Archive for the ‘jump page’ Category

Friday, September 16th, 2011

Exhibit: Eugene Zimmerman Jump Page

The Zim Book on Cartooning

Eugene Zim ZimmermanEugene Zim ZimmermanEugene “Zim” Zimmerman was born in 1862 in Switzerland, and his family emigrated to the United States when he was seven. As a poor immigrant, Zim witnessed the “melting pot” of American culture first hand. His depictions of ethnic minorities were pointed, but honest and well observed. Although he is pretty much forgotten today, he was very well known in his time, and his humor captured the essence of turn-of-the-century America.

Zim was the founder of the so-called “Grotesque” school of caricature, and was one of the first caricaturist to incorporate exaggerated cartooniness not only in the faces of his subjects, but in the bodies as well. Zim worked for Puck and Judge, the two top humor magazines of their day.

Zim Book

Zim was a prolific artist, with more than 40,000 illustrations published in his lifetime. He retired from Judge in 1897 and founded the American Association of Cartoonists and Caricaturists. He was also a writer and teacher. His columns ran in Cartoons magazine during the early years of the century, as did ads for his landmark correspondence course in cartooning.

For more biographical information on Zim, see the Animation Resources biographical entry… Eugene "Zim" Zimmerman




ZIM: ONLINE EXHIBIT


Zim Cartoon Course

Zim BookZim Book

For the first time in nearly a century, Eugene "Zim" Zimmerman’s legendary 1914 cartooning course is available again in a four-volume e-book edition. Lavishly illustrated with nearly 1,000 B&W illustrations and 22 full page color plates, this landmark course deserves a place in every cartoonist’s collection.

Zim BookZim BookEdited by Stephen Worth and with a foreword by Ralph Bakshi, these books cover a broad range of subjects, from practical advice for aspiring artists to philosophical musings on what it means to be a cartoonist. Zim’s infectious sense of humor and vividly observed caricatures leap off the page. This drawing course may just be the keystone document of American cartooning.

ORDER VOL 1 IN OUR ONLINE STORE!

REVIEWS

Eddie Fitzgerald: Uncle Eddie’s Theory Corner

JOIN TODAY!

For a limited time, the three remaining volumes of the e-book edition of the Zim Course are being offered to Animation Resources subscribers as a benefit of membership. JOIN NOW and collect the whole set!



Imagekind Zim GalleryImagekind Zim GalleryVISIT OUR GALLERY OF FINE ART PRINTS

Imagekind Zim GalleryImagekind Zim GalleryAnimation Resources in association with Imagekind is proud to present a collection of fine art prints representing some of Eugene Zimmerman’s best work. Produced on demand from high resolution archival scans, these prints are of sufficient quality to be printed all the way up to poster size without any image degradation. Visit the Zim Gallery at Imagekind to see all the available images.

Magazine CartoonsMagazine Cartoons

This posting is part of the online Encyclopedia of Cartooning under the subject heading, Magazine Cartoons.

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Friday, September 16th, 2011

Exhibit: Adventures In Music Jump Page

Adventures in Music

Dave Brubeck

When I was a kid, I always loved the “Wonderful World of Disney” show. It seemed that every show had the word “adventure” in the title. At Disneyland, Walt built a whole land around the concept of “adventure”. Today, I hope to be able to pass along to you a little of my excitement about early to mid 20th century music. I want it to be just as much fun as shooting hippos on the jungle cruise, so let’s all call it an Adventure!

Music has been a part of cartoons since before the dawn of sound. In 1925 Max Fleischer’s Bouncing Ball cartoons were the first to be animated to a musical beat. The action was syncronized so theater organists and audiences could play and sing along with the characters on the screen. The merging of animation and music was a smash hit, and soon all cartoons were timed to music.

Adventures in Music

Music shares an indescribable magic with animation. It’s hard to describe in words exactly why certain walk cycles or pantomime gags are so wonderful. Music is a source of non-verbal delight as well. The rhythms and pacing of cartoons often mirror the construction of popular music with a statement of theme followed by variations, culminating in a restatement of the theme and a big finish. If you think about it, the best cartoons are inseparable from music.

Below are links to the entire series of posts on this topic. Feel free to jump into the comments and join in the conversation.

I’m going to start out with a classic Disney animated short that attempts to outline the families of musical instruments with an emphasis on the importance of rhythm to music. They made a sequel to it called “Melody” a year later, but they never got around to making the logical third installment, “Harmony”. Maybe someday, someone will pick up where they left off and complete the trilogy.

Here is “Toot Whistle Plunk and Boom”…


ADVENTURES IN MUSIC

This series of posts originally appeared as part of my guest blogging stint on BoingBoing.

I hope these articles inspire you to investigate new types of music and integrate what you discover into your film making. Music and animation are Siamese twins. Think of them as a team from the very start of planning your film. Adding music like wallpaper as the final step the way modern television animation is often scored is a total waste of a great opportunity.

Stephen Worth
Director
Animation Resources

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Saturday, January 22nd, 2011

Instruction Jump Page

Instruction

In the “golden age” of animation, there were no animation schools. Artists trained to be artists, and then worked their way up through an apprenticeship system at the studios. An experienced animator would train an assistant to help him with his scenes, and after a few years, the assistant would advance to being an animator and train his own assistant. Today, this system no longer exists. Few animators work at a single studio for more than a couple of years, and training up staff is not a priority. How does a modern day animator learn the craft?

Self study.

The animators of the golden age are dead and gone now, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t learn from them. The work they left behind contains all the information you need to become a first class animator yourself. Animation Resources has gathered together the best references for self-study you will ever find. Ralph Bakshi described it once as “A Masters Degree in cartooning at your fingertips”. Print this material out. Work with it. Practice and study it. And you too can become a Master Animator.


Preston Blair’s Animation Drawing Course

Preston Blairs Advanced AnimationPreston Blairs Advanced AnimationAnimation Resources is conducting an online drawing course teaching the fundamental principles of drawing for animation. It’s based on Preston Blair’s classic book, “Advanced Animation”. Over the next year or so, we will be working over the internet with a group of students who want to sharpen their skills and learn to draw constructively. This is NOT a course in learning to draw in the 1940s style. It is designed to teach you step-by-step how to master the basic principles of drawing and posing characters for animation. These principles apply to all forms of cartooning, not just “funny animal style”.

If you would like to participate, follow our lessons as they are posted and send in your work for critique. As the group of students following this online course progresses, we’ll be introducing more advanced lessons. Each lesson builds on things you learned in previous lessons, so don’t skip ahead. Follow the instructions carefully. We ask that students who benefit from the valuable information in these lessons consider becoming members of Animation Resources. From time to time, we will be referring to materials on the Members Only download page, so to get the most out of this course, you should join our organization. Support the people that are helping you grow as an artist. JOIN NOW! https://animationresources.org/membership/levels/

Animation Drawing Course Lessons


INSTRUCTION POSTS

Design For TV

Founded by Norman Rockwell in the early 1950s, Famous Artists had three courses… Painting, Illustration/Design and Cartooning. Each course consisted of 24 lessons in three oversized binders covering a wide variety of subjects. To design the courses, Rockwell brought together the top artists of the day… Albert Dorne, Stevan Dohanos, Rube Goldberg, Milton Caniff, Al Capp, Willard Mullen, Virgil Partch, and Whitney Darrow Jr, among others. The result was a correspondence course that puts many current university programs to shame. ASIFA-Hollywood has been digitizing these powerful lessons and sharing some of them with you on this website. In addition, we have provided a wealth of educational material written by top cartoonist educators like Grim Natwick and Gene Byrnes; as well as invaluable articles on art theory.


Please Note: We will be reformatting and reposting these articles as time goes by. Please bookmark this page and check back regularly to see what is available.

INDEX OF ARTICLES

Bill Nolan: Cartooning Self Taught / John K Advice and Eddie’s Boney Finger and John K on Character Design


INBETWEENS ARTICLES


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