the layout in traditional animation is the ‘blueprint’ of a scene, the line and tonal version of a background including camera instructions and field sizes, as well as rough sketched key poses of the animation. in the past the dark and light values were drawn with blue or black soft pencils, in the forties ( BAMBI ) the layout was ‘painted’ with graphite dust and gasoline, highlights erased with eraser-pens. all that was done on vellum what made it easier to trace the lines onto background cardboard. a lot of those layouts from the old days are masterpieces, they look like painted in graphite. in the archives they were not treated as well as most backgrounds, folded several times, a lot of them torn because of the vellum thin quality. following I want to show you a few layouts from some of the older disney animated shorts and feature films. they are treasures of a lost art…
1937 clock cleaners
1961 101 dalmatians
1939 the practical pig
1942 bambi
1939 donald’s lucky day
1940 fantasia
1948 melody time – once upon a wintertime
1938 mickey’s trailer
1940 pinocchio
1938 the moth and the flame
1959 sleeping beauty
1947 fun and fancy free – bongo
1940 fantasia
1967 the jungle book
1955 lady and the tramp
2002 lilo and stitch
1999 tarzan
© disney enterprises, inc
my name is hans bacher, – I work as production designer in the animation film industry. for the last 45 years I lived and worked in exciting places around the world. after 7 years of teaching in singapore I am back at my homebase in manila, working on a few more books.
One1more2time3's Weblog 
These are fabulous. I’ve only just found your blog but it’s inspiring. Thanks for sharing your finds!
Love those layouts. Are these from your personal collection?
Thanks for these – real treasures of light and shade!
Amazing, just amazing. Love the varied tree styles from the different artists. Is that Armitage’s Jungle Book work?
hello sir hans! it’s been a long while…i think 8 years now. i’ve been one of your students back in CSB around 2008 in Manila. I hope you’re doing well 🙂
Anyway these backgrounds are stunning, especially the Lilo and Stitch one. I can’t stop looking at it. I’m curious if you know the artist who made it?
from hans –
hello gabi, good to hear from you, hope you are doing well. the artist was PAUL FELIX. you can find a lot more of his masterpieces