Today at Disney I attended a panel discussion of the artist still working there who studied under the “9 Old Men” of animation legend. It was great hearing the insights, jokes and lessons learned by animators like Glen Keane, Ruben Aquino, Mark Henn and others. And it was awe-inspiring to see the drawings and pencil tests of the great legends.
At the end of the discussion each artist spoke about what they learned from their mentors. Every last one of them proclaimed that first and foremost, good animation must come from inside. Unless you can sincerely feel or think what the character is feeling or thinking in a particular scene, it is impossible to bring that forward to the audience.
The panel also spoke about “not cheating your audience,” which refers back not only to the beauty of the movies they made but also the clarity and sincerity of their stories. I personally believe this is why we can all watch the Disney classics today and they will still have the same, strong impact upon us.
When asked about how each artist approaches a shot they ALL said “thumbnails” as one of the key tools to planning their shots. Without a roadmap they would find themselves wandering without direction. There was also mention of acting out their scenes. Often when they looked at what they were doing when acting it was different than their thumbnails, so they draw on both resources. And of course there is “people watching.” They continually observe the world around them and store it all away to draw upon one day in the future to add “life” to a character.
And there was so many more interesting tidbits and pearls of wisdom from this panel. It was an exciting time for them and we are looking forward to a new, exciting era at Disney into the future!
