AnimationResources.org – Serving the Online Animation Community

People who aren’t members of Animation Resources don’t understand how comprehensive our Reference Packs are. Over the next couple of weeks, we will be posting what each section of our current RefPack looks like, starting today with the Featured section. If you are a member of Animation Resources, click on this post to go to the Members Only page. If you aren’t a member yet, today is the perfect time to join! Our current Reference Pack is one of our best yet, and General and Student Members get access to a special Bonus Archive with even more material from past Reference Packs.

What are you waiting for?

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

Every other month, Animation Resources shares a new Reference Pack with its members. They consist of an e-book packed with high resolution scans and video downloads set up for still frame study. Make sure you download the Reference Pack before it’s updated. When it’s gone, it’s gone!

The Tattooed Man

Puck Magazine / March-April, 1884
Download this article

Puck was a seminal magazine in the field of American satire. Designed along the lines of European caricature journals, it was one of the first publications to take advantage of the development of four-color stone lithography and zinc plate printing. Prior to this, illustrations were laboriously engraved in blocks of wood. But at Puck, cartoonist Joseph Keppler drew directly upon lithographic stones with grease pencil. When complete, the drawings were etched with acid to create the printing plates. Assistants helped prepare the "tone stones", the blocks of stone which created the subtle blends of color for which Puck was famous.

Puck was not just a humor magazine— it was primarily concerned with political satire. Thomas Nast had established the precedent at Harper’s Weekly with his relentless attacks on Boss Tweed and the corruption rife within Tammany Hall. When Nast entered retirement, the popularity of Harper’s Weekly declined, and Puck rose to fame for its no-holds-barred attacks on corrupt American political figures, as well as its opinionated views of European politics. Puck also took aim at the Catholic and Jewish faiths, for which it generated considerable criticism. As time went by, the objects of satire became more political in nature. The orientation was decidedly in favor of the Democrats, with Republicans as the principle targets for mockery and derision.

Competing head-to-head with Puck were Judge magazine, Police Gazette and Life. Judge stepped into the opposing political camp from Puck, favoring Republican candidates and skewering the Democrats. The Police Gazette’s stated mission was to provide information of interest to law enforcement officers, but it was just an excuse to print lurid stories of murder and outlaws from the Wild West, along with risque woodcuts of beautiful women. Life magazine took the high road, with "appropriate" material appealing to the elite, in stark contrast to the rough-and-tumble content of its competitors.

Bernhard Gillam was known for a strong forceful line and meticulous and precise style. He was most famous for a cartoon he created during the presidential campaign of 1884. Gillam depicted the Republican candidate, James G. Blaine as a tattooed man in a freak show, his skin covered with slogans referring to the various scandals that peppered his career. The April 16, 1884 issue of Puck that featured the cartoon quickly sold out and additional printings were hastily arranged. Circulation doubled, and ultimately, over 300,000 copies of the issue were sold.

The “tattooed man” comic created a firestorm of controversy, throwing the spotlight on Puck. Over the next few months, Gillam fed the flames with a series of variations on the same theme. Keppler and Frederic Opper joined the fray to create a few "tattooed man" gags of their own. The cartoons reached such a high level of public awareness that Pear’s Soap advertisements parodied them. ("Hurray! Soap to remove tattoos!") The final election tallies between Blaine and his Democratic rival, Grover Cleveland were very close, and many, including Blaine himself, attributed his loss to Gillam’s cartoon. The irony of the situation was that Gillam himself was a Republican and had voted for Blaine. Political cartoonists in those days were expected to serve the editorial policy of their publication. They were considered "hired guns" and weren’t allowed to express their own political beliefs.

Animation Resources was fortunate to obtain a sequential run of issues of Puck magazine from 1884, the absolute creative peak of the publication. With artists like Keppler, Opper, Gillam and Zim, Puck boasted a "dream team" of cartooning. These four artists, along with Viennese artist Frederich Graetz, produced all of the illustrations for the magazine, as well as providing covers and cartoons for the monthly journal, Puck’s Library. That represented a remarkable amount of work. All of the amazing cartoons in this e-book were produced in the short period of seven weeks!

REFPACK046: The Tattooed Man

PDF / 124 Pages / 634 MB Download

SD VIDEO:

Two Shorts By Ladislas Starevich

The Town Rat And The Country Rat (1927) / The Old Lion (1932)

Ladislas Starevich created the first puppet animation film in 1912 and continued to work in the medium for half a century. He was born in Russia to Polish parents in 1882 and emigrated to France soon after World War I. Assisted by his wife, who made the costumes for the puppets, as well as his daughter and son, Starevich produced a large and varied filmography.

Town Rat, Country Rat is based on the Aesop’s Fable that also inspired Disney’s Country Cousin and Tex Avery’s Little Rural Riding Hood. A rat from Paris visits his friend in the country and brings him to the big city. After an evening of wine, women and song, a cat appears and breaks up the party. The country rat decides that the city is too dangerous for him, and he goes home to dream of the pretty dancing girl rat… and the cat.

The Old Lion is based on a story by La Fontaine. The lion sits on the throne of his kingdom, but he is getting old. His ministers conspire to overthrow him behind his back. The king goes outside on the patio where he meets an organ grinder and a monkey. They play and sing an old familiar song, and the old lion falls asleep and dreams of past conquests. In his dream, he woos and elopes with a beautiful lioness princess. He awakes to find that his cabinet has deposed him. They kick him out of the castle, and he goes to a cave in the wilderness where he dies, brokenhearted.

Starevich was probably the greatest stop-motion animator who ever lived. As you watch these films, I think you’ll be struck at how lifelike the puppets are. This is partly because they are made from bits of real animals and insects! But the most impressive aspect of the animation is the timing. Often, stop-motion animators use snap-to-pose animation with holds to get across attitude and movement. It simplifies the timing and increases clarity. Starevich animated differently. Primary and secondary action overlap and flow, giving the figures continuous life. There are some extremely sophisticated scenes here with vivid acting, large groups of characters all animating at the same time, and complicated dance choreography, complete with motion blur. Starevich makes it all look easy.

REFPACK046: City Rat, Country Rat

MP4 Video File / SD / 13:40 / 487 MB Download

REFPACK046: The Old Lion

MP4 Video File / SD / 08:36 / 313 MB Download

Animation Resources is asking our membership to consider donating to help us establish a video podcasting studio to be able to present seminars, interviews and informal updates live streamed on YouTube and Facebook. Our goal is for 25 of our members and supporters to donate $100. If you donate $100, we will provide you with a coupon code for a free membership to give as a gift to a friend or peer, or we can credit your donation to sponsor two students for a one year student membership.

By helping others, you help yourself.

Please consider donating using the PayPal Donate Button below. For more information on our Video Podcasting Fundraiser, see the article Animation Resources Needs Your Help.

Animation Resources depends on your contributions to support its projects. Even if you can’t afford to donate $100 or join our group right now, please click the button below to donate whatever you can afford using PayPal. Every little bit helps.

Or you can donate on Facebook, here…
FACEBOOK LIVESTREAM FUNDRAISER

After you have donated, drop us an email at sworth@animationresources.org and let us know if you would like a discount code for a free membership, or if you would like us to sponsor students with your donation.

Raising the bar with our live streaming initiative will make things better for the whole art form. Don’t stay on the sidelines. Be a part of Animation Resources and join our team to build the foundation for the future of animation.

by

People who aren’t members of Animation Resources don’t understand how comprehensive our Reference Packs are. Over the next couple of weeks, we will be posting what each section of our current RefPack looks like. If you are a member of Animation Resources, click on this post to go to the Members Only page. If you aren’t a member yet, today is the perfect time to join! Our current Reference Pack is one of our best yet, and General and Student Members get access to a special Bonus Archive with even more material from past Reference Packs.

What are you waiting for?

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

EThe world of animation is much bigger than it might appear to us at first glance. We are all familiar with the films we grew up with, but Hollywood wasn’t the only place that produced great cartoons… Poland, Japan, Russia, China and Europe all have their own traditions and a rich history of animated film making. Animation Resources’ archive contains many foreign films that are rarely seen in the United States. We feature a sampling of interesting animation from around the world in each Reference Pack.

SD VIDEO:

Winnie The Pooh episode 01

Fyodor Khitruk / Soyuzmultfilm, Russia / 1969
Download this article

In previous Reference Packs, we shared Roman Davydov’s series of films based on Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book. Davydov’s series was produced independently of Disney’s version. This time, we have the first episode of a similar set of films, Fyodor Khitruk’s “Winnie The Pooh”. Like the Russian Mowgli films, this series is quite different than the Disney version. Khitruk omits Christopher Robin and focuses solely on Winnie the Pooh and his friends. He said that he made this choice because he didn’t want the characters to be subordinate to a human character; and comparing the “Little Black Rain Cloud” sequence, it’s clear that Khitruk’s choice was a good one. On a visit to California, Khitruk paid a visit to the Disney Studios where he met Woolie Reitherman, the director who had won an Oscar for Disney’s version of “Winnie The Pooh”. Reitherman admitted to Khitruk that he liked Khitruk’s films better than his own.

The story of the first short film in the series follows the same plot as Disney’s first Winnie The Pooh film… “Winnie The Pooh And The Honey Tree”. If you have seen that film, you will have no problem following along, even if you don’t speak Russian. Like the Disney film, Pooh makes up little songs and tries unsuccessfully to fool the bees. Instead of Christopher Robin, he is accompanied by Piglet, who is less timid than in the Disney films and makes a good partner to Pooh.

Although the pacing of the film is leisurely, the timing is still sharp. Khitruk focuses on “micro gags” and quick changes of expression that use personality to keep the audience engaged with the characters. The style is charming and disarmingly simple, much more in keeping with the spirit of the original book than Disney’s version. There were two more films made in this series. We will have the next one for you in RefPack 046.

REFPACK045: Winnie The Pooh Ep01

MP4 Video File / SD / 10:08 / 160 MB Download

A Match Revenge

Boris Dyozhkin / Soyuzmultfilm, Russia / 1968

In our last Reference Pack, we shared a film called “Goal! Goal!” from 1964. This time, we are sharing the sequel made four years later, “A Match Revenge”.

At Souyuzmultfilm in the late 1940s and 1950s, there was a stark division between animators and directors. Animators only animated. They had no say in the rest of the process. But in the 60s, largely due to the urging of Fyodor Khitruk, a new working method was introduced which involved the animators’ input from the very start. This led to what was called the “aesthetic switch”— films became more of a team effort and the designs became streamlined and more animatable.

Boris Dyozhkin had a three decade long career as a director and animator at Soyuzmultfilm. In his first couple of decades, he was an exception to the rule at Soyuzmultfilm. He animated extensively on his own shorts. This made for a total integration of staging, posing and action, as well as allowing for split second timing. “Goal! Goal!” was a great success for Dyozhkin, leading to a sequel called “A Match Revenge” in 1968, and a series of shorts dealing with soccer, track and field, and figure skating.

This film has no dialogue and the action speaks for itself, so I won’t provide a detailed synopsis. The basic concept is that there are two opposing hockey teams: the Meteors and the Pennants. In “Goal! Goal!” the newcomers, the Pennants won in an upset over the defending champions, the Meteors. This film starts with the Meteors watching film of their humiliating defeat. They angrily vow revenge and challenge the Pennants to a rematch. The Meteors are agressive and determined to regain their title. They’ll do anything to win. All seems lost for the Pennants until… Watch to find out!

We think you are really going to find a lot to like this film. Like John Sibley’s animation in Disney’s Goofy sports cartoons, the action can be very extreme and still maintain perfect clarity.

REFPACK045: A Match Revenge (1968)

MP4 Video File / SD / 20:22 / 796 MB Download

Well, Just You Wait Ep.04 “Sports Stadium”

Vyacheslav Kotyonochkin / Soyuzmultfilm, Russia / 1970

We continue the Russian Wolf and Rabbit cartoons with episode 04, “Sports Arena”.

The premise of Nu, Pogodi! (which translates into English as Well, Just You Wait!) was pitched by a writing team of satirical humorists to many directors at Soyuzmultfilm, but was rejected every time. Finally in 1969, Gennady Sokolsky agreed to direct a 2 1/2 minute pilot for the series in an omnibus film called “Happy Merry Go Round”. The general consensus at the studio was that the cartoon was “low class” and beneath the dignity of Soyuzmultfilm, but director Vyacheslav Kotyonochkin strongly believed in the concept, so the studio decided to take a chance and allow him to direct a few episodes… and then a few more… and then more.

Kotyonochkin was proven correct. The cartoons were a huge success. Between 1969 and 2006, Soyuzmultfilm ended up making 22 episodes, and in a 2014 poll of audiences all over Russia, Well, Just You Wait! was voted the most popular cartoon series of all time by a landslide. Although the series resembles both Tom & Jerry and the Roadrunner and Coyote series, the director, Kotyonochkin claimed not to have ever seen any of these Hollywood cartoons until 1987 when his son got a video tape recorder and Western tapes began to be imported.

In these Russian cartoons, there’s almost no dialogue, and the action almost always occurs on screen. Static tableaux are rare, as are detailed backgrounds and “on model” drawings. These cartoons focus on expressive poses and movement, and save time and expense by avoiding the careful cleanup required for character model details and overlapping action. The theory here is, if it moves funny, it’s funny… and they are right about that.

Shamus Culhane once lamented that television animation consisted of mostly lip-sync animation. He would have preferred to do away with lip-sync entirely and just have simple drawings that really move. Well, Just You Wait proves that he was correct.

We will have more Wolf and Rabbit cartoons in upcoming Reference Packs.

REFPACK045: Well Just You Wait Ep. 04

MP4 Video File / SD / 08:58 / 131 MB Download

Dog, Cat And… Ep 4 “Refrigerator”

Zofia Oraczewska / 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… This is a different sort of take on the Tom & Jerry model, with the opponents outsmarting each other instead of just chasing each other out of hate or hunger. There is more to the relationship between the characters than just rivalry. The relationship of the characters makes it easy to see how it relates to slapstick comedy teams like Laurel & Hardy and Fatty Arbuckle and Buster Keaton. The dog and cat are not just generic animals, but individual personalities with a dynamic relationship that is much more engaging than most “cat and mouse” or “dog and cat” cartoons.

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.

Well, Just You Wait!, and Dog, Cat And… both are very efficient at what they do. They could easily serve as a model for internet animation. The internet encourages repeat viewing more than television does. When you watch a dialogue driven cartoon on TV, once you’ve heard the jokes, you don’t need to watch it again. However, a short cartoon that looks and moves funny is entertaining no matter how many times you watch it. And for the animator who is making the cartoon, it’s a lot more fun to animate simple funny characters than it is to animated a lot of tedious lip-sync.

Dog, Cat And… looks like it was a lot of fun to make. The film makers at Studio Miniatur Filmowych didn’t feel constrained by the ordinary lives of animals. Their characters can drive cars, build their own houses and go to exotic places. That freedom allowed the animators to keep their series fresh, and gave them the opportunity to experiment within a 10 minute format. Simple drawings, funny movement and no rules… these are the kinds of series that would work well as episodic internet cartoons.

We will have more episodes from this series in upcoming Reference Packs.

REFPACK045: Dog Cat And… Ep04

MP4 Video File / SD / 09:09 / 146 MB Download

Animation Resources is asking our membership to consider donating to help us establish a video podcasting studio to be able to present seminars, interviews and informal updates live streamed on YouTube and Facebook. Our goal is for 25 of our members and supporters to donate $100. If you donate $100, we will provide you with a coupon code for a free membership to give as a gift to a friend or peer, or we can credit your donation to sponsor two students for a one year student membership.

By helping others, you help yourself.

Please consider donating using the PayPal Donate Button below. For more information on our Video Podcasting Fundraiser, see the 2022 President’s Message.

Animation Resources depends on your contributions to support its projects. Even if you can’t afford to donate $100 or join our group right now, please click the button below to donate whatever you can afford using PayPal. Every little bit helps.

by