warner bros Archives - AnimationResources.org - Serving the Online Animation Community AnimationResources.org

Archive for the ‘warner bros’ Category

Wednesday, March 27th, 2024

Animation: Nat Falk’s How To Make Animated Cartoons Part One

Today, we began digitizing an extraordinary book… Nat Falk’s "How To Make Animated Cartoons". Published in 1941, this book brings together information from all of the major studios of the day… Disney, Terrytoons, Screen Gems, Warner Bros, Fleischer, Lantz and Harman-Ising. It’s wild to see Popeye on the cover right next to Andy Panda and Farmer Al Falfa… You’ll never see competing studios cooperate to create a book like this today!

This particular copy of "Animated Cartoons" has its own history… It belonged to one of the pioneers of animation, Carlo Vinci, and it was given to him as a gift by Paul Terry himself.

Here then, is the first installment of Nat Falk’s "Animated Cartoons"… consisting of a forward by Paul Terry, a chapter on the history of animation and an overview of the animation studios of the time. The animation history chapter is fascinating, because it includes information from first hand sources about the early days of animation in New York. Learn who did the first double exposed effects, who was the first to use cels, who made the first color cartoons (no, not Walt Disney!) and who invented the pan background… Print it out and read it all!

HOW TO MAKE ANIMATED CARTOONS by Nat Falk

I’m going to take one short sequence of the book out of order, because it really belongs here with the information on the studios…

HOW I CREATED ANDY PANDA
By Walter Lantz

Stephen Worth
Director
Animation Resources

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

This posting is part of an online series of articles dealing with Instruction.

THIS IS JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG!

Animation Resources has been sharing treasures from the Animation Archive with its members for over a decade. Every other month, our members get access to a downloadable Reference Pack, full of information, inspiration and animation. The RefPacks consist of e-books jam packed with high resolution scans of great art, still framable animated films from around the world, documentaries, podcasts, seminars and MORE! The best part is that all of this material has been selected and curated by our Board of professionals to aid you in your self study. Our goal is to help you be a greater artist. Why wouldn’t you want to be a member of a group like that?

Membership comes in three levels. General Members get access to a bi-monthly Reference Pack as well as a Bonus RefPack from past offerings in the in-between months. We offer a discounted Student Membership for full time students and educators. And if you want to try out being a member, there is a Quarterly Membership that runs for three months.

JOIN TODAY!
https://animationresources.org/membership/levels/

FREE SAMPLES!

Not Convinced Yet? Check out this SAMPLE REFERENCE PACK! It will give you a taste of what Animation Resources members get to download every other month! That’s 560 pages of great high resolution images and nearly an hour of rare animation available to everyone to download for FREE! https://animationresources.org/join-us-sample-reference-pack/

Animation Resources depends on your contributions to support its projects. Even if you can’t afford to join our group right now, please click the button below to donate whatever you can afford using PayPal.

Posted in andy panda, fleischer, mgm, paul terry, terrytoons, walter lantz, warner bros | Comments Off on Animation: Nat Falk’s How To Make Animated Cartoons Part One

Thursday, August 31st, 2023

Inbetweens: Coloring Book Covers

Here is a gallery of comic book covers… The good, the bad and the ugly. Enjoy!

Posted in coloring books, disney, hanna barbera, illustration, Inbetweens, warner bros | Comments Off on Inbetweens: Coloring Book Covers

Thursday, May 11th, 2023

Animation: Musical Timing Rediscovered

One of the biggest differences between the way animation were made in the golden era and today is the way they were timed. Before the TV era, cartoons were timed to a musical beat, and how musical timing has become a lost art.

Rudy Ising and Hugh Harman Well, almost lost… I happened to be speaking to Mark Kausler about the article, and he mentioned that he had a complete set of bar sheets, given to him by Rudy Ising, for an early Merrie Melodies cartoon- "Shuffle Off To Buffalo". He graciously offered to let us digitize it and share it with you. This document is the "smoking gun" that animators interested in timing theories of the past have been looking for. It’s a highly detailed plan for the timing of a typical cartoon from the early days of sound. This isn’t a particularly good cartoon, but it gives us a clear look at the process. That makes it invaluable.

I’ve gathered together all the reference you need to analyze these bar sheets… I’ve supplied you with frame grabs from each scene to act as a storyboard, and I’ve posted a 24 fps movie file of "Shuffle Off To Buffalo". My own knowledge of animation timing theory is extremely limited, so I would appreciate it if the professional animators who are reading this blog would share their expertise through the comments link below, or by posting analysis to their own blogs. Nick Cross and Michael Sporn are the first to weigh in with their comments. I’ll add links to other blogs discussing this topic as I am made aware of them.

Musical timing is one of the principle aspects of early cartoons that set them apart from modern animation. The perfect rhythm of cartoons is what makes them so appealing and magical. Rhythmic timing doesn’t cost any more, in fact, careful planning saves money. “Shuffle Off To Buffalo” was planned down to the frame by two men- a director and a musician- before a single animation drawing had been done. The results are "magical perfection". Modern animation timing requires constant testing and revising by teams of artists and technicians to look "natural". Who wants cartoons that look natural? How many manhours could be saved with this technique? Let’s share info and try to recapture the "lost art" of Musical Timing!

RUDY ISING’S BAR SHEETS

These 20 pages comprise the complete "detail sheets" (aka "bar sheets") for the 1933 Merrie Melodies cartoon, "Shuffle Off To Buffalo". This document was prepared by the director, Rudy Ising in collaboration with the musical director, Frank Marsales.

STORYBOARD

Feel free to print out these images to use as a visual reference when you’re studying the bar sheets. Every scene in the picture is depicted here, along with its scene number.

24 FPS MOVIE FILE

I have encoded this Quicktime movie at 24 frames per second, so you can count frames and compare to the bar sheets. If the movie fails to load quickly, check back a little later.

Shuffle Off To Buffalo (WB/1933)
(Quicktime 7 / 30.6 megs)

COMMENTARY AND RELATED LINKS

Director, Michael Sporn provides examples of other formats of bar sheets and a discussion regarding how timing theory morphed over time

Kevin Langley discusses how he is applying musical timing principles to his own work, and offers scans of bar sheets by Bill Hanna and Scott Bradley

Mark Mayerson explains how to use a metronome to time animation

Hans Perk posts lecture notes by Disney composer, Albert Hay Malotte and bar sheets by Dave Hand for Trader Mickey. More on bar sheets at afilmla.

Stephen Worth
Director
Animation Resources

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