Archive for the ‘refpack’ Category

Friday, October 18th, 2019

RefPack030: Educational Animation By Disney

Reference Pack

REFPACK 030
Download Page
Members Only Download

Every other month, members of Animation Resources are given access to an exclusive Members Only Reference Pack. These downloadable files are high resolution e-books on a variety of educational subjects and rare cartoons from the collection of Animation Resources in DVD quality. Our current Reference Pack has just been released. If you are a member, click through the link to access the MEMBERS ONLY DOWNLOAD PAGE. If you aren’t a member yet, please JOIN ANIMATION RESOURCES. It’s well worth it.


MEMBERS LOGIN To Download Video

JOIN TODAY To Access Members Only Content


DVD QUALITY VIDEO:
I'm No Fool Educational Film

I’m No Fool
Disney / 1955-1956

Animation is not only an entertainment medium, it can also educate. When educational films are overly didactic and dense with content, they often fail to get the ideas across. But animation engages the audience and presents information in a clear symbolic way that remains in the mind long after the film is over. The Fleischers pioneered the idea of using animation to educate with their film “The Einstein Theory of Relativity” in 1923. During WWII, the United States War Department set up the Army Air Forces First Motion Picture Unit whose sole purpose was to create training films to educate soldiers on how to use equipment and how to navigate life in the armed forces.

The Disney Studios also contributed to the government’s wartime efforts in creating educational films. They produced training films for enlisted men, propaganda for audiences in the home front, and even a feature film, Victory Through Air Power. A great deal of research was done at the studio to find the best ways to use animation for education. They experimented with stylization to graphically represent complex subjects in a simple way to clearly communicate to the intended audience. They also evolved an efficient and bare-bones production process to reduce costs.

I'm No Fool Educational Film

By the end of the war, no studio was better equipped to put their staff to work to educate and inform than Disney. With the debut of the Disneyland television program and the Mickey Mouse Club, Disney had opened up a whole new distribution medium for this kind of educational entertainment. “Man In Space”, “Our Friend the Atom” and the nature series “True Life Adventures” were distributed on 16mm film to schools and libraries. Nearly every child growing up in the 50s and 60s saw Disney educational films. The most popular series in schools were the group of Jiminy Cricket educational films packaged under the titles, “I’m No Fool” and “You Are A Human Animal”. Most of these films are rarely seen today.

We’re particularly proud to be able to share this new transfer of “I’m No Fool” series with our members. These five films focus on safety tips for children… “I’m No Fool” with a bicycle, with fire, as a pedestrian, in water or having fun. The limited animation techniques employed in these films are directly applicable to modern internet animation, and the appealing imagery and color shows how careful design and compositional planning can make a film look simple and appealing. For economy, the fully animated scenes were cleverly reused in each film. Also note the expressive thicks and thins in the lines. This was referred to “TV inking” and its purpose was to allow expression and detail to read clearly even at low resolutions. (Does that give you any ideas about how line quality could make mobile app animation look better?) We hope you find these films useful in your self study and find ways to incorporate these techniques into your own work.

REFPACK030: I’m No Fool
Download Page
M4V Video File / SD / 41:24 / 504 MB Download

Many thanks to Advisory Board member Steve Stanchfield for sharing these films with Animation Resources. We are very fortunate that Steve uncovers these lost jewels and shares them with us. Steve’s video company, Thunderbean Animation is doing great work transferring and restoring rare animated films. We greatly appreciate his unfailing support of our Animation Archive Project.


MEMBERS LOGIN To Download Video

JOIN TODAY To Access Members Only Content


Educational AnimationEducational AnimationEducational AnimationEducational AnimationEducational Animation


MEMBERS LOGIN To Download Video

JOIN TODAY To Access Members Only Content


Not A Member Yet? Want A Free Sample?

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

Sample RefPack

FacebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmailFacebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmailby feather

Friday, October 11th, 2019

RefPack030: An Amazing Russian Fairy Tale Featurette

Reference Pack

REFPACK 030
Download Page
Members Only Download

Every other month, members of Animation Resources are given access to an exclusive Members Only Reference Pack. These downloadable files are high resolution e-books on a variety of educational subjects and rare cartoons from the collection of Animation Resources in DVD quality. Our current Reference Pack has just been released. If you are a member, click through the link to access the MEMBERS ONLY DOWNLOAD PAGE. If you aren’t a member yet, please JOIN ANIMATION RESOURCES. It’s well worth it.


MEMBERS LOGIN To Download Video

JOIN TODAY To Access Members Only Content


DVD QUALITY VIDEO:
Russian Animation

Dead Tsarevna & The Seven Bogatyrs
Download Page
Ivan Ivanov-Vano / 1951

Although this film closely resembles the story of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, this adaptation is based on a Russian fairy tale about the Princess Tsarevna. The film closely follows the poem written in 1833 by Aleksandr Pushkin. If you are interested, there is a synopsis of the story at Wikipedia.

The director of this film, Ivan Ivanov-Vano began his career in animation in 1927 and made three dozen films over his half century career, most of which were based on Russian folk tales. Early on, he was heavily influenced by Disney, but his personal style developed and grew over his career. In 1947 he directed the first Russian animated feature film, The Humpbacked Horse; and he helped establish ASIFA (The International Animated Film Society) in 1961.

This film incorporates design motifs unique to Russian art and it reflects its culture perfectly. In the modern world, animated films are made in Asia, India, Europe and the United States that all look pretty much the same. It would be good if a diversity of regional styles developed again. After all, art should be a personal expression of one’s life and culture, not a product manufactured to someone else’s design.

REFPACK030: Dead Tsarevna (1951)
Download Page
MP4 Video File / SD / 29:58 / 645 MB Download


MEMBERS LOGIN To Download Video

JOIN TODAY To Access Members Only Content


Russian AnimationRussian AnimationRussian AnimationRussian AnimationRussian AnimationRussian Animation


MEMBERS LOGIN To Download Video

JOIN TODAY To Access Members Only Content


Not A Member Yet? Want A Free Sample?

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

Sample RefPack

FacebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmailFacebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmailby feather

Friday, August 30th, 2019

RefPack029: Toby Bluth’s Storyboard Collection

Reference Pack

REFPACK 029
Download Page
Members Only Download

Every other month, members of Animation Resources are given access to an exclusive Members Only Reference Pack. These downloadable files are high resolution e-books on a variety of educational subjects and rare cartoons from the collection of Animation Resources in DVD quality. Our current Reference Pack has just been released. If you are a member, click through the link to access the MEMBERS ONLY DOWNLOAD PAGE. If you aren’t a member yet, please JOIN ANIMATION RESOURCES. It’s well worth it.


MEMBERS LOGIN To Download E-Book

JOIN TODAY To Access Members Only Content


PDF E-BOOK:
Toby Bluth Storyboards

Toby Bluth Storyboard Collection
Download Page
Fantasia / Pinocchio (1940)

From his childhood years in Texas on through to his family’s move out to Los Angeles, Toby Bluth was enamored with the animated films of Walt Disney. Their story sense and striking visuals would inspire him to a long career in creating beautiful imagery. He went on to design and direct over one hundred stage productions; he illustrated numerous children’s books; and he worked on countless projects in animation. Some highlights include winning the Hollywood Drama-Logue Critics Award four times, and being named Disney Fine Art’s top selling artist for a number of years. He also was art director for the Disney animated films The Tigger Movie and Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers.

Toby Bluth Storyboards

In his later years he would refer to the first five Disney animated features as his greatest inspirations. His intense love led to a close study of these films, and their influence can be seen in just about everything he created in his life. Even his home, with its wooden corbels and stained glass windows, were reminiscent of something out of Pinocchio.

While working as the art director on The Tigger Movie he had copies made of nearly every layout drawing from Snow White that was in the Disney Animation Research Library. Now I don’t know how crucial those were as reference for the look of this particular Winnie the Pooh feature, but Toby didn’t miss his chance to be able to study these rare treasures. He certainly had an eye for the good stuff!

Toby Bluth Storyboards

This collection of storyboards is a vivid example of the sort of reference material that inspired and influenced Toby’s art. These vintage photostats were used in the production of the films, and were among his most prized posessions. The clarity of staging and lighting in the early Disney features is something Toby always strived for in his own work. When explaining the appeal of his drawings and watercolor paintings he would refer to the importance of light and air. He would often refer to chiaroscuro, the treatment of light and dark, and its importance to his technique.

In Toby’s paintings, the highlights and shadows defined both mood and form. When he began a painting, he would always paint the atmosphere first. He would achieve this by laying in a wash to represent the shadows in a complimentary color to the source light. Next, he would glaze in the local color in layers, one after another. His pencil drawings would be also be completely rendered to show form and depth, a standard practice for the early Disney films, but not always done in later animated productions. You can see this wonderful examples of these rendered layout drawings in some of the storyboards contained in this collection.

I’m sure Toby would be happy to know his collection can now be shared with other students of fine image making, and likely for the very first time. I hope they inspire you as much as they did him! –Colby Bluth

Many thanks to the family of Toby Bluth for sharing this important collection of vintage storyboard photostats with us. This e-book is set up to be printed single sided on 11 x 17 inch paper, so you can print it out, pin it up on cork boards and break down the structure to learn how to apply the techniques to your own work.

REFPACK029: Toby Bluth Collection
Download Page
Adobe PDF File / 86 Pages / 316 MB Download


MEMBERS LOGIN To Download E-Book

JOIN TODAY To Access Members Only Content


Toby Bluth StoryboardsToby Bluth StoryboardsToby Bluth StoryboardsToby Bluth StoryboardsToby Bluth Storyboards


MEMBERS LOGIN To Download E-Book

JOIN TODAY To Access Members Only Content


Not A Member Yet? Want A Free Sample?

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

Sample RefPack

FacebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmailFacebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmailby feather