Recently I found myself fascinated by the work of Milt Kahl. He worked at Walt Disney Animation Studios from 1934 to 1976 and was famous for his way of animating “head swaggles.” He is widely regarded as one of the best animators to ever live. However, I haven’t found many examples of people trying replicate his techniques. It feels very much like “Oh his work is so amazing, I could never animate like that!”
WHY NOT? If Milt Kahl could figure it out, why can’t someone else? So here are a few rough animations I made trying to figure out the head swaggle.
The First Head Swaggle Test
This first attempt was made before I really dissected how Kahl actually animated the swaggle. The bulk of this was animated in about 45 minutes. Mostly I was testing the waters here. It’s not quite right, but I’m still pretty happy with it.
The Look and Pivot Swaggle Test
Around here, I realized that there is a trick to the swaggle: they are all guided by the nose. Many of Kahl’s best head swaggles are on characters with very pronounced noses or muzzle areas (Shere Khan from the Jungle book, Edgar from the Aristocats, Tigger, etc). Very often the nose acts as a pivot point for the swaggle. It will stay relatively still while the whole head swivels around it. Even though I had figured that out, I wasn’t fully satisfied with the swaggle in this animation. Too subtle. I had to try again.
Full Pivot Swaggle Test
I wanted to fully commit to the pivot swaggle with no ease in or out. Having a slightly more defined head shape definitely helps with making it appear more three dimensional. The secondary action of the ears also helps sell the movement. While still a little rough, I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out.
Final Thoughts
It was a lot of fun trying to figure this out. I’ll likely continue to study Kahl’s work to further improve as an animator. I’m not going to say it wasn’t hard, because it was. Even with using animation software and animating on twos, it was hard.
I would love to see more people give this test a try. Milt Kahl was an extremely talented and skilled animator. But, I worry that others see this level of skill as unobtainable. It is obtainable. It’s not Disney magic, but it is a cool magic trick.
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