Art director Bill Perkins arrived on the scene shortly after Vander Wende and began concentrating on the shape relationships of the main characters and the interior and exterior locations that would best fit them. Working with the layout department, he designed Jasmine's room as a bird cage with a peacock motif to symbolize her trapped situation. The Sultan's throne room reflects his rounded shape with an egg motif that is present in the column design, the throne and the oil lamps. When Jafar gains control of the kingdom, the shapes in the Sultan's room are reorganized to echo the sihouette of Jafar. In every instance, Perkins tried to have the backgrounds make a strong a statement about a personality as the animation itself.
Perkins also contributed to the style of the film by listening to what the supervising animators had to say about their characters and developing a chart for their proportions that maximized their graphic impact. Aladdin's broad stance, narrow waist and broad shoulders is distinct from Jafar's T-shape, which in turn contrasts with the Genie, whom Perkins calls "an anti-gravity machine" because of his giant floating mass which tapers down to nothing.
Over in the layout department, the area of animation that creates the settings and camera angles for the action that is to take place, artistic supervisor Rasoul Azadani, a native Iranian, was doing some some prep work of his own. He returned to his hometown of Ispahan in early 1991 to photograph the buildings and interiors in order to authentically capture the Islam World of the 15th century. Azadani took over 1,800 photographs during his trip which became the basis for many of the layouts and backgrounds which were to follow.
Kathy Altieri, the artistic supervisor for the background department, was also a key player on the team and began applying Vander Wender's color theories to her area of the production. "The color and design of the backgrounds can effect the audience's mood and emotions", explains Altieri. "We wanted to have a color progression throughout the film starting with a reasonably accessible, neutral look. By saving the brightest colors, the most contrast, the most excitement for the climactic points of the film, we were able to grab the audience and bowl them over with the intensity of the colors."
Altieri and her team of 15 background artist concentrated on using the colors that appears in the Persian miniature paintings. "Basically, we used the color combinations from that period and the very specific shades of red, blue, green and antiqued gold that are in those paintings. We've punched up the saturation and brightness so that the colors are a lot more vivid and alive. We also tried to assing the cooler colors -- the blues and green, for example -- to the good guys. The warm colors like red, orange and gold were used for Jafar, Iago and their environments.
"Another thing that we did on 'Aladdin' was to incorporate the shapes of Islamic calligraphy, primarily the S-shaped curve, into our paintings." Altieri continues. "It's got the same sort of appeal as the Hirschfeld drawings with a rhythm that is very pleasing to the eye. Even though we've caricatured many of the buildings and objects for aesthetic reasons, we are painting them in a realistic way with light, shadows, texture and depth so that it adds to their believability."
Another level of realism was added by Don Paul, the artistic supervisor of the effects department, and his team of specialized animators. This talented group provides a wide variety of effects ranging from fire to smoke to the fine grains of sand and all the other elements that add to the magic and excitement of the story.
© 1992 The Walt Disney Company
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