In the mid-1930’s, Art Babbitt was working at Walt Disney Studios on Hyperion Avenue in Hollywood.  It was an exciting place for a creative, intelligent mind.  It masqueraded itself as a mere animation studio, but is was really  a bunch of brilliant artists, with Walt at the top.  These people were building up an artform  that was barely 30 years old.  And to do that, you had to constantly improve.

To get better, you have to try things no one has done before.  Besides bringing in an art teacher to the studio to teach and lecture, Art bought his own 16mm camera and shot film reference to be  the first artist to study the science of movement.

Goofy Live Reference

The method Art Babbitt developed to record the movements for Snow White has been used consistently all over the animation world, in all forms of animation (yes, even computer animation and stop-motion).  Remember the Animation Renaissance that happened in the late ’80s?  Check out the images below.