The Great Dynamic Bill Tytla - ビル・ティトラ , ディズニーナイン・オールドメンの先輩

 "Bill was powerful, muscular, high-strung and sensitive, with a tremendous ego," - Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston 

Vladimir Peter Tytla entered the Walt Disney Animation studio in 1934 and became one of the greatest supervising animators of all time and mentor some of Disney's younger animators who would be known as "Disney's Nine Old Men".  

In Japan Bill Tytla would have been referred to as "senpai" (which means senior) and he along with Freddy Moore (who designed the classic modern version Mickey Mouse) would school the Nine Old Men in the principles of "dynamics" and "appeal" respectively. 

[Bill Tytla] brought the volatile acting of a man who had been around the world and had this worldliness of how things behaved.  Bill did things of enormous scale..."  - Marc Davis

An artist who could bring to life something as powerful and iconic as this: 

And still be sensitive enough understand the subtleties of a delicate character like this,  says much about the artist. 

Bill noted in story meetings that a character's pose should be a reaction to something, otherwise it would be just a drawing. 

Bill would be well known for animating Stromboli in Pinocchio, the devil Chernobog in Night on Bald Mountain, and Dumbo the elephant.  In Dumbo he animated a performance that is still recognised today and causes viewers to tear,  generations after its debut. 

In 1994 animation historian John Canemaker organised an exhibition of Bill Tytla's works at the Katona Musuem of Art.  Below is the catalogue of the exhibition.  I originally found the catalogue on Michael Sporn's Splog to which he referenced the Hollywood Animation Resource.  

Enjoy.

友だち: コメ袋（小麦袋）- Your Friend the Rice Bag (Japanese)

胴体は、体の中でも最も大きい2つのボリューム（立体）で構成されています。ウェイト（重心）も胴体によって決まります。

この2つのボリュームを単純化するために、さまざまな様式が考案されました。ボックスの場合もありますが、アニメーションの場合には、小麦袋（米袋）がよく使われます。

コメ袋も、ボックスもビーン（豆）も胴体を単純化した立体形状として扱うという意味では同じです。これを使って以下を表すことができます。

1)   明確なウェイト（重心）

2)   体に働くフォース（力）

3)   感情！！

コメ袋の描き方をマスターし、感情を表すモデルとして使いましょう。エネルギーが集中する場所ではフォームは押しつぶされ、エネルギーの方向が分散している場所ではフォームは引き伸ばされます。

腕や脚を使わずに感情を示すとしたら、どうするでしょうか。この練習によって、視覚的に示せるようになります。

Your Friend: The Rice Bag (or Flour Sack )

The model of the flour sack, or the rice bag is nothing new at all in the west, but I thought it deserves some review for our friends in Japan.

The torso which makes up two of the largest masses of the body, determines the weight of the body.

There are many models to help simplify these masses in drawing:  the bean, the box forms and in animation, “the flour sack” or the “rice bag.” 

The rice bag functions just as well as the box form or the bean shape to simplify the torso as a 3-dimentional form but it also:

1)   Makes weight clear

2)   Shows forces acting on the body

3)   Shows Emotion!!

Master the Rice Bag and use it as a model to show feelings.  Where energy is  heavy, the form will squash.   Where energy is pulling the form will stretch.

To help yourself visualize:  How would you show emotion if you didn’t have any arms or legs??