A post on re-purposing comics and illustration into animation
To me Motion Comics and Motion Illustration is about taking material that was not designed for animation and bringing it to life with modern multimedia technology. In my previous posts here for Motion Comic Magic I have looked at how illustrations and artwork can be animated for music videos, motion comics, trailers for books, and to simulate what never existed. In fact I first talked about the idea of recreating what had never been built thorough motion-art and motion comics in my post a while back….re-creating the ‘Western River Expedition’ ride. That example used concept art, photos of models and other elements that Disney had in their archive, but it was mostly a slide show.
Recently I discovered the work of animator David Witt (quasi-interestingparaphernaliainc.blogspot.com) has done it one better with actually animating the characters in the Concept Art itself. It also brings up an interesting idea of how using multi-media could be pre-visulized how an robotic figure for a dark ride could move in the real world.
So here are some animations of Marc Davis’ concept art for the Western River Expedition ride that was never built at Walt Disney World…
David also just release a video that features the art and audio from the Story and Song from the Haunted Mansion. You can read more about it on his blog HERE.
The Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland just turned 41 and to celebrate I thought I would post some fan art inspired by the attraction.
There is an event in Anaheim held by the 1313 clube that I wished I was going too next week called the Marvelous Mechanized Magic Kingdom. They will have on displays actual Animatronics from Disney themeparks as well as have speakers like actor Neil Patrick Harris, designer of the monorail Bob Gurr, the voice of Wendy and Alice Kathryn Beaumont, costume designer for Pirates and Small World Alice Davis, script and song writer Xavier Atencio (‘grim grinning ghosts’), animator/artist Floyd Norman, Garner Holt
who’s company does all of Disney’s ride animatronics now, ride concept artist Larry Nikolai, Chef Mayhem of DoomBuggies.com, and many more.
First off a painting from 2003: (click for bigger image)
and some of the artwork I did for the fan podcast “Story of the Haunted Mansion” that was created by Patrick Hurd. The work below is only about half of what I contributed.
Fan art I did for the ladies of the Moustalgia podcast. I had been given a promo ball point pen at Wondercon by hosts Dave and Jeff, but their co-hosts Becky and Kristin could not make it so I drew these fan-drawings for them with the pen I was given.
If you are a fan of Disney theme parks and Disney in general you should give it a listen. They have great discussions of different subjects as well as trip reports, interviews and other goodness.
I am going to let my Geek Flag Fly and post a video clip of the premiere of the new animatronic dragon in the Disneyland show Fantasmic!. Due to technical difficulties it did not premiere at the start of summer like they wanted (like when I was there).
In the show the evil fairy Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty turns into a dragon to fight Prince Philp, but here it’s Mickey Mouse as the brave little tailor. Originally the dragon was mostly just a big head on a stick, now it’s a fully realized creature with full body and even eyes that show some expression.
I have posted a clip of the full public performance tonight and a sample video Disney released this morning.
This show from Disneyland that originated in the carousel theater in Tomorrow land is one of favorite extinct attractions. You see this was the first attractions I was not afraid to see at the park. My parents all told me it was just animals singing and putting on the show, but I was convinced that it was something scary. Well, I was wrong. I loved show and later had the soundtrack on a cassette tape that I would listen too all the time. Later I would discover the work of the conceptual designer for the show, Marc Davis that greatly influenced my art.
So as we celebrate our nation here in the USA, I present a video I found on YouTube. I hope you enjoy it and even sing along. I know I will.
You can read a history of the show at 2719 Hyperion blog as well.
I am pleased to share with you a fan project that I had a small part in as part of Patrick Hurd’s “the Show with Patrick” video podcast.
Here is the official press:
The Story of the Haunted Mansion.
You’ll learn how the wish of one man to provide a loving home for his family, became the nightmare that destroyed one generation after the next.
The 32 minute story is visualized through the art work of over 40 talented artists.
Nearly 300 original pieces of artwork were created exclusively for the story!
The short films voice cast includes actor Neil Patrick Harris (Doogie Howser MD, How I Met Your Mother), Corey Burton (The Haunted Mansion Holiday’s Ghost Host), Peter Renaday (The Ghost Host from the classic 1969 Haunted Mansion LP), and voice guy extraordinaire Brian Sommer!
Find out how your favorite characters came to live and die inside Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion…and the surprising way their stories intertwine.
So you think you know all about the Haunted Mansion…You don’t know half the story!
The Story of the Haunted Mansion is a fan-fiction based on one of the great theme park attractions. The story is a 38:46 minute history of the famous house that now resides in Disneyland, Anaheim CA and contains the pictures of 40 artists. Mr. Hurd tapped the voices of Neil Patrick Harris (Doogie Howser MD, How I Met Your Mother), Corey Burton (The Haunted Mansion Holiday’s Ghost Host, lots and lots of voices in all sorts of places), Peter Renaday (The Ghost Host from the classic 1969 Haunted Mansion LP, Henry from the Bear Country Jamboree), and Brian Sommer! The rest of the voice cast is made of fans of the attraction.
The story is based on the website Haunted Mansion Ghost Gallery Stories and fleshes out all our favorite spirits of the Haunted Mansion. Most the characters that appear in the animatronics, art, and effects from the ride are brought together to help give us a detailed history. The production is very slick with the music and voices along with the art. Fans of the ride will thoroughly enjoy the tale while some casual viewers might find it a bit long in detail, but inspiring by the spirit and energy that went into making it.
The art comes in multiple styles from artist who are also fans themselves and with ages that run from small children to grown adults. I am quite pleased with most of my work I produced, with the exception of a few pieces. Once in a while there will be descrpency in the work due to us not fully knowing how the art fit into the story (my drawings of Mary make her much older then the ones that came before it).
Congratulations to Patrick and everyone who worked on the project. I wonder what other fan projects might be inspired from this story.
Before the video podcast was ready, I made my own video of artwork to use last weekend at the Fremont Teen Comic and Anime Expo and have posted it on YouTube since it contains some art that was not used in Patrick’s production.
Here are some of my favorite art I donated to the project, but you have to watch the video to see it all.
- 7:55 Ronald overlooking the river (one of my favorites)
- 10:29 Ronald goes mad.
- 13:35 Mary knows that her husband is cheating on her.
This Summer at DIsneyland they are getting a new fireworks show directed by Steven Davison. At a resent press event the director gave a presentation, very much like a very animated pitch about the firework show “Magical”. It’s great to watch his excited passionate descriptions of the show. The show will feature a puppet of Dumbo who will fly above the castle. I will be at the park this summer and am looking forward to see the show in person.
I saw this over at the Vintage Disneyland Tickets blog, it’s from the “Ford Times†from September 1960. Instead of photos there are watercolor paintings of San Francisco and Disneyland that are really well done.
