Yet another Loopdeloop, I used this opportunity to experiment with After Effects Duik rigs instead of my usual 2D tradigital style. Experimenting with After Effects rigs opens up my animation range and is a viable (and faster) substitute for my usual 2D hand-drawn animation. Using the Google Images filter to find images I could use legally, I assembled a somewhat grotesque figure based around my previous character design called Bowler.
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| Previous pixel art animations of Bowler (dated July 2018) |
I "storyboarded" this project in TVPaint (so it turned out to be a lot closer to an animatic). I also figured out the ending more organically since a Duik rig allows for a lot more freedom to animate.
What went well:
- To create the mush, I stitched together different images for texture and colour i.e. I had to create banana mush using pizza dough, mashed potatoes and a slug for texture (a lot cleaner, faster and less wasteful than making and photographing the mush myself),
- Managing the numerous assets went smoothly becuase I organised them carefully into separate folders and PSDs,
- The photorealism brought an uncanny feeling to the animation, which is the aesthetic I was going for,
- Using a 3D spherical warp on the face gave it the illusion of turning in 3D which I thought was really clever,
- I wanted to put a heavy emphasis on character animation on a blank, expressionless character, so I used a lot of body language and hand gestures to convey that character.
What could be improved:
- I've been wanting to do a loop with more than one camera shot/angle, but the mush-zoom doesn't count as a different camera shot for me,
- The zoom also blows up the resolution and shows all the defects, even if it does exaggerate the impact.
