Disney Feature Animation Internship: MGM Studios Entrance

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This is another lunchtime sketch inside Disney’s MGM Studios. On the weekend I took some time off and wandered through Epcot people watching and sketching. Such excursions helped keep me sane through the pressure cooker that was the internship.

I managed to get a sun burn on my forehead since I forgot to wear my baseball cap while sketching.

I tried to arrange a haircut with a Disney barber but was told I would need to return in a week because I didn’t have a reservation. Just figuring out basic survival needs is a learning process.

The next assignment was going to be figuring out how a horse walks. It was hard enough figuring out how two legs worked in a walk and now I had to face 4 legs. Well, if the horses can figure out the mechanics of walking, then so can I.

Disney Feature Animation Internship: Halloween Plans

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This is a sketch of the waiting area outside Honey I Blew up the Kids. the attraction at Disney’s MGM Studios was a kids play area with the playground being made up of giant objects, like huge blades of grass, giant ants and a very large dogs nose.

Plans were under way for the Halloween festivities. Disney animators took Halloween very seriously. There was to be a costume parade and then a children’s costume parade. Well lets face it, animators are children. Then there were games and BBQ on the animation patio which was built on to the parking lot trailer.

I worked much of the day since it was raining outside. I was working on a “Singing in the Rain” walk sequence. It was broken but I spent the day re-timing some sections of the animation to get it to flow better. Working such long hours was starting to wear on me. I needed time away from the studio, but that would have to wait for another day.

Disney Feature animation Internship: Thunder Mountain

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At the animation studio I had finished working on Mr. Zed. Mr. Zed was the affectionate name we used to refer to a simple animated character that just had a ball for a head, a bean for a body and spindly long legs simply defined with two lines.

The next assignment was to work on effects animation. Effects are much more fluid, abstract and unpredictable.

I spent time in the animation library and studied Fantasia to figure out how a cloak might move on a figure. I was fascinated by effect but it was not easy. All the other interns were busy doing and redoing their walks. I decided that when I was done with an assignment I would put it aside and move on. It was the best way to stay sane. If I chased absolute perfection I could drive myself crazy. I do believe that the internship experience was set up to see who cracked and who stayed o course. My mind was set on the long game.

The sketch was from a weekend exploring the parks. This was in Magic Kingdom.

Disney Feature Animation Internship: Near Dumbo

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It was a hard day’s work in the animation studio. The interns sketched a baby and a doberman pincer in the life drawing class. Both made terrible models since they squirm and move about so much. Sketches were done quickly with non being longer than 5 minutes. Actually we didn’t time anything since they never stayed still. As an animator we needed to understand the motion and we got plenty of that.

I was animating a character walking in a high wind. The character was wearing a rain coat which flapped in the wind. The rain coat was the challenge. Like I said, I never take the easy route when trying something new.

The sketch was from another park day. I tended to look upward so as not to be distracted by the ever flowing mass of humanity.

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 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.