No, I'm not repenting for my comment on Harry McCracken's blog. But I'm always interested in behind the scenes material. C. Martin Croker has posted some Joe Barbera boards from the Tom and Jerry cartoon Nit Witty Kitty. These drawings are a lot looser than the Leica reel drawings for The Midnight Snack that's on the DVD Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection Volume 2 (which also has Nit Witty Kitty), but the drawings are expressive and you can see how much they influenced the final animation.
Irv Spence (the animator of that particular scene) is a better man than I am if he was able to interpet anything from those drawings... They look like hell!
ReplyDeleteTHAD
I think that after these drawings were done, a layout man worked them over before they got to the animator. For this time period, it was possibly Harvey Eisenberg who did that job.
ReplyDeleteYou can see recognizable Tom and Jerry facial expressions and poses in those loose drawings, which shows me that Joe Barbera had a measurable influence on the character animation of the cartoons. They're based on his style.
MGM/UA Used to Be Great,Until That Ted Turner Guy Ruined it.
ReplyDeleteJoe said that early on, he would do more finished drawings, but when Harvey Eisenberg joined him to do layout, he just did ruff thumbnails. He knew that Eisenberg could interpret them. I've seen several of Joe Barbera's thumbnail boards and they have a lot of energy and definitely set the style of the films. He could "draw his ass" as the old timer's say.
ReplyDeleteSee ya
Steve
Irv Spence (the animator of that particular scene) is a better man than I am if he was able to interpet anything from those drawings... They look like hell!
ReplyDeleteHeh heh heh, then you wouldn't have ever wanted to clean up Norm Ferguson's drawings, Thad ;)