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Scientifilmaker, v. 1, issue 1, May 1938
Page 1
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MAKE YOUR OWN CARTOON MOVIES. By James V. Taurasi A few years ago, I saw in Popular Mechanic, an article on how the movie cartoons are made. This interested me very much. I had (and still have) an old Keystone, 35 mm. toy movie projector. There also was a fil (film?) laboratory near where I live, which used to throw away many feet of improperly developed or otherwise defective film. The celluloid itself was in good condition, but the pictures on it were of no interest whatever. I used to pick them up for nothing at all, and bring them home for use in my projector as a pastime. However, I soon lost interest in merely showing these worthless films, and the article in the mechanical magazine finally decided me on trying to make some animated cartoons for myself. These succeeded much better than I thought. I cleaned the old emulsion off the films I had obtained from the film laboratory. This was done by wetting the film, a foot or so at a time, and rubbing them with a cloth till the pictures came off. After the film is thoroughly washed off, there are no marks on it except the perforations along the side. Lines are drawn on the films a certain distance apart in order to divide it in frames. The movie film contains hundreds of these small frames, each of which is a complete picture in itself. These pictures are all slightly different, and thus when they are showed rapidly one after another, the illusion that the subject moves is obtained, while all that is actually seen is a series of pictures one after the other at approximately sixteen frames per second. It is thus that we have to draw lines across the film so as to separate the pictures that we are going to draw. Leave about three feet of the film free, so that it can be set in the reals afterwards and still be seen from the beginning. This entire process depends for its success (on?) the accurate timing of the film as it passes through the projector. Since these toy projectors are hand operated, the operator can run the film through very carefully, and this manually correct the slight defects that will naturally be found in our amateur effort. Begin the drawing by dividing the films into frames for the reason stated above. Draw a line between two of perforations or small holes found on the sides of the film. Count four or more holes, and draw another line between this fourth hole and the fifth. Start over again, this time counting the fifth hole as number one, and again draw another line after the "new" fourth hole. This separates the film into small squares in which the cartoons will be drawn. Of course, drawing these gets very tiresome, and is a tedious operations, so it would be advisable to draw the lines on about a foot or so of the film at a time, the draw the cartoons in these frames until all the frames already made are filled. Then divide another foot or so of film, and draw in the cartoons, and repeat the operation until the picture is complete. Now for the cartoons themselves. It is impossible to draw any complicated details. You can't do it! That is important. Do not try it or you will end up with a mess that will be undecipherable when you come to show the picture. Draw something like this: (Actual size) [picture of a stick man] for a man.
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MAKE YOUR OWN CARTOON MOVIES. By James V. Taurasi A few years ago, I saw in Popular Mechanic, an article on how the movie cartoons are made. This interested me very much. I had (and still have) an old Keystone, 35 mm. toy movie projector. There also was a fil (film?) laboratory near where I live, which used to throw away many feet of improperly developed or otherwise defective film. The celluloid itself was in good condition, but the pictures on it were of no interest whatever. I used to pick them up for nothing at all, and bring them home for use in my projector as a pastime. However, I soon lost interest in merely showing these worthless films, and the article in the mechanical magazine finally decided me on trying to make some animated cartoons for myself. These succeeded much better than I thought. I cleaned the old emulsion off the films I had obtained from the film laboratory. This was done by wetting the film, a foot or so at a time, and rubbing them with a cloth till the pictures came off. After the film is thoroughly washed off, there are no marks on it except the perforations along the side. Lines are drawn on the films a certain distance apart in order to divide it in frames. The movie film contains hundreds of these small frames, each of which is a complete picture in itself. These pictures are all slightly different, and thus when they are showed rapidly one after another, the illusion that the subject moves is obtained, while all that is actually seen is a series of pictures one after the other at approximately sixteen frames per second. It is thus that we have to draw lines across the film so as to separate the pictures that we are going to draw. Leave about three feet of the film free, so that it can be set in the reals afterwards and still be seen from the beginning. This entire process depends for its success (on?) the accurate timing of the film as it passes through the projector. Since these toy projectors are hand operated, the operator can run the film through very carefully, and this manually correct the slight defects that will naturally be found in our amateur effort. Begin the drawing by dividing the films into frames for the reason stated above. Draw a line between two of perforations or small holes found on the sides of the film. Count four or more holes, and draw another line between this fourth hole and the fifth. Start over again, this time counting the fifth hole as number one, and again draw another line after the "new" fourth hole. This separates the film into small squares in which the cartoons will be drawn. Of course, drawing these gets very tiresome, and is a tedious operations, so it would be advisable to draw the lines on about a foot or so of the film at a time, the draw the cartoons in these frames until all the frames already made are filled. Then divide another foot or so of film, and draw in the cartoons, and repeat the operation until the picture is complete. Now for the cartoons themselves. It is impossible to draw any complicated details. You can't do it! That is important. Do not try it or you will end up with a mess that will be undecipherable when you come to show the picture. Draw something like this: (Actual size) [picture of a stick man] for a man.
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