disney jewels 1.7

© disney enterprises, inc

disney jewels 1.6

© disney enterprises, inc

disney jewels 1.5

© disney enterprises, inc

animation world history

GIANNALBERTO BENDAZZI, the most prolific animated film historian, was teaching together with me and ISHU PATEL in singapore, at NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY, school for art, design and media. it was a good time – we were the ‘dinosaurs’ within the big group of professors from all over the world. there were many happy moments with the 3 of us bitching about the old days, oh well!
giannalberto had finished his ‘monster’- animation world history book, that was supposed to be published in 3 volumes, over 1.000 pages in total. FOCAL-press was the publisher. he wanted me to design the cover, of course I was more than happy to do this. what an honor.
the first design with recognizable shadows of the most famous cartoon characters on a prehistoric cave wall was rejected, for copyright reasons. ok.
giannalberto was already depressed. he liked the cover a lot. I gave it another try, you see the design below – on the left! that one was denied again. it was too cartoony – well…
giannalberto gave up. we left it up to the publisher to come up with a better design. and the final already published look is the one on the right below.
I was experiencing these kind of blows a lot during my career, when morons with no taste or connection to the arts take over. today I am just smiling…

© focal press
© bilderfabrik

lost treasures

a while ago I started with the layouts of another book project, LOST TREASURES. below you can see the first 54 pages ( as double-pages ). the plan was to showcase all my recreated backgrounds from the ‘golden years’ of traditional animation, and from all the major feature films and shorts from that time. I am not sure if it ever will be finished, but it is fun to plan the whole thing.

© disney enterprises, inc / WB / MGM / paramount / UPA / john hubley

creative workspaces 1

TEOH YI CHIE ( online alias – PARKA ), who I met in singapore during a lecture, had this idea to show all different artists workspace. you can see it at his blog. in my never ending archives I found a lot more ‘historic’ workspaces and I wanna show you some.

ANDREAS DEJA, who had started in aug. 1980 at disney, is here animating on THE BLACK CAULDRON in dec. 1980.

in 1981 I met ART BABBITT in the hollywood QUARTETT film studio, where he was animating on THE THIEF for RICHARD WILLIAMS.

BARRIE NELSON, who animated WINDY DAY for JOHN HUBLEY, at his desk in 1981 in his malibu home.

ELFRIEDE FISCHINGER, widow of german abstract filmmaker OSCAR FISCHINGER, in her hollywood hills home in 1981.

myself in summer 1987 at amblin, working on WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT.

and at the same time at amblin in a story-meeting with the director BOB ZEMECKIS and the writers JEFFREY PRICE and PETER SEAMAN.

downshot from the roof of the FORUM in london-camdentown in 1987 with RICHARD WILLIAMS working in his room on WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT.

RICHARD WILLIAMS playing the trumpet, while I am doing an inbetween test at his desk in his home in hampstead 1986 for ROGER RABBIT.

MEL SHAW in 1989 in the purdum studio in london working on some production designs for BEAUTY AND THE BEAST.

RUSSELL HALL animating jessica rabbitt in the london FORUM studio in 1988.

in front of one of his layouts for richard williams’ THE THIEF is ROY NESBITT in the williams studio nr.13 soho square london feb. 1987.

1988 ULI MEYER started his first studio in london. here he is animating at his desk.

my room and workdesk in the disney feature animation studio in burbank 1998.