Multiplane camera
Encyclopedia
The multiplane camera is a special motion picture camera
used in the traditional animation
process that moves a number of pieces of artwork past the camera at various speeds and at various distances from one another. This creates a three-dimensional
effect, although not actually stereoscopic
.
Various parts of the artwork layers are left transparent, to allow other layers to be seen behind them. The movements are calculated and photographed frame-by-frame, with the result being an illusion of depth by having several layers of artwork moving at different speeds - the further away from the camera, the slower the speed. The multiplane effect is sometimes referred to as a parallax
process.
An interesting variation is to have the background and foreground move in opposite directions. This creates an effect of rotation. An early example is the scene in Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
where the evil Queen drinks her potion, and the surroundings appear to spin around her.
for her animated feature The Adventures of Prince Achmed
(1926). Berthold Bartosch
, who worked with her, used a similar setup in his 1930 film "The Idea". The first multiplane camera, using four layers of flat artwork before a horizontal camera, was invented by former Walt Disney Studios animator
/director
Ub Iwerks
in 1933, using parts from an old Chevrolet
automobile
.
His multiplane camera was used in a number of the Iwerks Studio's Willie Whopper
and Comicolor cartoon
s of the mid-1930s.
The technicians at Fleischer Studios
created a distantly related device, called the Stereoptical Camera or Setback, in 1934. Their apparatus used three-dimensional miniature sets built to the scale of the animation artwork. The animation cels were placed within the setup so that various objects could pass in front of and behind them, and the entire scene was shot using a horizontal camera. The Tabletop process was used to create distinctive results in Fleischer's Betty Boop
, Popeye the Sailor, and Color Classics
cartoons.
The most famous multiplane camera was invented by William Garity
for the Walt Disney Studios to be used in the production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
. The camera was completed in early 1937 and tested in a Silly Symphony called The Old Mill
, which won the 1937 Academy Award for Animated Short Film
. Disney's multiplane camera, which used up to seven layers of artwork (painted in oils
on glass
) shot under a vertical and moveable camera, allowed for more sophisticated uses than the Iwerks or Fleischer versions, and was used prominently in Disney films such as Pinocchio
, Fantasia
, Bambi
, and Peter Pan
.
The Little Mermaid
was the final Disney film to use a multiplane camera, though the work was done by an outside facility as Disney's cameras were not functional at the time. The process was made obsolete by the implementation of a "digital Multiplane camera" feature in the digital CAPS process used for subsequent Disney films and in other computer animation
systems. Three original Disney Multiplane cameras survive: one at The Walt Disney Animation Studios, Burbank - California, one at the Walt Disney Family Museum
in San Francisco, and one in the Art of Disney Animation
attraction at Walt Disney Studios Park
in Disneyland Paris.
Camera
A camera is a device that records and stores images. These images may be still photographs or moving images such as videos or movies. The term camera comes from the camera obscura , an early mechanism for projecting images...
used in the traditional animation
Traditional animation
Traditional animation, is an animation technique where each frame is drawn by hand...
process that moves a number of pieces of artwork past the camera at various speeds and at various distances from one another. This creates a three-dimensional
3-D film
A 3-D film or S3D film is a motion picture that enhances the illusion of depth perception...
effect, although not actually stereoscopic
Stereoscopy
Stereoscopy refers to a technique for creating or enhancing the illusion of depth in an image by presenting two offset images separately to the left and right eye of the viewer. Both of these 2-D offset images are then combined in the brain to give the perception of 3-D depth...
.
Various parts of the artwork layers are left transparent, to allow other layers to be seen behind them. The movements are calculated and photographed frame-by-frame, with the result being an illusion of depth by having several layers of artwork moving at different speeds - the further away from the camera, the slower the speed. The multiplane effect is sometimes referred to as a parallax
Parallax
Parallax is a displacement or difference in the apparent position of an object viewed along two different lines of sight, and is measured by the angle or semi-angle of inclination between those two lines. The term is derived from the Greek παράλλαξις , meaning "alteration"...
process.
An interesting variation is to have the background and foreground move in opposite directions. This creates an effect of rotation. An early example is the scene in Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a 1937 American animated film based on Snow White, a German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. It was the first full-length cel-animated feature in motion picture history, as well as the first animated feature film produced in America, the first produced in full...
where the evil Queen drinks her potion, and the surroundings appear to spin around her.
History
A predecessor to the multiplane camera was used by Lotte ReinigerLotte Reiniger
Charlotte "Lotte" Reiniger was a German silhouette animator and film director.- Early life :Lotte Reiniger was born in Berlin-Charlottenburg, German Empire, on June 2, 1899...
for her animated feature The Adventures of Prince Achmed
The Adventures of Prince Achmed
The Adventures of Prince Achmed is a 1926 German animated fairytale film by Lotte Reiniger. It is the oldest surviving animated feature film; two earlier ones were made in Argentina by Quirino Cristiani, but they are considered lost...
(1926). Berthold Bartosch
Berthold Bartosch
Berthold Bartosch was a film-maker, born in Bohemia .He moved to Berlin in 1920 and collaborated with Lotte Reiniger on her paper silhouette animations:*The Ornament of the Loving Heart...
, who worked with her, used a similar setup in his 1930 film "The Idea". The first multiplane camera, using four layers of flat artwork before a horizontal camera, was invented by former Walt Disney Studios animator
Animator
An animator is an artist who creates multiple images that give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence; the images are called frames and key frames. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, video games, and the internet. Usually, an...
/director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
Ub Iwerks
Ub Iwerks
Ub Iwerks, A.S.C. was a two-time Academy Award winning American animator, cartoonist, character designer, inventor, creator of Mickey Mouse, and special effects technician, who was famous for his work for Walt Disney....
in 1933, using parts from an old Chevrolet
Chevrolet
Chevrolet , also known as Chevy , is a brand of vehicle produced by General Motors Company . Founded by Louis Chevrolet and ousted GM founder William C. Durant on November 3, 1911, General Motors acquired Chevrolet in 1918...
automobile
Automobile
An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
.
His multiplane camera was used in a number of the Iwerks Studio's Willie Whopper
Willie Whopper
Willie Whopper is an animated cartoon character created by American cartoonist Ub Iwerks. The Whopper series was the second from the Iwerks studio to be produced by Pat Powers and distributed through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It lasted only two years; from 1933 to 1934.-History:Willie is a young lad who...
and Comicolor cartoon
Cartoon
A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...
s of the mid-1930s.
The technicians at Fleischer Studios
Fleischer Studios
Fleischer Studios, Inc., was an American corporation which originated as an Animation studio located at 1600 Broadway, New York City, New York...
created a distantly related device, called the Stereoptical Camera or Setback, in 1934. Their apparatus used three-dimensional miniature sets built to the scale of the animation artwork. The animation cels were placed within the setup so that various objects could pass in front of and behind them, and the entire scene was shot using a horizontal camera. The Tabletop process was used to create distinctive results in Fleischer's Betty Boop
Betty Boop
Betty Boop is an animated cartoon character created by Max Fleischer, with help from animators including Grim Natwick. She originally appeared in the Talkartoon and Betty Boop film series, which were produced by Fleischer Studios and released by Paramount Pictures. She has also been featured in...
, Popeye the Sailor, and Color Classics
Color Classics
Color Classics were a series of animated short subjects produced by Fleischer Studios for Paramount Pictures from 1934 to 1941 as a competitor to Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies. As the name implies, all of the shorts were made in color, with the first entry in the series, Poor Cinderella, being the...
cartoons.
The most famous multiplane camera was invented by William Garity
William Garity
William E. "Bill" Garity was an American inventor and technician best known for the his employment at Walt Disney Studios, where in 1937 he and Ub Iwerks developed the multiplane camera and where he developed Fantasound, an early stereophonic surround sound system for 1940's Fantasia...
for the Walt Disney Studios to be used in the production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a 1937 American animated film based on Snow White, a German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. It was the first full-length cel-animated feature in motion picture history, as well as the first animated feature film produced in America, the first produced in full...
. The camera was completed in early 1937 and tested in a Silly Symphony called The Old Mill
The Old Mill
The Old Mill is a 1937 Silly Symphonies cartoon produced by Walt Disney, directed by Wilfred Jackson, scored by Leigh Harline, and released to theatres by RKO Radio Pictures on November 5, 1937...
, which won the 1937 Academy Award for Animated Short Film
Academy Award for Animated Short Film
The Academy Award for Animated Short Film is an award which has been given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as part of the Academy Awards every year since the 5th Academy Awards, covering the year 1931-32, to the present....
. Disney's multiplane camera, which used up to seven layers of artwork (painted in oils
Oil painting
Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments that are bound with a medium of drying oil—especially in early modern Europe, linseed oil. Often an oil such as linseed was boiled with a resin such as pine resin or even frankincense; these were called 'varnishes' and were prized for their body...
on glass
Glass
Glass is an amorphous solid material. Glasses are typically brittle and optically transparent.The most familiar type of glass, used for centuries in windows and drinking vessels, is soda-lime glass, composed of about 75% silica plus Na2O, CaO, and several minor additives...
) shot under a vertical and moveable camera, allowed for more sophisticated uses than the Iwerks or Fleischer versions, and was used prominently in Disney films such as Pinocchio
Pinocchio (1940 film)
Pinocchio is a 1940 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and based on the story The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. It is the second film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics, and it was made after the success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and was released to theaters by...
, Fantasia
Fantasia (film)
Fantasia is a 1940 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and released by Walt Disney Productions. The third feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film consists of eight animated segments set to pieces of classical music conducted by Leopold Stokowski, seven of which are...
, Bambi
Bambi
Bambi is a 1942 American animated film directed by David Hand , produced by Walt Disney and based on the book Bambi, A Life in the Woods by Austrian author Felix Salten...
, and Peter Pan
Peter Pan (1953 film)
Peter Pan is a 1953 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and based on the play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up by J. M. Barrie. It is the fourteenth film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series and was originally released on February 5, 1953 by RKO Pictures...
.
The Little Mermaid
The Little Mermaid (1989 film)
The Little Mermaid is a 1989 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale of the same name. Distributed by Walt Disney Pictures, the film was originally released to theaters on November 14, 1989 and is the twenty-eighth film in...
was the final Disney film to use a multiplane camera, though the work was done by an outside facility as Disney's cameras were not functional at the time. The process was made obsolete by the implementation of a "digital Multiplane camera" feature in the digital CAPS process used for subsequent Disney films and in other computer animation
Computer animation
Computer animation is the process used for generating animated images by using computer graphics. The more general term computer generated imagery encompasses both static scenes and dynamic images, while computer animation only refers to moving images....
systems. Three original Disney Multiplane cameras survive: one at The Walt Disney Animation Studios, Burbank - California, one at the Walt Disney Family Museum
The Walt Disney Family Museum
The Walt Disney Family Museum is an American museum that features the life and legacy of Walt Disney. The museum is located in The Presidio of San Francisco, part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in San Francisco. The Museum retrofitted and expanded three existing historic buildings on...
in San Francisco, and one in the Art of Disney Animation
Art of Disney Animation
The Art of Disney Animation is an attraction at the Walt Disney Studios Park, located in Disneyland Paris. It first opened in 2002, along with the park, and is situated in the Toon Studio area...
attraction at Walt Disney Studios Park
Walt Disney Studios Park
Walt Disney Studios Park is the second theme park to open at Disneyland Paris, owned and operated by Euro Disney S.C.A.. It is located to the west of the hub, next door to Disneyland Park at the heart of the resort in Marne-la-Vallée....
in Disneyland Paris.