Paper Dreams: The Art And Artists Of Disney Storyboards

Historian John Canemaker takes a look at the lives and careers of the artists in the Story Department at the Disney Studio past and present. This volume starts out explaining how stories for the films were developed from the earliest days. Chief topic is how the storyboard process was invented, which has been used by both animation and live action studios since. Early on Walt insisted on using images as opposed to text when developing the stories for films.Individual story men are then discussed and how they worked with each other in the story department. Walt Disney is first and foremost acknowledged as the master storyteller, which his colleagues and historians all agree on. Chief among the story personnel profiled are Ted Sears, Webb Smith, Pinto Colvig, Roy Williams, T. Hee, Carl Barks, Homer Brightman, Harry Reeves and many more.Renowned storyteller Bill Peet has a chapter solely devoted to him.The section on Pinto Colvig gives some insight on why he left the studio for a few years.It's interesting that some of the artists that were profiled in "Before The Animation Begins" are profiled again here (i.e. David Hall . There is some overlap with the concept art and story sketches as some of the artists worked in both capacities. Like Canemaker's previous entry, this one ends with the story department in the present day (at the time of publication)Practically every page is packed with story sketches which are so captivating and full of vitality. There are even entire pages filled with storyboards. This is one of the few Disney art books that has lots of great images and great text.Hopefully this will be brought back in print.The Story volume of the Disney Archive series makes a good compliment to this volume.

Your browser does not support HTML5 video.  Paper Dreams is an oversize book about the storyboards and artists working for Walt Disney Studios. The author John Canemaker has provided great depth through his research and writing compared to the other book on storyboard that I have,  Walt Disney Animation Studios The Archive Series: Story (Walt Disney Animation Archives) .Published in 1999, the book takes a close look at the storytelling department of Disney, from where storyboards were created -- sketches on the floor of Webb Smith's office were pinned to the board for the first time. John Canemaker has loaded the book with lots of quotes from Walt Disney, the animators and story artists, providing insights into the storytelling process. The evolution of storyboards and their relevance are laid out to us, as each animated short gets progressively longer until full length movies were created.There are chapters on profiles of story artists and their work. The more famous ones include Bill Peet, Joe Ranft, Joe Grant, Chris Sanders, among many others. We're introduced to their personal style of storytelling, their characteristics and interaction with other artists. There are many interesting stories like how Walt would criticise storyboards so as to improve them, a process which was called "plussing", or how different artists would defend their boards against critiques from others.In addition to the commentary, the book's also filled with original storyboard scans from the library, photographs and paintings, all selected from their impressive archive from 1930s to the late 1990s.There's a lot to be learned from the book, highly recommended to animation fans, art students, Disney collectors and pop culture enthusiasts.(More pictures are available on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)

As my title says, this book is about the history of storyboard and not about it's craft. It is excellent, huge and with obscure information about how it developed until today.However, if you are an animator or a filmaker and want to learn about how to make a good storyboard, this is not the book at all. That is really the true message in this review, since I know a lot of people will look forward to it in this way.As a history book it is just great, showing early disney scripts from walt himself, and recalling early anecdotes about the craft in the studio

This book arrived in prestine condition. It is a Christmas gift for my husband, so I had to peek inside to ensure it was something he would want. Boy is he going to really enjoy this book. The hardcover is nice and makes a great impression. Thanks again for the fast shipping and great condition.

If the Disney American Animated Film has one stigma, is the belief that it is made for childern. Mr.Canemaker's book disproves that notion by recounting stories by those lucky few that got to meet Walt,work with him and put his "Dreams" on "Paper" before they were made a reality on film. We are privy in the world of Walt Disney and the people who put his ideas on paper only to have Walt think that they could be better than that.The book is filled with instances of Walt cursing-four letter words and all,when his Soryman ideas did not cut the mustard. Why should they since Walt "was his own best storyman." We get to meet the men that were up to par with Walt-T.Hee and Bill Peet. But these man could be considered Lucifer to Walt's Christian God-those who wish to be better than him or take his place would end in Hell, which in a sense they did. Finally, lets not forget the geniuses Walt himself dealt with-Salvador Dali and Orson Welles. If there was anyone that could top Disney himself ,it was Orson,as described by Walt Himself.

Too often in animation titles, the storyboard element is relegated to a minor footnote. This book presents a wonderful insight to the creative process of animation film making. Many animators and students collect resource material from feature films, and storyboard examples are rare and treasured items. As a storyboarder myself, I was in awe of the beauty and clarity of these works, many I was seeing for the first time. However, anybody with an interest in art or animation will enjoy this book. It is an amazing and definitive collection.

I bought this book as a gift to my husband who is a 3D animator and storyboard artist. He loved it.

A nice book on storyboards from the artists at Disney...very nice!