Disney has been a driving force for innovation in animation for over a century. While the Disney principles of animation remain timeless, the studio has always sought new processes. Its more recent 3D movies like Zootopia 2 have used advances in physically-based simulation software and tools for hyper-detailed grooming, but a lot of people are still just as impressed by an effect that's almost 90 years old.
Recently resurfacing on social media, an episode of Disneyland TV's Tricks of Our Trade series from 1957 (below) shows Walt Disney himself talking through an advance that added a revolutionary level of realism to hand-drawn 2D frame animation. While there was no computer processing involved, some people are calling it the 'OG CGI' over on Reddit.
Disney developed its first multiplane camera in late 1937. It was an enormous physical device (see the post from the Walt Disney Archives below) designed to make cartoons "more realistic and enjoyable" as Walt puts it in the video.
This "super cartoon camera" allowed animators to draw each element of a scene on a separate layer, which allowed them to be moved at different rates to create depth and parallax, removing the unnatural flatness of 2D backgrounds to make them behave more like a real-world 3D scene.
When a standard camera zooms in on a flat background, every objects grows larger at the same speed. This creates an unnatural effect, particularly in scenes with naturally distant objects like the moon, which, in the real world, doesn't appear to come closer if we walk towards it.
By putting elements on separate layers in the order of their distance from the viewer, Disney devised a technique through which elements like the moon could be kept the same size while others appear to move closer.
The OG CGI from Disney is mind-blowingfrom r/opticalillusions
One of the most iconic examples of Disney's multiplane camera in use is the opening of Bambi from 1942. By layering multiple panes of glass each painted with different elements of the forest, the camera simulated a sweeping, realistic pan through the woods.
The concept was developed for hand-drawn animation, but the concept behind it still has an influence influence today on modern compositing in filmmaking, motion design and spritework in game design.
The archive footage shows how Disney has always aimed at creating the illusion of life in animation. That perhaps makes its shift to 3D animation and live-action remakes feel like less of a pivot (see the controversy over Disney characters' same-face syndrome and the Hexed trailer).
