How Were Animated Movies Made Before Computers

A sketch of the "ice palace" set in the 1965 picture Dr. Zhivago. Filming took place in the middle of the summer in Soria, Spain. Product designer and illustrator John Box sprayed everything on the sets in hot white wax, and so splashed the wax with buckets of common cold water to simulate frost and ice.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/Courtesy of the Art Directors Lodge
One of the pivotal scenes in the 1958 picture Vertigo took identify in the bell belfry at the San Juan Batista Castilian Mission in San Francisco. Unfortunately, a real bong tower did non exist on the property, then i had to exist created.

Alfred Hitchcock Productions/Paramount Pictures/Courtesy of the estate of Henry Bumstead
A matte painting by creative person Matthew Yuricich depicts the Vandamm house in the 1959 suspense film Northward past Northwest. Production designer Robert F. Boyle took inspiration from Fallingwater, the residence designed past Frank Lloyd Wright.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/Courtesy of the Fine art Directors Social club
This sketch by product designer and illustrator John Box depicts the Arab army's advance on Aqaba in the 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia. With a budget of $12 million, all sets were congenital on location, not on studio lots.

Horizon Pictures/Courtesy of the Fine art Directors Guild
William Cameron Menzies, art director and illustrator for the 1924 picture The Thief of Bagdad, began his career as an illustrator of children's books. He would go along to become the first credited "production designer" for his work on Gone with the Wind. Sketch by Pamela Lausen.

Douglas Fairbanks Pictures/United Artists/Courtesy of Pamela Lausen
This sketch illustrates how production designer John DeCuir imagined Cleopatra's barge for the 1963 epic.

Twentieth Century Play a joke on/Courtesy of John DeCuir Jr.
The absenteeism of water was the visual motif for Chinatown, a 1974 picture nigh the boxing for water rights in drought-stricken Los Angeles. In a higher place, a sketch by production designer Richard Sylbert and illustrator West. Stewart Campbell.

Courtesy of the Richard Sylbert Estate

Many of today'south blockbusters wouldn't exist without the assistance of calculator generated imagery — call up Avatar or Lord of the Rings. But movie magic long predates computers — in one case upon a time, long earlier the digital historic period, scenery and special effects were crafted entirely past human hands.

Designs on Film: A Century of Hollywood Art Management
By Cathy Whitlock
Hardcover, 400 pages
It Books
List Price: $75

In her new book, Designs on Film, produced with the Art Directors Order, journalist and interior designer Cathy Whitlock explores the past century of fine art management and the artistic effects that take lit up the silvery screen.

Tricks Of The Trade

Have for case the cinematic magic of the film Dr. Zhivago. The epic saga of dearest and war during the Russian Revolution is set confronting the snowy backdrop of the streets of Moscow and the steppes of Russia.

"I tin can remember seeing that film years agone and freezing in the theater," says Whitlock. "I mean, y'all just felt the coldness of that whole gear up — and ironically, that was filmed in the summer in Spain on a sound stage."

Dr. Zhivago production designer John Box and his crew used visual tricks to transform the set into an authentic Russian landscape. To create Zhivago'south abandoned state manor that had frozen within and out, Box constructed an opulent ice palace. (You can see the sketch for the water ice palace in the photograph gallery to a higher place.)

Dr. Zhivago is full of frigid scenes gear up against snowy Russian backdrops. "I can remember seeing that pic years ago and freezing in the theater," says author Cathy Whitlock. The flick was filmed in Spain, in the middle of the summertime. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer hide caption

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Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Dr. Zhivago is full of frigid scenes set against snowy Russian backdrops. "I can remember seeing that motion picture years ago and freezing in the theater," says writer Cathy Whitlock. The motion picture was filmed in Spain, in the heart of the summer.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

"They would literally spray all the architecture, the chandeliers, the interior furniture, with hot wax, and they'd pour cold h2o on it to create that water ice effect," Whitlock says.

The hardened white wax — glistening with water and sprinkled with marble dust — created a frigid and hit cinematic scene.

Without digital effects, art directors relied heavily on their own inventiveness, and new materials. The art deco designs of the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies of the 1930s featured streamlined trip the light fantastic toe floors fashioned with an early on form of plastic.

"The floors were made with a material, which was new at the time, called Bakelite," Whitlock explains. "The dance floor was very hard to maintain, of class — all the high heels were constantly scratching the floors."

Every bit the proverb goes, Rogers did everything Astaire did backwards and in heels — and much to the chagrin of the prepare crew, they were loftier-scuffing loftier heels.

"They had to go dorsum and re-smooth them between takes," Whitlock says. "Information technology was a high-maintenance material."

The absence of water was the visual motif for Chinatown, a 1974 flick about the battle for h2o rights in drought-stricken Los Angeles. Above, a sketch by production designer Richard Sylbert and illustrator Due west. Stewart Campbell. Courtesy of the Richard Sylbert Manor hide caption

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Courtesy of the Richard Sylbert Estate

The absence of water was the visual motif for Chinatown, a 1974 film about the battle for h2o rights in drought-stricken Los Angeles. Above, a sketch by production designer Richard Sylbert and illustrator W. Stewart Campbell.

Courtesy of the Richard Sylbert Estate

In Chinatown, Roman Polanski'due south 1974 classic, a private detective becomes mired in the boxing for water rights in drought-stricken Los Angeles. The film's production designer, Richard Sylbert, made water — and its absence — the movie'southward visual motif.

"You had to accept parched mural. You had to have colors that reflected this parched landscape — hay, harbinger, orange-red, dark-brown. ... Watch[ing] that movie, y'all became thirsty," Whitlock says.

Shot nether a cloudless white heaven, the only green in the film's landscape occurs on lawns owned by rich people. Yous had to have money and ability to exist able to bring water to your property.

For the 1976 flick All the President's Men, production designer George Jenkins and his crew meticulously re-created the Washington Postal service newsroom. The Post sent the filmmakers boxes of newsroom trash so that the papers strewn across the gear up's desks would await accurate. Warner Bros. hide caption

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Warner Bros.

For the 1976 film All the President'southward Men, production designer George Jenkins and his coiffure meticulously re-created the Washington Post newsroom. The Post sent the filmmakers boxes of newsroom trash so that the papers strewn across the set'south desks would look accurate.

Warner Bros.

The Art Of Actuality

"Picture show designers are narrative artists who translate the screenwriter'due south concept into visuals that you can shoot," says Thomas Walsh, president of the Art Directors Guild. And fine art directors and set designers will become to extraordinary ends to brand a scene wait accurate — specially when their job is to re-create something that actually occurred.

For the 1976 film All the President's Men — about the uncovering of the Watergate scandal by reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward — product designer George Jenkins and his crew meticulously re-created the Washington Post newsroom. The team did their inquiry at the paper'south real part in Washington, D.C., Whitlock says.

"They literally itemized, measured, photographed and detailed every square inch of that newsroom. It was actually incredible," she says. "The Post sent them boxes of trash, a lot of papers, government directories, mail service, things that they could use for authenticity to spread across the desk on the Burbank sound phase."

Walsh says art directors spend countless hours foraging for artifacts to brand the magic of movies look real. They're "cultural anthropologists," he says.

The yellow brick road in The Wizard of Oz wasn't actually brick at all — the brick pattern was painted onto a perfectly flat flooring, and so that dancers could have a smooth surface under their feet. The Kobal Collection/MGM hide caption

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The Kobal Collection/MGM

The yellow brick road in The Wizard of Oz wasn't really brick at all — the brick pattern was painted onto a perfectly flat floor, so that dancers could have a polish surface under their feet.

The Kobal Collection/MGM

Yellowish Brick Road: Neither Yellow Nor Brick

Sometimes just looking real is all that matters. In one of the most famous imaginary places — the state of Oz — the yellow brick road was non fabricated with bodily bricks, nor was information technology originally yellow. The path in The Magician of Oz was painted onto a flat floor to make it a smoother surface for dancers. And the color?

"The story I've heard is that the initial yellow they used looked light-green in the camera test," Walsh says. "Ultimately, they went downward to the local hardware and bought their industrial xanthous paint and it seemed to piece of work simply fine."

So the problem of coloring the yellow brick road was solved, just what to exercise about Emerald City'south magical, colorful horses? Thanks to Jell-O crystals, Oz's horses were white, and then purple, then brilliant-red and yellow. Only the solution wasn't foolproof — between takes, the horses would lick off their sugary coatings and had to exist colored all over over again.

When Atlanta burns in Gone with the Wind, what yous're actually seeing is leftover sets from King Kong and The Garden of Allah gear up aflame in a lot in Culver Metropolis, Calif. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer hibernate caption

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Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

When Atlanta burns in Gone with the Current of air, what you're actually seeing is leftover sets from King Kong and The Garden of Allah set aflame in a lot in Culver Urban center, Calif.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Another horse transformed by pic magic was the poor starved Civil War horse pulling Scarlett O'Hara's railroad vehicle in Gone with the Wind. Every bit it drags O'Hara back to her plantation home, the equus caballus collapses from exhaustion.

"The original [horse] that was supposedly thin had gained weight, and his ribs were no longer visible," Whitlock explains. "They had to pigment nighttime shadows to make the horse expect gaunt."

Another special consequence in Gone with the Current of air required the burning of Atlanta. William Cameron Menzies and his team burned leftover sets from King Kong and The Garden of Allah in a lot in Culver City, Calif. Information technology is said the flames were then loftier — at times up to 500 feet — that the local fire station received multiple calls from panicked Culver City residents. The magic of movies, designed to fool the heart with fun and fakery, to become audiences to truly believe.