Movie Makers (Jan-May 1928)

Animated MOVIE MAKING for AMATEURS By Marguerite Tazelaar Illustrated by PAT SULLIVAN STUDIOS ACCORDING to Pat Sullivan, creator of Felix the Cat cartoons, the amateur can make animated movies by providing himself with proper equipment, and by choosing the right kind of scenario or story. While it is necessary to recognize certain limitations in making animated pictures, they may, on the other hand, serve as a vehicle for particular types of entertainment which nothing else suits so well. The amateur, Mr. Sullivan believes, should choose at the outset either a comic strip or a mechanical device for his animation. The comic strip, such as Felix represents, hinges on burlesque or take-off for its effect, and often achieves a sharpness and satire in which living actors fail. For purely educational purposes the animation of complex or detailed types of machinery serves as no other medium can. It shows step by step the details of a machine and the way it works. Most of the equipment the amateur needs he can make himself. He must have, first of all, a camera that will enable him to expose one frame at a time, because when he comes to photograph his drawings, he will need for each change one or more single exposures according to the action. For instance, a man rubbing his head necessitates a single exposure, then double, then single again, in order to get the movement smooth Twenty-eight r~T'HIS article treats in a general ■*• way of the principles on which animated cinematography are based, and of the steps necessary for the preparation of the drawings as far as the actual work of photographing them. That step will be discussed in detail in a later issue of the magazine. and life-like. Felix, walking normally across the screen, takes two exposures for each drawing. If too many drawings are made, the picture lags; if too few, the picture is jerky and stiff. To hit upon the right amount is an art, gained only from experience. A good plan is to make a short film for the first attempt, judging as best one can the requirements of the drawings. When this is screened the amateur will find many points where he can correct his faults and thus build up his films, by degrees, to perfect animation. The first step is the making of an animating stand on which to place the drawings as they are being made. This is simply a wooden frame, rather like a triangular box on which the cover is at a slanting angle to the base. In the centre of the cover a hole is cut, about 12 by 9 inches in which a piece of glass is inserted. Beneath it is an electric bulb. The paper or celluloid upon which the drawing is to be made is now placed over the glass and attached to the frame by brass pins. The animating stand will have, of course, the same dimensions as the title stand. After the electric light has been switched on in the animating stand, the amateur is ready to begin his drawings, which he will later place on his title stand to be photographed. Next, the camera or title stand must be obtained. This may be horizontal or vertical, as shown in an accompanying photograph. In the vertical stand, the camera is supported above the drawings (see "Animation Data," Amateur Movie Makers, August, 1927, page 35). The drawings are placed in a frame similar to the animating stand already described, with the exception that the frame is perfectly flat, so that it will lie parallel to the camera lens. A horizontal stand may be used if it is more con