The Animating Process: From Ideas to the Big Screen
Based on Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston version, retold by me.
Think: Put your ideas in order. Plan out how the scene will look, and get your ideas straight in your head.
Thumbnails: Draw small sketches that work out the poses in the scene. Solve problems if you see them.
Mechanics: Check the perspective and size of the characters to each other and to the background.
Solve: Work out your special animating problems, such as complex camera angles, here.
Check: Double check your layout, poses, staging, et cetera.
Big Picture: Enlarge the thumbnails to full size.
Life: Here's where the emotions, dialogue, and all the aspects that give the character "life" come in.
The Recording Process: Cameras and Such
According to Walt Disney, the creation of the multiplane camera was "very simple" and had "satisfactory" results. And he was right; explaining the process is very simple and easy to understand. The characters' movements, are printed on transparent sheets. As the background moves behind them, they stay in place, giving the illusion of movement once each specific drawing is photographed.
The trick to the multiplane camera is layers. For example, when walking, objects closer to you appear to become larger as you get nearer, while generally further objects become larger more slowly. The multiplane camera overcomes "the flatness" of traditional drawings, giving the pictures depth. It seperates the different layers so they can each move individually. Which each shot seems just as flat as the prior, once in motion, it seems realistic.