Scribner and Hubley

Amid Amidi and I obviously share a love for Rod Scribner because he can't stop posting great, rare material from Rod's later career onYoutube. It's like some kinda sickness with that guy. The latest one is by far the best animation I've seen out of Scribner working in that flat 50s style. It's a Bank of America commercial that Scribner animated for John Hubley's Storyboard studio.

See that and more at Cartoon Modern's Rod Scribner section.

I was thinking about just putting the video up, but it seems like that would be a bit uncouth, I guess I should ask first, does anybody know the etiquette on that kind of stuff?

The Great Piggy Bank Robbery Scene 1

(this link was flagrantly stolen from John Kricfalusi's blog.)


While taking screenshots for this scene it became obvious to me just how good of a draftsman Scribner was. Some people think that Robert McKimson was THE great draftsman at Warner Brothers. And while no one is doubting that McKimson was a great draftsman I feel like Scribner gives him a run for his money. For evidence of this, look no further than every single hand drawn in this scene. Each one is confident, solid, simple, clearly composed, and perfectly synched up to the energy of the character. Draftsmanship like that is part of the reason Scribner's animation is so succesful, it has a real weight and volume behind the manic energy. In fact the solidity and weight that describes the majority of the characters features is a big part of the reason that Scribner's animation is so exciting. Keeping the rest of Daffy's body unexaggerated, brings forward that one distorted feature tenfold. Not only that, but the whole time, even the exaggerated features are solidly drawn, and thus, believable. This is why, on some levels, Scribner suceeds where another hero of mine, Jim Tyer, fails. With Tyer's work every part of the body is manic, the arms are out of control, the body is out of control and the head is out of control. This comes out to be thrilling to watch, but with that kind of animation the star is the animator. However, in Scribner's animation, the character was always the star.

Great Hands:












Distorted Features Vs. Solid Ones:













Huge distorted eye and fingers vs. normal arms and body.













Distorted head and hands, normal body and legs

Here is an example of some Jim Tyer animation where everything is out of control, and the characters is somewhat weightless, hurting the characters believability.

Here is what Animator/Animation Expert John Kricfalusi had to say about this scene. (It's a post 2/3rds of the way down called "Specific Acting- Scribner, Clampett, Blanc, Foster")

So there you have it, our first scene analysis. Disagree? Have something to add? Send any and all notions on through to the comments section. And for those of you who are fans of previous comments sections, the Rod Scribner who posted a comment several days ago isn't of known relation to our main man Rod Scribner. Which is a little sad, but it kind of makes me want to start digging around in the library to find Scribner's relatives because the thought of interviewing one was greatly exciting to me. Anyway, that's all for now.

The Great Piggy Bank Robbery
Part 10



Hey everybody this is the final update for this long loooooong series of posts, too long. In the future we will try to keep such huge sets of screenshots more streamlined. And even though I feel a bit queasy about all this because I don't really feel qualified or condfident, but tommorow, along with the posting of the final animation, I'm going to post an analysis of the scene and an analysis of Scribner's animation itself as it is reflected through the scene. I doubt I will shed any new light on anything but maybe it will start a conversation that will. So, tommorow, the video and half baked commentary from your favorite team of animation historians. THE ROD SCRIBNER PROJECT!























We would also like to thank the people that have been commenting lately it really is heartening knowing that someone is getting some kind of use out of this stuff. It lights the fire under us to create a better resource for the people! BY THE PEOPLE! Anyway, your support is appreciated and valuable.