Pennell Institute - Whirlpool Yearbook (Gray, ME)

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EXPOSING MICKEY MOUSE It is baffling, though the explanation is very simple. A strip of motion picture film consists of a series of still pictures. As the liv- ing actors move across the stago, ths cenora records their movements at the roto ог twenty-rour inorezsions c. s2cond. Ench iittle still picture is merely one minutes bit сг отете, step, gesture or yawne When these photographs ore рго)62564 on the screenu, Lho illusion of unbroken move- ment is created, А super-cye which с0-14 recor) improssions on the brain woulc not sec a moving ricturez it wouid єзө a series of still photos, It is exactly the seme with an animetad cartoon, Mickey Mouse moves because photographs of cravings are projected on the screen at the same | rate -- twenty-four a second. Each recoris one progressive bit or varia- tion of a movement. A Mickey picture starts with en idea, When a story must be told in seven minutes, it is a great advantage to start with a self-explanatory situation, and from this meeting ground of common experience or knowledge lead the audience's imagination subtly and gradually from the familiar to the amazing and impossible. That's how we are fooled into believing. The story department prepores a rough, short outline, which, when mimeographed, is distributed among the members of the staff. Everybody whom Mickey supports, chief animators to bill collectors, is supposed to think up gags and situations. The staff isgiven ebout two weeks to pon- der, toy, meditate, cogitate, ond reflect over, under, and upon the tentative outline, The members of the story department then dive into this sea of ori- ginal suggestions for about a week and discover two or three good ideas; these generate other ideas, laughs that suggest other laughs, ond gags that have legs to carry them along. Thus, bit by bit, the story is work- ed out like а jig-sow puzzle. After numerous conferences during which the story is developed and revised into a proper form, the director takes the responsibility. His is the glory and the grief, Layout men and musical directors appear to assist him, А layout man is the art director and stage designer in the animated cartoon business, A layout is the key drawing illustrating a major action and beckground in any single scene of the story. A layout defines the position of charact- ers in relation to the backgrounds; it indicates the boundaries within which the animator (the artist who makes the characters move) must con- fine the movements of the actors. Whilo the layout men are surmarizing the action and background cf

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ALLIS HOT 19 NOT LITERATURE.

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the story in a series of key sketches, the director and musical director are presynchronizing the action to the music. Every little sauare in the layout sheet represents a measure of music. In each square is indicated the action which will баке place during that special mensure of music. Thus the musical director is nble to compose music which will keep step with the story; and the director, to keep the action in the tempo of the music, Next, the director makes out his production chart. It describes the picture scene by scene; tells the footage allowed for each; and names the animator who will draw each bit of action. The production chart completed, the director compiles an exposure sheet. Every line represents a frome ‘г completed drawing which, when photographed end to end, will make the aninoted cartoon we see on the Screen, Sixteen frames to each foot of film! Twenty-four “a second! Топ to twelve thousand frames a picture! And а single frame is usually a composite of two or three sketches suner-inpesed upon euch other and the background. On the exposure sheet, the musical director marks the exact movement at which every beat of the music will oocur, Thus, if the action is to be in rhythm, the onimator will complete each movement of his character or animated object on a beat of music. In short, the exposure sheet makes it possible to synchronize action and music to within one twenty- fourth of one second or one-sixteenth of one foot of film, With а com- plete exposure sheet in their possession, the animator ond composer can сету on their work а thousand miles apart and still he sure that action and music will harinonize when tke completed sound end film are put to- gc ther. Now the animators get down to business, In the center of their drawing boards is a square of glass, and under the glass is a powerful electric light, which makes the drawing paper transparent. When a pencil sketch is completed, another piece of paper is placed over it ond, thanks to the light, they are able to trace most of the rext drawing == oll but that slight change in position of the charncter which carries on the movement -- an arm slightly higher -- a mouth open а trifle wider --those trivial changes in position which make cartoons move, The senior animators draw only the major phosos of а movement. The juniors and apprentices are allowed to do all the less important work, For example, the giant is chasing Mickey; it will take sixteen frames to complote each step. Tho head animator will make drawings one, sight, and fifteen; the junior animator will draw the other thirteen phases of the movement; the apprentices will jui in the minor details, When a scone is animated, the drawings are turned over to the inking and printing department where young women trace each sketoh with India ink on transparent and highly inflammable celluloid sheets, These trace