mouth animation

Body Language initial research

beast character

this character is from small soldiers and is similar to the character i designed.

the reaction to ball popping is as the idea i had for this character,

i can also study the manerisms of edwards scissor hands to get the skittish almost childish behavior.

Folk Lift Research

cars is the only place i have found forklift trucks animated as characters.
there a feel of great annoyance from the trucks in this clip and the squint of the eyes and the position of the hat help to bring this across.

in this clip Guido uses his forks as arms to gesture to the other trucks due to the language barrier and then to cross his "arms"; this clip also shows the 2 different types of forks used in the film.

in this clip the kart uses their forks again to gesture to mater, just this adds so much to the scene.

i think this is a very inventive way of using the forks as arms. they feel very chilled out in this clip

Mannequin Animation

i started the process of developing my character by looking at existing animations with similar characters to see what characteristics that i would be able to copy to help give my character a sense of being.

i started with the mannequins

this animation is very fluid and the attention to detail not only on the character but the movement of the board is amazing.

although this isn't a computer animation the character is the same as i had designed. it has fully articulated limbs and the animation is eased by the fact the model has no fingers. as its a stopmotion animation the movement isnt very fluid.

the character is very similar to the one i have drawn just with a larger head. the animation give a very fluid human like performance with a funny story line.

Character Ideas

during the tutorial i sketched some characters that i have thought of during the last couple of weeks after getting the brief.

The idea of the first character is a muscular "beast" with sharp Edward Scissor like hands that just wants to play with a balloon but is unable to due to his sharp hands.

i think I'll be able convey the depressed emotion through the body language and facial expressions and also bring a childlike unawareness of what the balloon is and the bang once it explodes

The second character is a replication of a fork lift in the film Cars. Cars uses 2 types of characters. the normal 4 wheeled car and fork lift trucks. the fork lift trucks are used when ever they need to have arms to perform a task.

i love the film and think that the characters are very well designed. alot of emotion comes through the characters.

the story idea is to take the forklift back to it more conventional setting and have it attempt to move a box the correct way up. the box will then fall/move back the wrong way. there can be some very stong emotions of anger and frustration, and ultimatly acomplishment once the task is complete.

Lastly the wooden poseable drawing character. these are used to help drawers mimic the bodys poses in their drawings. they are very generic and have no features. with fully articulated limb.

their sole purpose is to portray body langauge.

the idea is that the character is fully expresive through body language and longs for facial features to make him more than just a model.

1: as he walks along, he finds a pen and draws on a mouth and eyes.

2: another model walks past with crudely draw on facial features and he follows unsuccessfully to find how he came of them.

Characters that inspire me

Cars is one of my favorite films, the way the cars are so expressive with their facial features and subtle limb(wheel) movements is brilliant and they still feel like very heavy metal cars. other cars like films i have watched just dont keep the car a car. it becomes a animated blob thats normal state is the shape of a car.

luigi is very expressive in this clip and have very animated gestures with his wheels simulating hands.

horton hears a who is easily my favorite animated film. the amount of expression in ALL of the characters is astounding. Horton (Jim Carey) uses facial expressions to great effect.

in this scene although horton is easily the larger animal he seems very submissive to the kangroo, his head is kept very low, showing that he is scared. he also uses his legs to walk and also gives gestures as though it is an arm and hand. the ears are also used to good effect almost like a prop.

the kangaroo gives of the feeling of condesation and superiority, that she is the leader and what she says goes.

this animation short uses facial expressions and body language to great effect as the character doesnt speak. she starts as a happy go lucky child who turns inquisitive and determined to see the doll up close. this leads to the frustration of not being able to get in to the shop. once the door opens there is a show of joy. a very abrupt mood change from the annoyance she had experienced. this is a funny but sometimes frustrating characteristic of children, which i have had much first hand experience of :P

her vbody language as she walks in to the shop shows that she knows she probably shouldnt be in the shop and is very wary of the surroundings as to not touch anything delicate.