Traditional Animation Gallery

William Charles “Bill” Nolan was an American animated cartoon writer, animator, director, and artist. Nolan born on June 10, 1894 in Connecticut and died on December 6, 1954 at the age of 60 in Los Angeles, California. Bill Nolan was known for streamlining and creating the rubber hose style of animation. The rubber hose animation style featured limbs that were simple and had flowing curves. As a result, characters animated in this style do not have hinged wrists or elbows. Rubber hose went out of fashion after Walt Disney wanted his cartoons to have a more realistic feel to them. 

 

In 1924, Nolan first worked on a show called Felix the Cat. He redesigned Felix by making him appear rounder and cuter, which helped increase his profile. After Felix the Cat, he worked with George Herriman’s Krazy Kat for Margaret J. Winkler till 1934 at the Walter Lantz Studio. During Nolan's time in Walter Lantz Studio, he was an animator and director on the cartoon series Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. While in MGM, he worked on The Captain and the Kids.

 

Bill Nolan was considered to be the pioneer that started The Silver and Golden Age of Animation because he streamlined the art of rubber hose animation. He did this by creating more softer and smoother characters to ensure better overlapping and smoother motion so the animator would have an easier time making them and with greater production. Along with Nolan's idea of rubber hosing limbs, he created the Wraparound Background which was the simple idea of a long background sliding under the character giving the impression of a camera pan.

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Bill Nolan’s works and ideas steamrolled the art of animation and continue to innovate the motion and style of the rubber hose to a more refined and more fluid. By creating rubber hose animation, Bill Nolan open the doors for new innovation which people to create better animation. His creation of rubber hosing has continued to be used today in modern pop culture and in video games such as Cuphead and Bendy and the Ink Machine.