The Animal Motion Show is a DVD compilation of visual reference for artists. All images © 2003 Rhino House. All rights reserved.

Remote from universal nature and living by complicated artifice, man in civilization surveys the creature through the glass of his knowledge and sees thereby a feather magnified and the whole image in distortion... In a world older and more complete than ours, [animals] move finished and complete, gifted with the extension of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings: they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth.

For anyone who has spent any time in nature, you realize what a pleasantly boring place it is. Apart from the occasional homicidal hippo or bothersome baboon, animals tend to keep their wary distance from humans. In years of hiking and camping, you would be lucky to see the backside of a bear or mountain lion as it scurries into the brush. This is why we cage animals in zoos, and why our television shows use clever editing to imply a natural world that is red in tooth and claw. Otherwise, we may never have the opportunity to see some of these fellow earthlings.

Are you looking for animals to sketch, or sweating over a particularly dreadful animal walk cycle? Have you lost your copy of Animals in Motion, Eadweard Muybridge’s classic 1887 photography of animal locomotion? Do you need that extra inspiration to animate your bouncing, dancing animal characters?

Assuming you don’t have the benefit to research your subject in the wild, and assuming you don’t have the luxury to arrange firsthand animal visits to your studio, the Animal Motion Show from Rhino House is a helpful compromise and a handy reference. As a DVD compilation highlighting the everyday personality of a small assortment of animals, the disc set promises “hours of wildlife footage for study and entertainment, handpicked and categorized by professional animators and artists.”

The Grid view (and frame counter) within the Locomotion section, showing the walk cycle of a kangaroo.

Given our affinity for the living world (biophilia), it’s hard not to enjoy, with childlike fascination, the spectacle of other animals. Volume One of the Animal Motion Show comprises the chimpanzee, kangaroo, squirrel, ostrich and tiger. There is something innately entertaining in watching kangaroos boxing, tigers tackling and squirrels scampering.

In addition, the DVD has general information for each animal, where you can learn such factual trivia as: an ostrich egg can feed up to 20 people; no two tigers have the same pattern of stripes; and, in 1961, a chimpanzee named Ham pioneered space travel for America!

There is upbeat music looping as you spend a few moments intuiting the menu navigation. For each animal, there are three main reference sections: Locomotion, Behavior and Visuals. Each menu item displays its own short clip, and a map provides an overview so that you can jump to any material that may interest you.