Bill Hanna - "Saturday Evening Puss"

This scene below from "Saturday Evening Puss" is one of my favorite musical moments from Tom and Jerry. I think Bill Hanna had a great sense of timing, and not just for musical numbers. Though I do think he was greatly influenced by those he worked with. Early in his career as director the timing of his cartoons is very similar to a Rudy Ising short. When Tex Avery started at MGM Hanna-Barbera's cartoons really started to pick up the pace much like Tex's shorts. Here's a couple of paragraphs from Bill Hanna's biography on timing:

Timing a cartoon is a partly mathematical and partly intuitive process. In studying the markings indicated on the metronome, I was able to determine that when the metronome clicked at a rate of 144 beats per minute, every beat represented ten frames of film. Using the index of twenty-four frames a second in animation movement, I figured that a twelve beat was half of that, so every time it clicked it would be twelve frames. Using that multiple I marked on my metronome for a ten beat, twelve beat, fourteen beat, sixteen beat, and so on to setting the tempo of, for example, a character’s walk by coordinating the action in frames to the beat of the metronome.

Such an axiom was fine for some things. In others, such as timing the facial reaction of a character, a double take, or some other comedic or dramatic bit of action, you just had to rely on your intuitive sense of timing and know how long you wanted to hold that look on their face, or other bit of business the action calls for. Then it becomes something that is felt more than precisely measured. You see it, you feel it, and somehow you just know if it is right or wrong.

Drunkards Timed To Music

Here's some clips of drunken cartoon characters timed to music. All four of these Lantz clips were directed by Dick Lundy, one of my absolute favorite directors. I love cartoons that are timed to music but these clips are particularly fun, at least I think they are. I love how they stumble about only to gather themselves or fall or spin right on the beat. I would think this would've been a nice challenge for the animators. One of my goals is to animate an entire short set to music, but I've got a lot of learning and practice to do before I try my hand at that. Oh, be sure to check out Fred Brunish's great backgrounds in the "Pixie Picnic" scene. So bright and cheery. I'm working on picking some screen caps for a Fred Brunish post. Enjoy the clips.

The Bandmaster-Drunkard

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Pixie Picnic-Drunkard

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Musical Moments-Drunkard

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Sliphorn King Of Polaroo-Drunkard

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Cartoons and Timing to Music

The timing of cartoons to music is a subject I've been spending a lot of my time on. I should really be drawing instead, but it's something I really want to learn and be able to put into practice. Here's some short scenes that I particularly like and have been studying closely, along with many others. I didn't include any Tom and Jerry clips only because I'm going to do a separate post on Bill Hanna, who is really one of the best at timing to music, at least in my eyes he is.

This first clip is Shamus Culhane's animation from the Disney short "Hawaiian Holiday". Culhane, to me is one the best at timing to music. I think a lot of his cartoons at Lantz Studios really stand out because of his feel for music. Watch this scene with the sound off and then with it on to see how effective his animation was.

Culhane-Hawaiian Holiday

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This clip from Dick Lundy's short "Banquet Busters" is more subtle. The rhythym is used to accent actions. Watch when Wally Walrus first starts walking with the platter, even the steam puffs out on the beat. I wonder if Lundy indicated that on his bar sheets or of the animator worked that out on his own?

Banquet Busters

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This dance from Milt Gross' "Jitterbug Follies" is just great. (Is this not one of the funniest cartoons ever?)

Jitterbug Follies

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Another one from Dick Lundy, this one's from "Apple Andy". I could watch these apple cores dance all day without ever tiring of it. Even when they first scramble around and about is right on the beat. Could anyone tell my why every Culhane and Lundy short from Lantz isn't out on DVD!?!? I love them.

Apple Andy

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This dance from "Mickey's Birthday Party", animated by Ken Muse (ID by Thad) just floors me. I think it's perfect, so entertaining. It actually made me like Mickey, who I disliked for many years.

Mickey's Birthday Party

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I don't have to say anything about any scene from "Coal Black", it's just pure entertainment. Clampett certainly had a feel for jazz.

Coal Black

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Bar Sheet Template

Someone left a comment on my post about timing to music asking if I could post a template of the bar sheets that I'm using. So here it is in PDF format, save yourself some time and just right-click and "Save As". I'm sure there's a better way to format a bar sheet but this has been working for me. Happy timing!

Timing Animation To Music - 2

I've been reading the comments and links on musical timing posted on the Animation Archive and I think it's really starting to make sense to me now. If you haven't checked them out go to Mark Mayerson's and Hans Perk's posts on musical timing, it's really helping me make sense of it. I'm sure I'll struggle with the concept for a while but I was stuck on a scene and after reading these posts I was able to sit down with just a metronome, actually it was just some freeware and figure what beats per minute the song I'm timing to was at. I came to the conclusion that the song is at 90 beats per minute, thanks to Mark's post this equal 16 frames per beat with 2 beats per measure or 32 frames per measure. Here's the original bar sheets that I timed out.


My mistake was I broke down the beat wrong. I was kind of flip flopping from one beat per measure, or 16 frames, to two beats per measure, 32 frames. That's why I was having so much trouble timing out some of the action. The song is only going to be played for 15 seconds, that would equal 360 frames. The frame count above the action for each measure falls way short of that. I was sitting here wondering what I did wrong. Once I determined what the right beats per minute is, it became surprisingly easy and most importantly accurate. Here's the new bar sheets I timed today.



Since I now had the beats per minute and frames per measure I was able to sit down at my kitchen table without the song or even a metronome, just thinking of the song in my head and keeping the beat, which was like saying 1-2, 1-2, and following the action from the storyboard to time out the scene. This method of timing is gold. If you look at the last measure, the charcater is spinning for eight frames and then he slaps into a pose and holds it for the remaining 24 frames. It's like counting 1-and-2-and-1-and-2, further breaking down the beat. The reason is the song comes to an abrupt end during the first beat, on the "and". If I was to time it the way I had started timing this cartoon I would spent so much time moving key poses around until I placed it in the right frame. I timed the short scene out in a matter of minutes, and I'm just a novice. More importantly, is that is totally accurate. I didn't believe that I had timed it right so I checked it in Flipbook. I imported the song, listening to it slowly frame by frame while following the bar sheets. The steps for the walk were on the beat every 16 frames as timed and all the other actions would line up in sync with the song. I don't know if I'm really doing it totally correct but I do know that I got the result I wanted. It's amazing to me that here's something I tried a while back and got stuck on and put on the backburner popped up and with just a handful of comments and blog postings that people have shared that I'm alreay pointed in the right direction. Stephen Worth really needs to be commended, or given a badge or at least a nice shiny gold star for sharing those Ising bar sheets and encouraging people to discuss the topic. I can't believe I missed Hans' post back in May, that's about the time I started to get interested in timing this way. I'm going to start trying some other scenes to really get this down but I think this really open up some new ideas for me. I hope that sharing my mistakes and how I corrected them helps someone who's just starting to learn this like I am, and thanks again to all the professionals who shared their knowledge of the subject.

Timing Animation To Music

One of my favorite directors, Dick Lundy timing a cartoon.

Here's a topic that I am so glad popped up on the Animation Archive blog, musical timing. One of the reasons I haven't moved forward with my own short that I've been working on is that I've been trying to learn how to time the animation to music, along with just learning how to draw better. Unfortunately, I haven't come across to much information on the subject other than two short chapters from Shamus Culhane's book "Animation From Scipt to Screen", so the post on the Archive along with the comments are already helping me to clear up some things. I've played bass/upright bass from years and even took lessons from a one time Atlantic records session player, Jerry Jemmott who played with Aretha Franklin, King Curtis and B.B. King and his whole "thing" was about the groove. Which was great because I love funk. Needless to say though I never learned to read music as he felt it wasn't as important but I do have a good sense of rhythm, I'm hoping that will serve me well learning to time to music. I've scanned a couple of bar sheets from Hanna Barbera'a MGM cartoons Officer Pooch and Tee for Two. There just a handful of bars but there's a wealth of information in them. Sorry they're not the best quality the originals I scanned were quite small. Plus some bar sheets from a scene in my own cartoon that I've been trying to time properly. If you're knowlegeable on the subject please feel free to leave some comments/tips, they'd be much appreciated.

Here's the scenes from Officer Pooch that correspond to the bar sheets.

Officer Pooch scenes14-16

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The scene I have been timing starts with a short walk/goofy jig set to a Jack Shaindlin tune "Fun On Ice", Hanna Barbera fans will no doubt recognize it. The whole walk/dance is 15 seconds. I started by listening the track and catching the beat and trying to get the beats per measure. I timed it as a march with the beat being 1-2, 1-2, etc. for each measure. I had two beats per measure. I don't know if this is musically correct but I've kind of internalized the timing where it's made sense to me. I then imported the track into Flipbook. I noticed the down beat was every 8 frames which would coincide with each step. Starting at frame 12 then 20, 28 and so on. Being able to see the music and the frames has been helpful.



This worked out great for the walk since each step is on the down beat. Each meaure was two beats with 16 frames to each measure. My problems arose when the character jumps, this to the action that will follow will take 24 frames to complete. But in the next measure it's right back to 16 frames for each foot landing and then a pose each timed to some rhythmic brass stabs.



The problem grew worse when the action that followed did not stick to the beat like a walk would. The beats per measure work when just listening to the music but it seems my timing fell apart when trying to put it to animation. I'm guessing it would be simpler to time it as 24 frames or a second per measure.



I think that the way classic cartoons were timed to music is one of the biggest differences between cartoons then and today. Watch a sneak or tip-toe walk in an old Warner's or MGM cartoon and it's perfectly in sync with the music. It brings them to life, sets a tempo, and builds tensionas not to bore the viewer. I don't think every second of a cartoon needs to be set to music or even have music, even songs have rests but meshing the cartoon with the soundtrack certainly makes timing and planning a cartoon easier. I'm hoping to someday be able to take a storyboard of mine and sit down with it and a metronome and just time it out and hopefully these posts on different blogs will help those of us who are interested to learn more about it. Many thanks to Stephen Worth for even posting on the subject.