Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1546404
34 KEYFRAME These days the Xerox machine is considered ancient technology, but there was a time when it was not only cutting edge—it changed, and arguably rescued, animation at Walt Disney Productions. Beloved as it is now, the 1959 feature Sleeping Beauty struggled at the box office, failing to meet its own production costs. Due to financial pressure, "[Disney] was advised that with all other projects where he was involved, including Disneyland, he should forget about animation," according to Sr. Asset Archivist Jill Breznican and Researcher Doug Engalla of the Walt Disney Animation Research Library. But Disney's love of animation ran too deep. He had to figure out how to reduce budgets. An electrostatic process for copying and printing, Xerography was being explored for animation by Disney's longtime friend and Mickey Mouse co-creator Ub Iwerks. Even though the technology was developed for use on paper, Iwerks obtained multiple patents for techniques that would transfer Xerographic powder directly onto animation cels. This led to Xerography being tested on select sequences in Sleeping Beauty, and then, to see how it would work for a complete story, the 1960 short Goliath II. The result was successful, and so it was employed on One Hundred and One Dalmatians. While the Xerox camera worked like a standard office copier, the one at Disney inhabited three rooms. The camera lens took a picture of a drawing and transferred it to an electrically charged plate. Next, the plate was dipped in toner, and the toner created a copy of the drawing on a clear cel, ready for the Painters. This quick and efficient method meant that original drawings no longer had to be transferred by hand onto cels. It was especially helpful, considering that the artists had to contend with so many spots on each of the dogs—Pongo has 72, Perdita has 68, and each of the pups has 32. "The filmmakers created a kind of spot-mapping system for the Dalmatians, assigning a pattern per dog, with each pattern anchored by a key spot," say Breznican and Engalla. "By working out a virtual constellation of spots that looked good in every position, that key spot would be the focal point and constant for every Dalmatian that moved and turned." Once the movie was completed—the first Disney feature to fully use the Xerox process—the technology brought mixed responses at the studio. The Disney historians explain: "Some argued that there was a loss of subtlety from the hand-inked line, yet at the same time the process preserved the original line quality of the animators' performances, which they loved." A more serious downside was job losses for Inkers in the Ink and Paint Department. Xerography wasn't the only way One Hundred and One Dalmatians broke new ground for Disney. Previous films took place mostly in fairytale realms, but the contemporary setting needed a contemporary look. Disney took a leap with "a daring present-day aesthetic, influenced by the mid-century modern style throughout the 1950s," say Breznican and Engalla. "Intentional color, geometric shapes, and minimalist design were beginning to dominate as the preferred style at Disney Animation, thanks to artists like Ken Anderson and Walt Peregoy." The result was a box office hit. Did the Xerox process save the studio? Who can say? But it did lay the foundation for Disney to use the technology for nearly 30 years, contributing to many of animation's most iconic films. —Kim Fay from left: A background painting, an animation cel with the Xeroxed lines and paint, and the cel on top of the background, illustrating the complete process for using Xerography. CONNECTING THE DOTS F I N A L N O T E AS DISNEY'S ONE HUNDRED AND ONE DALMATIANS TURNS 65, STUDIO HISTORIANS LOOK BACK ON THE INNOVATIVE USE OF XEROGRAPHY.