BIOGRAPHICAL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 18785, 19 May 1923, Page 13

BIOGRAPHICAL

J. R. BRAY J. R. Bray, originator and creator of the Bray pictograph and cartoons, was the first to put motion into drawings. That there is no royal road to success is again proved by the fact that Mr Bray started his experiments when motion pictures were very young. Years of careful, arduous work were necessary before the results satisfied him. To-day he is the head of an organisation devoted to making his pictures, has a corps oi artists working under his supervision and his patents on his process which cover the use of transparent material or material made transparent by any agency whatever in the making of animated drawings. INFINITE PATIENCE REQUIRED. Few people would have the patience to do Mr Bray’s work. It takes between four and five thousand drawings to make 1000 feet, or one reel, of film. In addition to the colossal toil of the art work it takes a week to photograph the drawings one at a time. Great speed, united with unvarying accuracy, is essential. Every stroke of the pen must count. Mr Bray works so fast that he is able to keep four trained artists “inking in“ the outline drawings which he makes. The necessity Cor accuracy is evident when it is learned that the drawings are magnified on the screen at least 25 times. Mr Bray spent years in study before he attempted to make an animated cartoon. For months ho haunted the Bronx Zoo in order to study the animals there and analyze their motion. He even bought a large farm across the Hudson from Poughkeepsie, and stocked it with various animals in order to further extend his knowledge of animal an-1 atomy. The result of these studies finds expression in the life-like motions of the various animals which move across his films. He' was born in Detroit. Mich., and has lived in New York since 1901. He was for seven years a newspaper artist being also a steady contributor to the humorous weeklies, such s Life, Puck, and Judge.