Odds and Ends

Reader comments are still coming in on earlier entries, so if there's an entry you're interested in, check back to see if there's anything new there. In particular, I want to point to Hans Perk's comment on the Anna and Bella entry, as he worked on the film and shares some memories of its production. Hans has also started a blog, which includes the animator draft for Mr. Duck Steps Out, one of the nicer Jack King Donald Duck cartoons. It turns out that the cartoon features animation by Ken Muse and Dick Lundy. I've posted a comment there asking about who some of the other animators are. Many of the names are unknown to me. I hope that Hans can answer my questions.

Speaking of animator drafts, Jenny Lerew has started posting the drafts from "All the Cats Join In," a great sequence from Make Mine Music that was directed by Jack Kinney. Get the rest of them posted, Jenny! Make Mine Music and Melody Time contain some great work and deserve more attention. If you haven't seen "All the Cats," then you can watch it here courtesy of YouTube.com.

The Inspiration Grab-Bag has a lot of stills of Jim Tyer's animation. We're all familiar with stretch and squash, but Tyer distorted his characters in very unexpected directions. I wrote about Tyer here. That article was printed in a different form in Animation Blast #6, which is sold out. Hey Amid! Any plans to bring older issues of the Blast back into print somehow?

And for you students out there, the Spline Doctors are posting work by their students. If your goal is to animate professionally, these folks are your competition. In any case, there's some nice work there that's worth watching.