Building Blok

A little while back we posted the storyboard for this.

We made in about 10 days with animation being around half of that.  So the style is intentionally crude, but there's something funny about it.

Top Cel Vol 1, #17: 9/10/44. Polls, politics.

OUR UNION

The following recommendations to the General Membership were passed by the Executive Board and will be brought up at the next meeting Tuesday September 12, at the Cameo Movie House, in New Rochelle recommended to the proposal of the Local 637 of Chicago  to reduce the per capita tax to the International from .80 to .60 per member.

Recommendation to endorse the CIO Political Action Committee.

Recommendation to raise the dues and to increase the Business Agent salary from $50 to $64.40 per week; also to retain the Union attorney at $50 per month.

Last recommendation was accompanied by considerable discussion of two Executive Board meetings.  It was finally agreed that the dues were raised along the lines that will be suggested at the General Meeting that the proposed sum for the B. A. and the lawyer could be met and the Union deficit of $50 monthly could be changed to a month surplus of $50.

All Union members who have received no increases under the contract are to pay the Union attorney the minimum fee of one dollar.  this is in conformity with the motion passed by the membership Nov 3, '43.  this sum can be paid to the Stewards or to the Business Agent.

In an economic retrenchment, Terrytoon laid off Bob Kuwahara, Al Geiss, Bill Bailey, Izzy Klein,  Bill Tytla, Ralph Sancier, Martin Taras and Mike Prendergost. Bill Tytla, Izzy Klein and Martin Taras were rehired at Famous.  Bill Tytla was hired as a Director.

Any member that left Terrytoons after February 1, 1944 or Famous after March 13, who feel that they are entitled to retroactive pay should contact our Business Agent Pepe Ruiz or either one of the addresses on the masthead.

DUES AT FAMOUS ARE HENCEFORTH TO BE COLLECTED BY THE STEWARDS JUDY WEINER, SHIRLEY KNORING, JOHNNY GENTILLELA, JOE DENEROFF, ALICE REHBECK, BOB LITTLE AND LEONARD MC CORMICK.

FLIPPINGS

After a forced silence due to preparations for the Guam job, Dick McDemort writes us of his experiences landing on D-Day.  There he is now Combat Artist for the MC 3rd. Amphibious Corps...  Our Editor had a letter on PM last Friday...  Says Phil deLara from New Caledonia: "Right during old Cecil's super duper movie-tempest in The Story of Dr. Wassell our own genuine storm let loose, completer with driving rain, wind, thunder and lightning and all hell breaking loose around and above us... Earl Klein of Warner's, formerly with Famous Studios, Father of a boy, Aug 13...  Jim Davis formerly with Famous, opened a florist shop at 218 Los Feliz Blvd., Glendale, CA....  Mrs. M. Bishop looking very tanned after vacation.  Marea writes us that so far she hasn't seen the famous California sun... Lt. Geo. Giroux, after a second furlough, now stationed in Lincoln, NE ready to go out... Edna May Regal asks:  "Why don't I ever see my name in 'Top Cel'... Clifford Augustson wondering about his future in the Army....  Our attorney send his regards to all from Lakeville, CT where he is vacationing... After many years with Terry, Molly Robert Warren leaving.

TRADE NEWS

MOREY AND SUTHERLAND PRODUCTIONS signed Frank Tashlin as supervision director for their cartoon series.

Four shorts from Disney Studios designed to teach reading -the first of their kind -will be tried out in Mexico to determine whether the industry has something new of worldwide importance.  Latest production to be announced by the company is tentatively titled "Carnival" and its locale will be Cuba.  Writers will go to the island republic for material and Mr. and Mrs. Disney have accepted invitation to stay with President Batista.  New one-year contract calling for an average 15% wage tilt for cartoon cameramen was inked.  Those receiving $50 are raised to $60, those receiving $65 to $75, those getting $75 to $85 and those being paid $85 are moved up to $96.40.  The Cartoonist Local in Hollywood has to the CA State Labor Commissioner to collect approximately $10,000 in wages.  The studio failed to pay some 400 men for last New Year's and Christmas, although an arbitration decision ordering the payment has been approved by the War Labor Board.

[the top of page two is a chart: THE ATTITUDE OF THE NATION'S UNION PAPERS TOWARDS THE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES.  CIO papers were 95% favorable to FDR, 100% unfavorable towards Dewey.  AFL dropped 78/83% favorable and 67% unfavorable.  Interestingly -Independent union papers were 43% favorable and 40% unfavorable to FDR and 30% favorable/40% unfavorable to Dewey.   I assume many of these independent unions were company guilds like IATSE cartoonists guild which Disney and others set up to defeat the CSU].

George Pal closed his studio on the 1st for a two week vacation period.  The Company has petitioned 2500 exhibs throughout the country for suggestions on three new Puppetoon characters.

The Air Corp Unit in Culver City has moved into a brand new building designed specially for them.  It is claimed to be better than Disney's.  Single men and Private have been asked to be moved back to the Post.

Locals of the Painters in Hollywood (Cartoonists, Office Employees, Publicists, Painters, etc.) are endorsing a drive to force the Brotherhood of Painters to reduce its per capita tax from 80 to 60 cents.  Campaign was launched by Chicago Local and matter will be presented to our General Membership next Wednesday, September 12.

EDITOR'S COLUMN

This Tuesday there will be a general meeting at New Rochelle.  One of the very important issues to be voted upon is the matter of raising the dues.  There are many reasons for desiring the raises which we will not go into here as they will be freely discussed at the meeting.  However, we wish to stress this point about the meeting: Several proposals have been suggested to the Executive Board as to how much the dues should be raised.  Most of the these proposals suggest a sliding scale based upon salaries.  The dues increases range from .50 to 2.50 over the present $2.00 rate.

Many persons feel that they disagree with the amounts of these raises but unless they attend the meeting and vote, they must have only themselves to blame if the decisions arrived at are contrary to their desires.

At the moment of writing, it seems that most of the persons planning to come are in the higher income brackets.  So, if those in the lower brackets desire to protect their interests they mut plan in making the trip to New Rochelle this Tuesday, September 12.

The United Automobile Workers, CIO have recently released a 15 minute animated cartoon called "Hell-Bent for Election".  This film and a sound projector can be rented for $15.

The Editor would like to run this film for the union members.  However, since the film is definitely pro-Roosevelt we do not feel that union funds should be used to run a film that is contrary to the philosophy of Republican members.  However, it is felt that if around 100 persons care to see the film and would care spend 15 cents apiece, the showing can be arranged.  Those who would be in favor of this plan can fill out the following form and return it to the editor.

I WOULD LIKE TO SEE THE ANIMATED 'HELL-BENT FOR ELECTION' TO BE SHOWN AT THE MEETING IN NEW YORK OCTOBER 10.

December 25, 1914 - Simple Gifts

Here's the second to last segment from "Simple Gifts".

"December 25th, 1914" is based on a letter from the front by a British soldier.

The film is carried effectively by the soundtrack and taken to a whole new level by James McMullan's illustration.

There was a tragedy after this production.

Apparently all of the original artwork went missing -mostly likely accidentally discarded. 

Once and Future Junk

I'll admit, I'm not 100% up on the details of Disney films, but I think there's something a little off about this doll.

I guess she grows into her fins.

If baby Little Mermaid or toddler Little Mermaid don't float your boat, there's the teen four pack.

And if the infantilization of cartoon characters isn't your bag, take a step back in time.

If all else fails, you can get some merchandise from the Fleischer Studio.

Simple Gifts - My Christmas

Animation is one way to achieve character, design is another.

In this segment from "Simple Gifts" Chas. B. Slackman illustrates the Christmas entry from 11 year old Teddy Roosevelt's diary.

There's no animation. Just of couple of dissolves here and there. But plenty of character provided by the artwork which is a clever match and foil to energetic script from a child who has it all.

Secondhand News

Turns out we've been using our Twitter feed as a newsline: www.twitter.com/asteriskpix.

Most of it is non-Asterisk animation stuff.  Here are a few stories from the past few days.

BLAKE EDWARDS PASSES 

Blake Edwards, of course, wrote and directed the Pink Panther films.  In what has become a rare show of good faith towards fellow creators, he allowed the copyright of the Pink Panther character to reside with DePatie-Freling.  As a result, an independent studio was able to flourish.

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SATOSHI KON SHOW AT LINCOLN CENTER

Without question  the saddest passing of the year was Satoshi Kon.  It's impossible to quantify the loss to film and animation in particular.

The Walter Reade theater will be showing "Perfect Blue" and "Paprika" on Wednesday, 12/22 at 6:30 and 8:15.

I wish "Tokyo Godfathers" was also showing, but we should be thankful the best venue in Manhattan (one small step up from the MoMA) has smarts enough to commemorate this great artist.

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Coincidental to this screening, my pal Lou Underwood shared this link comparing "Black Swan" to Kon's "Perfect Blue".

I haven't seen Aronofsky's film, but it's just another example of what a great talent was lost to us.

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On an Asterisk note.  The Buddha will begin it's second run on PBS Wednesday 12/22.  All of you who can't make it to "Paprika" should tune in.

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Variety is reporting on a new stop-motion feature on an old idea.  It's news, I guess.

How To InBetween

Things they don't teach you in animation school.

If you have good extreme drawings and thought out charts, inbetweening is easy.  If you consider that inbetween drawings can outnumber extreme drawings by 3 to 1, the whole process of animation becomes less daunting.

Of course that means you need to have a good animator (the guy/gal who does the extremes and usually the keys), a good layout artists, a good storyboard and a good design, but if you can only have one -it's a tough choice, but a good animator does so many things that's the most important position to fill.

Doug Compton is one of the best.  Here's a simple series of drawings to be inbetweened.

Drawing A05

Drawing A05 works into drawing A10.

A10

That means there are 4 inbetweens.  It's typical to be given 3 inbetweens, but 4 is not unheard of.

The chart or ladder which shows how these 4 drawings are to be made is written on A10.

chart on A10

From this we see that A08 is a direct inbetween of A05 and A10.  So that's the next drawing we do.

Doug, being a great animator, has already started it for us.

A08

He's done the broad, important "acting" part of the action and left the rest to be filled in.  This drawing is marked "C. D." (complete drawing).

chart 08 "C. D."

Now back to the chart.

Once A08 is drawn, move backwards to A07.  This is the direct inbetween of A05 and A08.  Then A06 which is again half the distance between A05 and A06.

Next, move forward to A09 which is between A08 and A10.

A11

Note how A11 "pops" from A10.  It's not microscopically inbetweened.  Because of this, the animator draws it as an extreme -right after A10 which is also an extreme.

There's no formula to when or where extremes fall.  There  could be 5 in a row, there could be 2 in 24 frames.  It all depends on the action.

A15

A11 works into A15.  This is a common spacing -three drawings (I'll generally refer to the number of drawings as "space" whereas the number of frames is "time" -although "space" is really the distance between between drawings) -here there's not broken up evenly.

chart 15

In chart 15 you see that A14 is the direct inbetween of A15 and A11.  This spacing builds a natural ease into the animation.  A "regular" inbetween would have A13 directly between A15 and A11.  Though this may be "regular" and eased inbetween is very common.

So you drawing A14 between A11 and A15, followed by A13 between A11 and your newly created A14, finally A12 between A13 and A11.

Note the X between 14 and 15.  Note the height of 14, then 13, then 12.  Note the arcs on the bottom.  This is how animators communicate with assistants.