Disney Feature Animation Internship: A Model

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Interns were often offered the chance to sketch from models. I took every opportunity to step away from the animation table and observe from life. On this day we had a flamenco dancer posing. I did a whole series of painting on the cardboard that was used to separate scenes.

Once a week there were also painting opportunities. An now looking at the sketch I realize that this was a painting session. I didn’t have my oil paints, they were back in NYC, but I made sure to sketch. It must have been easy to get models since there were so many cast members in the theme parks who would jump at the opportunity.

The animation Halloween party was around the corner. I lamented not having supplies to build a decent costume. Animators tend to blow it out of the park when it comes to Halloween costumes.

This folded postcard was ripped open so fast that a large chunk of the sketch was ripped off in the process. I crudely repaired it with scotch tape which will yellow with time.

Disney Feature Animation Internship: Mid-Term

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This is a sketch of Japan in Epcot. Animators could go in the parks at any time, so I often went to sketch.

The mid term review went well. I was treated like a seasoned professional. I needed to work on my cleanup and inbetweening skills. They loved my figure drawings. My animation was coming along as expected but Frank Gladstone was sure I would fall in love with the layout department. Only time would tell.

Disney Feature Animation Internship: Intern Animating

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This is Michael Mattesi animating a buffalo walking. Mike went on to work on the Lion King and then as a storyboard artist for a movie called Duplex, which I haven’t seen yet.

He wrote a book called Force: Dynamic Life Drawing which is now in its tenth edition worldwide.

An animator pulled me aside in sketch class and told me how much he liked my drawings. That was reassuring, but I need to convert those skills into a better understanding of animation. We had a full day of critiques and lectures followed by an acting class. A story boarding assignment followed and I was flummoxed in searching for an idea. At this point I was just home sick for NYC and I should have channeled that into a story idea. Instead I started building a story around a carousel horse.

Disney Feature Animation Internship: Stationary Bikes

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At Epcot I sketched the stationary bikes. I didn’t actually peddle a bike myself, I was more interested in the people working so hard to go nowhere.

In the animation studio, I finished my quadruped walk. I had the hind legs stop and the torso stretched until  the back legs and hips snapped forward to knock the Centaur over. It was a lazy cheat, but I got some laughs. Then we started on a layout assignment. Layouts are the drawings used to paint the backgrounds. I though I might like this since I am always sketching people in interesting locations. Something about sketching a location without hint of humanity threw me off. Drawing people is what attracts me to start sketching most scenes. The idea of sketching empty rooms just didn’t appeal to me.

I just didn’t know exactly where I should fit in. I was offered a position as an effects artist and I turned it down. Maybe that was my calling and I just didn’t see it. I stuck with character animation.

Disney Feature Animation Internship: Illuminations Crowd

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After a long day of sketching in Epcot on the weekend, I settled down to sketch a crowd as they gathered to watch Illuminations. Illuminations was a light display that happened in the Epcot World Lagoon. A series of floating barges and mist were the backdrop for a flickering display set to patriotic music.
I had more fun sketching the crowd than watching the display. I found my way out out early through a cast exit to avoid the crush of the crowds when Illuminations ended.
The interns were invited over Frank Gladstone‘s house. Frank was our training manager. We had pizza and watched the worst movie ever made called Plan 9 from Outer Space by Ed Wood. The film is so bad that it has a major following. Disney has not yet made an animated film so terrifying and incomprehensible.
Back at the studio we had an improve session. The interns were coached by an improve comedy coach to act out scenes on the fly. I found this terrifying since I like to be behind the scenes rather than making a fool of myself for the sake of a laugh. Once we got onto the process however I relaxed a bit and had a great time. I knew a comedy improve actress in NYC and wished I could fly her in to pinch hit for me.

Disney Feature Animation Internship: Germany in Epcot

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Work continued of getting a centaur to run. The scene was filled with glitches which I was working to patch.

Any time I wanted to see the drawings in motion I would have to take the stack of drawings to a camera, called the lion lamb, and shoot the drawings in sequence onto VHS tape. If a drawing was shot out of sequence the whole scene would need to be re-shot. Interns would try and mess with each other by talking to the person shooting so they might loose focus and forget which drawing had been shot.

I was working to add more twist in the torso of the centaur as he ran. With animation the work was never ending and the scene was never perfect. The challenge was to stay sane and put out an entertaining end result.

I took a trip to Germany when I worked at Disney Feature Animation. There I met all my relatives who share the Thorspecken name. I traveled with Herbert who was in the Luftwaffe a the same time that my father was pushing into the Ruhr pocket of Germany in the final days of the was.  It was far more interesting seeing the real Germany compared to the homogenized vision of Germany on display at Epcot. I also traveled to Berlin recently to screen my short animated film COVID Dystopia. Germans seem to like my dark vision of the world. Americans tend to prefer an idealized view of the world.

Disney Feature Animation Internship: Epcot

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I would sketch in the theme parks on days off to ground myself in an alternate realty through direct observation. As an intern I tended to work 10 hour or more each day. Any notion of work life balance is abandoned if you become an animator. Animation is all consuming and never feels quite finished.

The centaur run was driving me mad. How on earth do horses keep track of those four legs? In my scene the front legs were running faster that the hind legs causing the torso to stretch. I decided it wasn’t a mistake but a happy accident and I kept it.

Disney Feature Animation Internship: Big Cats

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The interns were invited to sketch a lion on that sound stage in the animation studio.If anything can go wrong it always does when I am sketching. My elegant thin pen ran out of ink half way through the sketch and I had to dig around for my much thicker pen to finish up.

Clearly I started on the left and half way through the pen gave out. The thick sketch on the right hints at some  some frustration and annoyance.

The Lion King was still in production so that is why the big cat came in to model. The design of the characters had already been established so this was more of an exercise in keeping our sketching chops in  shape. By the time I got to sketching the lion, most of the interns had started to leave. Life moves too fast when you are trying to catch it in a sketch.

The next day was to be a mid-term review. I would get to find out how the Board felt I was progressing as an animator. No pressure, just don’t suck.

Disney Feature Animation Internship: Chip in China

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A Russian animator visited the studio and screened his film for us. The interns also had an opportunity to sketch lions and bears on a sound stage. There were once in a lifetime opportunities.

I managed to get my centaur to walk but getting him to transition into  run was proving a major challenge.

I developed a cold which had my nose completely stuffed and I had to leave the studio to go back to the apartment and nurse myself back to health. That weekend all the interns were invited to go the the home of the training manager, Frank Gladstone. Frank was pivotal in keeping my head screwed on straight since I was feeling home sick for NYC. My wife was going to visit the studio the week of Halloween so that was something to look forward to.

Disney Feature Animation Internship: Dancing Bushes

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These dancing Hippo and Crocodile bushes were located right outside the animation tour building. They were in the MGM studio theme park for guests to enjoy, not necessarily the animators.

My evening of partying caught up with me and I had a horrible hangover. I had to leave work early.

I did get some work done on my quadruped assignment. I designed a centaur. The plan was to make the centaur walk onto the scene where he notices a female centaur and starts running after her. It was a great plan but a bit too much for my hungover brain to handle.

I was told that 23 positions were opening up in the animation studio in the next 18 months. There was hope to join the growing studio.