Pat Sullivan Reveals How to Make Cartoons

Felix the Cat was at the height of his career in 1928. Then, something happened.

Sound.

Mickey Mouse’s Steamboat Willie debuted at the Colony Theatre in New York City on November 18, 1928. It wasn’t the first sound cartoon but its adept marriage of image and sound was greeted with enthusiasm by theatre-goers, and the ensuing publicity had other cartoon studios quickly incorporating sound into their cartoons.

Except the studio that made Felix the Cat. Educational Pictures dropped distribution. By the time Felix studio owner Pat Sullivan realised his mistake, it was too late. The major studios weren’t interested in the cat any more and a small company named Copley Pictures tried to find theatres willing to play new Felix cartoons.

Sorting out Sullivan’s involvement has been messy over the years with experts claiming he didn’t even create the character in 1919. It’s conceded Sullivan had next to nothing to do with the animation, he had a good staff which included Bill Nolan (who rounded Felix’s design), George Cannata, Al Eugster, pioneer Raoul Barré and Otto Messmer, who receives most of the credit for Felix these days. Sullivan showed up when the media came sniffing around for an interview.

Thus it is Sullivan was ready to take credit when Amateur Movie Makers magazine did a story on how to make an animated (silent) cartoon. The story was published in its January 1928 issue with poses aplenty of the world’s most famous animated cat.

Animated MOVIE MAKING for AMATEURS
By Marguerite Tazelaar
Illustrated by
PAT SULLIVAN STUDIOS
ACCORDING to Pat Sullivan, creator of Felix the Cat cartoons, the amateur can make animated movies by providing himself with proper equipment, and by choosing the right kind of scenario or story.
While it is necessary to recognize certain limitations in making animated pictures, they may, on the other hand, serve as a vehicle for particular types of entertainment which nothing else suits so well.
The amateur, Mr. Sullivan believes, should choose at the outset either a comic strip or a mechanical device for his animation. The comic strip, such as Felix represents, hinges on burlesque or take-off for its effect, and often achieves a sharpness and satire in which living actors fail. For purely educational purposes the animation of complex or detailed types of machinery serves as no other medium can. It shows step by step the details of a machine and the way it works.

Most of the equipment the amateur needs he can make himself. He must have, first of all, a camera that will enable him to expose one frame at a time, because when he comes to photograph his drawings, he will need for each change one or more single exposures according to the action. For instance, a man rubbing his head necessitates a single exposure, then double, then single again, in order to get the movement smooth and life-like. Felix, walking normally across the screen, takes two exposures for each drawing.
If too many drawings are made, the picture lags; if too few, the picture is jerky and stiff. To hit upon the right amount is an art, gained only from experience. A good plan is to make a short film for the first attempt, judging as best one can the requirements of the drawings. When this is screened the amateur will find many points where he can correct his faults and thus build up his films, by degrees, to perfect animation.
The first step is the making of an animating stand on which to place the drawings as they are being made. This is simply a wooden frame, rather like a triangular box on which the cover is at a slanting angle to the base. In the centre of the cover a hole is cut, about 12 by 9 inches in which a piece of glass is inserted. Beneath it is an electric bulb. The paper or celluloid upon which the drawing is to be made is now placed over the glass and attached to the frame by brass pins. The animating stand will have, of course, the same dimensions as the title stand. After the electric light has been switched on in the animating stand, the amateur is ready to begin his drawings, which he will later place on his title stand to be photographed. Next, the camera or title stand must be obtained. This may be horizontal or vertical, as shown in an accompanying photograph. In the vertical stand, the camera is supported above the drawings (see "Animation Data," Amateur Movie Makers, August, 1927, page 35). The drawings are placed in a frame similar to the animating stand already described, with the exception that the frame is perfectly flat, so that it will lie parallel to the camera lens. A horizontal stand may be used if it is more convenient. The basis of construction is the same, the only difference being that the camera is placed at one end of a base board and the stand to hold the drawings parallel to it at the other end. The size of the stand and distance of drawings from the camera are governed by the type of camera the amateur uses and the distance he must place the lens from the drawings to insure proper size and focus on the film.

With reference to the plan of his drawings, Mr. Sullivan says, that, first of all, the characters must be determined upon. He has found after years of experiment that a small, doll-like figure is best for an animal character. He should have a head about the size of a nickel, a pear-shaped body about the size of a dime, legs and feet that resemble rubber hose, squatty, thick, and stubby. He should be black in color for black gives solidity, other characters will vary.
Having figured out a character, it is now necessary to plan a story for him. Felix is motivated always by his desire for food and comfort. He is the most ingenious cat in the world when it comes to finding means to these ends. He can make a black-jack out of his tail, or a fiddle, or an airplane. He can pull lanterns, sealing-wax or kettles out of his pockets, but never food; for this he must always forage.
It is better, according to Mr. Sullivan, to use an animal as a central character or hero, for this gives him the power to do things people can't do. and to burlesque the human race, generally. Such a hero can go to Mars in the twinkling of an eye, or tunnel through the earth to China, at the drop of a hat.
If mechanical type of animation is to be made, such as the inside of an engine or a piston, there is no story, of course. Drawings need simply to be made of each movement of the mechanism.
Now comes the actual work of making the drawings. The amateur must decide first which portions are to be stationary, that is, to be used for backgrounds, or scenery, and which are to be straight action drawings. Of course, the action drawings will always be those in which movement is shown, which means generally, the action of the central figure across the screen. The stationary drawings, making up the backgrounds, must be drawn on celluloid. They should also be drawn high on the screen so that the central character can pass below or above them.
For instance, when Felix walks over a bridge in front of a schoolhouse, the schoolhouse is drawn on a celluloid screen, and is drawn high on the screen, leaving the lower portions of it empty, unless a few scattered objects are put at the extreme lower edge, such ac- stones or a bit of shrubbery. In this case Felix will pass between the schoolhouse and the shrubbery as he walks over the bridge.
The straight action drawings, that is the movements of the central figure, are always made on paper, and for each movement a separate drawing is made. Therefore Felix walking across the bridge will mean a set of drawings, each showing progress in his movement, and all made on paper.
All drawings should be made in black ink, and it is better, as was noted before, to make the central character in solid black. When other figures are used (this will make the picture more complicated for the amateur) the same rule will be followed as that already laid down stationary figures or objects, must be made on celluloid, and moving figures must be made on paper.



In the illustration showing Felix reading about card tricks, the head is drawn on paper and the eyes, hands and book on celluloid, because in this closeup his head remains in the same position throughout the scene while his eyes rove up and down the pages and the book changes positions. Much labor in drawing is saved in this way.
Sometimes two celluloids need to be used in making up backgrounds. Two may be used, but never three or four because of the difference in the density between the celluloids and the paper drawing when the two are being photographed on the title stand.

Mr. Sullivan estimates that an interesting animated story could be told in about 75 feet of 16 mm. film. This footage should be divided into approximately twenty scenes, which means the average scene would be about three and one half feet. To give an idea of the amount of work which this will involve it should be remembered that there are forty frames to a foot of 16 mm. film, so each average scene would require about 140 exposures, although this does not mean there must necessarily be 140 different drawings or parts of drawings, as has been pointed out above. For such a seventy-five foot story the total number of exposures required would be 3,000. This program can, of course, be varied with the individual plan. In beginning it would be quite sufficient to animate one scene only, splicing this short piece of film into any reel for convenience in projection.
Mr. Sullivan advises against over production for the amateur. He says, the motive or skeleton of plot should always be in mind before work on the picture starts. The location should be decided upon, and the whole thing written out for clarity.
The animated movie has become possible only during the last decade. It was Mr. Sullivan, in fact, who perfected it and made Felix famous in the animated field. It is still difficult to secure experts in this work. The amateur experimenting with animated cartoons may eventually find rich awards awaiting him, should he switch over into the professional ranks, and especially if he should hit upon a character whose antics take the public's fancy.