Meet My Boss, Walter Lantz

There was an animated woodpecker on TV screens in 1957 who used to invite young viewers to “Meet my boss, Walter Lantz.” The shot would cut to the cartoon producer who’d do a little introduction and appear in between cartoons on the show. Never mind that he and Woody never appeared together on screen—matte shots like that cost money, you know—it was still entertaining.

This was far from the first time that Lantz appeared on screen, as fans of silent films should be able to tell you. Lantz animated Dinky Doodle and dog Weakheart in the 1920s for the Bray studios. In this case, the three of them did appear together on screen. Lantz’s performances wouldn’t have won him any Oscars if they had existed, but they were good enough for the shorts he appeared in.

In an article in the July 10, 1926 edition of The Exhibitor, Dinky Doodle kind of invites us to meet his boss, Walter Lantz, who explains how cartoons were made. The article only talks about the animation, not the procedure to combine it with the live-action shots of Lantz.

Dinky lasted from 1924 to 1926. Tommy Stathes has a filmography on his site.

How Animated Cartoons Are Made
By Dinky Doodle
Per Walter Lantz
NEW YORK, July 6. — Do you really want to know how an animated cartoon is made? Well, my boss was supposed to write this, but his spellin’ is so bad that he passed the buck to me, so here goes.
Of course, you have seen me and my side partner, Weakheart, do our stuff on the screen and wondered how we moved around.
Our home is in an ink-bottle at the Bray Studios and we burlesque the well-known fairy-tales; which reminds me, do you know that J. R. Bray is the daddy of the animated cartoon and has done more for its advancement than anyone in the business?
The animated cartoon field is about the only line of art that isn’t over-crowded. No matter how good an artist one may be, he would probably find it very difficult to animate cartoons. There aren’t any practical schools that teach the work and the only way any one can learn to animate is to start as a tracer in a movie cartoon studio.
These places are known as studios, but take it from me, factory is a more appropriate name. Hundreds of drawings are turned out every day, but not by automatic machines. In this case, the machines are cartoonists, who must be capable of drawing from 100 to 200 individual drawings a day.



A STUDIO that produces a complete animated cartoon each week requires a staff of 25 or 30 people. These consist of six animators, who do nothing but pencil drawings, tracers who ink them in, a gag writer and a photographer. A cartoon that requires ten minutes to project in the theatre has 3000 to 4500 individual drawings.
After a scenario is written, the artist in charge distributes the various scenes among the animators, who study the action very carefully to see where they can insert a little funny piece of business. If a scene calls for an action where a man walks across a room and picks up a book, it is left to the imagination of the animator as to how the man should do this in the funniest possible way. It isn’t so much the scenario, but the manner in which each animator handles a scene that makes it funny.
The drawings are penciled on transparent sheets of tissue paper. The figures are drawn about two to three inches high. The paper has two holes punched at the top (like loose-leaf ledger paper), which fit on pegs of the same size. These pegs are fastened onto the drawing board. The artist makes his first drawing, then puts another blank sheet of paper on the pegs and draws the next position, moving it slightly forward or around, according to what the action may be.
Forty Drawings to Cross Room
If a character is to walk across a room, it requires about forty drawings, moving each one a quarter of an inch. If the character is to move faster, he is spaced one-half inch, or if he is to run, he is spaced one inch. The animator must use his own judgment as to how far apart the drawings are to be spaced. The slower the action, the closer the spacing. He must be careful also not to space them too far apart or the action will be jerky.

AFTER a scene is animated, in pencil, it is turned over to the tracer. The tracers are generally young art students who have ambitions to become animators. They trace the pencil drawings with India ink on sheets of celluloid, the same size as the paper and punched at the top so as to fit the pegs. Celluloid is such a long word to use, that we have a pet name for it, “cels.” A “cel” is laid over a penciled drawing on the pegs and the tracer inks it in. He has to be very careful that the lines register perfectly or the figure will “shimmie” all over the screen.
Tracing eliminates a lot of work. If a figure is to raise his arm from downward position, the animator makes the first drawing of the character, which is called the “model.” Then he only animates the arm, fitting each one to the “model.” The tracer then makes a “cel” of the figure, minus the arm, and puts the arms on another set of “cels.” When this action is ready to be photographed, the model “cel” remains on the pegs and each “cel” of the arm is photographed with the “model.” Where a figure talks, the animator makes five or six drawings of the heads only, and one drawing of the first position complete. The tracer inks in the heads on a set of “cels” and makes a “cel” of the figure, minus the head.
After the tracer has inked in the entire scene, it is then passed on to other people, who fill in the blacks, such as shoes, coats, etc. On the reverse side of the “cel” the figures are then painted with a white opaque water-color paint. This is done so that when a “cel” is photographed on a background which has furniture, etc., in it, the objects will not show through.
When the scene is blackened and opaqued, it is ready to be photographed. The animator receives the scenes he animated and writes a chart showing how many exposures each drawing gets.
The scene and the exposure chart are then given to the cameraman. A regular motion picture camera is used, which is suspended three feet over a table with the lens focused on the table. A set of pegs, such as were used on the drawing board, are fastened on the table directly in line with the lens of the camera. The camera has an automatic crank, operated by a motor. When the photographer pushes a button, the camera takes one picture. The illumination is furnished by two Cooper-Hewitt lamps, suspended on each side of the camera so that the light is centered on the drawings.

THE background is then placed on the pegs. This remains so throughout the scene. The “cels” are then photographed one at a time, as marked on the exposure sheet.
It isn’t necessary to photograph each scene in continuity, as the cartoon is cut and assembled when it comes back from the laboratory. It requires three days for one man to photograph a complete picture.
The next time you see an animated cartoon, just think of the poor animators, who sat up nights drawing it, and think how much better off they would be if they had become bricklayers. And that’s that.