
How to Train an Animator, by Walt Disney - vaporstun
http://www.lettersofnote.com/2010/06/how-to-train-animator-by-walt-disney.html
======
brandonkm
I'm finding it absolutely amazing how well Walt Disney knew the field of
animation. This letter could have been written last month with no
modifications and still have been as applicable to animators as it was in
1935.

~~~
commieneko
Not so surprising really.

Disney, and a few artists under his direction, more or less created the system
and criteria used to create and judge animation; at least in the USA, from a
professional standpoint. Anyone in the west who is taught "animation
principles" is taught material developed pretty much as ordered in this
letter. What was known as "Disney Animation" and later "Hollywood Animation"
was developed to Disney's specification and taste. (Despite what many think,
Disney _was_ an animator, just not a very good one. However few would argue
that he was a fantastic producer and aesthete.)

Now...

There _are_ other systems and "principles" and methods of staging for
animation that are _very_ different from the ones Disney helped to develop.
Some of them use some of the same tools developed by Disney Studios and their
followers, but take them in very different directions. This is particularly
true to animators working in countries other than the USA. (Take a look at
films from Russia and the former Easter Block countries for some interesting
counter examples. Or hell, at some of the fantastic stuff coming out of Japan
these days.)

When I see a Pixar movie I see animators using "Disney" techniques as applied
to the new medium; Disney is very much in their DNA. I'm still looking for the
3D animators to grow a set of principles for designed 3D, as opposed to those
developed for "pencil" drawings.

------
whatwhatwhat
Wow, this was a gem..

What illusion does that person, fat with pot-belly, give you as you see him?
What do you think of as you see him walking along? Does he look like a bowl of
jelly? Does he look like an inflated balloon with arms and legs dangling? Does
he look like a roly-poly?

In other words, analyze the fat person's walk and the reasons for his walking
that way.... BUT DON’T STOP UNTIL YOU’VE HAD THE GROUP BRING OUT ALL THE
COMEDY THAT CAN BE EXPRESSED WITH THAT FAT PERSON’S WALK; also all the
character - but drive for the comedy side of the character.

------
delano
This is interesting from a historical perspective but it reads like the
ramblings of a micromanager.

------
bitwize
A copy of this should be rolled up and used to thwack the producers of
_Tangled_.

------
d0m
I like the "From: Walt" on the top of the paper, just under Walt Disney
production.

