Ub Iwerks
Ub Iwerks [ ʌb aɪwɝks ] ( born March 24, 1901 in Kansas City, Missouri; † July 7, 1971 in Burbank, California; actually Ubbe Ert Iwwerks ) was an American animator and technicians. His name is explained by his Frisian roots: Iwerks ' father Eert Ubbe Iwwerks from Uttum (now municipality in the district of Aurich Krummhoern ) emigrated in 1869 to the United States.
Life
Iwerks worked as a draftsman in 1919 in Kansas City, where he met the same age Walt Disney and became friendly with him. When Disney opened an animation studio, Iwerks was his first employee. The early Disney animated films were mainly drawn by him. He had the reputation of being the fastest animator to be at all. The first ( produced ) Mickey Mouse cartoon, Plane Crazy, he is said to have drawn in just two weeks alone, which would mean about 700 drawings a day. As a Mickey Mouse comic strip was launched in January 1930, Iwerks created for three weeks and the pencil drawings of this comic strip.
It was widely speculated that Iwerks was the driving force behind the success of the Disney Studios. Iwerks and Disney had had occasional differences, and as Pat Powers who drove Disney Movies, Iwerks offered to with his money to open his own studio, Iwerks told and left Disney. The Iwerks studio was opened in 1930 and produced the black-and- white cartoon series Flip the Frog (Flip the Frog ) and Willie Whooper, and the color range ComiColor cartoons, were recounted in the famous fairy tale. Fiddlesticks, who appeared on August 16, 1930 the first film Flip the Frog series, also pointed colored scenes; so that was the first publication of the Iwerks studio also the first colored cartoon with sound at all. Because the series found no success, ended Powers and other financiers in 1936 to support the Iwerks studio, which was forced to close. Ub Iwerks worked for Columbia Pictures from 1938 until 1940, he finally returned to Disney.
After his return to Disney Iwerks worked at Disney's research department mainly on the development of new visual effects and processes. For example, the development of multi- plan - camera, he is credited, which allowed three-dimensional backgrounds in animated films, as well as the first use of xerography in animation. Even outside the Disney studios, he worked as a consultant for special effects, such as 1963 for products manufactured in Front-Light/Back-Light-Verfahren Travelling matte shots in Alfred Hitchcock's film The Birds.
In 1999 the documentary The Hand Behind the Mouse: The Ub Iwerks Story out.