The Lion King DVD

I've just watched the Lion King as I haven't seen it for years. It is a great film and still my favourite Disney film.

After watching the film I went onto the second disc to watch the making of the film in all aspects. While watching I am writing the notes below.

When they started The Lion King it was the B movie (Pocahontas the A) as they didn’t think people would want animals and wanted people characters. The team being the under-dogs pushed themselves to prove them wrong and that The Lion King can be a great movie and they believe that it was really shown when they started working on the Mufasa in the clouds scene.


Their insperations were African art, tapestries (for the bright colours int the film) and visiting Africa. Hamlet, Moses and King Arthur are also mentioned as insperations.


On the 2nd disc there is a section about animals and looking at the real animals they based their characters. This section is not all about the real animals though. There is a section called 'Disney & Animals'. This section is about Disney and their use of animals.

It did after all start with a mouse. Walt inspired his artists to make their drawings of animals better and more realistic with every film. Walt "It's always a challenge bringing a great story classic to the screen, giving visual form to characters and places that have only excisted in the imagination".


It goes on to mention how Disney always brings animals in or go see them in the wild. It also mentions Seal Island. Also the True Life Animal Kingdom at Disney World. Its also talks about the Disney films that involve real life animals such as The Shaggy Dog.

Roy Walt, says when commenting on the opening of 'Disney's Animal Kingdom', "This atrraction garrantees the longstanding union of the worlds of Disney nature fantasy and animal for generations to come."

Walt said after a hard meeting 'Sometimes I prefer Animals to people'.

The section on Character Design for Scar was very interesting. The Supervising Animator for Scar does actually keep calling him a person and makes a lot of anthropomorphic references. I will try and write up the large section where he does this as I am sure it will be helpful.

Plan for this Week

* Storyboard idea (1. that's in post below).

* Make basic animatic.

* Go through references and comment on sources as good or bad references. Any valuable information relevant to my project/dissertation.

* Carry on with animation tests.

More Story Ideas

Last night I had some more ideas towards a story. These are below. I will also post the handwritten story Ive written at some point too. I also know that these do need work.


1. Owner is working on desk doing stock takes on a computer or something and also eating a ham sandwich. A cat REMUS strolls along the desk and meows but the owner ignores, he tries again but is still ignored. He tries rubbing himself on the owner but she pushes REMUS away. REMUS looks around and spots the keys so swipes them onto the floor. The owner growns and gives REMUS a dirty look. As she bends down she is still holding the sandwich up. REMUS sneaks up and slowly puts his mouth over it. Owner now has the keys and looks up, they exchange glances. REMUS then bites the sandwich and runs off leaving a cloud shape of himself (like in the old cartoons). Owner looks shocked and shouts OI! she then grumbles, rolls her eyes and carries on working.
To the right of the screen you see REMUS licking his lips looking all proud. He meows and owner gives him an annoyed sideways glance and carries on. She finishes the sandwich and turns around to put the wrapper in the bin. While her back is turned REMUS runs up, rips her papers and attacks the keyboard. The computer makes lots of crazy noises. Owner looks back and is horrified. REMUS sits and meows at the owner.

2. Cat acting as if not noticed butty. loses balance and falls in tank. Panics comes out all soaked. Owner laughs. Cat walks away as if nothing has happened, head held high.


These are things cats actually do and the cat is the star. They are also similar to Simon's Cat which is my aim. They aren't so much stories as happenings or real experiences though. My ideas are also lacking some anthropomorphism. Maybe he could grab something off the desk and smash something. I don't know.


The end of the first one is like the below short by Simon's Cat but I actually thought of that because Remus did it to me when I was working on my dissertation. Proved hard to work out my notes with scratches going through it.

Flash Drawing Test

I have done tests in Flash of my character design. Below is my first trial of drawing and colouring my Remus character.



During this test I found out that by doing the spots first it refused to colour the area covered with spots. Hence why some of it isn't coloured in. This test was also done using just the mouse pad on my laptop!

Two day Animation Masterclass in London

I recieved information about a two day Animation Masterclass in London with Pixar’s guys showing how it's done. Should be great and I should be going :D
Information about it is below.



Expect to be taken on an extraordinary journey in this one-off, two day professional masterclass delivered by Pixar Animation Studios' Andrew Gordon (senior animator) and Matthew Luhn (story artist). With contributions to nearly every feature film created by Pixar in the last decade, from A Bug's Life to Up, there are no two people better qualified for the job.

Day One: Animation with Andrew Gordon

* Animation principles
* Staging and pose design
* Locomotion
* Acting for animation
* Facial animation
* Scene planning
* Blocking
* High level polishing techniques
* Q&A

Day Two: Story with Matthew Luhn

* Storyboarding and the story artist
* Preliminary storyboards
* Three act story structure
* Sequence boards and character development
* Gags
* Storyboarding from a script
* Composing your storyboard
* Line and value
* Q&A

The masterclass will be held in London at the Apollo Cinema in Piccadilly on Thursday 18th and Friday 19th March 2010, and tickets are available through Escape Studios. The cost is £375 (Including VAT) for the two days, and we recommend booking early to avoid disappointment.

Website with all the details

Fish Shop Concept art

Here is just one image I did as an idea how the fish tank area of the shop could look like. I've cheekily added some of the fish I made in 1st year for fun ;)

Remus Character Designs from Sketchbooks

Below are some more designs from my sketch book of Remus. I've even included early designs done using the 20secs method (which I hate! Its where you have only 20 seconds to draw a design and you can't stop to think for each one. Its 20secs one after another until you've filled the page).

Cat Animations I found

Below are 2 animations I found that include a cat and I enjoyed so I thought I would post them on here. I especially love the 2nd one. It has a lot of feeling and is a nice story.



Watch more cool animation and creative cartoons at Aniboom



Watch more cool animation and creative cartoons at Aniboom