Webb Smith

Joyn Webb Smith was an American animator and writer, who worked at Disney Studios in the 1930s and is often credited for the innovation of the storyboard concept for animation.
Smith was born in West Liberty, IA and became employed by Walt Disney in the animation department. It was here he began refining a different approach to storytelling. Rather than use word by word descriptions of the scene and then drawing it, Smith decided to draw a rough sketches of the scene with notes on the side and posted them to a bulletin board. This proved to be less time consuming for the animators and allowed them to "see" the story unfold and rearrange elements to improve the flow of the narrative later. This technique would be used by many writers and animators both at the studio and other companies to better their own processes.
His innovation helped him secure jobs within Disney in the Silly Symphonies and other shorts. It also helped with the early production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs which allowed the crew to refine the background and character designs and solidify the narrative without wasting time and resources. Smith would also work on Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, and Bambi. Walt also selected him along with several employees to join him on his Good-will tour of South America as part of story research for new features based on the land and culture. This trip would lead to the fruition of Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros.
Smith left Disney later in 1942 and joined fellow writer Otto Englander to move to MGM where he worked under Walter Lantz. There, he contributed to shorts related to Tom & Jerry and most notably, Woody Woodpecker. He died on March 16, 1951 at the age of 64.
==Filmography==
Year	Film 	Position
1931	Mickey Cuts Up 	Story - uncredited
1932	Babes in the Woods 	Story - uncredited
1933	Birds in the Spring 	Writer - uncredited
1933	Three Little Pigs 	Writer - uncredited
1933	The Pied Piper 	Story - uncredited
1933	The Night Before Christmas 	Story - uncredited
1935	On Ice 	WriterAnimator - uncredited
1936	Three Blind Mouseketeers 	Writer - uncredited
1937	Don Donald 	Writer - uncredited
1937	Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs	Story Adaptation
1938	Mother Goose Goes Hollywood 	Writer - uncredited
1940	Pinocchio 	Story Adaptation
1940	Fantasia 	Story Development: "The Pastoral Symphony"
1941	Dumbo 	Story Development
1942	Saludos Amigos 	Story research
1942	The Olympic Champ 	Story - uncredited
1942	How to Swim 	Writer
1943	Victory Vehicles 	Writer
1944	The Three Caballeros 	Story: "The Flying Gauchito" - uncredited
==Gallery==
Webb smith 2.jpg
Disney staff 1931 (1).jpg|Standing from left: Edmond Seward, Frank Churchill, Otto Englander, Ben Sharpsteen, Bert Lewis, Gilles "Frenchy" de Tremaudan, Les Clark, Rudy Zamora, Wilfred Jackson, Jack King, Tom Palmer, Jack Cutting (behind Palmer), Johnny Cannon, Norman Ferguson, SmithSeated, from left: David Hand, Ted Sears, Dick Lundy, Burt Gillett, Walt Disney
Disney staff 1931 (2).jpg|1931; Standing from left: Smith, Seward, Englander, Zamora, Hand, Palmer, Cutting, W. Disney, Churchill, Cannon, SharpsteenSeated from left: King, Lundy, Sears, Ferguson, de Tremaudan, Jackson, Clark, Gillett, Lewis
Pinocchio story session.JPG|L-R: Ted Sears, Otto Englander, Webb Smith in a story session for Pinocchio.
El Grupo photo from newspaper.jpg|L-R: John P. Miller, Webb Smith, Mary Blair, and Herbert Ryman.
==External links==
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*Storyboarding History
Category:Males
Category:Writers
Category:Animators
Category:Storyboard artists
Category:1800s births
Category:1950s deaths
Category:Deceased
Category:People from Iowa
Category:American people
Category:Mickey Mouse
Category:Donald Duck
Category:Goofy
Category:Silly Symphonies
Category:The Three Little Pigs
Category:Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Category:Pinocchio
Category:Fantasia
Category:Bambi
Category:Dumbo
Category:Saludos Amigos
Category:The Three Caballeros
Category:Walt Disney Animation Studios