How Ollie Johnston Animates a scene

"Nine Old Men" member Ollie Johnston (October 31, 1912 - April 14, 2008), joined Disney in 1935, along with his fellow Stanford art student and lifelong friend Frank Thomas. Ollie drew Characters such as Mr. Smee, Cinderella's stepsisters, and Prince John in "The Sword in the Stone." He and Frank Thomas were often known as "Frank and Ollie," because the two were inseparable as colleagues and friends. After they both retired from Disney in 1978, they went on to co-author a number of books on the art of animation -- including "the animator's bible," "The Illusion of Life."

Here he animates Pinocchio from his key frame pose test to full animation.

Copyright: The Walt Disney Company and Academy of Art

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Here
• he
• animates
• Pinocchio
• from
• his
• key
• frame
• pose
• test
• to
• full
• animation

[KiCreativeStudio]

correct me if I am wrong but I think this was Frank Thomas' scene....no?

[AbraCadaveric]

@KiCreativeStudio My teacher introduced this as a specifically Ollie scene to the class.

[disneyanimator]

Unbeleivable :D

i love Ollie's work, it always has such life to it :)

[Ninjerina]

wow quite amazing almost possesses a 3d programming characteristic to the swing (because that's what they'd rely on in a 2d production today) but he's just that good.

[umar6419]

Incredible Animators ..

[dapshere]

What a legend!

[Virgil077]

@brutusmuerto

Whoa dude. 3d animators especially ones at Pixar have great respect and draw inspiration from 2d animations and 2d animators. Now if your were saying that about DreamWorks i'd somewhat understand cuz they don't seem to go through their movies with a fine comb as much as Pixar does.

[FourEyesAnimation]

He is definitely the master!

[ennajaymik]

@Volcanic9 i don't think animators mind too much :)

[4orkast]

2D is awesome.

[MrsPortgas]

OMG he s soooo cute!!! woaah must be hard!! animating this!!!!!! :OOO genius!

[beepandbop]

@Ninjerina hate to spoil the magic for you Ninerina, but this almost like 3D programming--at least about as good as it got in 1939. The animators used rotoscoping--they would trace the cage as it swung along from photograph negatives, and then traced those tracings onto paper.

Agonizing work, but necessary for creating a realistic simulation.

[dreadss64]

@brutusmuerto Wooo! Okay Pixar is not that bad. There good at what they do. so shut up

[Volcanic9]

imagine how boring it would be to then animate such a detailed cage just swing back and forth