Disney Animation Internship: Ice Cream Gertie

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Meg Ryan and Demi Moore visited the Disney Feature Animation studio on October 11, 1993. I was not sure if they were looking for voice acting parts or were just on vacation. Who knows what goes on behind closed doors.

In 1996 Demi Moore provided the speaking voice of Esmeralda in Disney’s animated feature film The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Maybe Meg and Demi were auditioning for the same part.

I finished the 3 walks and runs I was working on. That put me three days ahead of schedule. I decided to go back into the scenes and add facial expressions and other details. So much of what I was doing was about mechanisms and I wanted to get some emotion into the scenes. After work I went to Epcot to watch the fireworks. The shuttle that I took to the studio each day also stopped at Epcot, making it a convenient stop.

Gertie was in Disney’s MGM Studios. On the opposite side there was a standard Ice Cream shop cut into her belly. I doubt I ever tried the ice cream, it was cheaper at the employee commissary. I was more interested in seeing Gertie from the lagoon side.

Disney Animation Internship: NYC Street at MGM

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I often went to sit on the NYC set at Disney’s MGM Studios when I had a break from animation. I missed the hustle and bustle of the big city which is where I lived before heading down to Orlando. The hustle and bustle of the tourists in the them park was not quite the same.

The view of the Empire State building was fine, but it was painted on a flat and propped up at the end of the pretend street. Having the Ma Bell truck in the street was a nice touch though I would have preferred an ambulance which is much more flashy and loud.

I spent half of this weekend day sketching in the park and the other half animating walks and runs. I liked working in the studio on the weekend because it was much more quiet.

Disney Animation Internship: Muppet Fountain

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On Saturday I got into the Disney Feature Animation Studio at 9am and left that night at 9pm. I experimented with three different run cycles and abandoned two of them.

I also worked on a walk cycle which was meant to be a caricature of how Frank Gladstone, our instructor walked. I don’t know if anyone noticed that subtlety.

Since it was October thoughts turned to Halloween at the end of the month. I didn’t have transportation. I took the Disney shuttle bus to and from the studio. Disney Animators took Halloween costumes very seriously. I didn’t want to show up to the Halloween party with no costume so I was desperate to get my Viking horned helmet shipped down.

Disney Internship: Prince Ali Parade

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The Disney Feature Animation building I worked in as an intern was in the Disney MGM back lot parking lot.

Jasmine’s costume change trailer was right next to our animation trailer. Once a day an intern would shout out and we would rush to the window as Princess Jasmine would walk out to get ready for the parade.

Any drawing I did at the animation desk belonged to Disney, so you will not see those sketches here, but once a day or so I would walk through the park and do a sketch for myself.

I had the timing all wrong on the first run cycle I animated. I was as usual trying to do too much. I focused of having the character panting as he ran and that resulted in too much distracting movement in a very fast scene. I decided to return to the animation studio on Saturday to try again. It was quieter on the weekend in the studio so I could focus.

We heard the Prince Ali song every day of the week from our animation desks. There was no avoiding it. The song still rambles through my head at unexpected times.

Disney Internship: Great Movie Ride

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In my Disney Feature Animation Internship I had finished a goofy run assignment. The next assignment was to have a character walk, run and avoid an obstruction of some sort, then walk again.

We were shown several historical short animated films. One was about Mr. and Mrs. Beetle and they looked like real bugs.

All the interns took the night off to prepare for the next animation crunch.

I did go into the Great Movie Ride but my review was less than glowing. It sucked. Several interns sneaked into the ride in the evening after the park was closed. That might have been a worthwhile adventure. If I remember right, they did get caught, but they said it was worth it.

Disney Internship: Star Tours

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At lunch time I would on occasion take a walk through Disney MGM Studios to do a sketch. Star Tours was a motion simulator ride that gave me motion sickness. Don’t get me wrong, it was an awesome ride but I left feeling queasy.

The best way to ground myself was to sit down and do a sketch.

On this day in the internship, we watched Singing in the Rain in the break room and listened to renowned animator Mark Henn as he analyzed a walk.

We were working on an assignment that involved building a story around Goofy. We had one last day to finish the assignment. I should have saved some of those drawings, but anything we created at Disney became the property of Disney in this universe and any other universe. It always felt good therefor to step out and do a drawing for myself.

Disney Internship: NYC Street MGM Studio

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By October, I was starting to feel rather burnt out form all the inbetweening drawings I had to do to finish each animation scene I was working on.

On lunch breaks I would walk around the MGM theme park to fins a place to sketch. Just having a chance to sketch on location helped ground me.

On one occasion I was sitting on a bench in the New York City like in this sketch and A woman walked past me. She looked over her shoulder at me while she walked away. She came around a second time and stopped in front of me. She leaned forward and asked, “Are you an animatronic?” If I wasn’t so surprised, I could have acted mechanical and messed with her but I simply said, “No, I am very much flesh and blood.” People don’t sit still in theme parks. They are always in a rush to get on the next attraction. Children get cranky since their tiny little legs can’t keep up. Artists function on a much slower pace, to take the time to look.

Disney Internship: It’s a Small World After All

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By the start of October, I was working on animating a run. It was a challenge working with such broad movements so I stayed late. leaving my desk about 11pm. I was the last person in the building.

The following day there was an 8:30Am breakfast meeting with the mentors. My mentor was Bryan M. Sommer whose specialty was clean up and inbetweening. That was helpful since that would be my roll if I started working on the next film. He taught a seminar right after the breakfast. Bryan had some amazing hidden talents. After the Florida studio closed, he effortlessly did some amazing Australian theme park designs that I wish had been built.

 

Disney Internship: The Animation Building

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This is the entrance to what was the animation tour at Disney MGM Studio. Guests would enter here and be introduced to the process of animation. One section of the tour had large floor to ceiling windows that overlooked the animators at work.

When I started working at the studio my desk was right at the base of the tourist overlook. All day long guests would knock n the glass and give me a thumbs up. It was a nightmare. Finally a guard on the other side of the glass started pointing down into my work space. The glass was soundproof so we couldn’t talk. I finally realized he was pointing at a ledge at the base of the glass wall above my eye line. I felt along the ledge and found some tape which I peeled up. On the tape was written, “Hi My name is Tom, If you lie my work please knock on the glass and give me a thumbs up.” I groaned. The animator next to me started laughing his head off.

I caught this jazz band outside the entrance on one of my lunchtime walks through the park. I would get out each day and people watch before sitting back at my animation desk and cranking out drawings all day long.

Ford-iFy the Arts Groundbreaking

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I went to the groundbreaking ceremony at City Arts in Downtown Orlando. I arrive rather early and set up across the street to sketch the courtyard and Kean building. the event was held just days after the Governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis vetoes all funding for the arts.

A new gate had been added to the entry of the courtyard with two swans and surprise and delight written in the clouds. People gradually started to gather at the gate to kibitz and schmooze.

The new yet to be fully constructed courtyard will be named in honor of Ford Kiene, the former owner who donated the historic green of the green Rogers Klein building. He donated the building to the city of Orlando.

Ford-ify the Arts is a fundraising event organized with the intentions of raising capital to construct a courtyard on the north-side space adjacent to the Rogers Kiene Building (home to CityArts). The vision is to create a beautiful public space in the heart of Downtown Orlando, which complements Orlando’s oldest commercial structure, built in 1886. This space will be used for diverse, inclusive, and creative arts engagement, as well as private gallery-related and specialty events. Interstruct, Inc. created the concept and design of the courtyard.

The design seems to consist of a clear arched canopy that looks like it might blow away in a hurricane or high wind. Murals already exist though they might be planning to change them, and there are benches for the homeless to lounge on. In the promotional image a couple walks hand in hand towards the back wall of a parking garage as if strolling on the beach.

As I was sketching a guy walked past me twice with a hand truck stacked with cases of beer. He pointed out to me that the Rogers Kean building was  donated by the guy who stated the beer distribution company he worked for. Its a small world.