Oswald: Race Riot

Here's something wonderful

SPLENDID DANCE

Oswald Ex Sheets, I'll help you out

Here, I partially filled out the ex sheets for you.

I marked off all the beats and bars to the left.
Each key pose happens on the beat that is numbered next to the drawings.

I wrote which beats had what lyrics and how many inbetweens to get to each post.
Note that beats 6 to 10 re-use a few drawings that cycle left and right.

So you don't need to redraw the same drawings over and over again. Draw them once, then repeat them where the ex sheets tell you to.

Animation Lesson 2. Oswald Dance, animating to a 12x beat

Here's the latest lesson from the world's cheapest animation school.

ANIMATING TO A BEAT: The 12x Beat

12x is a very standard unit of time in cartoons. It's roughly the time it takes for a human to take a step in a normal walk. A fast walk would be 8x per step. Pepe Le Pew's hop cycle is 12x per hop.

Here is a perfect scene to learn the essential concept of animating to tempos. The scene is very simple and basically just moves from one pose to the next to the beat. No fancy overlapping action or secondary motions to distract you from the core concept of beats.

It's good to study just because it is so simple. A beginning animator needs to get used to how long a beat is in frames. This song is a 12x beat. Sing along and tap your foot to it, until you memorize the rhythm. Then do it later when you don't have the animation in front of you. After a while you will know what a 12x beat feels like.

THE FIRST FEW "KEYS"

The music in this scene is 2 beats per second, or 12 frames per beat.
Each of these frames below is a key drawing. They are the drawings that you see and feel for each beat - the important drawings. The rest of the drawings are on the way to these keys. Those are the inbetweens.

Each key is either 12x or 24x away from the other keys next to them.
You should number the keys according to which frame they would appear in your animation test. Number your ex sheets that way too.This would be frame 25 (1 frame past the first 2 beats of pose 1.)

THIS IS THE SECOND POSE IN THE SONG

In the beginning of the song Oswald holds each pose for 2 beats.

Add 24x to to frame 25 and you get frame 49. Got it?

Then it goes to a new pose on every beat. Watch the film frame by frame. Number the inbetweens by counting backwards from the key. If there are 4 inbetweens on the way to frame 49 and they are on "1's", then they will be numbered 48, 47, 46, 45
The mouths are animated on separate levels, so that the body and head animation can be cycled or reused. When you animate this scene, animate the actions first. After you shoot it and see it working, then go back and animate the mouths on a separate level.
Some of the poses are held for a few frames once they stop. The face keeps singing while the body is stopped.




Watch the clip. The song starts on the second scene. If you copy this animation, you will benefit greatly. If you shoot it, send me a link and I will post some of them.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THIS LUCKY RABBIT DANCE!


Just to confuse things, the clip is running at 30x per second ... like video. Film is 24x per second so you have to calculate a bit. Some of the frames are repeated to make it run at 30x per second.

That's why you see some double images in the clip. If you follow my instructions above as to how to number the drawings, it will end up at 24x per second.


CLICK HERE FOR 11" x 17" PRINTABLE VERSION OF AN EX SHEET

Oswald: Not So Quiet, Ooh La La, Oswald, I Loves You

Oswald Is Seduced

Oswald: Going To Blazes, Fire Is Funny

Fire Torture

Oswald: Not So Quiet, Oswald Can't Keep His Pants On

Oswald is coming.

Oswald: Going To Blazes, Firehouse Fun Part 2

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND!

Going to Blazes, 1933 (Walter Lantz Productions)
YOUNG ANIMATORS PAY ATTENTION
This is a great scene to copy if you are trying to teach yourself to animate. It's full of fundamental principles of motion. Figure 8 arcs esp...













Watch The Firehouse 'Mo Do A Little Dance



Kitty Kornered is coming, still workin' on it...

Oswald: Snow Use, The Beat Your Girlfriend Dance

Oswald Knows what women really want.




Snow Use, 1929 (Walter Lantz Productions)

























































Beat her, and she'll come back for more.

Oswald: Going To Blazes, Cartoons Make The Best Stereotypes

Here's a post for Jorge, the last of a dying breed.


Witness an innocent babe, who doesn't yet know the facts of life.
All of life seems happy and clean and full of God's beauty.
All of a sudden, the sweet babe sees what goes on in the world.
At the wholesome community firehouse yet!

The unspeakable act of swishy dancing!Every natural instinct spills up from the guts of this unspoiled youth and retribution grasps his quivering revulsed soul.

Baby grows up fast and knows exactly what to do.This is the way of intolerance since time began. If it's different, cut it to pieces!

Luckily, Oswald is a modern hero with modern ideas and he comes to the rescue.

No crime, however instinctively motivated goes unpunished in an Oswald cartoon!

Watch The Dance Of The Firehouse Fruit

Animation is just great for stereotypes. In real life, stereotypes create themselves and are then caricatured in stand up comedy, rap videos and live action media. Then liberal white women and Keith Olberman cry about it.

But cartoons add another level to stereotypes.

You would never actually see a gay guy dance like this in real life, but it would be great if you did!

That's what cartoons are for, to make up stuff that's surreal but just feels right.

Don Rickles was on NPR last night talking about making his 50 year career out of making fun of stereotypes and it was hilarious. He made fun of every group equally, which is totally American and democratic.

I wish everyone would lighten up and enjoy how weird and different everyone is and make fun of it! We should enjoy how weird and varied human life is, rather than deny it and be ashamed.

Oh, for the good old un-politically correct days!

Here's another great American animator at work:
Walt Disney's Favorite People