History, animated.

About a year and a half ago I posted (here) about a series of animated segments I was helping to create for a documentary film. I'm currently updating the animation section of my website and thought it would be fun to show some of them here before I finish building out the site.

The producers of The Powder & The Glory came to FableVision looking to use animated reenactments to illustrate moments in history. The film tells the story of two prominent women entrepreneurs who essentially founded the American beauty industry—Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubinstein. Our job was to recreate moments in their lives that were never captured on film or photograph. Additionally, they thought it would be appropriate to match the animation style to make it contemporaneous. Meaning, an event that happened in 1930 should be animated in a style current to 1930.

Over the next week, I'll be showing a few of these shorts. The first, which you can view below, tells the story of how Elizabeth Arden decided on the name she used to launch her company. We took some visual liberties, but the story is accurate. The style is straight out of early 20s animation (my favorite period!). I did the character design, storyboarding and final artwork, and teamed up with the talented Dustin Wade on animation. The audio is a rough cut, and a little quiet, so you may need to turn up your speakers. (Hopefully it loaded while you were reading!)



I believe the film is due to air on PBS at some point, and has had several screenings in festivals over the past year or so. It is a truly fantastic documentary, and I couldn't be more proud to have been part of it. You can learn more about the film at this website, including dates of upcoming screenings.

UPDATE: I just heard great news that PBS has indeed picked it up. It's scheduled to air on Monday, March 23, 2009 at 10PM. Congrats to Arnie and Ann Carol!

Related Posts:
Flappers and Lipstick
Helena Rubinstein
A Robbery! (animated)