alex nino 13

I found some more designs ALEX NINO created in 1995/1996 during pre-production on disney’s MULAN.

© walt disney enterprises, inc / alex nino

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style diversity 1.9

© bilderfabrik
© walt disney enterprises
© amblin/universal pictures
© van veen/siepermann/bacher

style diversity 1.8

© bilderfabrik
© walt disney enterprises

style diversity 1.7

© bilderfabrik
© walt disney enterprises

style diversity 1.6

© bilderfabrik
© walt disney enterprises

style diversity 1.5

© bilderfabrik
© walt disney enterprises

style diversity 1.4

© bilderfabrik
© walt disney enterprises

style diversity 1.3

© bilderfabrik
© walt disney enterprises

style diversity 1.2

© bilderfabrik
© walt disney enterprises

style diversity 1.1

© bilderfabrik
© walt disney enterprises

style studies 1

more KANDINSKY inspired style studies

die nibelungen

the first film adaptation of the german epic poem DAS NIBELUNGENLIED from around 1.200 AD was done by legendary film director FRITZ LANG in two feature films – SIEGFRIED and DIE NIBELUNGEN, KRIEMHILD’S RACHE in the year 1924. only 90 years later I have started now visual development on an animated feature film project DIE NIBELUNGEN. HANNES RALL, who produced last year the animated short DAS KALTE HERZ, is writing the screenplay and will direct the film. financing for now comes from MFG film funding baden-wuerttemberg. we don’t have a finishing date yet but it might be a few years in production. I am excited to work on this epic project, it will be mostly traditional animation, the story is good and I can go visually wild, getting lost in the world of expressionistic painting. below some of my first designs.

© hans bacher + hannes rall

mulan findings 5

here is some more visual development artwork for disney’s MULAN. it was done sometime early 1994 before I joined the team

© disney enterprises, inc

mulan findings 2

before I became the official production designer for disney’s MULAN in december 1994 a small team of visual development artists had explored all different artistic directions for a possible style of that project. some of them had nearly worked on and off for 2 years on that. it was a challenge, the chinese typical painting-look was very difficult to copy for the use in animation. it still was supposed to be a disney movie but the studio wanted to come up with a story-typical style for the new projects. it had been successfully done with HERCULES, ALADDIN and LION KING where art-historic and geographic elements had been combined and ‘disneyfied’. below a few of the hundreds of paintings and sketches from that early stage of development. some more will follow

© disney enterprises, inc

albert hurter

ALBERT HURTER was the first visual development artist in the disney studio, most of characters and environments for the disney shorts in the thirties, the SILLY SYMPHONIES, but as well as for the features SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS, PINOCCHIO, DUMBO, FANTASIA and THE RELUCTANT DRAGON were designed by him. born in switzerland in 1883 he studied architecture in zurich and went then for seven years to an art academy in berlin. probably because of the dangerous situation and the beginning of WWI he left europe in 1914 and went to new york where he was introduced to the animation film industry. in the barre-bowers studio he worked on the MUTT & JEFF cartoons and became very fast well known for his amazing drawing talents. around 1930 he applied for work at the disney studio where he was disney’s VISUAL SKETCH ARTIST for more than a decade, drawing whatever came to his mind, playing with the ideas of a new story and working on films they would be produced long after his death, like PETER PAN and LADY AND THE TRAMP. I am sure that he introduced the disney artists to european masters like HEINRICH KLEY, WILHELM BUSCH and the caricature artists of the SIMPLIZISSIMUS. in 1942 he died of a weak heart, and seven years later a book HE DREW AS HE PLEASED was pubished, put together by TED SEARS, one of the story artists hurter had worked with. the book has about 700 of hurter’s sketches throughout his years at disney, and a lot of them have always been my favorites. I post them below in a bigger size.

michael sporn has posted the complete book in 2 parts on his blog – you can find it here and here.

© albert hurter and disney enterprises, inc

regis loisel 6

here is the last part of REGIS LOISEL’S visual development work for disney’s MULAN.

© disney enterprises, inc / regis loisel

regis loisel 5

and some more of REGIS LOISEL’S visual development artwork for disney’s MULAN

© disney enterprises, inc / regis loisel

regis loisel 4

now as promised more of REGIS LOISEL’S visual development designs for disney’s MULAN

© disney enterprises, inc / regis loisel

under-world

a few posts ago I showed a MAC GEORGE layout from the shelved disney production WILD LIFE. here is some more, first MAC GEORGE’S designs of the sewer underworld. he started with broad shapes roughly sketched with pencil, then refining these ideas more and more with felt pen in dozens of new sheets of big size paper. the sketches he didn’t like were discarded everywhere in his small room. most of the time it was impossible to enter the room because of all the trashed paper everywhere. well, out of that chaos came some incredible artwork. sometimes I gave him sketches I had done like the studio-equipment, he went over it dozens of time until he was happy and finally they belonged to the stylistic WILD LIFE world. there are three more of my sketches, the zoo, central-square with the villain magda’s headquarter and two pieces of framed kitty-artwork in her apartment.

© disney enterprises, inc

watkiss

one of my favorite paintings JOHN WATKISS created during visual development for disney’s TARZAN. he painted dozens of these mood- and composition-studies, all of them in acrylics and in a huge size, about 80 cm in length. and fast, together with the most beautiful sketches one design in about two days. I wonder why there was never a book published just with john’s designs…

© disney enterprises, inc