During a recent family trip to Disney World in Orlando, Florida, for my daughter’s sixth birthday we enjoyed a walking tour through Walt’s incredible journey as a dreamer and entrepreneur. This humble, miniature museum laid out key moments in Walt Disney’s life. He and his brother, Roy O. Disney, founded Disney World. However, Walt died in 1966 just 5 years before the doors opened. His brother came out of retirement to officially realize the brothers’ dream. Disney World officially opened on October 1, 1971 to the delight of the world. While it’s gone through many a transformation since its inception, it still remains an escape, a land of imagination where dreams do come true.
As we followed the historical placards through the dimly lit space there was one in particular caught my eye that stated “Multiplane: New Depth In Animation.” Disney developed a camera system that could layer elements onto separate planes in space. Then by moving the camera through the layers this technique gave the scene a believable, lifelike quality of depth previously only applicable to live action. This system was eventually replaced by digital compositing techniques, but the term “multiplane” stuck. We still use this term today when referring to multilayered comps in After Effects and other compositing applications like Flame, Fusion, Blender, and Nuke.
ABOVE IMAGES © DISNEY.
“With the introduction of parallax, scenes achieved a greater, more natural level of depth.”
When Walt Disney introduced the multi-plane camera in Snow White it was a game changer. New possibilities gave animators more freedom to bring their scenes to life.
With the introduction of parallax scenes achieved a greater, more natural level of depth. In many respects this technique is still used today, but in a digital variety.