My latest creation, the African Queen Jungle Cruise Inspired Boat!

The African Queen is finally alive after spending a few months developing it. Well actually, It was originally planned as a whole Jungle Cruise scene with the boat in the river. After spending a few weeks playing with different designs, it dawned on me that the real jewel of that ride isn’t any of the scenes you experience but actually the ride vehicle itself. This propelled me to pause the scene design and put my focus on the boat itself.

Every time I visit Disneyland, I always stop into the shops to check out if there’s any new “high end” merchandise for that attraction and I’m always left disappointed. I think they should have nice collectibles of every attraction vehicle.

These are the machines that float us into lands of excitement and wonder kind of like the scene in Willy Wonka where they go on the boat ride or the Wonka mobile. If the journey is the destination, then these attraction vehicles are the transformative and memorable catalysts that keep propelling us forward. Every time we take ride into these attractions, we go with those close to us such as friends, lovers, and family. We’re all experiencing the same thing in a small enclosed vessel. Even with strangers, it’s fun and memorable.

So this is why I developed the African Queen, simply because I wanted one and now you can have one as well.

Now onto the next project!

-Jacob

Haunted Mansion Now Available

This is the Disneyland Haunted Mansion inspired product that I developed this past November. It’s now available over at VINYLSMACK.com Each MULTIPLANES measure roughly 5” x 7” x 2.75” and is packed with super intricate laser cut graphics. I love the immersive nature of this art form that I’m pursuing. It truly is the next best thing to actually being there in person. One day I imagine that I’ll get these outsourced but for the time being, I design, produce and assemble all of these by hand; even down to the hand painted rails. Happy Haunts are now available!

Available at: vinylsmack.com

Thoughts on Animation

“Animators are really actors and actresses with pencils. Their stage is a blank piece of paper, and their performance must not only make a character move, but also bring that character to life.”

I came across this quote recently and was reminded of why I love animation so much and in particular, the animation that came out of the Disney Animation Studio. It’s taken from a general information document on applying to be a Disney animator. If you’ve ever seen animators sketch or illustrate, you know that they’ve achieved an acute level of control in their craft. It really is an amazing thing to witness. They are very precise and are able to convey movement, expressions and enough detail with simple line work. As the predominant character motion is locked in, the animator’s drawings get further refined.

Whenever I think about traditional hand-drawn animation, I marvel at the work involved and the inception of the craft. Walt Disney and his animators were creating something amazing. They were spearheading a new frontier in the world of film which itself was still new. Mickey Mouse was introduced in 1928, just over a decade since the birth of the film industry in California. The films that would follow would set a new benchmark that other companies would never match. They were the masters of animation. I read somewhere that over 300,000 drawings were used for Pinocchio. For every second of film that passes, 24 drawings have elapsed on screen. This includes the drawings and paintings of the characters and the background paintings. When you stop to think about this, it really is astounding.

The great artists, sculptors, and architects from the Gothic, Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque traditions had their time in the sun and left the world masterpieces to be revered for thousands of years. With animation though, something new was born. For the first time ever, a select group of artists began to develop something the world had never seen; living drawings. Through the guiding hand of Walt Disney and his core animators, the “9 old men,” the world witnessed still drawings come to life. This was their craft and they developed it to lofty heights.

Animation was done so skillfully that in real time, you couldn’t even see the inner workings that made these drawings come to life. On screen, characters convey movement, emotion, comedy, and drama. Because they were only limited to their imagination and the skills attained over the years, they were also able to make these characters defy the laws of physics and used this to deliver comedic gags and give human-like qualities to animals. Remember, 24 drawings for every second. The High Renaissance of the 1500’s in Italy might have had the “Masters” but for about 50 years in the 20th century, we had Walt Disney and the 9 old men of Burbank, California.