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A few years back, Don Bluth donated a huge collection of art from his late studio to the Savannah College of Art & Design. My animation class had the privilege of seeing it this morning. Boxes and boxes of storyboards, cels, backgrounds, concepts and just about anything else you can imagine. So I rifled through it all and went nuts with my camera. We were brought to see this collection by one of my animation teachers, John Webber.  This guy is ex-Disney. He started there working on whale eyes for Fantasia 2000. Since then, he animated for Mulan, Lilo and Stitch, Brother Bear and others before Disney nuked their 2D department. Off to one side, I see stacks of drawings that look like they're from Secret of Nihm. That's my favorite Bluth film, so I rush over and start digging. Sweet! Key poses for an early scene between Brisby and Mr. Ages!  And backgrounds!   And here's a really early concept sketch from before the character models had been finalized.  And ... wait, is that .... ? ... Hot drat.  Okay, the guide person is pulling out backdrop paintings, so I go to check those out.  She unrolls one and pulls back the protective cel. It's the organ from Rock-a-Doodle!  The pictures really don't do justice to these things. Here's another from Thumbellina.  This collection has tons of stuff. Artwork from their first film, Banjo the Woodpile Cat ...  ... the Dragon Lair game ...  ... and even a box of early sketches for Titan A.E.  There's even stacks of art for films that were never completed.  Unfortunately, certain films were absent from this collection, since they were done on contract. Spielberg owns everything for American Tail and Land Before Time, and I think Fox has most everything for Anastasia and Titan A.E. But I think this is my favorite part of the whole collection: over 400 frames of animation, drawn by Bluth himself, of a little girl dancing.     It's incredible to flip through these and see the dance in motion. I believe someone at SCAD plans to capture this sequence and put the video on the school's website eventually. Now I want to go watch all of these movies again. I have like 150 pictures of this collection, so let me know if you want me to put some more up. cAtf00d fucked around with this message at 19:54 on May 29, 2008 |
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May 29, 2008 19:32
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Sure post more. Is there a chance of there being a public display sometime?
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May 29, 2008 19:37
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Pretty sure that little girl dancing is a little bit more than just a little girl dancing. Looks really familiar. Also, how long before this stuff starts showing up on ebay?
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May 29, 2008 19:39
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Godamn, as a collector of production art, I'm incredibly jealous. Finding cels, sketches and even freaking backgrounds in good condition from Bluth films is really difficult, seeing that many in one place is just awesome. How many would you guess there was total? Are the cels being preserved properly (upright, stored in a dark, cool place)? It looks like those Dragon Lair ones are all just piled together in a box. Please post more photos, I'd love to see em 
Labinnah fucked around with this message at 19:44 on May 29, 2008 |
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May 29, 2008 19:40
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Those are really cool, one of the great things about being born in the 80's was seeing movies that had Bluth's hand in them. That poo poo is pure magic.
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May 29, 2008 19:43
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Sweet ! Thanks for this - more dragons lair stuff plz. (Dragons Lair and not Dragons Quest btw)
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May 29, 2008 19:43
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I've always had oodles of respect for Don Bluth. There's always been good animation from him. Also Titan A.E is an under-rated film of awesome. More Dragon's Lair.
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May 29, 2008 19:44
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Those are pretty darn cool. Not like the guy is Picasso or anything, but you'd think they'd do something besides just stash them in manila envelopes in a box.
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May 29, 2008 19:45
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Holy poo poo, this is incredible. YOU are incredible. Don Bluth is a modern GOD of animation. Did they ever release Banjo on DVD? Is there a way in hell I can ever actually see this movie?
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May 29, 2008 19:47
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A lot of those cels are worth a fortune. Did they have anyone guarding the area to make sure an unscrupulous student didn't sneak any prints or cels out for Ebay?
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May 29, 2008 19:50
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cAtf00d posted:There's even stacks of art for films that were never completed. Man, I'd love to see some of those. I'm fascinated by unreleased/unfinished stuff. Also, see if there's anything showing the deleted scenes from The Land Before Time (which supposedly had ten minutes of T-Rex stuff cut for being "too scary") or All Dogs Go to Heaven, which had a journey to hell trimmed down because, again, it was too drat scary. Edit: Crap, didn't see that part about The Land Before Time not being in the collection. Oh well. Kid Fenris fucked around with this message at 20:05 on May 29, 2008 |
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May 29, 2008 19:50
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Labinnah posted:Godamn, as a collector of production art, I'm incredibly jealous. Finding cels, sketches and even freaking backgrounds in good condition from Bluth films is really difficult, seeing that many in one place is just awesome. How many would you guess there was total? Are the cels being preserved properly (upright, stored in a dark, cool place)? It looks like those Dragon Quest ones are all just piled together in a box. The school is still trying to sort through it all and archive everything. What we saw wasn't even everything the school has, they just set out a ton of the stuff in a room for us to look through (hence the boxes). I know the guide person was telling us how much effort they were going to to get the stuff stored in better conditions than it was when they received it. But then, they're also letting animation students dig through it. I'm not really sure. Getting this much stuff together in one place really is amazing, though, especially given how generous Bluth studios was in giving away art in their early days. All you had to do was mail a letter saying how much you liked Nihm and - BAM - they sent you cels. As an additional bit of trivia, the studio's co-founder, Gary Goldman, teaches animation at SCAD.
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May 29, 2008 19:51
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Wow, I would have loved to see all that in person. I love everything that Don Bluth did. Any chance on posting of of the Titan A.E. sketches?
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May 29, 2008 19:59
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Hellequin posted:More Dragon's Lair. Please.
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May 29, 2008 20:02
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You fancy Western animation colleges with your famous guest animators! These are awesome, thanks for sharing I had the chance to see some stashed away drawings and backgrounds for older Siriol productions (company that made fireman Sam and Superted), and they were amazing up close. It's a shame that these things are hidden in boxes and attics, instead of in some awesome gallery..
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May 29, 2008 20:04
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I strolled over to the box of stuff from Banjo the Woodpile Cat. Not my favorite film from the Bluth studio, but still drat impressive just for the fact that they made it in the man's garage on their free time while still working for Disney. This seems to be a storyboard sketch of some kind.  I remember Banjo looking a bit androgynous in the movie. Doesn't really show in these drawings though.  What was the name of the cat who helps him out? I forget.  Nice! Some color drawings of the showgirl cats.  Hey, there's even a few cels! 
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May 29, 2008 20:04
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This is awesome, and thank you for sharing it. Post whatever else you've got, I'd love to see more. I'm going to forward this to one of my past instructors, I'm sure he'll love it as well (fellow animation major here, also in Atlanta). Also, I don't know if she still teaches there but I used to have Kat as instructor. She was doing double duty between our school and SCAD.
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May 29, 2008 20:05
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talent talent talent. That's a great collection you have there.cAtf00d posted:How exactly do they get to images to have vivid and smooth colors like this? Is it paint or print? Stupid question, but I've had it on my mind forever.
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May 29, 2008 20:06
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Gary Goldman was here last quarter and I got to take a couple classes with him. He's an alright guy I guess. I like John Webber and Troy Gustafson much better though.
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May 29, 2008 20:09
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El Popo posted:talent talent talent. That's a great collection you have there.
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May 29, 2008 20:09
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pretty f'in cool dude, severe jealousy over here. we never got art exhibitions from animators at SVA.Derringer posted:I think most cels are acrylic paint. cels are done with cel paint. it is specifically made for use on vellum, as it doesn't crack or peel when the vellum bends.
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May 29, 2008 20:09
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El Popo posted:talent talent talent. That's a great collection you have there. That cell is painted, but nowadays it's all digital ink and paint
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May 29, 2008 20:10
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Derringer posted:I think most cels are acrylic paint.
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May 29, 2008 20:12
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Derringer posted:I think most cels are acrylic paint. Yes sir. And from what I've been told, back in the day Disney used to wash off all their animation cells after a feature was complete. They would re-use them to save money. So any animation cells of the old Disney classics are pretty rare and worth a bit.
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May 29, 2008 20:12
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His backgrounds are always loving amazing. Even the stuff from tankers like Thumbellina and Rock-A-Doodle looks beautiful there, taken out of context. Hell of an artist. Wish there was some stuff from Land Before Time in there, I saw it in the cinema when I was seven or eight and loved it to death.
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May 29, 2008 20:14
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Von_Skeezily posted:Yes sir. And from what I've been told, back in the day Disney used to wash off all their animation cells after a feature was complete. They would re-use them to save money. So any animation cells of the old Disney classics are pretty rare and worth a bit. They would only wash them back when they only painted in black and white. The color cells couldn't be washed well enough.
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May 29, 2008 20:15
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Anything from East of The sun, West of the Moon? I heard they got more than halfway through making it before it got binned. It probably would have been a great movie.
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May 29, 2008 20:30
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A few more from Banjo and I'll move on. From a shot of Banjo stowing away in a car's undercarriage.  Banjo's design took a while. He was a black and white cat at one point, but they eventually decided that there were enough cartoon cats of that color.  And finally, I just had to grab a shot of this pose.  Ok, enough Banjo. Next up, Titan A.E. and Dragon Lair! edit: Sadly, I didn't see anything of All Dogs Go to Heaven other than a book full of stills from the movie. I don't think I saw anything of East/West either, but there was a good bit of miscellaneous art to be found. Maybe they had some of it and didn't bring it out to show us. cAtf00d fucked around with this message at 20:44 on May 29, 2008 |
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May 29, 2008 20:40
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That is amazing. More pictures would be cool. Titan A.E.
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May 29, 2008 20:41
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Wow, these are awesome thanks for posting them. Would love to see some more concept stuff, as well as stuff from projects that never materialized.
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May 29, 2008 20:56
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This is some amazing stuff. Rats of Nimh is easily my favorite Bluth picture. So dark and ominous. Please keep posting, and thanks for sharing!
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May 29, 2008 21:06
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That Titan A.E. box is too inviting. Apparently, even though the movie is property of Fox, the school was still able to get some really early storyboards and concepts. I start leafing through them. Guide person says the character models hadn't been finalized yet. Still, not too far off.  Ooo, cockpit!  I don't remember this character. It's been too long since I saw the movie.  Into the garbage chute, flyboy!  Nice.  Okay, it's high time we got to some Dragon's Lair. Unfortunately, I didn't get many pictures of it. It was near the end of the session and I was running out of space on the camera. Still, I got a few decent shots. A cel of our hero! It's hard taking pictures of cels without getting a flash glare or reflection.  I just managed to grab a shot of this dragon cel as a classmate flipped past it. My hours of playing Pokemon Snap! were not spent for nothing.  Lastly, there was no way I wasn't getting a shot of this amazing cel. This baddie bleeds magenta.  Coming up next: a tidal wave of Nihm! Soon to follow: other miscellaneous gems, including a nice selection of art from unreleased films. Stay tuned!
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May 29, 2008 21:11
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Any of the weird stuff, like the rose bush or the great owl, from TRoM would be appreciated. Must've been a cool day.
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May 29, 2008 21:11
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Thanks for posting these, Don Bluth is amazing, keep the pictures coming. 
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May 29, 2008 21:13
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This is gorgeous stuff. I'd give my left nut to go through those boxes.
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May 29, 2008 21:19
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got drat these are cool
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May 29, 2008 21:20
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cAtf00d posted:Okay, it's high time we got to some Dragon's Lair. Unfortunately, I didn't get many pictures of it. It was near the end of the session and I was running out of space on the camera. Still, I got a few decent shots.  No Daphne?! Seriously, these are fantastic, and if you can try to get more of the rolled up backdrop paintings, please.
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May 29, 2008 21:25
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Sweet, thanks for the Titan A.E. stuff. That character you didn't remember was the chef (I am pretty sure)from the first time you see the main character grown up.
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May 29, 2008 21:28
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I forgot how much I love Don Bluth's style.
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May 29, 2008 21:30
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Holy crap, this is all here at SCAD??? I just graduated from SCAD today, that sucks I missed this. EDIT: Yep. That definitely looks like the Jen Library in the top photo.
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May 29, 2008 21:32
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