In Walt's Words

 

"I definitely feel that we cannot do fantastic things based on the real, unless we first know the real" -Walt Disney

Walt Disney was a man with a genuine passion for flawless animation. It's no wonder that Disney and his skilled team took a great deal of time to perfect their animated creations, because they produced the most realistic animations that were possible at that time. Disney said, "I definitely feel that we cannot do fantastic things based on the real, unless we first know the real". But, what does he mean?

Walt Disney developed a plan of action in order to give young animators better knowledge of the process of solid animation. Disney installed nights classes in his corporation, taught by some of his very best animators. Here, upcoming animators learned the in's and out's of action analysis. Disney learned overtime that it was vital to make his animations appear as if they were real people, animals, or objects. Men were taught the importance and techniques of timing, rhythm, balance, direction, and motion, and were even shown short films developed by Don Graham for better understanding of these techniques. A groundbreaking finding that changed they way animation was created was that characters must move from the hips FIRST, in order to appear as a real person would. Animators, according to Disney, must know exactly how real people and objects move in order to create accurate representations in their animated work.




However, Disney's standards of action analysis were not always the most important rule that he followed. In fact, Disney said "We outta be looking for entertaining ways of doing things. We don't want to get straight, y'know- we're not copying nature!". In this time, Disney was more concerned about giving the character a personality and making them entertaining to watch, that he did not care for the look of realism at this time. For example, in Disney's early animations, Micky Mouse's arm would stretch for miles to reach something rather than making it look realistic and walking to the object to reach for it naturally. Later, with the persuasion of his animators, Walt realized that realism must take precedence in his creative process. Clearly, animating is a learning process that involves more than a lifetime for someone to perfect, but the foundation that Walt Disney built is one that developed into the amazing animations that we see today.