Tony White ~ "Hokusai - An Animated Sketchbook"

This was my first ever... and still my favorite... short animated film! I created it in my spare time while I was still a director/animator at the Richard Williams Studio in London during the late 1970's. I actually started the film after we had completed 'A Christmas Carol', when I was Richard Williams' own personal assistant at the time. 'Carol' went on to win the first of Dick's three Oscars. When my own 'Hokusai' film won a British Academy Award I moved on to set-up the 'Animus Productions' animation studio... a creative entity I led for a further 20 award-winning years. The film itself was inspired by the wonderful sketchbooks of Hokusai. When I saw them I realized that this artist was indeed a true animator at heart... he just didn't have the knowledge or the technology to be one in his lifetime. I therefore sought to bring his drawings to life for him, as homage to his genius.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Animation
• short
• film
• Katsushika
• Hokusai
• Tony
• White

[pradelone]

timeless

[MrKChilton]

Beautiful work.

[TonyWhiteAnimation]

Thank you for your comment 'tattooninja'. I am glad I'm not alone with my feelings. The web is a wonderful tool but it can isolate the best information and inspiration. I still tell my students when they are researching a project that if they can't go out and access the material for 'real', then a well-stocked public library is still superior to Google in many ways. Long live independent-minded uniqueness and originality! :)

[tattooninja]

this is great.

the fact that my 'like' is only #200 in 3 years speaks volumes about how nice it is.

hokusai is one of my biggest inspirations as a painter.

it's been a dream of mine for a long time to make an animated movie about his life.

the fact that the Industree isn't interested in this sort of thing just proves how much magic it still holds...see how they ruined so many other good stories.

the best reference books & prints are still not found on the net.

this is really cool.

[TonyWhiteAnimation]

Thank you Reichardt. I appreciate your feedback. I can't remember the main feature it was with in London at the time but the big irony was that although it was a HUGE breakthrough to have a short film included in a movie program in those days I wasn't able to attend the premiere launch as I was flat on my back with really bad sciatica at the time! You would have thought that the Fates would have given me a better break after two and half years of production slog, huh? :)

[ReichardtHelmut]

Thank you Tony,I´m so happy to have found this here today! Thank you for having made it and for sharing it so freely.I saw it in a London cinema in January or February 1980,they used to show short films before the main film in those days and I loved it. I have always remembered it and it left very warm and happy memories indeed! It was and is an eye-opener and heart-opener! Such a beautiful homage to Hokusai! I had not counted upon seein it again.Thank you,thank you,thank you!True labor of love!

[TonyWhiteAnimation]

Following on from my previous post here however, you might like to know that I am launching a new film initiative - "Bad Penguin"! This is very, very different to 'Hokusai'. But is a film I believe that will have as much of an impact as Hokusai did in its day - albeit for much different reasons! Please help support this project (until June 4th, 2011) on the Kickstarter website. I thank you again, one and all, for your kind comments! Tony. :^{)}=-

[TonyWhiteAnimation]

The music for this film was created especially for the film - long, long ago. As far as I know the music pieces do not have names as they were created just for the scenes in the film. Thanks also everyone for your kind comments. "Hokusai" was a labor of love for me and I'd hoped that I would make more films like this throughout my career. However, the industry is not interested in this kind of material, so it remains my one and only 'labor of love' piece. Tony. :^{)}=-

[Celasprite]

I adore this short film about the Japanese master Hokusai. I am an arts instructor and my children are so taken by this video, whenever I need them to quiet down I put this video on. It's amazing how my student's jaws drop as they watch this film. Simply beautiful!

[falariem]

I recently started checking out Hokusai's work, particularly the 36 Views of Mount Fuji. I love how much you kept his style of illustration in this animation, particularly in your animation of the "Great Wave."