AnimationResources.org – Serving the Online Animation Community

YOU MISSED IT!

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

Hokusai Manga Volume 2

Katsushika Hokusai / 1814
Download this article

Katsushika Hokusai was arguably the greatest artist Japan ever produced. Best known for his monumental set of woodblock prints titled Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, his career spanned more than 75 years, and in his lifetime he produced more than 30,000 paintings, sketches and woodblock prints. Animation Resources is in the process of painstakingly restoring all of the volumes of Hokusai Manga one by one. This time we feature book two with amazing images of life in Japan, landscapes, plants, animals and fantastic imagery. These books have never looked better. Even if you have a copy of this, you’ll want to collect the whole set of our digital restorations.

SD VIDEO:

Two Shorts By Ladislas Starevich

Les Yeux Du Dragon / Amour Blanc Et Noir (1932)

Ladislas Starevich created the first puppet animation film in 1912 and continued to work in the medium for half a century. "Les Yeux Du Dragon" is an incredible film, packed with beautiful designs and lighting effects. The story, which is supposedly based on a Chinese legend, strays more towards melodrama at times, but the large exotic sets create an enveloping atmosphere for the film.

"Amour Blanc Et Noir" imitates American slapstick comedies, to the point of including puppets based on Snub Pollard and Charlie Chaplin. There are some extremely sophisticated scenes here with characters acting and reacting to each other expressively, and complicated action choreography, complete with motion blur. Starevich makes it all look easy.

SD VIDEO:

Poor Hans!

Frank Leberecht / Deutsche Zeichentrickfilme GmbH, Germany / 1943
Download this article

In an earlier Reference Pack, we presented the work of Hans Fischerkoesen who was often referred to as “the Walt Disney of Germany”, but he wasn’t the only animator sponsored by the Nazis during World War II. The Deutsche Zeichentrickfilme GmbH (DZF) was established by Propaganda Minister, Joseph Goebbels in 1941 to build the German animation business up to the point of rivaling American animation studios. No expense was spared. At its peak, the studio had a staff that numbered nearly 100, and artists were paid nearly double the salary of comparable jobs elsewhere. The goal of the studio was ambitious— to create 19 animated shorts by 1947, and an animated feature by 1950, and no expense was spared to achieve that goal. Ultimately though, they only ended up producing one film— "Poor Hans". It’s impressive how much production value the crew was able to accomplish on their very first film. Had the Nazis not lost the War in 1944, DZF might have eventually overtaken Disney’s lead.

SD VIDEO:

Little Masha’s Concert

Mstislav Pashchenko / Soyuzmultfilm, Russia / 1948

While the Germans aspired to create animated propaganda films to rival the quality of theatrical cartoons in the West, Russia is the country that actually achieved that goal. "Little Masha’s Concert" demonstrates how quickly Russian animation progressed after World War II. The animation, color and design of this film are the equal of any Hollywood cartoon.

Mstislav Pashchenko was one of the pioneers of Russian animation. We’ve seen his film "An Unusual Match" in a previous Reference Pack. In particular, you will want to still frame through a scene where a teddy bear does a Russian dance. It is simple and solidly drawn, putting across the dance rhythms perfectly.

SD VIDEO:

An Adventure In Stripes

Alina Maliszewska / Studio Miniatur Filmowych / Warsaw, Poland / 1960

Animation Resources members are familiar with Alina Maliszewska for her work on the Polish animated series, The Strange Adventures of Koziolek Matolek. Although the drawing and animation style of this film are simple, the movement is quite expressive, putting across the attitudes of the characters quite clearly. It is a good model to follow for independent animators who would like to create a film all by themselves.

SD VIDEO:

Well, Just You Wait Ep.06

Vyacheslav Kotyonochkin / Soyuzmultfilm, Russia / 1973

We continue the Russian Wolf and Rabbit cartoons with episode 06, "Countryside". Between 1969 and 2006, Soyuzmultfilm ended up making 22 episodes of Nu, Pogodi!, 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.

SD VIDEO:

Two Episodes Of Early Anime

"Fight Da Pyuta" Ep. 02 / "Space Ace" Ep. 04
Download this article

In a previous Reference Pack, I shared single episodes from two interesting series. This time, I’m sharing another episode of each. Fight da!! Pyuta. was created by Tsunezo Murotani and directed by Tameo Kohanawa in 1968. The year is significant, because it puts the show two years after the debut of Ralph Bakshi’s Mighty Heroes. The debt to Bakshi’s series is obvious. The show features 1960s style sequences that had to have been influenced by the Terry-Toons superhero parody.

The other series we will be featuring this time is called Space Ace. Based on a manga series created in 1964 by Tatsuo Yoshida, the creator of Speed Racer, Space Ace hit the television airwaves very quickly the following year. This particular episode deals with an underground kingdom of space aliens, and it is a great example of a bunch of totally different ideas being mixed together for maximum fun. At the end is a teaser for the next week’s episode which looks even crazier than this one! You really don’t need to speak Japanese to appreciate this show.

SD VIDEO:

The Orchestra

Zbigniew Rybczynski / 1990
Download this article

What do you think of as the essence of animation? What makes it unique? Drawings? It isn’t drawings because CG and puppet animation don’t involve drawings. Is it fantasy? No, because there are live action fantasies and animated films that deal with very real subjects. We often hear people talking about "the magic of animation", but what is that magic made of? Can live action be animated too? The brilliant Polish born animator answers this question with his unique television special "The Orchestra"

HD VIDEO:

Hand Articulation

Curated By David Eisman
Download this article

There is an old platitude in draftsmanship that the drawing of hands is exceedingly difficult. It stands to reason, therefore, that articulating hands in animation would be even more challenging. Some may assume that the laborious nature of hand draftsmanship and articulation is due to the minutiae of respective anatomy. However, anatomical-accuracy is by no means the only principle necessary to produce convincing hands in animation. In the “Breakdowns” section of RefPack053, David Eisman discusses the elements that go into good hand animation.

VIDEO PODCAST:

Steve Stanchfield Interview

Animated Discussions 012 / Hosted by Davey Jarrell with Steve Stanchfield
Download this article

Steve Stanchfield is an award winning character animator, animation director, educator, and animation historian, in addition to serving on the Advisory Board of Animation Resources. He has worked for many of the major animation studios on numerous TV shows, commercials, educational programming, short films, interactive games and feature animation, and currently teaches at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit. Listen to Steve talk all about animation history and the art of film restoration in the latest episode of Animated Discussions!

ANNUAL MEMBER BONUS ARCHIVE

Available to Student and General Members

• E-BOOK: Esquire 1937 Vol. 2
• VIDEO: Two Films By Lotte Reiniger: "Papageno" and "10 Minutes Of Mozart"
• VIDEO: Three Terry-Toons: "String Bean Jack", "Red Hot Music", "Hansel and Gretel"

ANIMATION RESOURCES ANNUAL MEMBERS: Reference Pack 021 is now being rerun and is now available for download. It includes a PDF e-book of high resolution scans of a never before published collection of cartoons from Esquire magazine, a pair of films by the legendary silhouette animator Lotte Reiniger, and a trio of rarely seen Terry-Toons! These downloads will be available until September 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

Click to access the…

Annual Member Bonus Archive

Downloads expire after September 1st, 2023

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!

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD A Sample RefPack!

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.

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…

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.

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/

SD VIDEO:

Poor Hans!

Frank Leberecht / Deutsche Zeichentrickfilme GmbH, Germany / 1943
Download this article

In an earlier Reference Pack, we presented the work of Hans Fischerkoesen who was often referred to as “the Walt Disney of Germany”, but he wasn’t the only animator sponsored by the Nazis during World War II. The Deutsche Zeichentrickfilme GmbH (DZF) was established by Propaganda Minister, Joseph Goebbels in 1941 to build the German animation business up to the point of rivaling American animation studios. No expense was spared. At its peak, the studio had a staff that numbered nearly 100, and artists were paid nearly double the salary of comparable jobs elsewhere. The goal of the studio was ambitious— to create 19 animated shorts by 1947, and an animated feature by 1950, and no expense was spared to achieve that goal. Ultimately though, they only ended up producing one film— "Poor Hans".

It’s difficult to overstate the importance of animation to the Nazis. Hitler was a big fan of Disney cartoons, in fact, Goebbels once gave him a Christmas gift of a dozen prints of Mickey Mouse cartoons that he had smuggled into German from the United States. Propaganda was an important part of Hitler’s plans, and he realized that propaganda in the form of fables with animal characters would make more of an impact on society than overt political propaganda. Unlike Russian propaganda which was direct to the point of aggressiveness and designed to spur to immediate action, Nazi propaganda was more subtle, with the purpose of convincing people that the folk life in Germany was better than traveling and interacting with people from other countries and races. "Poor Hans" fit into this mold, telling the story of a canary who escapes his cage and suffers great hardship in the real world, finally returning to the safety and security of his home.

This film was begun under the supervision of Dr. Werner Kruse, but when it was revealed that he was married to a Jew, he was demoted and Frank Leberecht took the helm. Leberecht hired a group of newspaper cartoonists to come up with gags and story ideas. Since they had very little cinematic experience, the cartoon ended up being a two reeler with a lot of little things happening, but very little overall continuity. Even though the film overstays its welcome at nearly 17 minutes, it’s impressive how much production value the crew was able to accomplish on their very first film. Had the Nazis not lost the War in 1944, DZF might have eventually overtaken Disney’s lead.

Goebbels was not entirely happy with the film. He wrote in his journals that the lead character was weak, but the film was a good start. Watching the cartoon, you can see exactly what they were modeling it on. The film opens with a three dimensional set, exactly like the ones used in Fleischer Color Classics, and the design and gags echo Disney’s "Who Killed Cock Robin".

As Germany conquered more territory, they raided the animation studios in those countries for talent. A famous French animator named Robert Salvagnac was offered the choice between a comfortable life animating at DZF or a considerably less comfortable one in occupied France. The artists at DZF were considered "essential staff" guaranteeing deferment from military service, and many of them worked there just for that reason. However, as the War dragged on and the Nazis became more desperate, able-bodied men at the studio were drafted into military service. In 1944, the government money that supported the studio was cut off and the staff was reassigned to armament factories. When the Russians overtook Germany, the studio was raided and the films were confiscated to the Soviet Union, where they remained until 1991.

We’re very proud to be able to share this rarely seen piece of animation history with you. We hope you will find it useful.

REFPACK053: Poor Hans 1943

MP4 Video File / SD / 16:45 / 633 MB Download

SD VIDEO:

Little Masha’s Concert

Mstislav Pashchenko / Soyuzmultfilm, Russia / 1948

While the Germans aspired to create animated propaganda films to rival the quality of theatrical cartoons in the West, Russia is the country that actually achieved that goal. "Little Masha’s Concert" demonstrates how quickly Russian animation progressed after World War II. The animation, color and design of this film are the equal of any Hollywood cartoon.

Propaganda is designed to connect with audiences in a specific place and time, and sometimes its intent isn’t clear to viewers with a different frame of reference. This film is like that. The story is about a young girl named Masha who has a favorite doll in the form of a little black boy. She sees that her doll is sad and asks her mother why. Her mother tells her that black people have led very difficult lives, and Masha enlists all her other toys to put on a concert to cheer him up. The performance is a success and all of the toys embrace the black boy doll as their friend.

To modern viewers, the black boy doll has a meaning that is quite different than it would to movie-goers in the Soviet Union in 1948. Children there had very little interaction with black people, but their educational system taught them that in America, black people were enslaved and abused. They would connect the dots in this story to understand that the message of the film was anti-American in nature. One of the final scenes shows the black doll happily surrounded by Asian, Arab, Indian and Russian dolls. The message is that Russia is the friend of ethnic groups that suffer under the domination of Western imperialistic oppression.

Mstislav Pashchenko was one of the pioneers of Russian animation. We’ve seen his film "An Unusual Match" in a previous Reference Pack. He directed that film alongside Boris Dyozhkin who was responsible for Western style timing and posing in his sports cartoons. In particular, you will want to still frame through a scene where a teddy bear does a Russian dance. It is simple and solidly drawn, putting across the dance rhythms perfectly.

REFPACK053: Little Masha’s Concert 1946

MP4 Video File / SD / 9:33 / 127 MB Download

SD VIDEO:

An Adventure In Stripes

Alina Maliszewska / Studio Miniatur Filmowych / Warsaw, Poland / 1960

Animation Resources members are familiar with Alina Maliszewska for her work on the Polish animated series, The Strange Adventures of Koziolek Matolek. She was born in Bielsk Podlaski, Poland in 1926 to shop keepers. Her father was a decorated war hero, awarded the Cross of Valor, but was imprisoned and later executed by the Nazis. At age 13, Alina, her mother and her step-brother were deported to Siberia to work as forced labor on construction projects. After the war, she and her mother returned to Poland and she enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow. There she studied graphics, painting and ceramics. Upon graduation, she joined Studio Miniatur Filmowych, where she animated and directed more than 40 films over three decades.

The previous film, "Little Masha’s Concert" dealt with issues of race as propaganda, but "An Adventure of Stripes" (1960) is a moral fable on the subject. A striped elephant is discriminated against by solid colored elephants and we learn that differences in race are just skin deep. The story is very similar to Dr. Seuss’s "The Sneeches", with the elephant changing color back and forth until she finds her true self. This film won many awards, and Maliszewska was presented with the Gloria Artis medal for her artwork depicting her experiences in Siberian exile. She passed away in 2020.

Although the drawing and animation style of this film are simple, the movement is quite expressive, putting across the attitudes of the characters quite clearly. It is a good model to follow for independent animators who would like to create a film all by themselves.

REFPACK053: An Adventure In Stripes 1960

MP4 Video File / SD / 10:56 / 287 MB Download

SD VIDEO:

Well, Just You Wait Ep.06

Vyacheslav Kotyonochkin / Soyuzmultfilm, Russia / 1973

We continue the Russian Wolf and Rabbit cartoons with episode 06, "Countryside".

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 usually occurs on screen, not cheated off 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.

REFPACK041: Well Just You Wait Ep. 06

MP4 Video File / SD / 09:35 / 154 MB Download

Get your friends to join Animation Resources!

More members mean we can bring you more special downloads.

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…

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.

by