beauty

the reason why I recreated this stunning background from disney’s SLEEPING BEAUTY was pure curiosity, I hope the original is still in the disney archives ARL. it is a long and complicated combined pan with a camera-turn, must have been pretty long in three multiplane layers in original, I guess in 2 pieces, where the cut edges could have been covered by the foreground foliage. I explain some of the details in the first image. the tilted angle is the result of the camera turn – I started with the recreation in the normal horizontal position of the first frame, the second image shows the whole BG in a better readable angle. see the beauty of this piece of art yourself, the first reaction might be – incredible, all the detail! yes, but it doesn’t look overloaded like so many backgrounds today and the characters read perfectly clear, because the color range and the values are very close. amazing as well the composition – the cathedral-like trees that create the ‘background’ with the more irregular and curvy tree-shapes in the foreground. the foliage adds the playful rococo detail in front of everything. it is all controlled and looks so light.

© disney enterprises, inc

mel shaw

MEL SHAW, born december 19, 1914, in brooklyn moved to L.A. in 1928. after an art education at the otis art institute he joined the HARMAN-ISING studios as an animator, character designer, story man and director. during that time he had a chance to work with ORSON WELLES storyboarding a live action/animation version of THE LITTLE PRINCE. WALT DISNEY hired mel personally after he saw him play in a polo match. before WWII interrupted mel’s career he worked on FANTASIA, BAMBI and WIND IN THE WILLOWS. after the war he started the ALLEN-SHAW productions together with former MGM animator BOB ALLEN, where he created toys and architectural masterplans like century city in california, as well as the illustrations for the first BAMBI children book for disney. mel told me the story where he was involved in the ( stone by stone ) move of the 1831 built LONDON BRIDGE from london to LAKE HAVASU CITY, ARIZONA, in 1968. the bridge was dismantled, every stone numbered and then shipped and trucked via long beach to arizona. what a project! in 1974 mel shaw returned to the disney studios where he helped the new artists on productions like RESCUERS, FOX AND THE HOUND, GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and THE LION KING. I met mel during our pre-production work for BEAUTY AND THE BEAST in london in the fall of 1989 and had a chance to witness ( and videotape ) his incredible charcoal technique and the birth of dozens of beautiful paintings.

© disney enterprises, inc / mel shaw

wilhelm m.busch 31

the selected illustrations created by WILHELM M.BUSCH are from a limited edition work catalogue published in 1983 by edition curt visel, memmingen, germany.

© wilhelm m.busch / curt visel verlag

pose

besides the classes work on the book DREAM WORLDS 2 continues, this little sketch will be part of it. it’s based on a classical painting, I loved the pose and the arrogant face

mulan historic 1

as comparison here are some kind of ‘historic’ designs I did for disney’s MULAN in october 1995. starting with the very first rough black/white sketch, about postcard size, and together with my own logo for the fim, at that time after ‘the legend of fa-mulan’ as a working title ‘the legend of mulan’. the dragon survived in the final logo. then a step inbetween, a marker sketch, about 6 x 10 cm. and the final 12 field acrylic painting on cardboard. the last design in this post is the very first planned cover of the ART OF MULAN book by jeff kurtti. I like the final cover with the original powerful poster much better.

© disney enterprises, inc

das kalte herz

four years in the making, HANNES RALL, a good friend and colleague here at nanyang technological university ADM, is now presenting his new animated film DAS KALTE HERZ ( the cold heart ). several animators from asia and europe worked on this stylized german fairy tale. written by WILHELM HAUFF in the nineteenth century the story is about a young man whose heart get’s corrupted by greed. sounds very much like a modern true story, nothing that would ask for a common look. hannes chose stylewise a mix of ingredients from german expressionism, you will be reminded of painters and woodcut artists like ERNST LUDWIG KIRCHNER, KARL SCHMIDT-ROTTLUFF, EMIL NOLDE, ERNST BARLACH, MAX BECKMANN, OTTO DIX, ERICH HECKEL, KAETHE KOLLWITZ and MAX PECHSTEIN, as well as films like DAS CABINETT DES DR. CALIGARI, DER GOLEM and NOSFERATU. I helped out with the color design influenced as well by a lot of the above mentioned painters. you can find the trailer of the film on CARTOON BREW. below some pages of my color script.

© hannes rall

back from india

I am back from an unforgettable visit to INDIA with a lecture in the WHISTLING WOODS INTERNATIONAL FILMSCHOOL and a show+tell session in the ACK-animation studios in MUMBAY, stays in the JHIRA BAGH PALACE and the AHIYLA FORT, and trips to the MANDU historical site ( comparable to angkor wat ) and the city of MAHESHWAR at the NARMADA holy river. a selection of pictures will be soon on my photo-blog. I made so many new friends and want to thank everybody for their incredible hospitality, especially SANATAN SURYAVANSHI and his family and KUSHAL RUIA and his family, as well as the TASI animation organisation. I will be back very soon…