One of Frank Thomas' last animation assignments, the Chairman of the Rescue Aid Society from The Rescuers.
I love this candid photo of Frank in his office taken in 1976 or early 1977. I believe he is working on the same drawing as pictured below. Frank didn't do all of this character's scenes, but he animated the best ones. Expressive, full of personality with natural movement.
Character actor Bernard Fox provided the warm, character rich voice.
Here he is twenty years later in Titanic.
That's very cool, I didn't know Frank worked on that character.
There's a YouTube video that was released today talking about each of the 9 Old Men and their individual work on Cinderella. I think it will be a great resource to send people to as a rundown of who they are/how they animate.
thanks for sharing this...looks like he's got 5 pages flipping at one time. such great motion in his flipping...years and years of repetitive motion. Did you guys have trouble with arthritis in either your flipping or drawing hand. did you ever have to take a few days off because of hand meltdown? . I do 3d animation,and celebrate 30 years as an animator this year, and we do the equivalent of drawing and flipping with key strokes and mouse movements.I often see guys in their 20's with wrist guards on already. I keep my wrists well rounded with drums and guitar. What would you guys do? Cheers from San Diego. Fish tacos on me any time yer down this way.
I never had a problem with my hand or wrist, even during crazy deadlines. Animators draw in a loose style, it's almost like your whole arm is involved in animating a scene.
I do know that clean up artists have issues with their hand occasionally. Their line work needs to be so precise, it can take a toll.