Every month, Animation Resources shares an amazing Reference Pack with its members. These carefully curated collections consist of e-books packed with high resolution scans video downloads of rare animated films set up for still frame study, as well as podcasts and documentaries— all designed to help you become a better artist. Members will have 30 days to download the current batch of treasures from the Animation Archive A new RefPack will be posted at the beginning of the next month. Bookmark the Members Only Page and remember to check back every month, because when the new month starts, the old downloads go POOF!
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PDF E-BOOK / HD Video / Podcast
Chuck Jones Bar Sheets
“How The Grinch Stole Christmas” (1966)
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Animation Resources is proud to share with its members our most ambitious project to date— an e-book, video and podcast detailing the timing techniques used to make the Chuck Jones television special “How The Grinch Stole Christmas”. Chuck Jones was a master at controlling the pacing of the action for every single frame of his films. The method of timing cartoons in the golden age of animation is nothing like the way it is done today. We think you will learn a lot from this research, and perhaps discover some techniques to improve the timing of your own projects.
This overview of the process of musical timing takes the form of an e-book with Chuck Jones’ entire timing plan for "How The Grinch Stole Christmas", along with a video showing Jones’ notes alongside the corresponding scene in the film, and a podcast discussing the nuts and bolts. This project is our most requested download. Grab it while you can. We understand that it is dense and complicated. It may not all sink in at first. But peruse it at your leisure and try to figure it out. It may help you in timing your own scenes.
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DVD QUALITY VIDEO:
Campbells Soup Commercial Reel
Paul Fennell Studios (ca. mid-1950s)
We continue our series of commercial reels from the Paul Fennell Studios with another great reel of commercials from the early days of television. This batch features the Campbells Kids in a variety of themes from old West to pirates to Pilgrims. ey were directed by Paul Fennell and designed by Ed Benedict in the mid-1950s. At the end of the reel is a surprise- a full color Campbells Soup commercial that may very likely be the first color animated television commercial ever aired. The first color TV broadcast was in 1951, but the technology didn’t become prevalent until the early 1960s. Throughout the 1950s, broadcasters dabbled in color but in October of 1954, the anthology program "Ford Theater" became the first series to air in color. My educated guess is that the color Campbells commercial was produced to air with that series. These rare commercials have not been seen since they originally aired, and we thank the family of Paul Fennell for sharing them with us.
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Gran’Pop Monkey Cartoons
Cartoon Films Ltd. (1940)
When Ub Iwerks decided to end his contract with Columbia Pictures and turn the reins of his studio over to Paul Fennell, there was initially a scramble to drum up work to keep the studio afloat. The result of this effort was the creation of three of the rarest and most obscure cartoons in the history of the studio… "A Busy Day", "Baby Checkers" and "Beauty Shoppe". The films were based on the popular monkey illustrations by Lawson Wood that adorned magazine covers and calendars in both the US and the UK, and were part of a brief period where the newly renamed Cartoon Films Ltd. had co-production deals with producers in Britain. Iwerks had decided to return to Disney, so it’s likely that he had no hand in these films- Fennell took on the directors’ duties. These three shorts were mentioned in trade magazines at the time, but for many years they were thought to be lost. Animation Resources Advisory Board member, Steve Stanchfield discovered several fragments of prints, in both two color and B&W and reconstructed the complete cartoons from the fragments. Because of the ephemeral nature of these films, these prints may be the last surviving copies of these films in existence. Animation Resources thanks Steve Stanchfield for sharing these with us.
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Inspiration for animated films doesn’t just come from other animated films. A lot can be gained from exposing yourself to music, dance, live action cinema and fine art. Even architecture can be a useful area to study. Occasionally, we will share interdisciplinary inspiration here in the Side Trips section.
SD VIDEO:
Ray & Charles Eames
Babbages (1967) / Nicholas Copernicus (1973) / World Of Franklin & Jefferson (1976) / The Black Ships (1989) / Kaleidoscope Jazz Chair (1989) / Expanding Airports (1958) / Fiberglas Chairs (1970) / Fisheries & Aquarium (2004)/ S73 (1958) / Design Q & A (1972)
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The foundation of modern design as we know it can be attributed in large part to the work of Ray and Charles Eames. Together, the husband and wife duo pioneered techniques in architecture and design, influenced educational and industrial filmmaking, and set a new standard for corporate and civic presentation in the burgeoning information age. Their philosophy was one of function defining form and the power of an image to simply convey complex information. The meticulous craftsmanship behind the designs remained transparent— they convey their concepts effortlessly. This manipulation of ideas through pure visuals led to contracts with the US military, the State Department, and some of the biggest corporations of the mid 20th century.
HISTORICAL FILMS
The historical films by Ray and Charles Eames are adept at making the past seem alive. They contain evocative imagery that allows the audience to immediately grasp not just the concept but the feel of the times. Charles Eames avoided using a script whenever he could, allowing the visuals to speak for themselves. Their goal was not to plainly reiterate the facts of history, but to transform it into a visual narrative.
The magnum opus in this historical collection is the retrospective, "The World of Franklin and Jefferson" (1976). Created in conjunction with a massive exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art for the country’s 200th anniversary and sponsored by IBM, this film and the others we share here laid the foundation for historical museum presentations that are still in use today, offering a depth that is both thought-provoking and intelligent.
DESIGN PROJECTS
Like the military contracts funding their furniture design during World War II, these design project films were sponsored by corporate and civic entities. The exercise of putting across information visually allowed Ray and Charles Eames to innovate on what an educational film should be. We include films for the Herman Miller company featuring a step-by-step creation of a fiberglass chair and a showcase of how design can be interpreted from manufacturer to consumer with an early take on at home furniture construction, like Ikea. Additionally, this section includes architectural reports for both Washington International Airport and the National Fisheries Center and Aquarium in D.C., as well as an interview regarding design with Charles Eames himself.
Due to the function of these reports, the films needed to have a precisely clear message. Where these films stand out from other corporate work of the time is the profound sense of design and acuity through which the imagery is conveyed. Mixed media is used throughout these reports, with static pictures, scale models, flat informational graphs, and captured footage all combining to create a visually engaging product, visualizing the project for the Eames’ corporate sponsors.
We hope this look at the influential design work of Ray and Charles Eames inspires you to think about ways to impart information visually to clearly express the ideas operating beneath the surface of mere data points.
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Whew! That is an amazing collection of treasures! The most important information isn’t what you already know… It’s the information you should know about, but don’t know yet. We bring that to you every other month.
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 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 two 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.
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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/
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