Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Grand Design


A gorgeous color sketch of the Lackey from the film Sleeping Beauty by Milt Kahl. I love the contrast  within the shape arrangements. Bulky body on very skinny legs. Milt went even further when he drew the Prince's horse Samson. His lower legs come together to almost one thin line.
The Lackey's outfit shows detailed patterns here, which were simplified for the final model design.
This is something CG can do very easily and successfully, lots of realistic detail. Hair, fur and patterns. 
But this is graphic animation, and the idea is to boil things down to an essence. The balance between round and square shapes in this drawing is masterful. The overall color choices are pretty stunning as well.
My next post will demonstrate some of Fred Moore's design principles.

3 comments:

  1. A great drawing of one of my favorite characters of this movie!
    Andreas, to what extent were animators involved in the color selections for their characters? Did they have a say in this or did their involvement end with the design and were the colors decided upon by the directors/ stylists?

    Also, from your previous posts it became clear that Milt was involved in the design of many characters, also those he did not end up animating. During your time at Disney, was there a 'Milt Kahl' who had a big influence on overall character design?

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  2. Clever design. Looks like Edger from "The AristoCats" though. Maybe it's because the design on his face can be that of how Edgar looked in the film.

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  3. That is so cool. The details on the shape value for this Lackey is really impressive. By the way I heard that you are one of the Disney Legends of the year next to George Lucas and Danny Elfman.
    I wanted to congratulate you on this Mr. Deja. You put so many amazing facts and stories about your experience about the company for over 31 years on this blog. As a girl who is going through college to earn my degree in animation and hoping to join the Disney team someday, your information has really helped me in my research to what it took for all the animators to make everything from character design to concept art possible. Plus you given me wisdom on how I learn it by doing it.
    Even before I found out from Disney 23 about the Disney Legends of the year, I considered you as a true Disney Legend and a hero I look up to.

    I do have one question I want to ask you. I really want to know from your experience what do you recommend for future animators like me to look for if we really want to bring back that classic Walt Disney style of telling a story of a classic fairy tale?

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