Milt Kahl's First Shere Khan Scene

This scene is at the beginning of a brilliant sequence from The Jungle Book when Shere Khan interrogates Kaa, the python. Milt animated both characters throughout. The moment when the tiger comes around the tree was the first production scene of him, and it's a beauty!

"It's me, Shere Khan. I'd like a word with you, if you don't mind", he tells Kaa ever so politely. No live action reference here, this came out of Milt's head. He said in an interview: " I learned so much about tigers by studying them that I didn't have to rely on any life action crutch." 

Great perspective walk, and I love the way the tiger lies down, upper body first, then the rear. The way he moves those front feet is worth studying alone. Such great anatomy.

The last pose holds for a while, and Milt kept it alive by adding a few eye blinks on a different level. 

By the way, Walt Disney did see the whole sequence in pencil test before he died. Milt said that Walt liked it and approved it.

#1

#9

#13

#17

#27

#37

#45

#49

#53

#59

#65

#71

#77

#83

#85

#89

#109

The final pose was inspired by a Ken Anderson design sketch, which was inspired by a Bill Peet drawing of the much cartoonier tiger from the 1945 Goofy short "Tiger Trouble". Milt animated that tiger as well…brilliantly.

In case you missed this earlier post, here is a great pencil test of Shere Khan stalking:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2012/02/shere-khan-crouches.html

Classic Animation Roughs

To close out the year I picked animation roughs from Walt Disney's animators, one drawing per artist. The Mickey drawing above is by Les Clark.

It's interesting to compare the different styles and approaches. Of course, each animator changed his way of drawing over the years, as the Disney style changed, too. 

Some of them welcomed the graphic change that transformed the look of Disney animation in the mid 1950s, others found themselves struggling with these modern looking designs. In the end great performances continued all throughout their careers.

They often disagreed on certain character developments, story points or design styles, but when it came to producing a great film, these guys (for the most part) put their egos into their pockets and became team players. Then again Walt Disney had a lot to do with politics not interfering with the film making process.

Happy New Year everybody!

Fred Moore

Woolie Reitherman

Ward Kimball

Milt Kahl

Ollie Johnston

Frank Thomas

John Lounsbery

Marc Davis

Eric Larson

John Sibley

Bill Tytla

TS Sullivant 9

Another round of Sullivant eye candy! 

A while back there was supposed to be a book published with his work.

Unfortunately that never happened, so I hope that these occasional posts will help satisfy the appetite of Sullivant fans everywhere. 

Goofy Pencil Tests

The Goofy short "How to hook up your Home Theatre" was released in December of 2007. If you missed it you can watch it right here at Disney.com (not sure if the aspect ratio is correct, it looks a little narrow):

http://video.disney.com/watch/how-to-hook-up-your-home-theater-4be387e52d43da0e1266b068

We had a blast animating this six minute tribute to the old "How to…" Goofy shorts.

It was directed by Stevie Wermers and Kevin Deters and animated by Dale Baer, Eric Goldberg, Mark Henn, Randy Haycock, Alex Kupershmidt and myself. 

It was produced in no time and turned out to be one of my favorite shorts I worked on, Runway Brain would be another one.

Here are a few pencil tests of some of my scenes. The first shot shows Goofy trying to open a monster cable box. It was animated from personal experience. A while back I tried to rip one of those boxes open and almost broke my hand… 

Holiday Greetings from Walt Disney Productions

1939

1953

1967

1969

Happy Holidays

I want to take a moment and wish everybody Happy Holidays and a great 2014.

It's been an interesting year for me. With the help of good friends the story for my film "Mushka" came together beautifully. I am beyond passionate about this project, even though occasionally I wonder if I should have chosen a shorter film for the start of my post Disney years. Too late now, the thing has momentum, and I hope to get most of the animation done next year. 

The first three sequences are in great animatic shape, with camera moves, temp voices and music.

The rest of the film has been storyboarded, but needs to be brought to that level. I have animated a handful of scenes, and it's pure joy to see things come to life.

At the moment I am taking a break from Mushka in order to meet deadlines on a book project, which is also coming along well.

Wether you are an animation student or a professional working in pencil animation, cg or stop motion, I wish that in 2014 your work will take you to new creative heights. 

The medium is overdue for artistic breakthroughs. Exciting times!!

Trigger Happy

Ken Anderson drew these story sketches for a scene which appears toward the end of the film Robin Hood. The Sheriff of Nottingham has just made himself comfortable as he guards the town jail, when his vulture guard Trigger approaches and clumsily misfires an arrow from his crossbow.

The Sheriff tries his best to avoid the rebounding bolt.

John Lounsbery ended up animating this scene, but not before drawing virtuoso Milt Kahl gave him a few solid poses that show the panic stricken wolf in various positions.

These drawings are phenomenal, put down on paper in seconds with the sharpest pencil in the West. There is plenty to admire, for example I love the way Milt defines form on the lower arms by the way he angles the sleeve line. 

Beautiful, contrasting shapes throughout the figure!