Drawn to Life: 20 Golden Years of Disney Master Classes Volume 1

36 From the Living Model to the Living Gesture

A scene of animation is more or less a series of gesture drawings. The difference is that an animator’s drawing is likely to have some things in it that are not associated with still drawings. For instance, an animation drawing might have some overlapping action, some drag, some squash and stretch, and a stance that may be off balance, or a view that one would avoid or adjust in a still drawing. But basically the extremes in a scene of animation are gestural drawings created to fit the needs of the story.

In the case of using live action as a basis for animation, the animator soon learns that tracings of photostats will not suffice. Here is where his ability to understand and draw gestures really ...