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Before the development of today’s computer animation, where illustrations are either scanned into or drawn directly in a computer software, there was traditional animation. Al Sens transitioned seamlessly between the artistic roles of cartoonist to an animator because his animation technique essentially boiled down to a series of cartoons (each new drawing slightly altering from the previous drawing), each photographed onto a film reel (each photograph on the film is called a frame) that, when played, created the illusion of movement. Hand-drawn animation techniques are done on an animation stand, a flat table-top with an overhanging animation camera to photograph each frame.¹

By and large, Sens’s films were made using the technique of cel animation. A cel (or celluloid) is a drawing or photocopy on a transparent sheet of acetate. A cel can contain characters, text/writing, or foreground details of the setting, and different combinations of cels can be stacked on top of each other. Cels (or combinations of cels) are accompanied by an underlying background image.²

Sens’s backgrounds held at RBSC were predominantly done in watercolour paints. A base watercolour sheet was covered in pieces of cut-out paper (also painted in watercoulour) that were glued on. These backgrounds were then covered by an acetate cel on which black lines sharpened and filled in the background, as well as added some foreground elements. See, for example, these images (with and without the acetate cel layer) of one of Sens’s backgrounds of the interior of a factory:³

Cels need not be limited merely to black lines, they could also consist of coloured paints, such as the example below. A number of Sens’s political films contain anthropomorphized animals. One series of developed and undeveloped photographs I found in the archives demonstrates the effect of stacking different cels containing different characters on top of a background. Notice how the background remains the same as the presence of the various characters changes:⁴

 

 

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1. For a more complete list of different animation techniques and the history of animation development, visit the Wikipedia article, “Animation:” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animation#Traditional_animation.
2. I consulted the above Wikipedia article and the following book from Sens’s archives in learning more about cel animation: Trojanski, John and Louis Rockwood. Making it Move: Instructor’s Manual. Dayton, OH: Pflaum/Standard, 1973. Print. Al Sens Collection. RBSC-ARC 1729, box 2, folder 4. Rare Books and Special Collections, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver.
3. Sens, Al. Factory interior background [animation celluloids]. [19–?]. Al Sens Collection. RBSC-ARC 1729, box 3, folder 10. Rare Books and Special Collections, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver.
4. Which film these images are from is not made clear in the archives. Perhaps Sens’s “Problems on an Imaginary Farm” (1979)? Perhaps “Political Animals” (1992)? Sens, Al. [19–?] Al Sens Collection. RBSC-ARC 1729, box 3, folder 2. Rare Books and Special Collections, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver.

Al Sens Animation Ltd. was founded in 1958 with a studio space in Yaletown. Sens quickly became well known for his “distinct and identifiable” animated line drawings¹ and for his anthropomorphized animals. Just look at his logo (or studio mascot), for example:

Sens was involved in a variety of commercial and non-commercial animation ventures. In his commercial ventures, he was primarily driven by “that dysfunctional new media called television.”⁴

…among the stuff coming out of his studio for TV are the characters for London Drugs and Vancity Saving Credit Union. He also does some animation for General Paint and sometimes animation combined with live action like Ronald’s wink and the aroma effect for McDonald’s or the mum and kid kangaroos for Domo Gasoline.⁵

Some of his work featured in TV ads became highly recognizable in Vancouver in the 60s and 70s, including the London Drugs (top three images) and Vancity characters (bottom three images), which are long since out of advertising use:

Throughout his career as an animator, Sens made many independent non-commercial films as well, largely through the support of the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). The NFB has a couple of his films available for online viewing on their website: “The Logger” (1971), about BC’s logging history, from the Canada Vignettes series, and “The Twitch” (1973), about political intolerance. NFB has announced, that coming soon, is another animated film on which Sens collaborated: “Where There’s Smoke” (1970). In addition to his work for the NFB, Sens also produced animations for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, BC Hydro,⁷ SFU, UBC, the Learning Corporation of America, Cinemedia, Infomedia, Public Service Commercials, and Habitat, as well as numerous independent projects.⁸

His films went on to be featured nationally and internationally at various film festivals. Some of his most notable films include “Hard Day at the Office,” “Problems on an Imaginary Farm,” and “Political Animals.” “Each of these featured political themes, for which Sens became well known.”⁹ Of his work, he writes:

There is no reason why an animator cannot come on as strong as a poet, painter, or writer.¹⁰

 

 

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1. “Notes on the Filmmakers.” n.p. n.d. Al Sens Collection. RBSC-ARC 1729, box 2, folder 14. Rare Books and Special Collections, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver. Print Photocopy.
2. Sens, Al. Al Sens Animation Ltd. [195-?]. Al Sens Collection. RBSC-ARC 1729, box 2, folder 27. Rare Books and Special Collections, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver.
3. Sens, Al. A Sens Production. [195-?]. Al Sens Collection. RBSC-ARC 1729, box 2, folder 27. Rare Books and Special Collections, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver.
4. Sens, Al. “A biography (of sorts).” [19–?]. Al Sens Collection. RBSC-ARC 1729, box 2, folder 27. Rare Books and Special Collections, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver. See my last post for an image of Sens’s full biography.
5. p. 14: Belanger, Lynka. “Animation: Animation in TV Ads.” Canadian Cartoonist, 1990: 14-15. Al Sens Collection. RBSC-ARC 1729, box 2, folder 30. Rare Books and Special Collections, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver. Print photocopy.
6. Sens, Al. Illustrations featured in: Belanger, Lynka. “Animation: Animation in TV Ads.”
7. “Fonds RBSC-ARC 1729 – Al Sens collection.” RBSC/OSC Archives. UBC, n.d. Web. 8 Mar. 2016. http://rbscarchives.library.ubc.ca/index.php/al-sens-collection.
8. p. 36: Lakin, N’eema. “Animation in Vancouver.” Cinema Canada, Aug. 1976. Web. 2 Apr. 2016. http://cinemacanada.athabascau.ca/index.php/cinema/article/viewFile/613/685.
9. “Fonds RBSC-ARC 1729 – Al Sens collection.” RBSC/OSC Archives.
10. Sens, Al. “Movement is the Message: Notes on a moving craft animation.” How to Make or Not Make a Canadian Film 1898-1967.Montreal, Cinémathèque Canadienne: n.d. Al Sens Collection. RBSC-ARC 1729, box 2, folder 4. Rare Books and Special Collections, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver. Print Photocopy.

Al Sens was drawing and publishing cartoons ever since he was a teenager. Born Albert Sens on December 27^th, 1933, he went on to attend the Vancouver School of Art (now Emily Car University of Art and Design) in the 50s. “After his studies, Sens illustrated cartoons for a variety of Canadian and American magazines including the Saturday Evening Post, Colliers, Liberty and Macleans,”¹ even, at one point, Playboy, according to his own biography (featured below). As less work became available for professional cartoonists, Sens transitioned into animation:

When the magazine world collapsed in the late 50’s, due to the arrival of that dysfunctional new media called television, most cartoonists perished but I survived by buying a camera and pretending to be an animator. We were mistaken for laminators in those days which was a more reputable craft.²

In 1976, writing for Cinema Canada, N’eema Lakin notes:

A growing number of animators are also working independently in individual styles on personal films as well as commercial projects, breaking the previously sharply defined boundaries between the amateur and the professional, and between the commercial and the avant-garde.

Vancouver supports a small but active group of animators. Perhaps not more than 12 individuals could be classified as full-time professional animators. ³

Al Sens was one of the few to make it as a professional animator, despite feeling like he was “pretending” his way through it. In 1958 he opened his own animation studio, Al Sens Animation Limited, producing personal, commercial, and non-commercial films with his wife, Shigeko. He was a pivotal figure in Vancouver’s animation scene and he was generous in his support of younger or less prosperous animators:

Al made more animated short films in Canada than any other independent animated filmmaker … In the early 1970s, he had one of the only 35mm animation-camera services in town, and his generosity made it possible for a large number of independent animators to make films prior to the computer-scanning era. It can be stated without blinking: no Al Sens, no Vancouver independent animation, period.⁴

From 1975-89 he was a part-time lecturer at UBC’s Film and Television Department.⁵ Before transitioning to UBC, Sens was a staff member at SFU (Burnaby campus). He even made the news in The Ubyssey in 1968 when the university commissioned him to made educational animated films for the sciences:⁶

Somewhere along the way from Sens’s early talent in cartoons, to “pretending” to be an animator, he had really become an an animator and helped pave the way for new generations. Of his experience learning to animate, he says: “I was self taught; there really was no place to study animation in those days.”⁷ In 2014 he was recognized for his efforts:

The 2014 Ian Caddell Award for Achievement went to Canadian animation pioneer Al Sens, the self-taught founder of Vancouver’s first animation studio, Al Sens Animation, in 1958.⁸

Here’s some images of Al Sens I came across in my archival adventure at RBSC:

 

 

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1. “Fonds RBSC-ARC 1729 – Al Sens collection.” RBSC/OSC Archives. UBC, n.d. Web. 8 Mar. 2016. http://rbscarchives.library.ubc.ca/index.php/al-sens-collection.
2. Sens, Al. “A biography (of sorts).” [19–?]. Al Sens Collection. RBSC-ARC 1729, box 2, folder 27. Rare Books and Special Collections, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver.
3. p. 35: Lakin, N’eema. “Animation in Vancouver.” Cinema Canada, Aug. 1976. Web. 2 Apr. 2016. http://cinemacanada.athabascau.ca/index.php/cinema/article/viewFile/613/685.
4. Marv Newland. qtd. in Eisner, Ken. “Vancouver turns 125: Top 10 pioneers of Vancouver’s screen scene.” The Georgia Straight, 30 Mar. 2011. Web. 20 Mar. 2016. http://www.straight.com/article-383932/vancouver/top-10-pioneers-vancouvers-screen-scene.
5. Benson, Marilyn Leigh. “The Birth of the Frederic Wood Theatre: How the Early Development of the University of British Columbia Fostered the Establishment of the Theatre Department and the Frederic Wood Theatre.” MA thesis. University of British Columbia, 1991. Open Collections. UBC, 2010. Web. 10 Apr. 2016. https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/831/items/1.0098713.
6. p. 13: “SFU cartoons teach sciences.” The Ubyssey, 16 Feb. 1968. Web. 2 Apr. 2016. http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/pdfs/ubyssey/UBYSSEY_1968_02_16.pdf.
7. p. 36: Lakin, N’eema. “Animation in Vancouver.” Cinema Canada, Aug. 1976. Web. 2 Apr. 2016. http://cinemacanada.athabascau.ca/index.php/cinema/article/viewFile/613/685.
8. Lederman, Marsha. “Vancouver Film Critics Circle names 12 Years a Slave best film of 2013.” The Globe and Mail, 8 Jan. 2016. Web. 2 Apr. 2016. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/film/vancouver-film-critics-circle-names-12-years-a-slave-best-film-of-2013/article16229736/.
9. “Biographies.” Toronto Film Society, 1965. n.p. Al Sens Collection. RBSC-ARC 1729, box 2, folder 30. Rare Books and Special Collections, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver. Print.
10. p. 15: Belanger, Lynka. “Animation: Animation in TV Ads.” Canadian Cartoonist, 1990: 14-15. Al Sens Collection. RBSC-ARC 1729, box 2, folder 30. Rare Books and Special Collections, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver. Print photocopy.

On April 17^th, 2015, Jason Vanderhill donated a compilation of materials to RBSC that thereafter became the Al Sens Collection.¹ Vanderhill is a transplant to Vancouver hailing from Ontario. During business hours, he works for the Canadian Federal Government, evenings and weekends he “acts as an archivist for Vancouver, documenting and blogging images, photographs, paintings and curios of the city.”² He makes artistic archival Vancouver material available on his popular website, Illustrated Vancouver, and is active on various social media platforms. More recently, he has also started up a blog about all things transit, and not just Vancouver transit: TransLinked. How exactly Al Sens came to pass on a portion of his professional records to Vanderhill I was not able to discover, however it’s no surprise Vanderhill then made Sens’s documents physically accessible at UBC’s archives, RBSC.

By May, the donated documents had been categorized, catalogued, labelled, and filed by an archivist, and an accompanying Finding Aid was produced outlining the contents. The Al Sens Collection spans Sens’s career from the 1950s to the 2010s and is split into two series. The publication series features periodicals, brochures, catalogues, programmes, and bulletins (the kind of ephemera Twyman reminds us count as “text” just as much as any “book”⁴) – sometimes in their entirety, sometimes as clippings or photocopies – collected by Sens or featuring Sens’s work. The original illustration series, as the name suggests, features Sens’s original cartoons, animations, and occasional paintings, both personal and professional.

 

 

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1. “Fonds RBSC-ARC 1729 – Al Sens collection.” RBSC/OSC Archives. UBC, n.d. Web. 8 Mar. 2016. http://rbscarchives.library.ubc.ca/index.php/al-sens-collection.
2. Glover, Jillian. “Citymaker: Jason Vanderhill (aka Illustrated Vancouver).” This City Life. n.p. 28 Jan. 2013. Web. 10 Apr. 2016. http://thiscitylife.tumblr.com/post/41712437944/citymaker-jason-vanderhill-aka-illustrated
3. The image caption on Vanderhill’s website reads: “A vintage Vancouver neighbourhood (possibly near Eveleigh St, before the Bentall Centre was built in 1966, or perhaps the West End) by independent animator Al Sens, painted circa 1960. He founded his own studio, Al Sens Animation, in Vancouver in 1958. Believed to be purchased at an auction led by the Pappas family, possibly around 1990?”
4. From my last post,  where I quoted: Twyman, Michael. “What is Printing?” The Broadview Reader in Book History. Ed. Michelle Levy and Tom Mole. Toronto: Broadview Press, 2015. 37-44. Excerpt from The British Library Guide to Printing. London: British Library, 1998. 8-17. Print.
5. Sens, Al. Old Houses. circa 1955. Al Sens Collection. RBSC-ARC 1729, box 3, folder 6. Rare Books and Special Collections, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver.

This semester I enrolled in “ENGL 419: History of the Book,” a course designed especially to encourage students to interact with archival materials. Half of the time – more, even – classes took place outside “the classroom” in UBC’s Rare Books and Special Collections (RBSC).¹ My eyes were opened to the amount of stuff in UBC’s libraries that wasn’t on the shelves – in some cases, stuff that wasn’t even in book-form. As an English student, it was humbling to recognize that in my studies I had been prioritizing a certain kind of reading material that had shaped my thoughts around what counted as “reading.” But I engage in various reading materials on a daily basis, most of the items I “read” aren’t even books, sometimes aren’t even traditionally textual, let alone literary. Michael Twyman gives a good reminder that we interact with a variety of printed materials that we “read” in different ways:

When we consider print … there is a good chance that books spring to mind. We have to remind ourselves therefore that printing has never been limited to books … [and] include[es] newspapers, magazines, maps, sheet music, playing cards, religious prints, bookplates, notices, posters, security printing, forms, invitations, packaging, and even more ephemeral items than these.²

D.F. McKenzie adds that even non-print materials, such as films, can be “read” and can be labelled “texts” because “their function is still to create meanings by the skilled use of material forms.”³ Authors, publishers, readers, and literary critics do not have a monopoly on the use of the word (or concept) of “text”:

Filmmakers, spectators, and critics all think in terms of films as texts, because some such word makes sense of the discrete parts of which a film is constructed. The concept of a text creates a context for meaning. In other words, we are back to the initial definition of text as a web [The word “text” comes from the Latin textere, to weave, also the root of “textiles”], … and discover that, however we might wish to confine the word to books and manuscripts, those working in films find it indispensable.⁴

During one of our days in RBSC, my attention was drawn to a flash of purple in one of the display cases:⁵

Here was an artifact that was neither book nor film, but nonetheless a material object: an animation cel. One piece (or piece of “text” in McKenzie’s use of the word) in the composition of an animated film. I endeavoured to find out more about it and about who had made it – to find out how it was made, what it was used for, and how it made its way to UBC. Read more of my blog to find out what I discovered.

 

 

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1. Located in the basement of Irving K. Barber Learning Centre. http://rbsc.library.ubc.ca/.
2. p. 44: Twyman, Michael. “What is Printing?” The Broadview Reader in Book History. Ed. Michelle Levy and Tom Mole. Toronto: Broadview Press, 2015. 37-44. Excerpt from The British Library Guide to Printing. London: British Library, 1998. 8-17. Print.
3. p. 55: McKenzie, D.F. “The Dialectics of Bibliography Now” The Broadview Reader in Book History. Ed. Michelle Levy and Tom Mole. Toronto: Broadview Press, 2015. 45-61. Excerpt from Bibliography and the Sociology of Texts. London: British Library, 1986. 55-76. Print.
4. p. 54: Ibid.
5. Sens, Al. Farmland background [animation celluloids]. [19–?]. Al Sens Collection. RBSC-ARC 1729, box 2, folder 34. Rare Books and Special Collections, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver.