(YouTube Link)
This video by YouTube user dabedoo shows how often animators for classic Disney movies reused sequences in different movies. brownkidd of Albotas says (presumably facetiously) that they were "a bunch of copy/pasting lazy bums". In the era of hand-drawn animation, I'd cut them a lot of slack.
via Albotas
Anyone (not saying this of the poster) who thinks that the animators got some kind of free pass has NO IDEA what they're talking about. We routinely used live action footage as reference - and it was brutal at all times.
The animator has to re-draw the entire scene, replacing original characters with completely new models. The only save is in staging, which guarantees an appealing composition and timing - but from the point of view of drawing, it's a long and tedious process.
I never liked working with live action reference, and using an earlier drawing would have about as much appeal from a creative angle. I don't know any animators in the traditional world who would want to be handcuffed in this manner. In 3D, the nearest analog would be MoCap - a style of animation that's very frustrating to work with.
Even a non-animator artist can try a simple test: print out a single frame of any Disney film, then place a clean sheet over it. Now, draw a different character over the original, matching pose for pose. It's even more fun with a backlight.
Now, imagine the fun you'll have when you're rolling a stack of these things, 5 drawings at a time - flipping between two versions of key#1, #2, #3, #4 and #5, etc.
And people wonder why animators like to drink.
Are there any videos of this? I find it all interesting. I know about the Kimba the White Lion/Lion King parallel, and was wondering if there were others I wasn't aware of.
What's with the whinging? You knew what you were getting into when you took the job. As an animator myself, the rewards are the creative results in itself. If you are too impatient and stubborn enough to have to turn to drinking, I suggest you try another field.
Grow up. That, or develop reading comprehension.
How could they have "started out copying from itself and ended up pirating from Japanese animators." when we're talking about works that pre-date Japanese animation?
Ever heard of Winsor McCay?
Thanks. You understand the issues of describing the inevitable problems in ANY field, without accusing me of "whinging".
Then again, you're an adult. Adrian the so-called 'animator" is not. Whether he's an animator in anything other than his own mind is another question!
Plus you have to remember the aim of these films wasn't just to entertain, its to make money. Hand drawn animation is incredibly expensive and effort was made throughout the process to cut costs and increase profit. These scenes aren't "acting" scenes, they're just action scenes-scenes which were usually given to junior animators on lower salaries. Not only that, animators were paid by the feet of footage they created, not the hours they put in doing it. Again, you can understand people trying to increase their productivity in order for a bit of extra money.
It's not a terrible crime that the animation was reused, it doesn't ruin the plot nor are the actions out of character. In short, it's amusing that they were so blantant about it but hardly worth arguing about!
Makes a good case against Atlantis.
Take an anime, for example, or some modern American cartoon (Powerpuff Girls, etc). They have lots of ways not to do too much work. For example, the body of a characters is very often static and only his mouth moves when he is speaking. Or when a character is shocked, they would zoom on his face like three or four times. All that of course means less work (and less money needed) for the animators/studio.
Of course, the animators here know about these tricks. But since I have read said article (which I can't find anymore) I look at cartoons in a different way. :-)
When Disney made "Snow White", they assumed that it would have to be on 24fps (like live action). They were half way through the production when it occured to someone (Roy Disney?) to hold each drawing for 2 frames (putting it on twos). They weren't able to tell the difference for most scenes - which saved a huge amount of time & money).
Again, anecdotal - can't find a reference.
Also heard that a lot of the production crew signed themselves in for medical treatment prior to the completion of Snow White, as they were so over-worked.
(Sorry Adrian, whinging has a long and glorious tradition).
The boozing in that place was pretty intense, btw.
Some more anecdotes:
After Pinnochio (might have been Fantasia) the camera department made a slide in the hallway of the cels from the film, and went skidding down the floor on them. No idea that these things would be worth a bomb years later.
One of my old bosses had worked at Disney animation during the 60s/70s. He and a friend found a huge barrel, like an oil drum, filled with water, and layers and layers of cels. Just left to rot. They fished them out and took them home. One of the guys managed to revive the paint sufficiently to liquidise it (god knows what chemicals he used) in order to cover over the gaps that had flaked off.
Different times!
I have a lot of respect for animators, its a totally different field these days, with programs like flash doing all the grunt work with tweens, but still difficult.
I like hearing the stories of the old school animators, and I most definitely believe that they liked to knock back a few. Hell, I only have to make one frame when I make a flyer or a poster and I think that's difficult sometimes. Thanks for humbling me, and reminding me how easy my job is.