I remember gearing up for my film Mushka. For a while it was all about tigers, and adding to the knowledge I already had about these magnificent cats. The sketch above was done at the LA zoo, at the time they had an exhibit with a tiger mom and two cubs. Lucky me!!
I sketched them as the cubs grew in front of my eyes over a period of a few months. I also took footage to study at home frame by frame. TV nature programs were useful as well. I even studied tiger cub "appearances" on late night shows, David Letterman etc.
They showed me that restless quality of a tiger cub when held by a human. That definitely made it into the film. You find yourself studying your subject wherever you find interesting tiger behavior.
YouTube is wonderful for this. Before animating Mushka yawning, I checked and found five or six extremely useful video clips of a tiger yawn. There is much more to it than the mouth just opening wide and closing. I love studying this stuff.
Below is a sketch I made for a possible poster, announcement or whatever. I might use it later or not.
Great sketching. Show us more, please? Pretty please?
ReplyDeleteYes, more... They are lovely... I'm so curious about the film!
ReplyDeleteI wish if I was at the studio to meet you Andreas, if I'm with Floyd Norman of course he's a good friend of mine and very talented.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, I can't wait for Mushka to be released. This is really good studies of how tigers work in real-life. And seeing this coming from a guy who watched most of the characters you've animated over the years, this is just fresh to me. Once again, can't wait to see it.
ReplyDeleteman, I've seen some of your big cat drawings from 20+ years ago, and those were brilliant, so you must REALLY know them by now! It's really interesting to see how you handle them differently from Aaron Blaise. Just because you're both very good animators with a good handle on big cats.
ReplyDeleteFor any other readers interested, I think most of the animal drawings here are Andreas' (around page 20) http://www.floobynooby.com/pdfs/Walt_Disney_Sample_Portfolio_Notes.pdf
DeleteWe were at the Walt Disney Museum at Presidio San Francisco today. The gift store is loaded with many items. At the front of store my daughter discovered the "most amazing drawings - she had to have!" We planned to frame them not knowing what they were about. After looking it up, we found they are Mushka! So excited. Thank you. Janelle's mom.
ReplyDeleteI think that's smart of you watching Nature shows on TV. I happen to watch this series on PBS titled, "NATURE" and it has some interesting info on natural history and everything. I love shows that focus on the natural world.
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