The Inkling Chronicles

Update: New Photos added to Animator's at Work gallery

My friend Jay Jackson just sent met this great photo of himself working on "The Black Cauldron" at Disney's in 1983 .

I've added this and several other new photos (mostly from the collection of Tim Hodge) to the Photo Album "Animator's At Work".

(Animator Jay Jackson , at Disney's , 1983 , on "The Black Cauldron")

FAX Animation Camera Stands - relics of a bygone era

 

I ran across these brochures (see below) from the FAX Company recently. Had not seen these for years. I sent off for these when I was a teenager.  FAX made animation camera stands and animation discs ("Magnabar™  combo 12-16 field discs) .  I believe I've read that most of  Bluth/Goldman/Pomeroy's "Banjo the Woodpile Cat" was shot on one of these FAX Animation Stands. ( I can confirm that in the circa 1980 brochure I received from the FAX Co. they have a supplemental typewritten list of their customers which incudes Don Bluth Productions.) 

I wanted one of these camera stands so badly ... these actually seemed more within my reach than the $45,000 Oxberry stands which I could never hope to afford , and anyway where in my house would I put one ?  But the compact "FAX Jr." camera stand was "only" $4,630.00 (or $2,795.00 for the compound alone, if I could build my own vertical camera mount ... I actually figured out plans of how I would do this and wall-mount the camera to point down at the FAX compound table.)  So these camera stands felt more affordable and I had big plans , but of course in the end I was no closer to being able to afford a $4,630 FAX Camera Stand than a $45,000 Oxberry Camera Stand, but it was fun to dream.   In a way I did have an "Oxberry" camera stand : I purchased one of the  "Ox Supermation Stands"  advertised in Super-8 Film Maker magazine which was actually designed by John Oxberry as a low-cost, basic animation stand for Super-8mm cameras. 

Here are two photos of the Ox Supermation Stand. The design varied a bit over the years. Click on the images to see them larger. 

(from the book "Filmakers Guide to Super-8")

(from the book "Handbook of Super-8 Production" by Mark Mikolas and Gunther Hoos.)

I carried this Ox-mini stand around for a few years after I was at Sheridan College (where I had access to real camera stands, including a full size Oxberry)  then I believe I gave it away to student , maybe when I was moving to California , not sure ... (memory fades) .  Now of course for nostalgia I wish I still had it .  It would be quite usable as a basic video pencil test downshooter. 

The FAX Company was located at 374 S. Fair Oaks Avenue, in Pasadena, CA .  They sold their Camera stands, Animation discs, and a whole line of animation peg bars, layout tables, and other animation supplies, similar to the line of animation supplies sold by Cartoon Colour Co. (who are still around) .  I don't know whatever happened to the FAX Co.  I seem to remember seeing their ads in industry magazines like Millimeter , American Cinematographer , and Animation Magazine into the early 90's, but as digital scanning and digital ink & paint replaced cels and film cameras there was less and less call for these camera rigs. (although they would still be great for shooting video pencil tests)   I can't find them listed anywhere , although Alan Gordon Enterprises in Hollywood continues to sell a "FAX" combo 12 -16 Field disc and they also list FAX Jr. and FAX Sr. animation compounds for sale on their website  (but no current pictures. I expect these are left-over stands from the 80's and the FAX Animation Camera Stands are no longer actively being manufactured.) 

Below are two slightly different brochures for the FAX line of Animation Camera Stands and Discs.  I hope there are some other equipment geeks out there who will appreciate viewing these relics of a bygone era. Click on the Images to see them larger.

 

One of the discs available is called a "Fax-Richardson" Animation Disc.  I believe a company named Richardson also made animation camera stands .

Technical info. on the FAX Animation Camera Stands:

Nowadays of course anyone with a computer and an animation program such as TVP Animation, Digicel Flipbook, or ToonBoom can do camera moves of greater complexity and technical finesse than was possible on these rostrum camera rigs , but for me the "romance" just isn't there .  There's something really mesmerizing about the old Oxberry's , FAX , ACME, and other camera stands and equipment that used to be a part of the animation process.  I don't miss the tedium and expense of using them , but another part of me does miss them .  

Sheridan College Animation Article

Article from the Oakville (Ontario) Beaver , June 22, 1984 , about the International Summer School of Animation at Sheridan College.

What was the motto ?   --- "Half the Time, Twice the Pressure"  (a play on words from the famous Blackwing pencil motto: "Half the Pressure, Twice the Speed")

Teacher Wayne Gilbert explains how the summer program worked: 

"It's four months compared to eight, and rather than a 20 or 24 hour schedule they have a a 40 hour week.  They go from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily and most of the students are here at night" 

(click the images to see them larger)

Standing (left to right) : Wayne Gilbert, Vern Herschberger, Terry Schoen, Ronit Schneidman. Seated: Maria Verdile

Cecropia animation crew photo

Photo of the primary animation and clean-up crew on Cecropia's animated game "The Act" .  Orlando , FL , 2006.  Most of us in this group had previously worked with one another at Disney's Orlando studio.

(click on image to see it larger)

back row (left to right): David Nethery, Dan Gracey , Greg Hill, Mike Brassell, Darko Cesar, Travis Rinehart, Russell Stoll, Craig Maras, Phillip Boyd, Dominic Avant, Janelle Bell-Martin, Omar Khudari.

middle row (left to right): Barry Temple, Chad Thompson (in front of Greg Hill), Ronnie Williford (in front of Mike Brassell), Ken Spirduso, John Pierro, Jason Peltz, Pete Raymundo , Teresa Quezada-Geer

front row standing (left to right): Ron Betta, Bethany Putnam, Jessica Milliner, Broose Johnson, Anthony Michaels, Miyul Lee, Eddie Pittman, Jackie Shadrake

front row sitting/kneeling: Merritt Andrews, Steven Geer, Sasha Dorogov, Bryan Sommer, Antony Defato.

(several key people from the Orlando staff are missing from this photo including Pamela Mathues,  Kellie Lewis, Lisa Lanyon, and Sean Kane. ) 

Here is the opening day crew in 2004.   The main office of Cecropia was in Lexington, MA ,  but the animation facility was located in Orlando, FL. 

back row (left to right): Sasha Dorogov, Anthony Defato, Barry Temple, Pamela Mathues, Dan Gracey, Chad Thompson, Tom Bancroft, Frank Digregorio

middle row standing (left to right): Jackie Shadrake, Pete Raymundo, Omar Khudari, Kellie Lewis, Lisa Lanyon, Dominic Avant, Ann Marie Bland, 

middle row kneeling (left to right): Jason Peltz, Anthony Michaels, David Nethery.

front row kneeling (left to right): Leigh Ausiello, Rob Corley, Joe Calabresi , Steven Geer.

Many other people worked on this production , but this was the crew that did the bulk of the animation .  The full crew is listed here:  The Act - Development Team . It was a great experience working on this innovative video game, the brainchild of Cecropia found Omar Khudari.  

R.O. Blechman's "Simple Gifts" - Prologue

 

Prologue to R.O. Blechman's animated television special "Simple Gifts" . This prologue piece is designed by Maurice Sendak, animated by Ed Smith , with watercolor by Sara Calogero. Music composed by Arnold Black. The entire special was directed by R.O. Blechman. The quality on this clip is not the greatest since it is from an old VHS tape recording of the show. As far as I know PBS has not aired this again in recent times. It's a beautiful Christmas special that really should be released on DVD. 

Richard O'Connor has posted an original drawing from this sequence on his blog :

  Original Art from "Simple Gifts" click HERE 

O'Connor relates this about animator Ed Smith:

 

Once I asked Ed Smith (who animates in ink) what he does when he makes a mistake. 

His response: "I'll let you know when that happens."

Tateh's Flipbook, from Milos Forman's "Ragtime"

Roger Rabbit , LA Crew photo , 1988

Jenny Lerew's posting of Steve Hickner's photo of a post-Oscar lunch reunion between Dick Williams and some of the London animation crew of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" who had relocated to L.A. prompted me to look for my copy of the L.A. Roger Rabbit crew photo.  (someone in the comments section of Jenny's blog had wondered if the photo she posted was of the L.A. Roger crew; I then posted in a response that it wasn't the L.A. crew, but that I would try to find and post the L.A crew photo.)

Well, here it is.  As it turns out, I couldn't find my copy (it's in some box in "the archives" I know, but I can't lay my hands on it),  but through the help of my friend (and fellow Roger Rabbit crew member) Eric Daniels I was able to get a scan of the L.A. Roger Rabbit crew photo.  Eric actually got it from another Roger Rabbit crew member, animator Bruce Smith ( Eric and Bruce are presently both hard at work on "The Princess & The Frog" at Disney's) .  Thanks guys !    

(click on the image to see if full size)

I'll work on getting full ID's on everyone in this photo posted later, but in the meantime have fun pointing out who you recognize.

  

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UPDATE:  Ok, I took a first pass at trying to ID everyone in the photo above.  I think I did pretty well considering this was over 20 years ago ... but I did come up blank on some names.  Anyone who can fill in the missing names please comment.  Thanks.

(click on image to see it larger)

Here the ID's I've made:

First row kneeling or sitting, moving from left-to-right : 

Dave Bossert, Gregory Hinde, Gilda Palinginis, Mike Genz, Dean Cundey, unknown, David Craig, unknown, Bill Frake , Madlyn O'Neill, Laura Craig, unknown, unknown, Dave Spafford, unknown, Brenda Chapman, Ed Bell.

Second row standing on ground level , left-to-right: Unknown, unknown, Cindy Finn, unknown, unknown, unknown, Kent Holaday, unknown, unknown, Ann Marie Costa, unknown, Margaret Nichols, unknown, Karen Comella, unknown, Ron Rocha, Jane Baer, Dale Baer. 

Third row standing on ground level:  Bruce Smith, Ed Murrieta, Barry Temple, unknown, Dave Thomson, Renee Holt, Brett Newton.

On stairs, behind the first post(standing): Umberto De La Fuente.

Going up the stairs, first row sitting: Ron Dias, Lori Noda, Frans Vischer, David Nethery, Matt O'Callaghan, M.J. Turner, Dan Chaika, Glenn Chaika, Randy Fullmer, Carl Bell.

Group at top of stairs : Gisele Recinos, Don Paul, Mac Torres (?) (behind Don Paul) , Christine Harding , Eric Daniels, Kent Culotta, Sib Torres.

Going up stairs , second row: unknown, unknown, Gary Shafer, Dave Pacheco, Nancy Kniep, Bette Isis Thomson, unknown, Teresa Martin, Dolly Baker, Mavis Shafer, Allyson Rubin, Allen Blyth, Scott Santoro, Mark Kausler, Kathy Barrows-Fullmer.

Sheridan College - "Half the Time, Twice the Pressure"

This is the brochure that Sheridan College had put out around 1979 - '80 to promote the "International Summer School of Animation" .  The program was created so that non-Ontario residents and foreign students could attend the popular Character Animation program at Sheridan College's School of Visual Arts in Oakville, Ontario.   As a U.S. citizen I couldn't get into the regular Winter/Spring terms at Sheridan, so I was told that I should apply to the Summer School.  The Summer program basically crammed the entire curriculum for each Year of the (then) 3-Year Sheridan program in Classical Animation into three 15-week summer terms.  We attended for three consecutive summer terms and ended up with the same Diploma in Classical Animation as everyone else who went through Sheridan's regular animation program which was spread out over the normal Winter/Spring terms.

At one point someone in the summer program (I think it was Tahsin Özgür)  made up a logo and motto for the Summer School which was a take off on the Blackwing pencil motto "Half the Pressure, Twice the Speed " ... for the Sheridan Summer School the motto was changed to an image of a Blackwing pencil with the words :  "Half the Time, Twice the Pressure" , to reflect the intensive nature of the accelerated summer program.  I used to have that logo on a T-shirt , but somewhere along the line it's gone missing or I'd post a photo of it.  (Maybe one of my fellow International Summer School of Animation students will see this post and send me a photo of it if they still have one of the T-shirts or a print copy of the logo.)

Anyway, here are some images from the brochure that Sheridan College was using at the time (c. 1981) to promote The International Summer School of Animation.

(click each image to view it larger)

I'll post some more about Sheridan College in those days, but I've got to make the time to scan stuff.  In many ways the intensive nature of the summer course was the best thing that could have prepared us for the real world of animation production.  Everyone who was in the summer program really wanted to be there and the average age of the students in the summer school was much older than the typical 18 and 19 year olds who entered the regular program at Sheridan.  We were motivated and we lived, breathed, ate, drank animation every day during those summers.  

Academy of Art Online Animation Classes

One of the things I'm doing these days is teaching animation online.  I'm the Online Coordinator of 2D Animation at the Academy of Art University.

I'm really excited about some of the new classes we have coming up .

We have three new online traditional animation classes launching for the Fall '08 semester. (not too late to sign up)

ANM 380 Stop Motion Animation 1 - taught by stop-motion animator and author Ken Priebe. Ken is the author of the noted book The Art of Stop Motion Animation . This is a unique course in that is one of the few classes in traditional stop-motion puppet animation offered online by an accredited university. Ken will be following up this class with Stop Motion Animation 2 . (The Academy of Art also has several other Stop-Motion and Puppet Making classes in development for launch online in the near future.)

 ANM 261 Introduction to Effects Animation - taught by Kathleen Quaife . Kathleen is a veteran effects animator having worked for Don Bluth, Disney, Warner Bros. Feature Animation , and many other places. She is one of the most skilled and knowledgeable effects animators in the business and has been very successful in applying her traditional effects skills to digital production using Flash and ToonBoom. See examples of Kathleen's work here: Kathleen Quaife reels 

ANM 375 Maquette Sculpting - taught by former Disney artist and sculptor Jason Peltz. Examples of Jason's work may be seen on his website: Jason Peltz maquette examples

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On Hiatus - back "soon"

Officially announcing what has been in fact a hiatus of posting on the blogs

The Inkling Chronicles

and

You're a Gazelle

I'll post again at some point, but at the moment am busy on other projects , things I can't post here.

Everything remains in the Archives. Check back now and then and I might have something new to post.
Don't delete me from your bookmarks yet . I'll be back.

In the meantime check out my TVP Animation Blog , a collection of clips made with that remarkable drawing/animation/efx software TVP Animation .

Meeko and Flit Crews, Pocahontas 1995

Meeko & Flit Animation Crew, originally uploaded by Inkling_Studio.

Meeko and Flit Crews , spring 1995 .
622 Rodier Drive (aka Circle 7 Drive), in front of the "Hart-Dannon" building , where Walt Disney Feature Animation "Pocahontas" crew was housed.

(Click on the photo to see identifications of individual crew members)

Encore Performance ! R.O. Blechman Christmas bumper

I posted this last year ,  but it's worth sharing again this Christmas . Beautifully designed piece of Christmas cheer from the incomparable R.O. Blechman.

(TV Animation could be so beautiful .  Why isn't there more stuff like this on the television networks ?  (this originally aired on "The Tiffany Network" , CBS.  They could commission something like this in 2007 , right ?  Why not?)    This is from 1966 and it beats the pants off of most of our technologically advanced Flashy Toonboomery . )

Glen Keane Bear Drawing

Here's another piece I've had for years .  This is an animation rough by Glen Keane from "The Fox & THe Hound" .   Odd that in all the years I had this I never asked Glen to sign it ... what was I thinking ?

[Click image to see it larger]

Richard Williams - Abe Levitow "A Christmas Carol"

Here is a cel from my collection.  It is of the Ghost of Christmas Present from the Richard William's adaptation of "A Christmas Carol" which was made in 1971 and won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film .  It was originally aired on television as a half-hour Special (back in the days when television networks still commissioned high-end Christmas Specials and they were actually Special) .   

I had this cel for many years after purchasing it at an ASIFA cel sale in Hollywood .   When Richard Williams came through the Orlando Disney Animation studio to lecture for us as part of his book tour for his master class notes  "The Animator's Survival Kit",  I made sure I brought the cel along to ask him to autograph it.   Dick seemed genuinely surprised and delighted to see this cel and informed me that this was from a sequence animated by veteran Warner Bros. animator Abe Levitow (who worked for many years in the Chuck Jones unit at Warner's) .   Dick said he would sign it "on behalf of Abe" , and so he did.

[click the image to see it larger]

The technique used for this film is very interesting . The animator's drew directly on the celluloids with a "grease pencil"  (Mars Omnichrom) in an illustrative style reminiscent of 19th century British magazine illustration such as would have illustrated many of Mr. Charles Dickens's works.    Then the animator's drawings on cel were painted (on the back) as usual and photographed against background paintings.

Here is a closer view showing some of the detail of the cross-hatching on the drawings  ----

[click on  image to see it larger]

The entire film is on YouTube in a much reduced form (dropped frames, sometimes jerky playback, fuzzy , low-res images which don't do justice to the beauty of the original artwork).

For some strange reason this film has never received a DVD release.

The YouTube and Google Video versions are the only way you can see it right now.   It was briefly available on VHS a few years ago,  but is not currently available  as far as I know and never on DVD.

The cel appears around the 14:10 mark on GoogleVideo, during the section of The Spirit's dialogue: (first quoting Scrooge's words back to him)  "What then ... if he be like to die he had better do it , and thereby decrease the surplus population" ...
Oh, God ! to hear the insect on the leaf pronouncing on the too much life among his hungry brothers in the dust ."

Here is the entire film on GoogleVideo: