While I do appreciate CG animated and stop-motion films, I still like traditional animation the most and am always eager to learn more about it, particularly given how rare it can be to see a Western traditional animated film these days. One of the less appreciated, at least from a mainstream audience, aspects of traditional animation was the use of multiplane cameras, an important revolution when it came to the production of animation.
Let’s start by describing what a multiplane camera is. The multiplane camera is actually a setup which sees a camera placed facing down at the top while beneath it are several layers, each containing drawn artwork which are carefully transparent at key locations. They are then moved at different speeds while shots are taken frame by frame. It’s a complicated and labour intensive process but the benefits and applications are remarkable.
A form of the multiplane camera was first used in Lotte Reiniger’s The Adventures of Prince Achmed in 1926 but the modern form was established by Walt Disney Studios with the intent to use it for their then upcoming feature film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. However, its first use was actually a Silly Symphonies short called The Old Mill where it served as a test run for the technology, something with which it was so successful that it ended up winning the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1937. As you can imagine, this success led to not only Disney using it for their films but most other animation studios also using multiplane cameras.
As for how it improves animation, by far and away the most notable is the creation of the illusion of parallax. For instance, if you want to do a tracking shot in an animated work, you’d establish layers to represent, for example, the foreground, middle ground and background. As the shot moves, the foreground layer will move the fastest, the middle ground will move more slowly while the background will either move very slowly or be completely static. This technique also allows you to create an image where different layers are at different levels of focus, thereby creating the illusion of depth.
Of course, there’s plenty of other applications for multiplane cameras as well. By having the background move in the opposite direction of the foreground, you can create a sense of the camera spinning around while using lights and reflections on the bottom layer could create an effect like the sun, stars, the glistening surface of water etc. These techniques and the technology continued to be used in traditional animation until relatively recently when digital animation rendered multiplane cameras obsolete. However, I think it’s important to remember and appreciate this technology that gave us so many wonderful animated works throughout the 1900s and can be fascinating to observe in rewatches.
Let me know your thoughts on multiplane cameras and how important they were in traditional animation, whether you were aware of the technology and techniques before, other examples of techniques multiplane cameras granted access to, what you think of the transition from physical animation to digital and any additional information you might have on the topic.
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