If you could spend a day in the studio with an animator who would it be?

By the time Mickey came around, Walt had stopped animating. Prior to that, on the Alice comedies and some of the Oswalds, Walt did animate.

Yeah, i've got a book on his life and career. Tis quite interesting. But DSB has got it. Basically he was a newspaper cartoonist who found this brand new medium people were calling animation and got involved in it. No training or anything. As soon as he had his own company he was the first to say, i'm better at this, not animating, and gradually stepped aside and left it to the likes of Ub Iwerks etc.
He even had to trace drawings on his television show when drawing for the kids, as he had trouble gettin' the characyer on model! Still, animation isn't just about drawing, and he had the other stuff down pretty tight...

Easy question:
Hayao Miyazaki (and maybe Hans Fischerkoesen)

I'd totally love to learn from Miyazaki. Except one thing dude...Miyazaki isn't dead. In fact, he's directing an upcoming film right now. :p
Hence you broke the rules of this thread.

By the time Mickey came around, Walt had stopped animating. Prior to that, on the Alice comedies and some of the Oswalds, Walt did animate.

But he was an animator then. So I stick by my Walt Disney answer! :)

I'd totally love to learn from Miyazaki. Except one thing dude...Miyazaki isn't dead. In fact, he's directing an upcoming film right now. :p
Hence you broke the rules of this thread.

Ooops ...
Seems I haven't read the first post in this thread clearly. :rolleyes: Thought the person could be dead - or alive.
Yeah ... I'm very excited about "Gake no ue no Ponyo". I can't await the first trailer.

Edit:
Ok, if I can't choose Miyazaki I would choose Hans Fischerkoesen (Verwitterte Melodie, 1942).

I have to go with Otto Messmer. Clampett and Emile Cohl are my runners-up.

I'm also impressed by David's scholarly choice of Tytla: not your typical fanboy pick.

I'd have to chime in with Milt Kahl... I'd like to watch him animate Shere Khan. He studied tigers and their movements so much, he didn't use any live action reference for him.... just sat down and drew him. Amazing.

I'd like to learn from every member of Termite Terrace too. Just to be there must have been an experience.

Contrary to what is often believed, Walt Disney himself did not actually animate. Infact, he considered himself a poor drawer. I'm not going into my "The Illusion of Life" to find the exact sentence, but it was something along those lines.

Disney COULD draw. Just check out a recent Cartoon Brew for some of his sketches:

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/disney/disney-in-argentina-1941

I find them really appealing, but it's easy to understand how he wasn't good enough to do the more detailed and realistic stuff he ended up moving the studio towards, combined with the fact that he was really needed other places.

Disney COULD draw. Just check out a recent Cartoon Brew for some of his sketches:

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/disney/disney-in-argentina-1941

You call that "drawing"?

Windsor McKay, hands down.

Walt Disney of course. :)

Me!!! Oh wait, I already do that, and I'm not dead yet. :D
Chuck Jones. Yeah, totally Chuck Jones.

Aloha,
the Ape

Bill Tytla .

Milt Kahl.....to see just how demanding he was. And of course to learn alot ;)

....and/or Fred Moore, Before he fell off (aka when he taught the Main Disney guys their stuff)

Easy question:
Hayao Miyazaki (and maybe Hans Fischerkoesen)

I agree with Ape, first it would be me, because I don't get the chance to do a whole day of animation anymore. And second because I miss those days when I did.

I also agree with Chuck Jones. I would have loved to see him at work.

Walt Disney of course. :)

Contrary to what is often believed, Walt Disney himself did not actually animate. Infact, he considered himself a poor drawer. I'm not going into my "The Illusion of Life" to find the exact sentence, but it was something along those lines.

I do love Miyazaki San... but the old Disney animators were the pioneers... Hard choice. I might also have to go with Milt Kahl, but then again there's always Chuck Norris...

not intentionally taking this train off the track, can i share a quick Walt story that I love? ok? ok. So, Walt asked Ub Iwerks, the original artist that did Mickey and various other characters to create a fun signature for him, using his original signature. Ub did what you may see on older movies, like the Snow White poster below:

So Walt copied Ub's version of the signature when he signed autographs and wrote checks out to the electric company. Years later, he wanted to update it again and asked another artist to take that signature and pep it up. Hence the following:

So he started using that as his signature. Sooo...long story, still long. Walt's final signature was a copy of a copy of a copy of his own signature.

Contrary to what is often believed, Walt Disney himself did not actually animate.

Didn't he animate in the very early days?

If not Walt Disney, then I'd have to say any of the nine old men.