Introduction
Within this essay I will be exploring the professional practise
of illustrator, production designer and animator Hans Bacher. I will be
investigating how both historical and cultural changes have impacted his
approach to and the way he produced work over his long spanned career in the
industry (1975-present)[1]. I
chose to look at Hans Bacher's career has he is a well established professional
who has continuously been active working a lengthy career and being exposed to the
various changes and developments happening within the industry from both a cultural
and technological context and if any, the artistic influences he has.
Hans Bacher
German born Hans Bacher qualified from the University of
Essen with an MFA-degree in Graphic Design, 1974[2]. Shortly after graduating
Bacher went on to teach as Assistant Professor in the department of Animation
and Comic-strip design at the University of Essen in 1975, a career he
maintained through until 1990[3]. Alongside teaching at the
university in 1975 Bacher worked from his own studio 'madTparty' in Dusseldorf producing illustrative work for European
advertising companies. Bacher had also landed a job working for German
television series 'Alfred J. Kwak'
co-creating comic strips and painting mattes on 52 aired episodes.
 |
| A publicity shot for 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' |
It wasn't until 1987[4] Bacher got his first big
break after being invited to work on the production design for Disney's 'Who Framed Robert Rabbit' (later called
'Who Framed Roger Rabbit') working
with the likes of Bob Zemeckis, Chuck Jones, Steven Spielberg and Richard
Williams[5].
 |
| Concept artwork for 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' |
 | ||
| Concept artwork for 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' |
"Hans was always the kind of
artist I wanted to get in early in pre-production. You could build an entire
film on the shoulders of his inspiring visual development work. Ask anybody who has worked with him and
they'll use the same ten words to describe his genius: hardest working,
opinionated, brilliant, opinionated, the most knowledgeable, and opinionated.
He is also opinionated. Don't misunderstand. You really, really want his
opinion."[6]
Bacher has been spoken very highly of by both his peers and
employers in spite of his very opinionated nature. Which, for Bacher has
actually worked in his favour in the industry and it is his opinion that others
seek out and want for the production design on their films.
"For years he has shared his
encyclopedic knowledge of animation and filmmaking with his students and
collaborations behind the doors of the universities and film studios that were
lucky enough to get him."[7]
Working for Disney as a Production Designer means that
Bacher works in collaboration with many people as the field of work he is in
requires a team effort from both artists, writers and actors "So many
artists create one piece of art that you alone would never be able to do"[8]
whilst supposedly possible to create an entire film based on the ideas of
Bacher's inspirational visual development it takes many hands to actually bring
his dream worlds to life. Among those who Bacher has worked closely in the
field with include the late great storyman Joe Ranft, both working together on
the production of 'The Lion King' who
was both a voice actor and visual design artist.[9][10]
 | |
| Concept art for 'The Lion King' |
 |
| Joe Ranft's artwork for 'A Bug's Life' |
Influence (historical, cultural) and process
Hans Bacher tries not to take influence from other artists
and illustrators, he finds it important when working on a production to make it
unique and not like something that you have seen before "When I need to
develop a new style for a film, I want to come up with a look that nobody else
has done before and that means that I should at least know what has been done."[11]
so you could say in turn, Bacher takes his influence from other artists work
and he uses them to direct the stylisation of his production and steer it in an
alternate, different route from existing works. Bacher's artistic production
style is heavily influenced by "How diverse the world of art is, how
differently all these artists from around the world see their world"[12]
and he takes different cultural approaches to art into great consideration with
his work and has listed a plethora of his cultural artistic influences
"Imagine the variety:
Australian Aboriginal art, ancient Indian temple sculptures, African tribal
art, Albert Bierstadt's and Thomas Moran's majestic nature paintings, Ludwig
Richter's and Gustave Dore's etchings, Picasso, Fragonard and Rembrandt,
Steward Davis, Milton Glaser, A. J. Casson and Seymor Chwast, Moebius, Toppi,
Franquin, Carlos Nine and Loisel. Not to forget Searle, McGinnis, Frazetta,
Rockwell and Oliphant, the Japanese woodcut masterpieces of Hokusai and
Utamarao, animation designers like the Provensens, Jiri Trnka, Kay Nielsen and
Tenggren, and so many more."[13]
 |
| Hokusai's 'The Great Wave off Kanagawa' |
This observation of different cultural approaches to art
echoes Marshall McLuhan's famous quote that "The medium is the
message"[14] (also title of his book, incorrectly published as 'The medium is the massage' (1967)) which
notably Bacher takes into consideration when working on a production it is
important to include an artistic influence and medium of a certain culture in
the work "Your job is to find and develop a look for a movie that works
best with the story."[15]
Bacher's cultural influence and inspiration was most notable
in his work he created for the production design on Disney's 'Mulan'. Bacher wanted to capture a
truly accurate cultural representation and feel to the film "I bought some
books about Chinese art, because I had no idea about that part of the world and
their culture."[16] and extensively went out of his way to
incorporate this in his sketches and designs for the production (which he was
not yet working on, but doing in his free time).
 |
| Bacher's sketchwork for 'Mulan' preproduction |
The 'Mulan' visual
development team had great difficulty creating the style for the film
"They tried to copy Chinese watercolour paintings, but did it the Disney
way, with tons of detail everywhere and were kind of lost"[17] and
Bacher was asked to step in and take over as the production designer for Mulan after Barry Crook, the director at
the time, saw his designs.[18] Disney had for the first time given
Bacher the luxury of time for
producing his work with his preproduction time frame running from 1994 to 1996,
something which Bacher had not experienced when working in the advertising or
TV-world[19] this for Bacher was a "Dream World" which he aptly
later titled his published works. Whilst working on the production design for Mulan Bacher was also given the
opportunity to invite 'guest-artists' from around the world to work in collaboration
with among which included Alex Nino, renowned comic book artist for both DC and
Marvel Comics who in Bacher's own words he considered to be a
"legend".[20]
 |
| Alex Nino's concept art for 'Mulan' |
Whilst investigating the Chinese culture and exploring artwork
Bacher "[I] learned about the philosophy, the Yin and Yang, the balance
everywhere that influenced all those amazing landscape washes with detail in
some areas, but more like texture, and more and more detail towards the
foreground in the very stylized blossoms, bamboo and grass. Exactly what I
wanted to see in the movie"[21] which I find strongly evidenced
in his initial concept artwork he created for Mulan. There is a clear reference to the Yin and Yang in the
balancing of the colours in his landscapes.
 |
| The 'Yin and Yang' colour balance in Bacher's Mulan landscapes |
However, whilst his personal desire to incorporate a cultural
influence on his visual production design for the film Bacher always had the
target audience in mind "[But] I knew that too much art would destroy the
acceptance by the audience. An audience wants to be entertained, not educated.
So, what we had to come up with was the feel of China embedded in a commercial
Disney movie"[22] With the audience in mind Bacher had to
commercialise his intentions for the film design but still wanted it to be
different from any other productions Disney has produced "Somehow we had
to find a way to make the movie look like a Disney movie. Not like The Little mermaid, Beauty and the Beast or Hercules.
More like the masterpieces of the old days like Bambi and Pinocchio"[23]
and to do so Bacher took his approach to the designing Mulan back to "the old days" and looked deep into The
Walt Disney Archives at the "Animation Research Library" looking at
the original backgrounds and paintings used in the production of Bambi (1942) which were made up of detailed
oil painted forest scenes.
 |
| Tyrus Wong's concept art for 'Bambi' |
To make Mulan visually
different from what Disney was producing at the time Bacher took into account
first the cultural influences of China, and secondly he looked back through old
productions for a historical influence into how he approached the films design.
The time in which Bambi was in
production was very different to the time in which Bacher was working in whilst
on the production of Mulan. During
the production of Bambi the world was
at war and technology was still very raw with traditional methods very much being
the norm. At the time "Expert animators could each manage no more than
eight drawings daily"[24] which was a very different process to
which Bacher had become known for "I was called [during the London time]
"the magic marker wizard." That was the technique I had used for
years. It was fast, dirty and dangerous"[25] which is in direct
contrast to the approach the oil painters of the 1940's Disney design team took
that Bacher has admired and looked into for influence in this project. Whilst
Bacher doesn't appear to take influence from other artists work he does take on
a cultural influence and look at a historical approach when producing his work.
 |
| An Egyptian burial chamber mural displaying wrestlers in action. |
In the early years of animation production and design (the
field in which Bacher works in)it was very much a different environment to what
it is both today, and when Bacher started his career back in 1975. The earliest
attempts at animation can be dated back to the Egyptians c.2000 B.C. with the
forerunner of today's comic strip origin visible in the Egyptians wall art which
is compiled of successive panels illustrating and telling a story.[26]
However animation could not be truly attained until the
principle of the human eye was understood in 1828 by French inventor Paul Roget,
who had invented the Thaumatrope which was a disc with a string attached to
both sides. On one side the disc had a bird and on the reverse was an empty
cage, when twirled the disc created the visual illusion of the bird appearing
inside the cage, proving that the eye retains images when exposed to a series
of images at a given time.[27] "While not all of Roget's
conclusions were correct, he did describe the important fact that the human eye
will blend a series of sequential images into a single motion if the images are
presented rapidly, with sufficient illumination and interrupted regularly"[28]
Roget's theory paved the way for the development of animation as we know it.
 |
| A diagram explaining the concept of the Thaumatrope |
 |
| A GIF image displaying the process of a Thaumatrope |
By 1860 the Zoetrope had come about after Pierre Desvignes
inserted a strip of paper with drawings on it around the inside of a drum
cylinder which was twirled on a spindle. When looking through the slots on top
of the drum the drawings inside appeared to come to life on an continuous loop creating
a sequential illustration. The zoetrope proved popular and could be said to be
the earliest form of animation proving popular in the Victorian era.[29]
Various inventions came about illustrating the early development of animation
with the thaumatrope, phenakistoscope and zoetrope all illustrating the early
stages of the animation that we know today. It wasn't until the development of
the motion picture camera and projector by Thomas A. Edison in 1888 that the
first true animation that we see today could be achieved but it wasn't until a
few years after the invention of the motion picture that the idea for animated
motion picture came about.
 |
| A still from the film 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' showing the mix of animation and live setting |
Bacher's long running career working for the production
design team employed by Disney meant that he was himself exposed to the ever
changing development in animation throughout history. Starting his career for
Disney in the mid-70's and working through until the turn of the century on various
projects from Who Framed Roger Rabbit
(1988) to Brother Bear (2003).[30]
The changes in both story and animation from the start of Bacher's career
to his most recent works is outstanding. Who
Framed Roger Rabbit had an unrefined style to it with there being both a
mix of live actors and animated characters giving the film a unsavoury look for
what technology at the time could produce was inferior to what you can achieve
in today's productions. However, it was critically acclaimed at the time and
successful at box office. The story was very much a slapstick comedy in
contrast to Brother Bear which Bacher
most recently designed and as a production was not as aesthetically pleasing to
watch with the animation being put into a real life setting, on a film set
opposed to the beautifully painted backdrops seen in Brother Bear.
 |
| 'Moody' concept art produced for 'Brother Bear' |
Brother Bear is an
entirely animated adventure drama film and the art style is very different from
his earlier works. Similarly to the process he had for the production design of
Mulan Bacher took into consideration the
cultural influence and importance of background, landscapes and scene "Big
mountains, wild rivers - pure nature. The
Brother Bear story was set back in time about ten thousand years ago, right
after the Asian hunters crossed the then existing land bridge between Asia and
Alaska."[31] Unlike the concept art he produced for Mulan this production had a much
underlying darker storyline "I was supposed to collect lots of
"moody" ideas"[32] and this was reflective in the
design work he produced for it. Whilst capturing the purity of the white snowy
setting the story is in there is visibly a coldness to his work, with vast
areas of black hitting the edge of the white - again using the philosophy of
the Yin and Yang to influence his balance of colour and mood. Bacher silhouetted the details (trees, the
bears, birds) as this again created atmospheric imagery with a moody look the
production team had asked from him.
 |
| Concept art for 'Brother Bear' |
Commenting on creating a style for a film and the stylistic
variety that is seen across Disney productions Bacher said "To avoid a
confusing mixture of different artistic handwritings, the big studios [of the
past] decided to have one artist design the look of the film and then have the
others follow"[33] and with Bacher being known for his
opinionated manner and blunt approach and "His attention detail and research
is both expansive and surgically focused"[34] The importance of
creating an original style for the films he worked on is apparent in Bacher's
work and Bacher proved a popular choice time and time again to take the helm of
the production design team for many of Disney's feature films. Popular titles
of which include, Beauty and the Beast,
Aladdin, The Lion King, Hercules, Mulan, Lilo and Stitch and Brother
Bear. "His work on Beauty and the Beast set and unforgettable epic
style for the film"[35] and landed Bacher much respect in the
industry.
 |
| Concept artwork for 'Beauty and the Beast' |
Conclusion
Researching into the practise of illustrator, production
designer and animator Hans Bacher I have learnt that Bacher is a highly
praised, opinionated, unique and opinionated professional.[36] The
approach he takes to his work is different to that of others, choosing not to
take influence from other artists but instead take their work and use it to steer
his projects in a different direction. Bacher takes influence instead heavily
from cultural influences, researching artists from around the world and their different
approaches to and perceptions of the world. Examples of this can be seen in his
recreating of aboriginal art, wood carvings and Chinese watercolours but into
his own style from these influences [37]
Bacher's preferred medium
to work in is magic markers as they allow him to work quickly and produce his
ideas as fast as they come to him. Whilst he respects and takes influence from
the classics like Bambi and their oil
painted backdrops Bacher aims to achieve as visually pleasing imagery seen in
these films but in a less time consuming and modern manner. Known for his opinionated nature Bacher had
become respected and it has been said that "You could build an entire film
on the shoulders of his inspiring visual development work".[38]
In conclusion, Hans Bacher is an established illustrator and animator and
looking into his practise for this essay as proved both interesting and
resourceful to me.
References:
1.
NTU, http://research.ntu.edu.sg
2.
NTU, http://research.ntu.edu.sg
3.
NTU, http://research.ntu.edu.sg
4.
NTU, http://research.ntu.edu.sg
5.
Bacher, (2008), p.5
6.
Bacher, (2008), p.5, quoted Don Hahn
7.
Bacher, (2008), p.5, quoted Don Hahn
8.
Bacher, (2008), p.8-9
9.
Bacher, (2008), pg.5 quoted Don Hahn
10.
Woollcombe, (2005), The Independent
11.
Bacher, (2008), pg.58-59
12.
Bacher, (2008), pg.58-59
13.
Bacher, (2008), pg.58-59
14.
McCluhan, (2013), 'Commonly Asked Questions about McLuhan'
15.
Bacher, (2008), pg.58-59
16.
Bacher, (2008), pg.100-101
17.
Bacher, (2008), pg.104-105
18.
Bacher, (2008), pg.100-101
19.
Bacher, (2008), pg.108-109
20.
Bacher, (2008), pg.108-109
21.
Bacher, (2008), pg.114-115
22.
Bacher, (2008), pg.116-117
23.
Bacher, (2008), pg.118-119
24.
Thomas, (1992, 1997), pg.90-91
25.
Bacher, (2008), pg.120-121
26.
Thomas, (1991), pg.22-23
27.
Thomas, (1991), pg.22-23
28.
Solomon, (1989, 1994), pg.6-7
29.
Thomas, (1991), pg.22-23
30.
Bacher, (2008), pg.6-7
31.
Bacher, (2008), pg.142-143
32.
Bacher, (2008), pg.142-143
33.
Bacher, (2008), pg.126-127
34.
Bacher, (2008), pg.5
35.
Bacher, (2008), pg.5
36.
Bacher, (2008), pg.120-121
37.
Bacher, (2008), pg.58-59
38.
Bacher, (2008), pg.5
Bibliography:
Bacher, Hans. (2008) Dream
Worlds
IMDb. (2003) Brother
Bear at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0328880/
IMDb. (1998) Mulan
at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120762/
IMDb. (1988) Who
Framed Roger Rabbit at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096438/
The Inventions of
Thomas Edison at: http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bledison.htm
McLuhan, Dr. Eric. (2013) http://www.marshallmcluhan.com/common-questions/
Nanyang Technological University, NTU Academic Profile at: http://research.ntu.edu.sg/expertise/academicprofile/pages/StaffProfile.aspx?ST_EMAILID=HPBACHER
Solomon, Charles (1989, 1994), The History of Animation, Enchanted Drawings
Taschen, (2004),
Animation Now!
Thomas, Bob (1991) Disney's
Art of Animation from Mickey Mouse to Beauty and the Beast
Thomas, Bob (1992, 1997) Disney's
Art of Animation from Mickey Mouse to Hercules
Williams, Richard (2001) The Animator's Survival Kit, A manual of
methods, principles and formulas for classical, computer, games, stop motion
and internet animators
Woollcombe, Alan (2005) The
Independent
Image References:
http://livlily.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/who-framed-roger-rabbit-1988-earlies.html
Bacher, Hans. (2008), Dream
Worlds
http://pixarmovies.tumblr.com/image/18212191909
Solomon, Charles. (1989, 1994), The History of Animation, Enchanted Drawings
http://one1more2time3.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/alex-mulan0123.jpg
http://collider.com/wp-content/uploads/who-framed-roger-rabbit.jpg
