Walt Disney's MultiPlane Camera (Filmed Feb. 13, 1957) [video]
24 comments
·March 7, 2025spaceguillotine
You can go see one in person, it sticks through the floor of the Disney Family Museum in the Presidio. There is lots of animation history in that building. If you just wanna see the camera the top part pokes into the gift shop which you don't need admission to go into
cududa
From watching, it seems this was a clip of a larger presentation. I spent some time trying to find a longer version but had no luck.
Anyone perhaps know what this was from?
marcod
Check out this comment on the YT https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YIR39KeJMk&lc=Ugx8HYRxBkUrP...
dTal
What's old is new again!
cpeterso
You can see one of these multiplane cameras on display at the Walt Disney Family Museum in the Presidio of San Francisco.
hkchad
There is also a display of one in Orlando, I believe at Magic Kindgom.
bnycum
It’s in Walt Disney Presents at Hollywood Studios. There is a bunch more Disney models and memorabilia inside as well. Feels like a hidden gem because it’s always pretty empty, plus there is even a character meet and greet with little wait.
niteshpant
Wow! Incredibly fascinated to see 1957 tech make such fascinating animations! It’s so time consuming. Imagine the patience to take those pictures frame by frame
mkoryak
I hope some day someone will look back on me waiting for a GWS build and say something similar
aweiland
I wonder when and why they stopped making films like these. I've been enjoying watching Behind the Attraction and The Imagineering Story on Disney+ with my kids. They are full of these old films of Walt going over their ideas and explaining the things they are and have built. It's a shame that stopped.
jayd16
They're very neat but if you think about why they were ever made at all its a bit more clear. I think a lot of these are 30s-50s style infomercials. One of my favorites explains how a differential works[1] but its more clearly a Chrysler commercial. Presumably this Disney clip was entertaining enough to have been part of a tv show but could have also been some promotional material.
These days we only get this stuff in recruiting material or SAAS ads.
onemoresoop
I highly enjoy watching these old instructional documentaries even if the tech is obsolete by now. There’s something that makes old tech a lot more graspable as a concept even if you’re not familiar with the technology.
dehrmann
I have mixed feelings because they're charming, but there was only a minute of actual content in there, and it didn't mention complexities like how shots were planned, painting the layers was coordinated, and getting the right focus with the camera.
duxup
I never grew up with Disney as a big part of my life so it wasn’t until later that I learned about Walt, and all the folks related to the work at Disney and some of the amazing things they did.
I really didn’t know of all the cool technology and etc they made.
dawnerd
Highly recommend reading through some of the old “E” ticket magazines. There’s some excellent pieces from some of the original masterminds at Disney. There’s creativity they had especially back then was unmatched IMO.
lordfrito
Good stuff. Back in the day technical innovation and risk taking was an integral part of Disney... I miss those days. How far the house of mouse has fallen.
dagmx
Disney still is highly innovative in the technology space. Perhaps you’re just not familiar with their work?
nightpool
Sponsoring a paper or two a year at ETH Zurich is not really the same thing as technical innovation and risk taking being an integral part of their company's success.
DoctorOW
I don't understand the distinction. Disney Research is inventing new filmmaking and robotics tech, in much the same way as is shown in the post. Why does collaborating with a university negate it.
dagmx
It’s hard to take someone like you seriously when you look at that page and single out a set of the work, which requires you to ignore the papers that include or are mostly Disney researchers.
ggm
I would love to have been a fly on the wall when Dali and Disney tried to get something together.
tedunangst
Not to be confused with the yellow prism camera. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQuIVsNzqDk
It's worth pointing out that Walt was one of the inventors of this camera, as well as all his other roles in making the company's art. Concepts we have today like Photoshop layers and CSS stacking contexts are direct descendants of this invention.