History: Disney's Artist Tryout Book

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 8 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great info on the history of animation told through the careers of great animators.


Today, we scanned another fascinating document from the collection of Clair Weeks. This is the "Disney Studios Artist's Tryout Book" from 1938. It provides a valuable overview of the production process and description of the various job categories. You will definitely want to print this out and study it carefully.

Here are some quotes from this booklet that you might find interesting...

STORY MEN must be able to draw. The stories are not written but are visualized in sketch form.

The value of an animator is dependent upon his ability to dramatize and caricature life, and to time and stage his characters' actions in an unusual and interesting way. An animator must be a showman- he must know how to entertain an audience, to present a gag, to picture dramatically an ordinary incident. Above all, he must be a sure and skillful draftsman.

THE DIRECTOR must have complete knowledge of every phase of animation, have executive ability and outstanding dramatic talent. He must be familiar with practically all of the Arts... To date, all directors have arisen from the ranks of the Studio, sometimes through story work, but more often through animation. Because of the complexity of animation it seems that this will continue to be the case.

All inking and painting of celluloids, and all tracing done in the Studio is perfomed exclusively by a large staff of girls known as Inkers and Painters... This is the only department in the Disney Studio open to women artists.

The original brochure was in very poor condition, with tears and waterstains throughout. I'm sure that this was carried around in Weeks' back pocket for quite a while. But Photoshop can work miracles, so these scans ended up looking better than the original.

In case you haven't noticed, the Archive has become "an embarassment of riches". We are doing very important work here. I hope you will support our project any way you can.


















If you found this useful, you'll also want to check out... Walt Disney Goes To War, John Canemaker on Bill Tytla and Musical Timing Rediscovered.

Jerry Beck posted a related booklet at Cartoon Brew... Titled "The Ropes At Disney", it outlines the rules and regulations governing the employees of the studio and the organizational hierarchy of the various departments.



If you haven't seen it yet, make a point of checking it out.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

12.11.08
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