Eat Your Oatmeal!!

Words Care of Dorse A. Lanpher:

Sitting here eating my oatmeal for breakfast and having recently discovered how oatmeal can control ones cholesterol I’m reminded of my last meeting with the revered Joe Grant. Everyone admired Joe for his talent and creative energies but how many of us were close enough to him to have been exposed to his wisdom. I was attending the last showing of some of the many years of his work on the second floor concourse in the Walt Disney Feature Animation building when I had my only chance. (more…)

Director Mike Gabriel 2003

(Photo care of Ed Ghertner)

Words care of Mike Gabriel:

This picture of me holding a cardboard over my head is me pretending the rain from my second proposed short for Don Hahn called Parasol, was also falling. I alternated between Parasol and Lorenzo during those 2003 days of ticking clocks as I wound down my Disney contract. (more…)

“I’ve Never Eaten Dog Food”

Words and Images by Dan Jeup
This post care of Steve Moore at Flip Magazine

My first animation assignment at CalArts back in 1981 was to learn how to “in-between”. A large table stacked with xeroxed scenes from the Disney classic features was there for the class to pick from. I chose a scene from Peter and the Wolf featuring the star character sitting down in a huff, kicking the snow. I loved the appeal of his design, the rhythm in his poses, the elasticity of his action and the way his face squashed and stretched.

As I carefully in-betweened the scene, a waft of tobacco smoke blew over my shoulder,……Read More

Producers vs Animators 1980

(Video care of Randy Cartwright)

Hercules Development Crew Outing

Ron Clements falling out of his chair.

Words by John Ramirez:
At the end of Storyboarding we had a party at a Moroccan restaurant. We had such a great time, with such silly people there like Kaan Kaylon, Bob Shaw and Don McEnery and of course Ron and John…we were laughing up our couscous. (more…)

Ollie Johnston’s life and career have been well documented. FLIP presents some anecdotes from the next generation of animators whom he so greatly inspired.

Article Care of Steve Moore at Flip Magazine

Randy Cartwright
I was in-betweening for Ollie on The Rescuers. One day he showed me a pencil test loop of Penny. She was holding up her lantern, causing sparkles to appear on the wet wall. It was a slow, not particularly impressive scene.

Ollie pointed and said, “See that? What do you think?”

I replied, hesitantly, “Well, that’s….that’s nice.” (more…..)

Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston
Together Again

After the announcement of Ollie’s passing on April 14th, 2008.
Words By Nancy Beiman:

It’s been a sad week for animators. First we lose animator/producer Andy Knight on April 11 (he died of a stroke at the age of 46). Now news has come that Ollie Johnston (the last of the famous “Nine Old Men”) died on April 14 after a long illness. Ollie was 95 years old.

I first met him when I was in my freshman year at Cal Arts. I’d gotten the idea of animating an albatross–a gooney bird. I was pretty sure that this amusing creature, which crashes on landing, had never been animated before.

“I hate to disillusion you,” Brad Bird said one day as I was happily working away on a walk on the ‘other’ bird, “but they’re animating an albatross in THE RESCUERS, the new Disney feature. Ollie Johnston is animating it, and he is one of the artists coming to our show this spring to see our pencil tests.” (more…)

Caricature by Animation Director John Musker

Well, hello again! I scratched my gray old noggin and dug way in to my past at Disney Feature Animation for a few more reminscences, which might trigger memories for you if you were on production around the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. As mentioned in my previous piece, I began my last decade of professional life hired by Peter Schneider in ‘86 to set up training and recruitment services for all of you. I got tremendous inputs from so many of you “vets” then about what the folks in the trenches were thinking might pick up spirits (that got lowered after Animation got moved off lot into a series of warehouse buildings in a Glendale Industrial Park, aka “Flower Street”! Anyway, for what it’s worth let’s look back. (more…)

This picture of me “painting” the blue character is from my short film based on Joe Grant’s concept, LORENZO which came out in 2004 attached to a live action Disney film called Raising Helen. This must have been 2003 or maybe early ‘04. I made it while in room 3136 up on the third floor of the Mickey Hat bldg. I actually painted all the backgrounds and character set ups for the cg artists to match my style so although I am “faking” painting that Lorenzo image I actually did do all the analogue painting that was used in the film’s bgs, character pose set ups etc..—so in that way, it is not fake. That is a genuine authentic Disneyland Frontierland poster behind me that I have had for a long time. My blue paint splattered it’s frame but Lorenzo was a messy project—in certain ways. (more…)

Fox and the Hound

There are some amazing names are on this list of credits and WOW doesn’t this list seem short compared to the feature film credit rolls of today.

In those days not everyone got screen credit and Ink and Paint was one of the departments whose work ended up on the screen but their names did not.

Left to Right Front Row: Karen Comella, Janette Hulet, Robin Police, Melanie Pava, Tatsuko Watanabe, Gretchen Albrecht, Charlotte Armstrong, Sherri Vandoli

Left to Right Middle Row: Susan Moreau, Edie Hoffman (w/ sunglasses), Marisha Noroski, Jean Erwin – Supervisor (w/camera flare on top of head), Penny Coulter, Marcia Sinclair (polka dot blouse), Ann Neale (tall with sort of shag haircut), Barbara Palmer (leaning on rail, outside vertical support post)

Left to Right Back Row: Micki Zurcher (head turned toward screen right), Lois Ryker (w/ hand in the air), Ginni Mack (forehead and top of hair), Gina Wooten (dark bangs, right eye and a bit of nose), Robyn Roberts, Jill Sturdivant, (KP) Karen Paat

Affectionately known as “The Ink and Paint Ladies” pictured above huddled with big smiles in the Ray Bradbury Something Wicked This Way Comes gazebo on the Disney backlot. Ink and Paint was the largest department in the production process at that time. We didn’t call it a production pipeline until much later. (smile)

Top: (?)
Middle Left to Right: (?), (?), (?), Penny Coulter
Bottom Left to Right: (?), (?), (?), (?), (?)

The painters might be in units defined by a characters in the film. The colored paper drawing (color model mark up) would show the color separation areas (color seps) and identify what paint would needs to go where. Inside wing, outside wing, inside mouth, white of eye, etc…. There is a cell for every drawing in the film and it this crew who perfected the traditional skills of painting onto cells for feature animated films and painted every single one of them.

Top Left to Right: (?), (?), (?), (?), (?)
Bottom: Gretchen Albrecht

Done before digital technology (CAPS) all with paper, cells, gloves, brushes, water, paint, drying shelves and all those great people sitting together in one department combined with the fact that Disney ground their own pigment and made their own paint created a quality and a look second to none.

Top: Saskia Pele
Bottom Left to Right: Robin Police, (?), (?), Tatsko

At that time most of the cells from a Disney animated feature film were thrown away in a dumpster out behind the camera department and animation artists would dig through at night in search of cells they could take home. At the time no one knew they were creating museum pieces that by today’s prices are worth thousands of dollars.

Left to Right: Ed Hansen, Chris Hecox, Don Paul, Janet Bruce, Robyn Roberts

Although before my time, Ink and Paint traditionally had some of the best parties while on the Disney lot and off. Maybe it was because they were always separated from the rest of the animation department that gave them a rogue freedom that we all enjoyed. But we all felt the release from the exhaustive overtime hours at the Ink and Paint parties.

Left to Right: (?), Ron Rocha, Bill Brasner, Joe Morris, (?) Camen Sanderson, Karen Patt

Talented people, working together toward a single cause, achieving results beyond their means and contributing to a future while contributing to a legacy during a time when they were “Drawn2gether”.

Photos care of Penny Coulter.