Fagin’s Trike

Even though every frame of 3D animation for Oliver and Company was plotted on paper, xeroxed on cell, hand painted and shot on a traditional down shooter animation camera, the Walt Disney CGI team were looking ahead to the future of 3D rendered models. These two “out take” test images were taken with a traditional film camera pointed at the monitor showing a color look up table that had gone nutz. In both images you can clearly see the curve of the monitor in the upper corners.

Syke’s Limo

Fagin’s Trike designed by Barry Cook was a polygonal based model built by Tina Price using Wavefront Technologies. It was a hybrid Vespa, shopping cart and roadway caution sign that was challenging to model due to the assemetrical shapes that attributed to it’s rickety signature design. The trike was not just a mode of transportation, it was a character uniquely defined by how it looked and moved. Above are hiddenline removal printouts that would later include hand drawn 2D character animation and ropes in production.

A little bit of trivia. Syke’s Limo was also used upside as the head of the villian steam shovel that tried to eat Lipstick in the 2nd 3D short ever done by Disney called “Oilspot and Lipstick”. Originally created for the 1987 Siggraph Electronic Theatre in Anaheim by the small pioneering team that called themselves the “Disney Late Night Crew” (Mike Cedeno, Fred Cline, Dave English, Tad Geilow, Burny Mattison, Tina Price, MJ Turner) and went on to be shown at Annecy and Imagina film festivals the following year.

(The first 3d short done at Disney was the “Where the Wild Things Are” test. The second was Oilspot and Lipstick and the third was Off His Rockers.)

Dave Bossert, Tad Gielow and Tina Price

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away in a corner of Walt Disney Feature Animation at 1420 Flower Street in Glendale California were the modest beginnings of what went on to be Disney’s 3D Animation department. During preproduction on Oliver and Company Tina Price and Dave Bossert shown above are gathered around Tad Gielow in front of what was the first SGI computer, appropriately named “Mickey”, running 3D software developed by Wavefront Technologies. Behind us is the state of the art 4′ x 5′ digitizing tablet. (What were we thinking?)

These acquisitions by Feature Animation were directly related to the success of the work done by Digital Supervisor Tad Gielow and Animator Phil Nibbelink who in 1983, using a dinosaur IMI computer and a manual sheet feed large format plotter somewhere in the bowels of the studio created the first 3D animation of any significance in a Disney animated feature film. The beautifully done, wonderfully integrated gear sequence inside the clockworks of Big Ben for the film “The Great Mouse Detective”. (more…)

And after the release of Oliver and Company the subway chase sequence went on to win the 1989 National Computer Graphics Association (NCGA) Special Award for the Application of Computer Graphics to Theatrical Animation when submitted independantly as a short called “The Chase”.

Oliver and Company wins the 1989 National Computer Graphics Association (NCGA) Special Award for the Application of Computer Graphics to Theatrical Animation.

The edited 4 minute segment from Oliver and Company called “The Chase” was submitted for consideration. This was the same year that “Tin Toy” from Pixar was nominated for best short film.