Animation drafts

[looneytooney]

Does anybody have any WB animation drafts?

[The Spectre]

I believe Thad once said or implied that he had seen the animation draft for "One Meat Brawl". However, I'm not sure if Warners animation was as well documented as Disney or Lantz, and determining who animated a scene is usually, it seems, down to guesswork.

[Matt the Y]

I believe Thad once said or implied that he had seen the animation draft for "One Meat Brawl". However, I'm not sure if Warners animation was as well documented as Disney or Lantz, and determining who animated a scene is usually, it seems, down to guesswork.

There is also a photo of the copy of an animators' draft for Bob Clampett's "Gruesome Twosome" in Jerry Beck's book, "50 Years of Sylvester & Tweety". The whole draft, of course, isn't in view but we see who animated everything from the cartoon's opening scene to the two cats at the top of the telephone pole fighting over Tweety. Bob McKimson is listed as "BMcK" and Basil Davidovich is listed as "Dave". McKimson animates the opening scene up until the horny dog's entrance (Scribner). Basil Davidovich animates the cats getting ready to race with the Durante cat tying an enormous weight to the dumb cat's tail causing him to go flying the air and getting crushed and "splatted" inside a washtub. Davidovich also animates the two cats on opposite sides of the telephone pole looking around and then climbing the pole.

[Sogturtle]

I believe Thad once said or implied that he had seen the animation draft for "One Meat Brawl". However, I'm not sure if Warners animation was as well documented as Disney or Lantz, and determining who animated a scene is usually, it seems, down to guesswork.

Spectre and all~

Actually very, very few Warner animation drafts are known to still exist. Those that I have I love for the information contained.:) The PROBLEM with those few existing drafts (or any drafts anywhere) is this... They are ONLY "DRAFTS" i.e. they are just early stage plans by the director as to WHO will animate a scene. There is not one assurance in the world that said director would not then REASSIGN scenes before final animation...:eek:

Added to the equation is that despite the official credits (and the draft info) Warners and other studios did for quite a long time maintain some full-fledged animators who wouldn't EVER receive offical film credit. I've seen at least one draft where basically the entire "regular" unit crew was present but that then in turn THREE members of ANOTHER unit were SUPPOSEDLY present also (with a handful of scenes)... AND that lo and behold the draft then claims that a huge percent of the scenes were to be actually animated by a couple of the permanently uncredited guys!:eek::rolleyes:

And it's all compounded by something I've TRIED mentioning before... That SOMETIMES (and likely much more than we know) an animator would sneakily hand off part of "his" assigned scenes to somebody else:eek:. As such, "drafts" desperately need to be viewed as fascinating DOCUMENTS of who was FIRST scheduled to animate a cartoon, but that they are FAR from conclusive.

As I've stated before, I have endless admiration for our Larry T. and all of his work at analyzing:). I have a lot of trust in Larry. But most people's "animation analysis" will always remain a proposition of very nicely stated guesswork, and not much more. Even Mike Barrier avoids doing it...

[Thad]

As I've stated before, I have endless admiration for our Larry T. and all of his work at analyzing:). I have a lot of trust in Larry. But most people's "animation analysis" will always remain a proposition of very nicely stated guesswork, and not much more. Even Mike Barrier avoids doing it...

Mark Kausler, Mike Kazaleh, and Greg Duffell know all of those animators backwards and forwards, so any analysis they do is more than "very nicely stated guesswork". Larry is also part of that crowd.

[Sogturtle]

Mark Kausler, Mike Kazaleh, and Greg Duffell know all of those animators backwards and forwards, so any analysis they do is more than "very nicely stated guesswork". Larry is also part of that crowd.

That's funny Thad, because Larry T. has basically stated to me that animation analysis IS educated guesswork.:) And that to hope for being correct even 80-90% of the time would be pretty hard (rough quote).

[I expected you to not to be amused by my post].

[Steve Stanch]

... I have to agree that some of these folks are the kings of knowing someone's drawings. Mike Kazaleh, Milton Knight, Mark Kausler and a bunch of other folks really know their animators... I can get some at this point... think it helps to draw and be familiar with how someone a draws and animates... I was amazed last year over at ASIFA when Mike was able to identify the animators on a Ford commercial done by UPA, even though it was drawn in Dr. Suess style! So, it's more that just guesswork- it's often a very educated guess....

[The Spectre]

Added to the equation is that despite the official credits (and the draft info) Warners and other studios did for quite a long time maintain some full-fledged animators who wouldn't EVER receive offical film credit. I've seen at least one draft where basically the entire "regular" unit crew was present but that then in turn THREE members of ANOTHER unit were SUPPOSEDLY present also (with a handful of scenes)... AND that lo and behold the draft then claims that a huge percent of the scenes were to be actually animated by a couple of the permanently uncredited guys!:eek::rolleyes:



Come on, you're not going to leave us hanging like that, are you? :)

[Thad]

... I have to agree that some of these folks are the kings of knowing someone's drawings. Mike Kazaleh, Milton Knight, Mark Kausler and a bunch of other folks really know their animators... I can get some at this point... think it helps to draw and be familiar with how someone a draws and animates... I was amazed last year over at ASIFA when Mike was able to identify the animators on a Ford commercial done by UPA, even though it was drawn in Dr. Suess style! So, it's more that just guesswork- it's often a very educated guess....

Steve, I completely forgot about Milton Knight - he is great with the Terrytoon and Famous artists.

Even those drafts can be wrong, not only on the Disney features, but I've seen short drafts on the Lantz cartoons that are clearly inaccurate.

But with a lot of animators on the shorts though, like Rod Scribner, Emery Hawkins, Bob McKimson, Virgil Ross, Art Davis, the Pattersons, Ken Muse, or Irv Spence, it's like recognizing handwriting... You never forget who did it.