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Walt Disney's MultiPlane Camera (Filmed Feb. 13, 1957) [video]

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Re: Walt Disney's MultiPlane Camera (Filmed Feb. 13, 1957) [video]

#41

Post by eddieroger »

pchristensen wrote: post #35
spaceguillotine wrote: post #10

You can go see one in person, it sticks through the floor of the Disney Family Museum in the Presidio. There is lots of animation history in that building. If you just wanna see the camera the top part pokes into the gift shop which you don't need admission to go into

Huge recommendation for the Disney Family Museum! It greatly exceeded my expectations, and there’s a lot of focus on Disneys innovations during Walt’s lifetime.

I rode past the museum on a hop on/off bus tour during my first trip to San Francisco, and being a Disney Adult, went back to my hotel and looked up, prioritizing a trip before I left. I was blown away, and have made sure to go back every time I'm in the Bay Area. Highly recommended if you're remotely interested in how Disney went from two brothers to the empire it is today, and special mention if you dig behind the scenes stuff.

Re: Walt Disney's MultiPlane Camera (Filmed Feb. 13, 1957) [video]

#42

Post by jancsika »

havblue wrote: post #38

These are definitely techniques that you take for granted, even moreso now with computer animation. I definitely am impressed now when I see scenes like the opening of Sleeping Beauty as the camera zooms in on the inside of the castle. My wife and kids get confused at this point as to what I'm making such a big deal about.

Speaking of techniques-- I remember that Disney's Snow White being a kind of pastiche of different art styles and physics. The Fleischer Snow White, too, with the rotoscoping of Cab Calloway vs. all the bouncy, stretchy characters (all of which IIRC was done by a single animator). All based on practical constraints, I'm sure, but audiences enjoyed it and it's a valid and striking style.

Does anyone still mix clashing styles/physics this way in modern animation? My superficial impression is that if a modern character has a gag where, say, its foot elongates to kick an opponent, it has to be part of a foot-elongating species of animal inside, complete with a 10-page backstory, who lives in a fully worked out Elongation Universe that has its own gaming physics engine and subreddit.

Re: Walt Disney's MultiPlane Camera (Filmed Feb. 13, 1957) [video]

#43

Post by 999900000999 »

smitty1110 wrote: post #40
999900000999 wrote: post #39

I absolutely love the background music here. What's this genre called? Big Band?

It's not really a genre, per se. This sort of comes from Opera, and was generally referred to as Incidental Music. Music written specifically to accompany the action on screen or stage. You don't really see albums or collections, because it doesn't generally make sense without the visual context.

I actually sample this type of music, I keep the vocals and it ends up feeling like lofi.

Re: Walt Disney's MultiPlane Camera (Filmed Feb. 13, 1957) [video]

#44

Post by ibaikov »

onemoresoop wrote: post #12

I highly enjoy watching these old instructional documentaries even if the tech is obsolete by now. There’s something that makes old tech a lot more graspable as a concept even if you’re not familiar with the technology.

It's not really obsolete, animation studios (and especially indie) still use the same things. There are those who only use modern tools and digital (which is mostly drawn frame-by-frame as well), but it's more like it's split by the technique used. Watch animation shorts from oscar, there are lots of them that use old stuff.

Re: Walt Disney's MultiPlane Camera (Filmed Feb. 13, 1957) [video]

#45

Post by gmueckl »

nuccy wrote: post #26
aweiland wrote: post #6

I wonder when and why they stopped making films like these. I've been enjoying watching Behind the Attraction and The Imagineering Story on Disney+ with my kids. They are full of these old films of Walt going over their ideas and explaining the things they are and have built. It's a shame that stopped.

Some technologies have been lost, even though they were superior to what is available today. Take, for example, the old “green/blue screen” technique using sodium vapor lamps, used by Walt Disney in film production in the pre-digital era: https://youtu.be/UQuIVsNzqDk (12 minutes long, but totally worth it).

The video also highlights how finicky that technique is to work with. Especially when working on film, where you have to wait for the developed dailies to check the quality of the work, any reliability issues with the effects processes compound enormously. Re-shooting scenes days later because the camera or lighting was subtly inadequate is expensive.

Re: Walt Disney's MultiPlane Camera (Filmed Feb. 13, 1957) [video]

#46

Post by mjb »

jancsika wrote: post #42
havblue wrote: post #38

These are definitely techniques that you take for granted, even moreso now with computer animation. I definitely am impressed now when I see scenes like the opening of Sleeping Beauty as the camera zooms in on the inside of the castle. My wife and kids get confused at this point as to what I'm making such a big deal about.

Speaking of techniques-- I remember that Disney's Snow White being a kind of pastiche of different art styles and physics. The Fleischer Snow White, too, with the rotoscoping of Cab Calloway vs. all the bouncy, stretchy characters (all of which IIRC was done by a single animator). All based on practical constraints, I'm sure, but audiences enjoyed it and it's a valid and striking style. Does anyone still mix clashing…

Horton Hears a Who (2008) does a really fun job combining different animation styles to get different effects. It works well in the silly Seuss universe.

Re: Walt Disney's MultiPlane Camera (Filmed Feb. 13, 1957) [video]

#47

Post by nashashmi »

zimpenfish wrote: post #28
dtagames wrote: post #9

It's worth pointing out that Walt was one of the inventors of this camera, as well as all his other roles in making the company's art. Concepts we have today like Photoshop layers and CSS stacking contexts are direct descendants of this invention.

If the Wikipedia page[0] is correct, he's more of a refiner than the inventor, no? [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiplane_camera

This is a periodic reminder that all innovations happen in iterations. Walt could be credited as a curator of talented production and investor in the mission.

Re: Walt Disney's MultiPlane Camera (Filmed Feb. 13, 1957) [video]

#49

Post by jancsika »

mjb wrote: post #46
jancsika wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking of techniques-- I remember that Disney's Snow White being a kind of pastiche of different art styles and physics. The Fleischer Snow White, too, with the rotoscoping of Cab Calloway vs. all the bouncy, stretchy characters (all of which IIRC was done by a single animator). All based on practical constraints, I'm sure, but audiences enjoyed it and it's a valid and striking style. Does anyone still mix clashing…

Horton Hears a Who (2008) does a really fun job combining different animation styles to get different effects. It works well in the silly Seuss universe.

Thanks, I'll check that one out.

Re: Walt Disney's MultiPlane Camera (Filmed Feb. 13, 1957) [video]

#50

Post by dtagames »

zimpenfish wrote: post #28
dtagames wrote: post #9

It's worth pointing out that Walt was one of the inventors of this camera, as well as all his other roles in making the company's art. Concepts we have today like Photoshop layers and CSS stacking contexts are direct descendants of this invention.

If the Wikipedia page[0] is correct, he's more of a refiner than the inventor, no? [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiplane_camera

Walt is the named inventor on the patent[0]. I verified this by asking ChatGPT to do some research[1].

[0] https://patentyogi.com/celebrity-patents/celebrity-patent-wa...

[1] https://chatgpt.com/share/67cf2195-10dc-8011-bc6b-2ee90bdb0a...

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