franandaj
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Animating The Disney Parks
Continued with Herb Ryman
Now just to preface this a little bit, the panel folks must have made the assumption that we all knew who Herb Ryman was, either that or I was so furiously writing notes that I missed this part of the presentation and didn't get pictures or notes. But Herb Ryman was the guy that Walt hired to draw the original map of Disneyland. Before coming to Disney, Ryman was an established artist and had exhibited in Los Angeles and New York.
One of Herb Rymans pupils was John De Cuir Sr. He was an Hollywood Art Director and Production Designer known for his elaborate set designs that were illustrated with his own watercolor paintings.
The two of them evidently collaborated on a few productions otherwise they would not have mentioned him.
Eddie Sotto did most of the talking during this part of the session. When he first met all these legendary imagineers Eddie was working elsewhere but declined to state where. Eddie admitted that Herb really didnt like his work, but he was willing to work with him to make it better. When Eddie finally got hired at Disney, his first gig was to do Main Street in DLP. Everyone told him that Herb would never work with him, but to everyones surprise, he helped Eddie out with some concepts. I guess by the time that Eddie was hired Herb had either somewhat or formally retired.
Herb was a place master, remembered Sotto.
Back in 1985 both Ryman and Marc Davis went to work for Landmark Entertainment on a Six Flags theme park project called "Phineas T. Flagg's Power Plant", located at Baltimore, Maryland. It was called Phineas T. Flagg's Power Plant as the theme park location was a historic power plant, near the the waterfront. Marc Davis - who retired from Walt Disney Imagineering in 1978 - and Herb Ryman worked on the project design. The main character, Phineas T. Flagg, was a fictitious magician and Herb Ryman did his design, the one you can see below.
Herb Ryman worked also on other Landmark Entertainment concepts. He did this bird's eye view painting below for what was - believe it or not - a "Monopoly" theme park project.
Here are some pictures of Eddie and Herb during the collaboration process working on DLP.
Now they talked about how Herb really put in his research. He did the design for Sleeping Beautys Castle. He went to the Neuschwanstein castle in Germany for research, but he knew where to draw the line on infringement vs artistic license. The castle at Disneyland has the flavor of Neuschawnstein, but it is not a replica.
For DLP, they decided that it needed a Hello Dolly kind of approach. Thats where John De Cuir comes in, it was his designs that inspired Eddie Sotto in his design of DLP.
To quote something that Eddie Sotto held off on saying until the end, but Ill spill it now, Herb Ryman said, Be specifically vague.
One of the other things that he evidently made clear was that you could spend just as much money to make something stupid as something gorgeous.
Evidently this Dreamland in Japan opened trying to mimick Disney, they just didnt get it.
He believed in modeling his lands/attractions after real life places. His visits to New Orleans during the development of New Orleans Square brought a realism to the area.
This is some of the inspiration for New Orleans Square.
When creating Liberty Square, the Concord Bridge was the model he used. Research was the key to any project.
David Copperfield was one of the movies that Herb Ryman worked on for MGM in 1935. He worked mainly as a sketch artist to help create the scenes and stages. Here is an illustration of one of the scenes taken from the book.
And this is Rymans version of the same scene
And here is the scene in the movie
Here they are side by side. Be sure to notice the two nuns which are almost smack dab in the middle of the picture sketched by Ryman. This became a running joke through the rest of the presentation about his fascination with pairs of nuns.
Then they pull out these other sketches involving nuns. Nuns in a jeep, on some kind of secret spy mission and who knows about the last one, to the Jup In River?????
But then even this one which is some kind of sketch of Frontierland, and there are still nuns in the foreground of the larger image and youll also notice them in this NOS sketch at the foot of the stairs. Creepy.
[Continued in Next Post]
Continued with Herb Ryman
Now just to preface this a little bit, the panel folks must have made the assumption that we all knew who Herb Ryman was, either that or I was so furiously writing notes that I missed this part of the presentation and didn't get pictures or notes. But Herb Ryman was the guy that Walt hired to draw the original map of Disneyland. Before coming to Disney, Ryman was an established artist and had exhibited in Los Angeles and New York.
One of Herb Rymans pupils was John De Cuir Sr. He was an Hollywood Art Director and Production Designer known for his elaborate set designs that were illustrated with his own watercolor paintings.
The two of them evidently collaborated on a few productions otherwise they would not have mentioned him.
Eddie Sotto did most of the talking during this part of the session. When he first met all these legendary imagineers Eddie was working elsewhere but declined to state where. Eddie admitted that Herb really didnt like his work, but he was willing to work with him to make it better. When Eddie finally got hired at Disney, his first gig was to do Main Street in DLP. Everyone told him that Herb would never work with him, but to everyones surprise, he helped Eddie out with some concepts. I guess by the time that Eddie was hired Herb had either somewhat or formally retired.
Herb was a place master, remembered Sotto.
Back in 1985 both Ryman and Marc Davis went to work for Landmark Entertainment on a Six Flags theme park project called "Phineas T. Flagg's Power Plant", located at Baltimore, Maryland. It was called Phineas T. Flagg's Power Plant as the theme park location was a historic power plant, near the the waterfront. Marc Davis - who retired from Walt Disney Imagineering in 1978 - and Herb Ryman worked on the project design. The main character, Phineas T. Flagg, was a fictitious magician and Herb Ryman did his design, the one you can see below.
Herb Ryman worked also on other Landmark Entertainment concepts. He did this bird's eye view painting below for what was - believe it or not - a "Monopoly" theme park project.
Here are some pictures of Eddie and Herb during the collaboration process working on DLP.
Now they talked about how Herb really put in his research. He did the design for Sleeping Beautys Castle. He went to the Neuschwanstein castle in Germany for research, but he knew where to draw the line on infringement vs artistic license. The castle at Disneyland has the flavor of Neuschawnstein, but it is not a replica.
For DLP, they decided that it needed a Hello Dolly kind of approach. Thats where John De Cuir comes in, it was his designs that inspired Eddie Sotto in his design of DLP.
To quote something that Eddie Sotto held off on saying until the end, but Ill spill it now, Herb Ryman said, Be specifically vague.
One of the other things that he evidently made clear was that you could spend just as much money to make something stupid as something gorgeous.
Evidently this Dreamland in Japan opened trying to mimick Disney, they just didnt get it.
He believed in modeling his lands/attractions after real life places. His visits to New Orleans during the development of New Orleans Square brought a realism to the area.
This is some of the inspiration for New Orleans Square.
When creating Liberty Square, the Concord Bridge was the model he used. Research was the key to any project.
David Copperfield was one of the movies that Herb Ryman worked on for MGM in 1935. He worked mainly as a sketch artist to help create the scenes and stages. Here is an illustration of one of the scenes taken from the book.
And this is Rymans version of the same scene
And here is the scene in the movie
Here they are side by side. Be sure to notice the two nuns which are almost smack dab in the middle of the picture sketched by Ryman. This became a running joke through the rest of the presentation about his fascination with pairs of nuns.
Then they pull out these other sketches involving nuns. Nuns in a jeep, on some kind of secret spy mission and who knows about the last one, to the Jup In River?????
But then even this one which is some kind of sketch of Frontierland, and there are still nuns in the foreground of the larger image and youll also notice them in this NOS sketch at the foot of the stairs. Creepy.
[Continued in Next Post]
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