Disney Feature Animation Internship: MGM

Posted on by Thor

Since the Disney Feature Animation Studio was on the back lot of the Disney MGM Studios theme park, I often walked into the park to sketch at lunch time. I didn’t have an art stool, so I would always sketch from whatever bench happened to be available. Benches are seldom situated in scenic spots.

I do believe that is the Brown Derby Restaurant. They had a really good Cobb Salad that I liked. A very rough sketch of the Tower of Terror is off to the left.

After a day of animating, I would see the search lights probing the sky above Epcot. It always resembled an air raid over London although I doubt that is the effect they were looking for. Perhaps my impression just matched my mood. The final project was an ongoing battle. I didn’t feel I was fully grasping the animation principles that had been thrown at me the past few months.

A day of work on Lion King production felt like a welcome vacati0n. Production work felt real and practical.

Disney Internship: The Animation Building

Posted on by Thor

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.

Disney Internship: Harbor House

Posted on by Thor

With my jump animation assignment finished I took time off on the weekend to explore Disney MGM Studio. This was essentially where I worked but I was in a trailer inn the back lot parking lot and never saw the park while busy sketching at my desk.

I felt that many of the rids at MGM were rather corny but I guess that is what people want. Some of the attractions were worth the effort of standing in line. MGM can be seen in a single day. The larger theme parks might take more time to explore and sketch.

Columbia Harbor House is in the Magic Kingdom. It is an American seafood counter restaurant which mostly served fish and chips style meals. It is seafood with a serious slathering of breading and oil, along with fries and slaw.

After a while I decided to go back to my desk in the animation studio and do three more inbetweens on my assignment to slow down the ending of the scene. The scene was of a locust jumping and i had him perform on the animation desk which was new to me and therefor worth sketching as a background.

The internship was not a 9 to 5 work situation. Some artists never left their desks but I tried to keep to a set schedule to stay sane. The experience was a pressure cooker to see who thrived and who crumbled under the pressure. I paced myself and one steam valve was the ability to go into the parks and sketch on location. It calmed my nerves.

To this day, I still sit at my Disney Animation desk all day long and then, when I can, I venture out to sketch in the real world.