AnimationResources.org &#8211; Serving the Online Animation Community

PDF E-BOOK:
All The Funny Folks

All The Funny Folks

The Wonder Tale of How the Comic Strip Characters Live and Love “Behind the Scenes” (1925)

In 1926, William Randolph Hearst hired cartoonist Louis Biedermann away from Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World and assigned him to serve as his first licensing artist at King Features Syndicate. King Features distributed the comic strips and feature stories from Hearst’s New York Journal to thousands of newspapers all over the country. Biedermann’s initial task was to create a picture book that would bring together all of Hearst’s cartoon stars into one story. To write the book, Hearst tapped Jack Lait who served as a jack-of-all-trades staff writer for King Features. Lait was known primarily for celebrity gossip and sports coverage, but for All The Funny Folks he decided to try his hand at rhyming doggerel. The poorly written text jams all of the characters together in crowds organized by species and age, and shoehorns snappy colloquialisms into their dialogue without much regard for the characters’ established personalities. The story consists mostly of superficial references to events from the strips, and it manages to provide an anchor for the illustrations, but that’s about all that can be said for it.

Biedermann was handed an almost unreadable story composed of reams of dialogue and scene after scene of complicated crowd shots. In the newspaper, each comic strip existed in its own world with its own situations and logic. The style of drawing varied from strip to strip too. This wasn’t going to be an easy book to illustrate. Clearly Biedermann was more at home with the styles of Winsor McCay and George MacManus than he was Billy DeBeck and George Herriman, but he was able to arrive at a happy medium where the characters could co-exist side by side without clashing.

The layout and color of the book is brilliant. Our high resolution PDF is set up to be viewed as two page spreads so you can appreciate how the images lead from one side of the spread to the other. Not much is known about Biedermann, but he illustrated calendars for King Features as well. If you have more information, please let me know.

REFPACK020: All The Funny Folks

Adobe PDF File / 130 Pages / 345 MB Download

DVD QUALITY VIDEOS:

Charlie Bowers

Two Films By Charlie Bowers

He Done His Best (1926) / A Wild Roomer (1926)

What do you get if you take the imagination of a great animator and cross it with the mind of a brilliant slapstick comedian? The answer is… Charlie Bowers. Almost forgotten today and rarely mentioned in histories of silent comedy, in his day Bowers was a successful and well known film maker, a peer of Chaplin, Keaton and Lloyd.

Bowers started his career as a cartoonist for Raoul Barré on the Mutt & Jeff cartoons. But he was a gifted performer as well as being a cartoonist, and in the mid 1920s he starred in a series of silent live action comedies. These shorts are unique because they employ animation to create eye-popping fantastic effects. The French surrealist André Breton spoke very highly of these films. We are happy to be able to share two of these shorts with you… “He Done His Best” and “A Wild Roomer”, both from 1926. Bowers performs in these shorts as a “regular fella” much like Keaton and Lloyd, but the slapstick isn’t the thing that distinguishes these shorts. I think you’ll be amazed by the inventiveness of the mechanical effects and stop motion animation.

REFPACK020: He Done His Best / Wild Roomer

MP4 Video File / 47:28 / 845 MB Download

DVD QUALITY VIDEOS:

Puppet Love

Puppet Love (1944)

A Popeye Cartoon in HD

Thanks to our Advisory Board member Steve Stanchfield, we have another Famous Studios Popeye cartoon to share with you in high definition. Famous Studios cartoons tended to have plot devices derivative of other studios’ films, but this short is quite unique. The animation isn’t as flashy as the last HD Popeye cartoon we shared, “We’re Going Down To Rio”, but it makes up for it by engaging in some good natured sadism directed at all three of the principle characters.

Make a point of still framing through the action in this cartoon. High definition reveals a lot about how the drawings are constructed and how the movement is planned. We hope you find this to be useful for study.

REFPACK020: Puppet Love

MP4 Video File / 7:28 / 420 MB Download

Animation Resources is one of the best kept secrets in the world of cartooning. Every month, we sponsor a program of interest to artists, and every other month, we share a book and up to an hour of rare animation with our members. If you are a creative person interested in the fields of animation, cartooning or illustration, you should be a member of Animation Resources!

It’s easy to join Animation Resources. Just click on this link and you can sign up right now online…

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

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 Uncategorized | Comments Off on LAST CALL! Bonus004: A Peek At The Bonus Downloads

Tuesday, July 4th, 2023

TOO LATE! RefPack052: Sports, Slapstick, Dinosaurs, Cartoony Music And More!

THIS REFPACK IS GONE NOW!

Every other month, Animation Resources shares a new Reference Pack with its members. They 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. Make sure you download this Reference Pack before it’s updated. When it’s gone, it’s gone!

The latest Animation Resources Reference Pack has been uploaded to the server. Here’s a quick overview of what you’ll find when you log in to the members only page…

PDF E-BOOK

Willard Mullin Dailies 1941-1946

New York Daily World-Telegram
Download this article

Willard Mullin was a genius at depicting the human form in motion. His characters seemed to spring off the page with life and vitality. Mullin’s characters ran the gamut from heroes to everyman characters. His influence extended far beyond the newspaper world to cartoonists like Jack Davis and the Disney animator John Sibley. For animators, Mullin’s sketches are a revelation because they appear to be already in motion. His knowledge of anatomy merged perfectly with the spirit of the action to create gesture drawings of the highest order. Best of all, his drawings are steeped in fun. They encapsulate the spirit of casual camradery shared by all of the sports fans in the bleachers on a sunny afternoon.

HD VIDEO:

Two Visions Of Prehistoric Times

Rite Of Spring From Fantasia (Disney/1940) / Bolero From Allegro Non Troppo (1976)

From beginning to end the environments and animals in "Rite Of Spring" look real, not at all like an animated cartoon. Disney’s artists worked with paleontologists and were clearly influenced by the work of Charles Knight, a wildlife artist who worked with the American Museum of Natural History in the early decades of the 20th century to reconstruct the way the prehistoric animal skeletons on display may have looked when they were alive. Disney’s animated depiction of this ancient world is experiential, a lot like a theme park ride.

Bozetto’s telling of the story of the dinosaurs has meaning and satirical comment that leaves the audience thinking. Starting out with a satirical gag- life on Earth starts with littering in outer space- the music starts and life emerges from the primeval ooze… or at least from high fructose corn syrup! Bozetto doesn’t just stick to the animals seen in museums, he creates his own creatures. They develop an edge that allows them to flourish for a time, only to be replaced by an animal that develops and even better edge on survival. The music propels the entire piece forward as an inevitable progression, which interestingly enough represents evolution much better than Disney’s "Rite" did.

SD VIDEO:

A Quiet Glade

Boris Dyozhkin / Soyuzmultfilm, Russia / 1946
Download this article

"A Quiet Glade" starts off as a typical three bears cartoon. They look for a quiet place to hang their hammocks and nap, but noisy woodland creatures prevent that. It seems as if Dyozhkin discovered this story was too thin to sustain a whole cartoon, so halfway through, he introduces a soccer game with rabbits. The fast action perfectly suits Dyozhkin’s style of snappy timing, and this sequence established the format for many of his films to follow. Make sure to still frame through this film to break down the timing of the action.

SD VIDEO:

Silhouetten Opernhaus: Carmen

Lotte Reiniger / Germany / 1933

Lotte Reiniger is one of the most important figures in the history of animation. She made the oldest surviving animated feature film, The Adventures of Prince Achmed, she pioneered the merging of animation and music, and developed a multi-plane camera stand over a decade before anyone in Hollywood built one. This film is a fantastic example of the way Reiniger merged motion and music seamlessly. Her puppets never feel flat or stiff, and their movements never feel limited. In fact, the characters are able to dance, run, jump and act as well as any animated character in any technique of animation.

SD VIDEO:

Revolt Of The Toys

Hermina Tyrlova / Czechoslovakia / 1947

Hermina Tyrlova isn’t mentioned often when people refer to female animators, but her impact on the art form in Czechoslovakia was significant. "Revolt Of The Toys" is unique among her work because it combines live action and animation. It’s also unique because of its use of violence. Tyrlova said that she didn’t care for the American style of animation, with its slapstick pratfalls. She preferred to animate characters as objects existing in their own worlds outside of our awareness of them. Her films aren’t overtly political like those of her contemporaries. Instead, they are targeted to children and exhibit a sense of discovery and wonder, rather than gags and action. Even though this film is different from her other work in many ways, it is still an excellent example of her simple, appealing design style and clever stop motion techniques.

SD VIDEO:

Dog, Cat And… Ep 5

Alina Maliszewska / Studio Miniatur Filmowych, Poland / 1972

In this Reference Pack, we are sharing another short cartoon from a series produced by Studio Miniatur Filmowych, Pies, Kot I… which translates to Dog, Cat And… The episode is titled "Tape Recorder". These cartoons are almost devoid of dialogue with the focus on loose, funny animation. In fact, the drawings are often hilarious on their own, even removed from their context within the gag sequence. The facial expressions are well observed, and the poses employ clear silhouettes that form funny graphic shapes.

SD VIDEO:

Hustle Punch

Curated by JoJo Baptista

Eps. 1 & 3 / Toei, Yasuji Mori (1965)
Download this article

Hustle Punch is a funny animal TV series created by Yasuji Mori, who directed The Little Prince And The Three Headed Dragon, (which we featured in a previous Reference Pack) as well as illustrating children’s books. He was a senior artist at Toei and mentored many animators who went on to do great work, including Hayao Miyazaki (who worked on this series), Isao Takahata, Yasuo Otsuka and Yoichi Kotabe. Mori was responsible for the cute animal designs in several Toei features and Hustle Punch was clearly influenced by the early television cartoons from Hanna-Barbera.

SD VIDEO:

For Heaven’s Sake

Sam Taylor / 1926
Download this article

In past Reference Packs, we’ve featured Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin, but there is another slapstick comedian who deserves mention alongside them… Harold Lloyd. I’m happy to introduce him to you with one of his most action-packed features, "For Heaven’s Sake". You will want to take note of the staging of the scenes. Every one is crystal clear and puts across its point lightning fast. The exposition doesn’t drag because it is full of gags that reveal both the personalities of the characters and their relationships to each other. The comedy builds as the film progresses, culminating in one of the most suspenseful thrill sequences ever put on film. Watch it through once, and then go back through it, analyzing the nuts and bolts that make it work. There’s a lot of great techniques in here for animators willing to take the time to mine it for ideas.

HD VIDEO:

Impact

Curated By David Eisman
Download this article

Animation Resources Board Member, David Eisman discusses a subject that occurs all the time in animated cartoons… impacts. Impact is the result of an accelerated force coming into contact with a stable form– be it character or object– and then transferring that force to generate some form of reaction. It can be divided into five stages – anticipation, action, point-of-contact, follow-through, and settle. Moreover, impacts can be linked together, wherein the point-of-contact of the initial impact becomes the anticipation of the secondary impact.

AUDIO PODCAST:

Cartoony Music With Skip Heller

Animated Discussions 011 / Hosted by Davey Jarrell with Stephen Worth and Skip Heller
Download this article

Back in 2007 when the Animation Archive was still under the umbrella of ASIFA-Hollywood, Stephen Worth sat down several times with musician Skip Heller to talk about cartoony music for the A-HAA Podcast. Each time, they chose a musician and explained how their music related to cartoons, playing a representative bit of their music. There were five segments altogether and they were a lot of fun. We’ve combined them all into one podcast for Animation Resources members.

Skip Heller is a remarkably versatile musician. He’s performed in every style imaginable. He’s composed for symphony orchestras, played country music and blues in honky tonks, performed in jazz trios and punk bands and did music for both Dexter’s Lab and Flintstones On The Rocks. A true renaissance man with deep roots in the history of his medium, no one knows more about this kind of music than Skip.

ANNUAL MEMBER BONUS ARCHIVE

Available to Student and General Members

E-BOOK: All The Funny Folks
VIDEO: Two Films By Charlie Bowers: "He Done His Best" and "Wild Roomer"
VIDEO: Popeye in "Puppet Love"

ANIMATION RESOURCES ANNUAL MEMBERS: Reference Pack 020 is now being rerun and is now available for download. It includes a PDF e-book of high resolution scans of a newspaper all-star jam, two imaginative short films by comedian/animator Charlie Bowers, and a great Popeye cartoon in HD! These downloads will be available until July 1st and after that, they will be deleted from the server. So download them now!

If you are currently on a quarterly membership plan, consider upgrading to an annual membership to get access to our bonus page with even more downloads. If you still have time on you quarterly membership when you upgrade to an annual membership, email us at…

membership@animationresources.org
…and we will credit your membership with the additional time.

Click to access the…

Annual Member Bonus Archive

Downloads expire after May 1st, 2023

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD A Sample RefPack!

Whew! That is an amazing collection of treasures! At Animation Resources, our Advisory Board includes great artists and animators like Ralph Bakshi, Will Finn, J.J. Sedelmaier and Sherm Cohen. They’ve let us know the things that they use in their own self study so we can share them with you. That’s experience you just can’t find anywhere else. 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.

Haven’t Joined Yet?

Check out this SAMPLE REFERENCE PACK! It will give you a taste of what Animation Resources members get to download every other month!

Animation Resources is a 501(c)(3) non-profit arts organization dedicated to providing self study material to the worldwide animation community. If you are a creative person working in animation, cartooning or illustration, you owe it to yourself to be a member of Animation Resources.