Ray Harryhausen

Ray Harryhausen earnt the title of 'The Grandfather of Model Animation' for his contributions to the art of stop motion animation or as it was known at the time; 'special effects animation'. Using intricate models based on expertly articulated armatures (metal skeletons), and a process which he pioneered and named 'Dynamation'. Here is a brief discription of the process...
1) An image of the live action film was projected onto a translucent screen from behind using a rear projector. 
2) A table with the miniature models was then set up infront of the screen.
3) Infront of that table a glass screen was set up. Black matte paint was used to black out the foreground areas of the image as seen through this screen that were to remain infront of the model characters.
4) A camera was then arranged infront of this all. As the original live action film was played frame by frame, the models could be manipulated to look as though they were interracting with the characters/ environment in the film convincingly.
5) Once complete, the film and the projection were wound back to the beginning. The glass frame was then replaced so that the inverse areas could be blacked out this time and the entire film was shot again to create a complete image in the final production.

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958), Mighty Joe Young (1949), and Jason and the Argonauts (1963) all included scenes utilising this technique. One of the most famous scenes Harryhausen created using Dynamation is a skeleton fight scene in Jason and the Argonauts. Although the scene only lasts for about three minutes, it took him four months to produce.



Two Old Men

In Brad Bird's films the Incredibles and The Iron Giant, he includes the cameo appearances of two of the finest animators of Disney's history- Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston. Frank and Ollie were two of the original 'Nine Old Men', a name which was given to a group of supervising animators by Walt Disney. These nine animators oversaw the production of Disney classics such as Snow White, Bambi, and Pinocchio.Frank Thomas

Ollie Johnston

In The Lady and the Tramp, Lady's character was animated for most of the film by Ollie Johnston, while Frank Thomas was responsible for the famous scene where the two dogs chew on a string of spaghetti and share their first kiss.

When Frank and Ollie appeared in the Incredibles as spectators (courtesy of Brad Bird), they say to each other;

Frank: 'You see that? That's the way to do it. That's old school.'
Ollie: 'Yeah, no school like the old school.'

This is probably intended as a refernce to their time working at Disney together, along with the other Nine Old Men- a time during which some of Disney's finest films were produced.

Grim Tales- Watch this clip!!

One of the best kids shows in existence, and one I happened to grow up with, has to be 'Grim Tales' starring the British comedian Rik Mayall. I haven't met many other people who know of or remember this show, which is a real shame. He basically retells all the old Grim fairy tales but in a completely ridiculous manic way. A few of them have some fantastic stop-motion animation thrown in at intervals. This episode is called 'The Witch Among Thorns' and only goes for about 12 mins. It looks like it's been ripped from a VHS tape so the quality's pretty poor unfortunately.

But you'll still get the gist. I especially love the portrayal of the witch with the traffic cone on her head. So here it is... enjoy!

Lady and the Tramp task

The original concept for Lady and the Tramp was thought up in the 1930s when Walt Disney had dinner at Joe Grant's house and was shown a story that Grant had illustrated about his own dog Lady. Disney particularly liked the soft silky portrayal of Lady's character. They began refining ideas for a movie based on her.
In 1943 the original storyboard was presented to Disney but he didn't like it- he thought there was something 'too soft' about Lady's character. So the idea was put on the shelf and not touched again until the 1950s.
It was then that Disney read a story by Ward Greene called 'Happy Dan the Whistling Dog' which centred around a rough cynical male dog character, and he believed that if Lady and this new character were played opposite each other, an interesting story could evolve, so he hired Greene to work on the film.
Greene was the author of the book 'Lady and the Tramp' which the final film was based on. Another inspiration in making the film was that Walt claimed to have given his wife a puppy in a hat box as a gift, a moment which was included in the movie also.
'Lady and the Tramp' was officially released in 1955.

Princess and the Cobbler clip

Here's the link to the 'The Princess and the Cobbler' I mentioned. Okay, so I know I said the cobbler was a mute in my post but I guess my memory's a bit off. He's mute for the most part, and has very limited dialogue. Anyway, have a look- I chose this clip because it has one of my favourite scenes with the thief in it, trying to infiltrate the palace by climbing up the sewerage pipe system... classic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da3AZf5AVX8

Hi everyone, welcome to my humble web-abode. Come in, come in! Pull up a chair, grab a woolly blanket, and a big old steaming mug of cocoa and let Aunty Lydia take you on a marvellous journey into the inner workings of her animator's mind!

Well now that I've said that I'm not sure how to live up those expectations... I've never had any practise with blogging but I'm sure I can find a few things to start rambling about (it is after all my forte).

So! Our first blog is to be about what inspires us in animation. I've only just recently decided I wanted to get into animation so I'm still not familiar with a lot of movies and animators names that I've heard thrown about the classroom. But I know what I do like, and what I tend to be drawn to.

And I suppose the best place to start with I'm drawn to, is the one sort of character that gets me everytime- the shy, reluctant hero. Whatever book/ movie he's in, I find myself instantly magnatised to him and falling in love within seconds. Some good examples of what sort of character I'm talking about are the mute Cobbler from 'The Princess and the Cobbler', Edward Scissorhands, and Victor from 'The Corpse Bride'. I love their innocence and naivety, and how no-one else seems to understand them. If you haven't already, go and read 'The Little Prince' by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. The Prince is the perfect example of everything I love about this sort of character! Seriously, it's such a beautiful book, it'll only take you half an hour or so... so go read it. Now. Go on, scoot!

WAIT! Not until you've finished reading my blog that is.. ;-)
The reason I started with my favourite type of character is because nearly everything I like revolves around him in one way or another. I'm drawn to Tim Burton's works because he seems to have a similar inclination to such characters and a certain sympathy towards them. And his visuals are just stunning- the lone Jack Skellington walking down a curling hill into a pumpkin-strewn graveyard, backlit by a an enormous yellow moon. Sigh! Perfection.

And the Princess and the Cobbler has got to be one of the saddest losses to animation in history. Sure, we got a 'complete' version in the end (after the new director had taken over and hacked it to pieces, then patched it up again with cheap asian labour to make it marketable). But to think what kind of masterpiece it may have been, had Richard Williams been allowed to continue working on it and completed it to his original intended quality- no matter how many deadlines he missed or how over-budget he went- would have been just mind-boggling.
He had some of the best animators in history working on it, the characters and scenery were all hand-drawn and so deliciously intricate. All in the days before new-fangled computer animation. And animated on ones too! Like I said, mind-boggling.
I'll see if I can fish out some decent youtube links to it. Once you've seen it, you'll understand.

Another animated fave of mine is Daria. It's so simple, yet packs a brilliant punch! Quinn is by far my favourite character, the perfect stereotypical snob with her Fashion Club minions. And Britney would have to come a close second. That what I love about that show, every cliched character is explored and given a story, and all the way through it you find yourself thinking, 'Oh my god, I knew someone like that! That's exactly what they sound like!'

Well that should about do it for now. Still have to look into how to link clips to this thing... technology and I haven't been on speaking terms for a while now.

Anyway, stay tuned... My stores of rambling have been depleted. But not for long..