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Walt Disney - Hardware Hacker

10 points by replicatorblog 18y ago

noonespecial 18y ago
I'd graduate Walt from Hacker to Maker (with the capital M) for the train project. WD, like Bill Gates is another example of an excellent hacker/maker that was really worthy of much praise and respect having their greatness and coolness occluded by the giant faceless behemoths their companies became.
- replicatorblog 18y ago
  noonespecial, Great point, I think history is going to be much kinder to Gates than the present. It is funny, Steve Jobs probably has the best product instincts of any executive of the last 50 years but never really "made" anything. As far as I know he didn't actually do anything technical at Apple, it sounds like his Atari days were pretty light too. Hard to argue with genius though.
  - joe_bleau 18y ago
    Maybe I'm just a Jobs-hater, but it's always astonished me that someone so much a part of the initial personal computer revolution couldn't program. ( http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Shut_Up.txt&topic=Microsoft&sortOrder=Sort%20by%20Date http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&s... )
    - replicatorblog 18y ago
      It is astonishing, also not a designer, but the best hardware designs by far are Apple. I think if Gates is the archetypal Programmer as CEO then Jobs is the archetypal "Product Manager" as CEO. He may not be able to implement, but he sure knows how to write a spec.
froo 18y ago
Just to give a little more depth to Walt as a hardware hacker. He invented and patented the multiplane camera. http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPAT2201689 http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPAT2201689 This gave the Disney films much of their richness that other studios could not match.. unfortunately the Disney studio stopped using this technology after Walt's death in 66 because of expense... and it showed. He was also an innovator and is responsible for the technique known as "rolling" whereby the animators disk was actually turned upside down so that animators could roll through the drawings instead of flip through them as was customary at the time. Example of the technique linked below http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFFq_-XCfq4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFFq_-XCfq4 This helped with the inbetweening process because an animator could quickly flip back and forth through the movements of a character, or even through every X frames of a character to judge it's movements more precisely, which made the Disney films look more realistic. He also innovated by spending lots of resources on research, with the studio coming up with the "12 principles of animation" which are still relevant, even today. They had this stuff figured out in the 30's He was also a fan of iteration and always expected more from his animators. For example, did you know that Dopey from Snow White, Jiminy Cricket from Pinnochio and Thumper from Bambi were not in the original scripts for those films? They are among the most popular characters from those classic films. I could go on and on about many of the things that he did and many of the values he held which you would find in many of the great CEO's, eg Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. Needless to say, Walt was a hacker in every sense of the word. Nothing was unachievable in his mind.
- replicatorblog 18y ago
  Froo, you are absolutely right. He was also very involved in the audio animatronics for Disneyworld creating the robotic Abe Lincoln driven by magnetic tape. and the multi-plane camera was an amazing invention for its time (the shots still hold up too). I was just surprised about the trains because even with those inventions you mentioned he was the "idea" man and the quality control czar. With the trains he was actually turning the handle on the mill. Great comments, and thanks for the links!
  - froo 18y ago

I'd graduate Walt from Hacker to Maker (with the capital M) for the train project. WD, like Bill Gates is another example of an excellent hacker/maker that was really worthy of much praise and respect having their greatness and coolness occluded by the giant faceless behemoths their companies became.

replicatorblog 18y ago
noonespecial, Great point, I think history is going to be much kinder to Gates than the present. It is funny, Steve Jobs probably has the best product instincts of any executive of the last 50 years but never really "made" anything. As far as I know he didn't actually do anything technical at Apple, it sounds like his Atari days were pretty light too. Hard to argue with genius though.
- joe_bleau 18y ago
  Maybe I'm just a Jobs-hater, but it's always astonished me that someone so much a part of the initial personal computer revolution couldn't program. ( http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Shut_Up.txt&topic=Microsoft&sortOrder=Sort%20by%20Date http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&s... )
  - replicatorblog 18y ago
    It is astonishing, also not a designer, but the best hardware designs by far are Apple. I think if Gates is the archetypal Programmer as CEO then Jobs is the archetypal "Product Manager" as CEO. He may not be able to implement, but he sure knows how to write a spec.

froo 18y ago

Just to give a little more depth to Walt as a hardware hacker. He invented and patented the multiplane camera. http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPAT2201689 http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPAT2201689 This gave the Disney films much of their richness that other studios could not match.. unfortunately the Disney studio stopped using this technology after Walt's death in 66 because of expense... and it showed. He was also an innovator and is responsible for the technique known as "rolling" whereby the animators disk was actually turned upside down so that animators could roll through the drawings instead of flip through them as was customary at the time. Example of the technique linked below http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFFq_-XCfq4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFFq_-XCfq4 This helped with the inbetweening process because an animator could quickly flip back and forth through the movements of a character, or even through every X frames of a character to judge it's movements more precisely, which made the Disney films look more realistic. He also innovated by spending lots of resources on research, with the studio coming up with the "12 principles of animation" which are still relevant, even today. They had this stuff figured out in the 30's He was also a fan of iteration and always expected more from his animators. For example, did you know that Dopey from Snow White, Jiminy Cricket from Pinnochio and Thumper from Bambi were not in the original scripts for those films? They are among the most popular characters from those classic films. I could go on and on about many of the things that he did and many of the values he held which you would find in many of the great CEO's, eg Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. Needless to say, Walt was a hacker in every sense of the word. Nothing was unachievable in his mind.

replicatorblog 18y ago
Froo, you are absolutely right. He was also very involved in the audio animatronics for Disneyworld creating the robotic Abe Lincoln driven by magnetic tape. and the multi-plane camera was an amazing invention for its time (the shots still hold up too). I was just surprised about the trains because even with those inventions you mentioned he was the "idea" man and the quality control czar. With the trains he was actually turning the handle on the mill. Great comments, and thanks for the links!
- froo 18y ago