John Hubley's Animation Revolution

A profile of experimental animator John Hubley

John Hubley's Animation Revolution

Filmation green lantern intro

Filmation were an American company responsible for some of the less well regarded examples of limited animation. By their own low standards is actually not too bad.

Abstract Background Art

I've recently come to love some of the abstract art used in 50's and 60's animation, especially the work of UPA from this time. I suppose the use of abstract background art would have started off as a cost saving measure, after all many of the backgrounds featured in animations such as Gerald McBoing Boing are stripped down to basic lines and shapes. However I prefer to think of it as a different form of expression with the same aesthetic value of any fully animated work and it could be argued that those animators who used this style where doing what the cubist's such Picasso had with painting.

"Fever" by Charlie Griak

A nice little animation which encapsulates pretty much what I'm trying to do with my project albeit on a smaller scale. I actually downloaded this from itunes for £1:50, a pretty good deal I think. I've only recently found this vid and Mr Griak also has a blog which I'm now following. He's an extremely good illustrator so I'm not expecting my project to look anything as good as this but I think this does demonstrate what can be done with static drawings and a bit of inspiration. I also think it highlights the importance of the soundtrack to build tension where there may not be a great deal of animation happening. Food for thought for next semester I suppose. You can check out the vid on Youtube :)

Toei Animation

Toei Animation Co., Ltd. (東映アニメーション株式会社 Tōei Animēshon Kabushiki-gaisha) (JASDAQ: 4816) is a Japanese animation studio owned by Toei Co., Ltd. The studio was founded in 1948 as Japan Animated Films (日本動画映画, Nihon Dōga Eiga, often shortened to 日動映画 Nichidō Eiga). In 1956, Toei purchased the studio and it was reincorporated under its current name. Over the years, the studio has created a large number of TV series, movies, and adapted many Japanese comics by renowned authors to animated series, many popular worldwide. Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata, Leiji Matsumoto and Yoichi Kotabe have all worked with the company in the past. Toei is a shareholder in the Japanese anime satellite television network, Animax, along with other noted anime studios and production enterprises such as Sunrise, TMS Entertainment and Nihon Ad Systems Inc.[1][2][3] The company headquarters are located in the Ohizumi Studio in Nerima, Tokyo.[4]
Until 1998, the company was known as Toei Doga (東映動画株式会社 Tōei Dōga Kabushiki-gaisha?) (although even at that time the company’s formal English name was indeed “Toei Animation Co. Ltd.”), with “dōga” being the native Japanese word for “animation” which was widely used until the 1970s. Their mascot is the cat Pero, from the company's 1969 film adaptation of Puss in Boots.
Toei Animation produced the anime versions of works by many legendary manga artists, including Go Nagai, Shotaro Ishinomori, Masami Kurumada, Akira Toriyama and Naoko Takeuchi. In addition, the studio helped propel the popularity of the magical girl and Super Robot genres of anime; among Toei's most legendary and trend-setting TV series include the first magical-girl anime series, Mahoutsukai Sally the anime adaptation of Mitsuteru Yokoyama's manga of the same name, and Go Nagai's Mazinger Z, animated adaptation of his manga, which set the standard for Super Robot anime for years to come.
Anime created by Toei Animation that have won the Animage Anime Grand Prix award have been Galaxy Express 999 in 1981, Saint Seiya in 1987, and Sailor Moon in 1992.
In addition to producing anime for domestic release in Japan, in the 1980s, Toei Animation also provided animation work for several American animated series for US companies.

Dick Tracy: Phony Pharmers

Another UPA classic! I remember watching this as a kid and wondering why the show was called The Dick Tracy Show when everyone else seems to be doing all the work? Seem's he was happy employing various ethnic stereotypes such as Joe Jitsu or Go-Go Gomez, allowing put their lives at risk on a weekly basis then swooping in at the end to take all the credit. Seems a little unfair although you have to admit the man has quite amazing powers of delegation :)

Rooty Toot Toot (John Hubley, UPA, 1951)

One of the unsung hero's of animation and a pioneer of experimental animation. A great example of some of the abstract art and design that was used when UPA was at the height of its powers.

Memory(Tezuka_1964)

Ozamu Tezuka's Space Firebird 2772

I rediscovered this about a year or so ago after not seeing it since I was about 8 years old. Like Astro Boy the story has been adapted for animation from Tezuka's original manga comic and I would say this is my favourite example of his work. The whole movie is posted up in sections on Youtube and is definitely worth checking out.

The Little Norse Prince Trailer (1968)

An early Japanese full length feature from Toei Animations. You can really see the Disney influence here in the animation and drawing style although there are also the beginnings of the anime style there too.

The Animatrix: Program

Another short from The Animatrix. This one entitled Program was written and directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri who also made Ninja Scroll. As I've mentioned earlier I'm not a massive follower of anime however Kawajiri's work is high end stuff and demonstrates perfectly how Japanese animation developed limited animation and applied it in a dynamic setting.

Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust trailer

A fine example of how dynamic lighting and camera movements can be used to depict speed and energy. I love the tracking shot through the graveyard at the beginning especially.

Clutch Cargo

It's limited animation all right, very limited! You may have seen this type of thing at the start of the "Gold Watch" scene in Pulp Fiction where young Butch is watching what I think is the same show. Limited animation as a way of reducing production costs inevitably became associated with mass produced low quality animation and this is an obvious example of that.

The Hangman by Maurice Ogden

More of an animated storyboard than anything but I still like this. The lack of motion enhances the emotion of the narrator.

Interior design

Interior design

Spaghetti Western Poster Art

I've been looking for some inspiration fort art style I want to use, in particular colour schemes and found some pretty cool 60's spaghetti western poster art. I like the bold colours and the thick outlines suit my drawing style. Also the high contrast and use of abstract imaginary suits the overall aim of the project. I need to complete some media tests first to see if I can actually make it work.

Storyboard:- Alternative Opening

These are some of the storyboard drawings I did for the original opening scene for my animation. I haven't included any annotation but the basic idea is you have this old guy sitting on porch with the sun beating down on him. He's looking around the barren wasteland and trying to keep cool in the midday sun. He decides to have a little nap only to see this ominous figure appear from nowhere. The figure reaches towards the old man, who understandably freaks out. Instead of hurting the guy the stranger reaches past him and grabs a wanted poster that's pinned up behind him which is supposed to introduce the main antagonist and set up the big gun fight at the end.

It became apparent as I continued with the storyboard that the animation was running too long and I was therefore obliged to redo the opening scene completely which is a pity as I was quite pleased how it came out. I was trying to emulate the long build up in the opening scene from Sergio Leone's "Once Upon A Time In The West" but sadly it would have been too much work. The new version is much shorter and doesn't include any real set up but rather just features the stranger walking through the desert with the famous Monument Valley style background. I'll be posting the finished storyboard and animatic shortly so you can see which version is best :)

Pose Sheets

I've already done a few pose sheets to help me with the storyboard but time allowing I'm hoping to do a a couple of them again. The art style I originally used for the first versions was quite realistic, or as real as you can get when you're depicting a gun-toting octopus. I looked over some of Jamie Hewlitt's stuff since then and have sketched out a few its and pieces and decided the art style need to be a bit more dynamic. I've looked at some examples which I've posted here and I should be posting up some work of my own soon.

Pink Panther: A shot in the Dark animated intro

A pretty cool title sequence for the Pink Panther film A Shot In The Dark. It created by UPA studios so check out the link below


Dailymotion - A shot in the Dark - Pink Panther intro theme - Film & TV Kanalı

Howard Pyle

Howard Pyle's artwork is utterly staggering! Much like John Watkiss' his work fills me with a mixture of despair and inspiration. As one of the great artists from the golden age of American illustration I'm sure his work would have been an inspiration to Watkiss amongst many others. Pyle was clearly a tremendous draughtsman but I admire his use of colour, in particular the pirate ship featured in the bottom picture. This is just a small sample of his work, I could have posted literally 20 to 30 images but check out the link below to see a little more :)





Howard Pyle Biography