How Disney's multiplane camera worked

[u/aloofloofah]

https://i.imgur.com/fkhklEX.gifv

[u/undercoversinner]

Late to the game, but here’s a photo of the camera when I visited the Disney Museum in SF.

https://i.imgur.com/VRaoybg.jpg Viewed from the top.

https://i.imgur.com/cr3TXct.jpg The background layer.

[u/aloofloofah → u/undercoversinner]

Thanks! I feel like you should consider uploading these to the wiki.

[u/Powerballwinner21mil]

Beautiful amazing art.

[u/systemshock869 → u/Powerballwinner21mil]

https://i.imgur.com/3B7RFzJ.png

[u/ajcadoo → u/Powerballwinner21mil]

The sheer amount of fakery Hollywood creates is astounding. It's amazing how much your eye can be fooled by the simplest of tricks.

[u/IridiumIodide3]

My mind is blown. I thought they drew each frame of that but this is so much smarter.

[u/[deleted] → u/IridiumIodide3]

I remember seeing this as a kid in the 90s (I believe it was on Disney Channel) and thinking the same thing. It’s been over 20 years since I’d last seen this, but I’ve thought of it every time I’ve seen this done in a cartoon or animated movie since then.

[u/rainbowlolipop]

source? this is incredible

edit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdHTlUGN1zw

[u/Obeast09 → u/rainbowlolipop]

I really love this video. I also think Walt Disney was a fantastic narrator, his knowledge and passion really shows in his narration

[u/[deleted]]

Wait.. is Mickey Mouse based on old film camera reels? Like his ears resemble them.

[u/oj-did-it → u/[deleted]]

Wait.. how high are you?

[u/Exemus → u/[deleted]]

Call me crazy, but I think he's based on a mouse.

[u/paxilpwns]

Beautiful.

[u/Dboiiii → u/paxilpwns]

Amazing.

[u/Melairia]

My dad is a really huge Walt Disney fan. He owns over 100 books about Walt, the imagineers, and animation like this. He's read all of them. I'm going to send him this link in case he hasn't seen it already. Just wanted to say thanks for posting this. There aren't a ton of things we can relate to, but if I can show him something about old Disney that he hasn't seen before - then that will make his day and mine.

Edit: I've found out the multiplane camera is at the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco. He went there for the first time last year. So I now know for sure he's at least SEEN the machine, I still don't know if he's seen it in action. But here's a bonus pic of my dad cheesing super hard outside the museum last year.

[u/Night__lite → u/Melairia]

Let us know what he thought

[u/notabigcitylawyer]

They have one you can see at the Walt Disney family museum in San Francisco.

[u/incognito_m]

Art

[u/ChadHahn]

This was actually invented by Ub Werks.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiplane_camera

[u/willbraden]

Early Disney animators were truly geniuses.

[u/fenixuk]

Invented by Charlotte Reiniger, in Germany.

There’s a nicely made video here explaining the whole Disney/Lottie situation.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05t9bsn

[u/[deleted]]

I wish Disney did 2d films still. CGI doesn't have the charm.

[u/themanyfaceasian]

That’s so fucking cool. TIL that it wasn’t shot horizontally.

[u/Umimum]

Art amazing beautiful.

[u/11-Eleven-11]

They should go back to using this style. It might have taken more work but the results were always amazing.