phone. I knew what I wanted to say to him, but sometimes the words were slow to come out. Somehow I managed to stumble through a question or two...and I'm sure it sounded like some stuttering dumbbell kid on the other side of the phone, but he never rushed me off. Sometimes, I wondered if it was really Mr Henson answering that phone on a Saturday morning. Years later, I did find out that he did go into the workshop on Saturdays, often always by himself.
The letters that I received from Jim Henson weren't very long; basically simple answers to simple questions but I cherished having them. Unfortunately somehow over time, due to my carelessness or whatever, they got misplaced and lost.
By the time, I had hit thirteen years old, the animation bug got me and I redirected myself toward a career in animated cartoons. My father had a problem with my new direction because he had felt that I was giving up something where I had a unique ability. He eventually saw why I wanted to go into animation and supported my efforts. While I gave up puppets as a career choice, I never lost my love for them. I've remained a Jim Henson fan ever since. Recently, I went to see The Jim Henson Exhibit at the Museum Of The Moving Image in Astoria, Queens (runs through January 2012). The show features Jim's original character sketches as well as original muppets from some of the early commercials and specials. It was a thrilling experience for me. I think I've been bitten by the Muppet bug yet again.

The Ant and The Aardvark Part One

2011年11月14日T18:33:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite cartoons growing up was The Ant & The Aardvark, which was a part of the Depatie Freleng Pink Panther show that ran on NBC for something like a gazillion seasons. Actually the show started with a half hour in the late 60's, expanding to an hour and then an hour and a half in the early 70's!
The cartoons felt hipper than the older Looney Tunes stuff, even though the Depatie Freleng staff basically reused a whole lot of old Warner Bros gags. The thing about these cartoons though was the unique voice characterizations of John Byner doing impressions of Dean Martin (The Ant) and Jackie Mason (The Aardvark) in the guise of two odd ball cartoon stars. What really made these cartoons special was the great line reads by Byner. They're simply not your standard cartoony cartoon voices. It's really hard to believe that Byner did all these characters because you don't hear his vocal voice print (Even with some of the classic voice artists like Paul Frees, Mel Blanc and Daws Butler, you could tell who was doing those voices). To top off the uniqueness of these cartoons, the jazzy music by Doug Goodwin creates what I call a drunken type of music that really works. Everything adds to the fun! In Technology Phooey (The cel above is from that very cartoon) the Aardvark has to deal with the Ant and a computer (also voiced by Byner doing a pseudo Paul Lynde impression) who gives him very bad advice. It's one of my favorite Ant & The Aaardvark cartoons! Even though it seemed like they produced a lot of these shorts, in reality only 17 were made between 1969 and 1971. Art Leonardi, who was a Warners guy back in the late years of that studio, moved to DFE and was a key guy there doing lots of different things. I later worked with him on Tiny Toon Adventures in the late 80's. He's credited as animator on this particular short and did all 17 of the cut out titles. Take a look at the short below...

Somewhere over the last twenty years, I started collecting animation art from Depatie Freleng's early years and stumbled across a bunch of original cels from The Original Ant & Aardvark series (many from this short). Because I had never seen too many originals ever offered through the years, I decided to buy whatever I could. Fast forward to now and a lot of these cels are just sitting in a closet where they will probably never be displayed the way they should. So I decided to let a few go on ebay so that other people might enjoy them. I will post some of my other original Ant & The Aardvark art over the next couple of weeks.

A ROY WILLIAMS ORIGINAL

2011年11月13日T20:39:00.000-08:00

ROY WILLIAMS MICKEY DRAWING FROM DISNEYLAND!

I have a few of these Roy Williams drawings, so I'm letting this one go to auction on ebay. I consider myself a pretty fast artist, but Roy Williams was lighting quick. He probably effortlessly knocked this one out in under five seconds. It's not the best Mickey I've ever seen, as a matter of fact it's not even on model, but the drawing has charm....and it's probably the best drawing that you're going to get in under five seconds.
Waiting to get your own Roy Williams drawing was probably the shortest line ever at Disneyland just because Williams was so lightning quick!
Between drawing assignments at the Disney studio in the late 50's and early 60's, Walt would send some of his artists down to Disneyland to draw for the crowds. Sometimes this would be at the Art Corner in Tomorrowland or you could find them somewhere on Main Street, possibly somewhere near the castle. I know you could occassionally find Disney vet Bob Youngquist also drawing for the crowds.
The only thing I'm not sure of is if they ever charged for the drawings!
Regardless, it sure sounds like it was a great time to go to Disneyland.

Drawings Rescued From The Shredder....

2011年10月27日T18:12:00.000-07:00

Rescued From The Shredder: Blissful Guy

Rescued' Dog

I have a whole lot of sketches just lying around and every so often I go through them and start discarding; Frankly, If I didn't, my house would look like a trash heap and my wife would throw me out...or so I'm told. In this joyless process, I pull up the old trash can and begin to thumb through stacks of drawings, most of which are ok sketches but they're not spectacular enough to make me want to keep them. I'd say a good 99% find their way to the Shredder but every once in a while, I'll find a drawing that somehow stands out of the bunch. I posted a few examples above that were done in Ebony pencil. I don't think this was intentional, but the guy looks a little like Disney Animator Frank Thomas while the dog has a Hanna Barbera influence to him.

A Visit to Tiny Toons Two-Tone Town

2011年10月25日T19:23:00.000-07:00

Tiny Toon Adventures was a very interesting experience. The memories that I have from it are all good. As a matter of fact, working on that show was a whole lot of fun. There was a carefree quality for me working on these cartoons and I remember laughing a lot. Maybe that's why in 'Fields Of Honey' I explode in a burst of laughter (more on that in another post). I had just joined the studio from Don Bluth's Burbank facility. I was working as an animation trainee and making a very low salary. Don't get me wrong; I learned many things there at the Bluth House, but it got to the point where I couldn't afford to work there anymore. Ken Boyer, who was one of the designers of the Tiny Toon Characters and a director for the show, offered me over double what I made at Bluth to join Warners as a layout artist! I loved animating for Don but I couldn't turn down the offer. Joining Warner Bros. Animation was a fantastic opportunity! Here I was working side by side with legends of animation and some of the most talented animation artists in the animation business! Working on Ken's crew offered me the ability to grow as an artist. Because we both liked the same styles of animation and design, it gave me the opportunity to stretch in the direction that I really wanted. In a short time, I was promoted to storyboarding. Storyboarding is as close to Directing a cartoon as you can get. Here you can really influence how the thing plays from beginning to end and that was very appealing to me.
Although I storyboarded a handful of Tiny Toon cartoons before this, Twotone Town was different for a few reasons. Even though it features the Tiny Toon characters, it feels like a different show. It was a half hour episode (most half hours were made up of three cartoon segments) and it is one of the few that features storyboard credits on the title cards (the episode was broken up into four blocks for the storyboard artists).
It's also one of the best animated episodes of that series...the twotone characters look great in the finale.
It's also credited as the inspiration for the next series that Warners would tackle called Animaniacs.
Although I was never credited for character models for the studio, I did influence a few through the boards. Near the end of this episode in Part Two, the Buddy Hackett caricature is from the only model sheet that I ever did at the studio.
(For your information, I worked on the last section to the finale!)

SHHHHHHHHHHH! A Walter Lantz Cartoon!

2011年10月10日T16:58:00.000-07:00

One of my all time favorite Lantz Cartoons Directed By The Great Tex Avery. Some people love it, some people don't get it. I think it's terrific because of it's simple concept. Enjoy!

Pen Thumbnail sketches #1

2011年10月09日T09:45:00.000-07:00

Someone emailed me the other day about my drawings and somehow they got the impression that I never do dirt ruff sketches. After looking at some of my posts over the last couple of years I can see how you might get that impression. Truth is, I will do a lot of exploration with thumbnails to help me get where I'm going. If I can't get with what I'm after with a certain pencil, I'll switch off to some other pencil, marker or even a plain ol bic ball point pen, which is what you see here. Some of these sketches were done looser than normal for me and took no longer than 30 seconds to make. Because you're not investing a ton of time into the sketch, it's easy to discard and move on to the next. Like most people, there are times that I'll hit a brick wall. In those moments, it's best to walk away for a couple of minutes and clear your head. Get some reference, live action video, photos or look at other drawings that are similar. Go back to the board and use the reference to help you get the result you need. Worst case scenario, get another artists opinion and see if they can help solve the problem. Sometimes the solution is very simple and you were complicating it.

It's not a bad idea to look at the drawings you had previously done before becoming frustrated. Sometimes there's a gem in there and you glossed over it because you were caught up in the heat of the moment. BTW, the drawing on the bottom, is also a thumbnail drawn in a bic pen, but sketched a little slower.

Bear Heads.....

2011年10月08日T13:10:00.000-07:00

Here's some random doodles of a bear character I had rolling around in my head. Lately, when I draw I prefer to use Polychromos because it's an erasable pencil and it has a nice flow. Years back when I was working on Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures For Bakshi & John K. and Beany & Cecil for John Kricfalusi, I was used to drawing in Col-erase, however John quickly got me out of that and told me to draw with Prismacolors for my character layouts. Prismacolor Pencils have a nice flow and you can get a drawing down pretty loose and quick, but the main problem is that they're nearly impossible to erase with! In order to correct the drawing, you had to use white out. I got used to drawing with those pencils and still like to sketch with them as seen here with the bear heads. My approach with Prismacolor is simple; I'll do a very light underdrawing first, then go over it with bolder strokes.
Most of the time though, I'm using Polychromos or Ebony pencils for my sketching, but will still switch back to Prismacolor for fun or col-erase for animation work.

Childhood Inspirations: WONDERAMA With Bob McAllister

2011年10月04日T19:39:00.000-07:00

Once apon a time, there was a show that was broadcast on Metromedia stations across the country called Wonderama, and although there were various hosts through the years, probably the most popular host was the last one, a man named Bob McAllister. McAllister, like many other hosts of childrens shows in the nation, started off in local television with his own childrens show in Norfork, Virginia and as his popularity grew, was hired by a TV station in Baltimore to host The Bob McAllister Show. The success of that show, which showcased Bob's gift for magic, ventriloquism and comedy, led to an offer from WNEW TV in New York to be the New Host Of Wonderama, replacing departing host Sonny Fox. Wonderama started in 1955, with hosts changing every couple of years. Bob's tenure was the longest, from 1967 to 1977 and for good reason, he was very popular with kids. Wonderama was a three hour show that ran on Sunday mornings from 8 to 11 am and featured games, prizes, special guests, magic, humor and Warner Bros. Cartoons! Because of the popularity of the show, they were able to get some big name guests such as Jerry Lewis, Abba, The Jackson Five and Muhammad Ali to name a few. They also had guests from the world of animation and puppetry, like Mel Blanc, Jim Henson and Bob Clampett!
But make no mistake, It was McAllister's show and he was the draw. Who can forget The Fingleheimer Stomp, Have You Heard Any Good News Today?, Exercise!, or Ecology? All these songs were co written and performed by McAllister on the show. McAllister was the kids celebrity.
Wonderama was cherished by most young New Yorkers as there was a three year wait to get on the show. As a kid, I must have mailed hundreds of letters requesting tickets. Sure enough, I was thrilled to receive tickets a few years later...and continued to get them into my teens! I appeared on the show three times but was never picked to participate in the games. Drats as Charlie Brown might say, however it was a kick just being there taking it all in. Songs that he had performed on the show were compiled as a record album called Wonderama's Bob McAllister: Kids Are People Too!
Bob made appearances at May's Department Stores around the NY area promoting the album. I was one of those kids lining up outside the Mays' store in Lake Success, NY one Sunny Saturday morning in the early 70's, eagerly waiting for the store to open up at 10am. When the doors were unlocked, kids literally stampeded through the store to get where McAllister was sitting, with endless stacks of these records. All I remember was waiting on a long line to say hello to Mr. Wonderama himself and say how much I liked the show. Of course, that never really transpired as the conversation went something like this...McAllister: "What's your name?" and I replied, 'Brian'. McAllister then ripped off the cellophane and signed the album in magic marker. It's an image that has stayed with me all these years.
Wonderama ended on Christmas Day 1977, and McAllister went on to host an ABC show called, Kids Are People Too! Because of creative differences with ABC, he was replaced by a younger host named, Michael Young the following year.
Bob went on to perform magic and host the occasional special here and there, but never enjoyed the success that he had with Wonderama. He managed to put out a video called Blockbuster Magic in the 80's that was mildly successful. It's still available in some magic shops.
McAllister died of lung cancer on July 21, 1998. Sadly, his passing wasn't considered big news.

Sometimes you don't realize how special something is until you lose it...and then you recognize it as a lost treasure.
Bob McAllister made every Sunday morning feel special, kind of like Christmas. That show will always be a treasured part of my childhood; not only because the show was fun to watch, but it featured things that were of interest to me, like the worlds of animation, puppetry and television production.
There's not much left of Wonderama. WNEW erased much of the video tapes so there's not a whole lot available. Fortunately, somebody saved a few of the episodes. Above here's a clip of the snake cans game, which gives you a brief but dated taste of the show.
However, If you didn't live it, you'll never know how special of a show it once was.

A Little About The Firehouse Five Plus Two

2011年09月28日T18:50:00.000-07:00

I recently got verbally beaten up over my last post featuring The Firehouse Five Plus Two because I didn't provide enough information about the group. So in order to right that wrong, here's the full story.
Back in the 40's, a group of Disney animators (Frank Thomas and Ward Kimball included) liked Dixieland Jazz and during lunch hours, would play some records on the studio record player of Jelly Roll Morton, Baby Dodds and Louie Armstrong. Kimball, who learned trombone in grade school, would play to the records. Other people; who also played an instrument, would come in and join Ward playing to the records. Finally one day, when a group of these guys were jazzing along to 'Royal Garden Blues', the record player broke down, and they kept on playing and according to Ward, "...to our amazement, sounded pretty good all by ourselves!" They got to be tight as a group and eventually drew crowds at lunch time. The band was first called the Huggyjeedy Eight, and later on they changed their name to The San Gabriel Valley Blue Blowers. When the local horseless carriage club asked them to play for their auto tour in San Diego, Ward found a 1915 Fire Truck, restored it, and with the group now dressed as firefighters, they changed the name of the band to The Firehouse Five Plus Two.
The FH5+2 ended up playing a good amount of local gigs around Los Angeles, while maintaining their day jobs at Walt Disney Studios, and were discovered by Les Koenig, who was a writer at Paramount Studios and had dabbled in producing Jazz records. Koenig liked their sound and offered to produce some records for them for Good Time Jazz. From 1949 to 1971, the band recorded 12 full albums of material which was distributed around the world, most of which have been available on CD and can be purchased here...The Firehouse Five Plus Two Story
The FH5 played many gigs in the 50's and 60's and appeared in movies, radio and on television!
The fact that this was all done on their spare time is even more impressive. Ward once told me that Walt Disney felt a certain amount of pride that his group of animators were equally talented as a famous music group! Between 1955 and 1971, the group could be found playing around Disneyland, but most often at Plaza Gardens (to the left of the Disneyland Castle, off Main Street) or at The Golden Horseshoe in Frontierland. The group even released an album entitled, The Firehouse Five Plus Two at Disneyland, from one of their Golden Horseshoe performances.
In the clip above, Directing Animator, Ward Kimball (Jiminy Cricket, Jaq, Gus, Tweedle Dee and Dum, The Mad Hatter) is on Trombone, Harper Goff (the designer of the Nautilus from 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea and The Jungle Cruise attraction from Disneyland) is on Banjo and Directing Animator, Frank Thomas (Pinocchio, Queen of Hearts, Tramp, Baloo) is playing the piano. Interesting to note; if Thomas looks a little like Roger playing the piano from 101 Dalmatians, that's no coincidence. Milt Kahl who animated most of those scenes caricatured Thomas as Roger in the film! Other Disney studio personnel is George Probert is on clarinet, Danny Alguire on Cornet and Ed Penner on Tuba. Jim MacDonald, the studios sound effects man and voice artist responsible for Jaq, Gus, Evinrude and in later years Walt Disney's stand in for Mickey Mouse, plays the skins.

Some Disney Animators; The Firehouse Five Plus Two - Firehouse Stomp

2011年09月26日T18:35:00.000-07:00

Here's some real Disney animators led by Ward Kimball, playing some hot dixieland jazz. Back in the 50's and 60's they were very much in demand, so much they could have left their day jobs. Instead, they used it to blow off steam from Disneys. I know it seems romantic to think that things were more fun and simpler back then...maybe they weren't...but it sure seems like they were.

Rage Dog Drawing

2011年09月21日T20:09:00.000-07:00

Well, I don't remember drawing this one but I do know that it was done with a Polychromos Blue pencil.

This is a drawing that I did while I was good and angry about something and vented my rage in a drawing. I happened to like it and it went into a drawer for a couple of years.

Looking at this drawing today, I would probably approach this pose a little bit differently...like changing the angle of the head and possibly having the arms clench in a downward direction. But this is the way my emotion took it and for some reason it works for me. As an animation artist, I use emotion to fuel my quick sketches because I believe you get something absolutely pure on the paper. Sometimes I'm surprised by the result because you're not thinking about technique or second guessing yourself on the pose. You're focused strictly on getting that emotion down in a sketch and you're letting your talent shine through.

The trouble with pitching shows...

2011年09月16日T19:21:00.000-07:00

Here's another character of a rat recording details from a crazy crime scene. It was from a project I was actively developing about six years ago that borrowed heavily from shows about detectives from the 50's and 60's. The pencil media is Polychromos Blue.
Now don't get me wrong, there's some great execs who take pitches all day long that get the ideas you're trying to sell...but unfortunately, there are a good number who have a hard time comprehending a good idea...or any idea.
It dawned on me after some rather unsuccessful pitches that a show like this could never fly today. It had a couple of strikes against it from the get go which I'll share with you here.
Strike One - It references a different time period. Because this show evokes old imagery from the 50's and 60's, Executives feel the show would never connect with todays' viewers.
Strike Two - The main character is an adult rat wearing clothes.
This would never fly with some executives because there would be too many confusing questions about the humanoid rat. I.E., Why is a rat wearing clothes? Rats can write? Is the rat really a human that looks like a rat? Why is the rat a detective? Can the rat talk? etc. etc. The questions would be too numerous to answer in a single sitting.
Besides, the rat is an adult and could never relate to children.
Strike Three - The rat character doesn't sing or have a band. The kiss of death for a show like this. You see no band, no show.
Strike Four - The cartoon is a bit clever. If the show has an ounce of wit or parody, the kiddies will never get it.
Strike Five - The cartoon has slapstick humor. You can't have characters hitting each other over the heads because kids watching will get the wrong idea and repeat it on their friends. Can you imagine the violence that could erupt nationwide?
Strike Six - The drawings are too slick and professional looking. If the drawing is drafted well, overseas animation studios will never be able to copy it. Better to stick to childlike drawings that are simpler to draw and kids can relate to better.
In other words, strive for the lower possible denominator. It's no wonder why kids don't watch cartoons anymore!