WHAT’S INSIDE

• PRE-VISIT CHECKLIST AND HELPFUL HINTS

• HANDOUTS TO PHOTOCOPY

• LESSON PLANS, VOCABULARY AND RESOURCES

• IMPORTANT INSTRUCTIONS FOR CHAPERONES

ACMEACME

ARTist Tours

sponsored by:

KIA Tour Program

sponsored by:

DECEMBER 12, 2009 TO

FEBRUARY 21, 2010

Thank you for scheduling a tour at the

Kalamazoo Institute of Arts.

A successful tour starts well before the

students board the bus. Please review this

educator’s guide carefully and help us make

your students’ visit rewarding and

educational!

PACKETPACKET

EDUCATOR’SEDUCATOR’S

IT’S “THE ART OF

WARNER BROTHERS

CARTOONS” DOC!

KALAMAZOO INSTITUTE OF ARTS

314 S. Park St. ● Kalamazoo, MI 49007 ● www.kiarts.org

Exhibition Sponsor: Tyler-Little Family Foundation, in memory of James C. Tyler

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□ Recruit chaperones! One adult is required for every 15

students (2nd-12th grade) and every 10 students (pre-K-1st

grade). Please share the enclosed How to be a Great

Chaperone handout with your adult volunteers so they

know what will be expected of them.

□ Transportation! Groups must arrange their own

transportation. Ask us about busing stipends.

□ Name Tags! It is so helpful when docents and museum

staff can call each student by name. Use large, bold printed

letters.

□ Pre-visit student preparation!

• Visit the KIA a few weeks before to familiarize yourself

with the layout, including restrooms, classrooms, etc.

Note where the exhibitions are located. A personal visit

is crucial if you have any concerns about exhibition or

tour content. Please call 349-7775, ext. 3162 for an

appointment with KIA staff.

• Read through the pre-visit/post-visit activities listed

in this packet and decide which are best suited for

your students.

• Work with students on completing assignments

before the visit. Review Museum Manners.

• Please inform the KIA Museum Education staff if your

group has an assignment or will need extra time in

the galleries following their tour.

• Familiarize chaperones with any assignments so they

can assist as needed.

• Please bring the proper materials for students to

complete their project: pencils only and paper with

something hard to write on. Students may sit on the

floor or stools can be made available with advanced

notice.

□ Discuss the tour with

your students. Round out

the experience with

some post visit activities.

□ Evaluate! Fill out the

Tour Evaluation form and

return in the envelope

provided.

Museum Visit 101: A Checklist

Day of Visit Checklist A docent or KIA staff member will greet your group,

review Museum Manners and then each small group will

be assigned a docent and dismissed into the galleries.

□ Oops! We’re late! Please call the KIA at 269/349-7775 if

you will be late. As groups may be scheduled back to

back, a late arrival could shorten your visit. Docents will

wait no more than 20 minutes. After that time we

reserve the right to cancel or shorten your tour.

□ Name Tags! Have them? Are your students divided into

the number of groups as specified on the tour

confirmation?

□ Chaperones! Make copies of How to be a Great

Chaperone.

□ Camera? You may take photos outside or in the lobby.

Photography is not allowed in the galleries.

□ Gallery Shop! Remind students that the KIA Gallery Shop

is not included as part of the visit.

□ Museum Manners! Please review one more time.

□ Coats, backpacks, umbrellas and roller shoes are not

permitted in the galleries. Please leave them on the bus,

weather permitting or in bins located in the lobby.

□ Let’s be early birds! Please arrive at the South St.

entrance at least 5 minutes before the tour begins and have

students organized into the proper number of tour groups.

Before the Visit (2-3 weeks):

After the Tour

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To be a great chaperone, you don’t need any special knowledge—just

common sense and a willingness to jump in and get involved. Here are a few

tips to make this visit successful:

• Introduce yourself to your group and your docent.

• Stay with your group during the tour and assist the

teachers and docent.

• Follow and help remind students of the KIA’s Museum

Manners.

Classes tour in small groups of 10-15 students. Each group is led by a museum docent, a specially trained

volunteer tour guide.

As tours move through the museum, chaperones help keep the group together. They remind students of

their Museum Manners if needed and are good role models during the tour. Chaperones are ready to help

the docent if asked.

Thanks for being part of your group’s guided tour. Your participation will help make your school’s visit to the

Kalamazoo Institute of Arts fun and educational. We invite you and your family to visit the KIA again!

How to be a Great Chaperone

1. Do not touch any of the art because it is fragile and the oils on your

fingers (even if your hands look clean) will make the work of art dirty. If

everyone touched, the art would be ruined, and now one would be able

to enjoy it. We want it to last as long as possible.

2. Please walk in the museum. We do not want you or the art to get hurt.

3. Use quiet voices during your tour; other people are trying to enjoy their

visit too.

4. Stay with your group. Be ready to look carefully and

think about what you see. Your docent will ask you to

share your ideas about the works of art.

5. Gum, food and drinks are not allowed in the galleries

because spills could damage the works of art.

6. Please do not lean on walls/cases as you might lean into a work of art or mark the walls.

KIA Museum Manners

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“A small child once said to me: ‘You don’t draw Bugs Bunny, you draw pictures of Bugs Bunny.’ That’s a very profound observation because it means he thinks that the characters are alive, which, as far as I’m concerned, is true. And, I feel the same way about animation...Animation isn’t an illusion of life. It is life.”

Chuck Jones

W arner Bros. released their first cartoon on April 1, 1930. During the next twenty years, Warner

Bros. became the dominant studio creating animated short subjects and many timeless

characters including: Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, Tweety,

Sylvester, Marvin the Martian, and Pepe LePew, who now claim international recognition.

Warner Bros. developed in the shadow of Disney in the early 1930s and its first cartoons were Disney

imitations created by ex-Disney employees. Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising banded together to make their

own cartoons under the name “Harman-Ising” Productions. Leon Schlesinger came on board as the

moneyman who had connections to Warner Bros. Schlesinger sold Harman-Ising to Warner Bros., with

Schlesinger as director and Warner Bros. as distributor. By the mid-1930s, more talent was hired and Warner

Bros. began to dominate the cartoon short market while Disney continued to focus on feature-length

cartoons.

Where did Looney Tunes come from? When Harman-Ising Productions was sold to Warner Bros., the

company stipulated that each cartoon produced should include at least 1 full chorus of a song from Warner

Bros.’ vast musical library. Looney Tunes was the name given these early cartoons. Warner Bros. was so

pleased with the success of Looney Tunes, that is commissioned a second series of monthly releases, which

were called Merrie Melodies. These early cartoons were Disney-derived and formulaic to the point that it is

sometimes difficult to distinguish one from another.

By 1933, money disputes between Schlesinger and Harman and Ising split the group and Schlesinger was

forced to find new talent to fulfill the Warner Bros. contract. Friz Freleng, and Bob Clampett were among the

first hired, taken from Harman-Ising and Disney, respectively. Tex Avery joined from the Walter Lantz studio

(creators of Woody Woodpecker) and Chuck Jones rounded out the group. Together they developed a new

style of cartoon-making built on enthusiasm and a desire to do new, wild and imaginative things. With

unusual characters and often irreverent humor, these talented individuals ushered in a new era of animated

cartoon shorts.

HISTORY OF WARNER BROS. CARTOONS

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Fred “Tex” Avery

joined Warner Bros. as

a director in 1935. Leaning away

from the imitation Disney cartoons that every

other studio in Hollywood was producing, Avery made fun of

animated cartoon traditions, lampooning fairy tales and creating off-beat

wise guy characters. Avery introduced Daffy Duck in 1937 and directed ‘A

Wild Hare’ in 1940, the cartoon which crystallized the personality of Bugs

Bunny. Though he left the studio in 1942, his wacky attitude continued to be

an inspiration to Warner Bros. animators for years to come.

Mel Blanc performed the voices of Bugs

Bunny, Porky Pig and Daffy Duck and all the

classic Warner Bros. characters from 1937

until his death in 1989. Signed to an

exclusive contract in 1941, Blanc’s amazing voice characterizations also

included Foghorn Leghorn, Pepe Le Pew, Marvin the Martian, Tweety,

Sylvester, Yosemite Sam and the

Tasmanian Devil.

Chuck Jones began his career in

the early 1930s as a cel washer at

Ub Iwerks studio. Advancing to

animator at Warner Bros., under

director Tex Avery, Jones worked

on the earliest Porky Pig cartoons. Promoted to director in 1930,

Jones was instrumental in developing Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, and

Daffy Duck as well as setting the fast-paced tone of Warner Bros.

cartoons in general. Among his other creations, Jones is known for

the Road Runner, Wile E.

Coyote, Pepe Le Pew, Michigan

J. Frog and Marvin the Martian.

Carl Stalling composed music for Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks before

joining Warner Bros. in 1937, where he remained until his retirement in

1957. His scores combined popular songs, obscure tunes, classical music,

and his own original compositions into abstract, fast-paced arrangements

which perfectly fit the zany moods of the cartoons.

THE ZANY CREATORS

OF WARNER BROS.

Animated cartoons are created through

collaboration. Directors, animators, voice

talents, writers and musicians work together to bring these animated cartoons

to life. Meet some of the Warner Bros.

creators.

Text from: www.animationusa.com

Research other WB creators like Bob Clampett, Friz

Freleng and Robert McKimson! They’re dethpicable!

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HOW ANIMATED CARTOONS ARE MADE

Writers, directors, animators, composers, voice actors,

etc. meet and look at the storyboards for each new

cartoon. A storyboard is comprised of numerous small,

rough sketches, that would map out the cartoon’s

story. These sketches were created by the writers and

pinned to a board so that it was very easy to make

changes. One 6 minute cartoon usually required 150

sketches!

After the storyboard is laid out the backgrounds are made.

Backgrounds are painted on cardboard or celluloid (film)

with tempera, acrylic or sometimes even oil paints. The

backgrounds are the “landscape” in which the characters

are moving. The camera follows the characters as they

move across the background.

Model sheets−studies

of characters in

various poses−were

drawn, copied, and

distributed to all

artists working on the

characters. No one

artist drew all the

character’s actions for

a whole cartoon.

Before the drawing of the characters begins, the voices of the

characters are recorded on tape and then transferred to magnet film.

The film is fed through a sound reader and every syllable is recorded

on an exposure sheet. This is necessary to synchronize the sound and

the picture. Each frame of film must be synchronized separately.

Music and other sound effects are added after the film is almost

complete.

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The completed cels are laid one by one over the background and

each is photographed on an animation stand. When the film is fed

through a projector at a fast rate, the images move. Today, many

animators work almost exclusively on computers. It is still time-

consuming but perhaps not as labor intensive as the traditional

animation method.

Sufferin’ Succotash! To make an 8

minute animated cartoon, you

need: 7000 sheets of paper and

celluloid, 150 sheets of cardboard

for backgrounds, 10 crow-quill

pens, 5 erasers, 2.5 gallons of paint,

3600 ft. of black and white film, 50

felt-tip pens and pencils, 20

brushes, 1/2 pint of India Ink, and

720 ft. of color film!

Every second of film consists of 24 frames with as many as 24

different drawings (faster movements require more

drawings). The initial black and white drawings are all

photographed and fed through a projector to make sure that

the movement of each character is smooth, including the

synchronization with the voices.

If the movements pass quality control, the drawings are

copied onto plastic sheets called cels (short for celluloid). The

lines are traced in ink and the colors are added on the

reverse side so that the colors appear even when viewing

from the front. Before cels, each frame of film was a

completely new painting with the character and background

painted each time.

Text from: ezinearticles.com/Cartoons and news.softpedia.com/news/

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LESSON PLANS AND CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

Materials: Acrylic Paints, brushes, Acetate transparencies (heat safe, for copiers), sketching paper, sharpies,

toothpicks, tape, thin, cotton gloves (optional)

HOW TO CREATE AN ANIMATION CEL: Animated cartoons are created with cels. Short for celluloid

acetate, a cel is made from a clear plastic material that the characters are painted on. Each cel represents

one frame, or one movement of a character in a film. There are 24 frames per second that are photographed

in succession and create the illusion of movement.

Process:

Step 1: Draw a single panel cartoon on a notebook sized piece of sketch paper. Finish and tighten the

drawing by darkening the lines with sharpie marker.

Step 2: Photocopy the darkened line drawing onto a heat-safe, copier transparency.

Step 3: Turn the ink-side or line-side of the transparency over because you don’t want to paint over the

image outline. Paint the cartoon using acrylic paints. Begin by filling in the drawing’s smallest details first.

You’ll need a very small brush. Wait for small areas to dry.

Step 4: Fill in a large area with a larger brush. As you fill in each large area, you’ll need to wait for that area to

dry before filling in another area.

Step 5: If you make a mistake, use a toothpick to clear away any excess paint. As you paint, keep turning over

the cel to make sure that the colors are where you want them to be in relation to the image lines. You may

need to wear a glove to prevent oil getting on the acetate surface. You can also paint a whole background on

the acetate or you can paint a background on a separate piece of paper and just paint the figures on the

acetate. Then layer the acetate over the painted background.

From www.ehow.com

For more tips: http://animation.about.com/od/recommendedreading/ss/tradanimsupply.htm

FLIP BOOK ANIMATION: Flip Books are a type of animation made with multiple sheets of paper, showing a

series of pictures that changes gradually from one page to the next. Flipping the pages create the illusion of

movement for the viewer because of the “persistence of vision”. When the pages are seen in rapid

succession, they become animated. Flip Books evolved from thaumatropes, zoetropes and other early

devices of the 19th century that utilized the illusion of movement to delight and entertain.

Objective: Students will depict movement using simple flip book techniques and will be able to define basic

animation vocabulary: (persistence of vision, key frames and tweening ). See page 11 for definitions.

Introduction: Begin lesson by having students view Winsor McCay’s Gertie the Dinosaur (view on-line or DVD

available at KPL). In 1914, Gertie’s enormous bulk and lovable, innocent nature won audiences’ hearts,

establishing a beginning for the animated cartoon. After viewing, lead a classroom discussion about the

characters and animation.

Possible discussion questions: Why is Winsor McCay considered one of the first true animators? What do

you think McCay would think about the uses of animation in contemporary media? Describe the scene where

we see the stacks of paper that McCay used to draw his animated character. He needed so many drawings

because to trick the eye into perceiving smooth movement, he had to draw about 10 different frames per

second (FPS), meaning the viewer sees 10 different images every second.

Have students view other examples of student-made flip books on-line. You can also buy professional made

flip books such as those found on www.fliptomania.com or www.opticaltoys.com.

From www.teachanimation.org/pdf/Flipbooks.pdf

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Materials: long strips of paper (2x8 in.) for 2-page flipbooks, index cards (at least 10/student for multiple

page flip books), pencils, markers, light table (to help view preceding image-can also use window),

registration devices such as clips or envelope corners

Getting Started with 2 page Flip Books!

Step 1: Fold a long strip of paper, about 2x8 in., in half.

Step 2: Lift up the top layer and draw an image near the bottom of the bottom layer. Using a fine tip black

marker will make the images easier to see, but color pencil can also be added.

Step 3: Lay the top layer back down and look closely to see the image underneath. Trace it again, changing

slightly its size, position or shape.

Step 4: Roll the top layer around a pencil and hold the paper down firmly at the top fold. Rolling the pencil

back and forth will reveal the images in rapid succession to create a quick, easy animation.

Creating Multiple Page Flip Books with Tweening

Step 1: Number all your index cards(10 is recommended) and begin drawing near the bottom of page one,

the first image of the flip book. Then draw the final image of the sequence. Stack the first and last images

together.

Step 2: Find the card that is numbered exactly halfway between the first and last images, and place it on top

of these two, in a stack. Using a light source (window or light table) to see through all three cards, draw on

the top card an image that approximates the midway point between the first and last images. These three

cards (first, middle, last) are considered the key frames that will be used to create the in-between

“morphing” or “tweening” stages.

Step 3: With each successive drawing, you will fill in the cards halfway between the ones you have already

drawn, until all have been done. As you fill in the cards between the important key frames, it is important to

check your numbers and put cards back in order every now and then to make sure the images align well and

the motion is progressing properly. The in-between cards represent the “morphing” stages and should have

minor alterations to produce continuous movement.

Step 4: To see the results of your flipbook, place the cards back in sequential order, tap them gently on a

surface to align them at a slight angle, then hold the book/index cards in one hand so that you can flip

through the pages with the other.

OTHER POSSIBLE CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

Language Arts: Sequencing

• Watch a Warner Bros. cartoon as a class.. Have students write the main actions and put them in order (or

provide them a list of the main actions that they put in order). Assign students to illustrate one action in a

simple drawing on a small piece of paper and assemble all the pieces in order to create a storyboard.

Science: Motion and Animation

• Have students research persistence of vision and the theories about this phenomenon. Students can work

in groups and present their findings. They can also try to make thaumatropes or phenakistoscopes to

illustrate what they learned.

• Students could also research new computer animation technologies and try to create their own computer

animated cartoon.

History

• Students can research the story of Warner Bros., its cartoons, the history of animation/animated cartoons

and even research other animation companies like Disney, Hanna-Barbera, Pixar, etc.

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Animate: to make, design, or produce (a cartoon) so as to create the illusion of motion.

Animated Cartoon: a motion picture consisting of a photographed series of drawings.

Animation: the art and process of preparing animated cartoons.

Animator: an artist who prepares or produces an animated cartoon.

Cartoon: a sketch or drawing, usually humorous which symbolizes or satirizes some action.

Cel: short for celluloid, a cel is a sheet of plastic upon which characters are painted for an animated cartoon.

The cel can be laid over various backgrounds and photographed.

Director: a person who oversees every aspect of the creation of an animated cartoon, from the story idea to

the final timings and synchronization of image, movement and sound.

Key Frames: frames containing important changes in the subject of animation; i.e. changes in the drawing,

changes in the set up, background or important stages of movement, etc.

Persistence of vision: a theory that as the eye sees a series of still images very quickly, our eyes have sensors

that retain each image for a moment, making us perceive the series as one continuous image. Animated

cartoons work on the basis of this theory.

Storyboard: a giant sized comic strip that describes the developing story for an animated cartoon.

Tweening: the process of filling in the frames between the key frames in an animation so that transitions are

smooth and correlate to the number of frames per second required for a particular scene. Also called

“morphing.”

VOCABULARY AND ANIMATION RESOURCES

Books on Warner Bros. available at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts

Beck, Jerry and Will Friedwald, Warner Bros. Animation Art: The Characters, the Creators, The Limited

Editions, 1997.

Jones, Chuck. Chuck Amuck: The Life and Times of An Animated Cartoonist, 1989.

Books on Warner Bros. available at the Kalamazoo Public Library

Adamson, Joe. Bugs Bunny, Fifty Years and Only One Grey Hare. 791.43 A221

Beck, Jerry and Will Friedwald, Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the

Warner Bros. Cartoons 791.43 13394

Lenburg, Jeff. The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. 791.43 L563.1C

Who’s Who in Animated Cartoons: An International Guide to Film and Television’s Award-

winning and Legendary Animators. 791.43 L563.2

Levitan, Eli L. Handbook of Animation Techniques. 788.5 L666

Maltin, Leonard. Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons. 791.43 A221

Schneider, Steve. That’s All Folks!: The Art of Warner Bros. Animation. 791.43 S359

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Animation Resources

Beck, Jerry. Animation Art: From Pencil to Pixel, The History of Cartoon, Anime and CGI. 791.43 A598

Jenkins, Patrick. Animation: How to Draw Your Own Flipbooks and other Fun Ways to Make Cartoons Move

J 778 J (Juvenile)

Korkis, Jim. Cartoon Confidential: Everything You Always Wanted to Know. 741.2 K85

Nardo, Don. Animation: Drawings Spring to Life. 778.5 N224 YP (for teens)

Sacks, Terence J. Opportunities in Cartooning and Animation Careers. 741.2 S1219

Solomon, Charles. The History of Animation: Enchanted Drawings. 791.43 S689

Videos

Chuck Jones: Extremes and In Between (A Life in Animation), 2000.

The Library of Congress and Smithsonian Video presents Origins of American Animation: 1900-1921.

How Walt Disney Cartoons are Made- //www.youtube.com/watch?V=mhfp628zlcI

Websites

www.animationusa.com

http://www.bcdb.com/cartoons/Warner_Bros_ (Big Cartoon Database)

www.answers.com

http://www.warnerbros.com/ (Official Warner Bros. website)

http://looneytunes.kidswb.com/ (Warner Bros. cartoons and games for kids)

www.museum.tv (Museum of Broadcast Communication)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warner_Bros.

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