user34752: I know the movie is old, but if there's so much as a production book of the film it would assist me a great deal.
I'm attempting to confront all of the areas in animation which I'm inexperienced with, which has involved going back to a lot of classics. I have to say, holy hell, I'm watching it again now and I have no idea how they did some of that at the time. An example would be the rippling water reflections or the path of the raindrops rolling off of the plants—I have no idea how they figured that out without modern computer-aided animation. I need to know.
Do any records exist of either Bambi's behind-the-scenes production specifically, or failing that, the techniques used in early Disney animation studios? Where can I find them?
Thank you kindly.

user4426: The 'The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation' book by Frank Thomas & Ollie Johnston is a great resource for this.  It's available in hardback, and online in many places.
It covers Bambi directly, and all the classic Disney animation techniques.
Disney's multi-plane camera film is also well worth a watch:



They mention Bambi directly at 4m30.

34752: <p>I know the movie is old, but if there's so much as a production book of the film it would assist me a great deal.</p>
<p>I'm attempting to confront all of the areas in animation which I'm inexperienced with, which has involved going back to a lot of classics. I have to say, <em>holy hell</em>, I'm watching it again now and I have no idea how they did some of that at the time. An example would be the rippling water reflections or the path of the raindrops rolling off of the plants—I have no idea how they figured that out without modern computer-aided animation. I need to know.</p>
<p>Do any records exist of either Bambi's behind-the-scenes production specifically, or failing that, the techniques used in early Disney animation studios? Where can I find them?</p>
<p>Thank you kindly.</p>
 4426: <p>The 'The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation' book by Frank Thomas &amp; Ollie Johnston is a great resource for this.  It's available in <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Illusion-Life-Disney-Animation-Editions/dp/0786860707/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Illusion%20Of%20Life&amp;qid=1652777349&amp;sr=8-1" rel="nofollow noreferrer">hardback</a>, and <a href="https://archive.org/details/TheIllusionOfLifeDisneyAnimation/page/n7/mode/2up" rel="nofollow noreferrer">online in many places</a>.
It covers Bambi directly, and all the classic Disney animation techniques.</p>
<p>Disney's multi-plane camera film is also well worth a watch:</p>
<p><div class="youtube-embed"><div>
                <iframe width="640px" height="395px" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YdHTlUGN1zw?start=0"></iframe>
            </div></div></p>
<p>They mention Bambi directly <a href="https://youtu.be/YdHTlUGN1zw?t=269" rel="nofollow noreferrer">at 4m30</a>.</p>
