Anatomical Animation by Frank Armitage

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DATE: 1970

LENGTH: 10 min

CATEGORY: Educational & Instructional, Animation, Sound, Color

PRODUCER/PUBLISHER: Frank Armitage

Summary

Artist-animator-medical illustrator Frank Armitage narrates this film, which combines historical images with footage of his own professional medical animation work to provide a history of anatomical illustration. Born in Australia in 1924, Armitage was studying architecture at Melbourne Technical College when he stumbled upon a book about Mexican mural painting. Intrigued, he dropped out of school and made his way to Mexico at the age of 24. In 1951, he immigrated to the United States and in April of 1952 began working for the Walt Disney Company. Armitage was an uncredited animator on Peter Pan (1953) and Lady and the Tramp (1955) and soon found his niche with Disney as a layout and background artist, roles that were in line with his experience as a muralist. He worked on several other features during the 1950s and 1960s, including Sleeping Beauty (1959), Mary Poppins (1964), and The Jungle Book (1967). During this period, Armitage also became interested in human anatomy. He took classes at UCLA, focusing on dissection and other human biological sciences. The combination of his background at Disney and his new training resulted in a unique form of medical illustration….Read The Essay