It’s no secret that the Disney film ‘Robin Hood’ is a favorite of mine.

Every time I see it, or artwork from the movie, I’m reminded why.

Andreas Deja has recently been posting artwork and animation from the film on his blog and I couldn’t resist creating a montage of one of the sequences he posted.  Note that the combining of individual drawings often gives a false impression of the action that is occurring in the animation but it can also provide some useful insights as well.  In this case the little rabbit ‘Skippy’ is jumping straight up and down but by offsetting the drawings it’s easier to see the differences that are occurring from frame to frame.

Milt is at his best here.

Just pick a point or shape on the first drawing (on the left) and follow it through the entire sequence.  Note the range of motion, direction and area of the frame that it is in.  Then go back and pick another point or shape and do the same thing.  Milt is a master of using the screen to its fullest potential.

There is a lot more to see here of course.  The arcs, the squash and stretch, follow-through and secondary action.  Watch that feather.  Follow the sword.  Note the frame cut off at the top as Skippy jumps up out of the viewable area of the screen and then later thrusts his wooden sword out of screen right.  See the asymmetry that keeps the character’s action from being boring and maintains the eye’s interest in further exploration.

Of course, the smaller images here don’t do this artwork justice and the detail will be hard to examine, so check out Andreas’s blog to see the full scans!  Visit his blog frequently… as often as you can!

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2012/04/skippy.html