Art & Animation

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2D animation and camera set ups from the past

today’s update are a few pictures of some old school camera set ups for traditional animation. if you didn’t know, everything was shot on film 24 frames at 1 second on movement. this was a very costly and time consuming method but it worked great. we don’t see to many people working in this way anymore, so checking out old school pictures is always a treat

Top-Jack Cardiff BSC, ASC at work.

Bottom- A later, more sophisticated Disney animation camera with pedal operated glass platen and rostrum “tower” equipped to allow the camera body to “truck” in and out



Andy Chandler operating and Oxberry animation camera


the Fleischer “stereoptical” turntable camera in use during photography for a Popeye short


Behind the scenes of Popeye the Sailor meets Sinbad the Sailor, and academy award nominated short


Left- Diagrams from the Walt Disney patent application for a modified animation camera stand intended to allow cartoon characters painted on cel to cast their own shadow on a simple 3-dimensional interior, recessed into the “compound” table beneath the camera lens

Right-Photo from the september 1944 issue of the monthly magazine Popular Science showing the camera operators at work on the Disney Multiplane “crane”


Left- Dave Fleischer operates operates a gearwheel of the rotating turntable on which the studios “Scenics” supervisor, Bob little, built the miniature city for the opening title sequence of My.Bug Goes to Town (Paramount, 1941)

Right-Puppeteer and model maker Bob Jones with Miniature of Strombolis wagon


Top- Disneys 1950s Tricks of our Trade documentary showing a nocturnal landscape, demonstrating the creation of a realistic parallax effect on the studios multiplane camera

Bottom- Still from an animated diagram featured in the same 1950 Tricks of Our Trade documentary


A rare multi level scene from Pinocchio, allowing horizontally oriented camera running on rails



Animator Les Clark editing in a Moviola


Disney camera operators in action