As part of my CATS work, I was required to find some placement in a field that I am interested in (Concept design for games and animation, games animator, cartoon animator, Illustrator, comic book artist and freelance artist) and basically get a first-hand experience in one of these fields.
I consider various ideas: Contacting some existing freelance artists and getting their take on how they work; Contacting an online comic book artist and getting their take on their work process and experience etc. I also took the chance to discuss some options with my tutor and lo and behold, I got my work placement. My tutor, Gareth Sleightholme and Paul Starkey, is designing a game called Rabbit Heart.
To put it shortly, I’ve been asked to produce some idle animations of the main character, Ululu. In other words, I’m creating the animation sequences that Ululu will perform in the game when she hasn’t moved for so long.
So I immediately went to putting together some ideas of what Ululu could do while she is idle. These are the ideas so far: dropping her backpack on the floor and/or stretching; yawning; grabbing a sandwich from her bag and eating it; grabbing a yo-yo/paddle-ball/bubbles/bouncy ball from her backpack and playing with them; rocking back and forth slightly on her heels; whistling; nodding off; dusting herself off (desert environments); playing with a butterfly; sitting on her backpack; sighing; picking a flower from the ground; playing with her hair; stamp her foot in frustration; tap her foot and stare at the screen (breaking the fourth wall) in frustration etc.
I took environment, character’s motions and held items into consideration (desert, water, field, cave, running, walking, falling, sitting, standing etc ). So for instance, and if this is a realistic factor within the game, if Ululu is idle in a pool of water she could splash about in boredom. If she is stood in a cave with a torch in hand, she could flash the torch on and off repeatedly then bang the batteries back in place when it breaks. Ululu could also interact with the giant Robot-Rabbit, if stood next to it or sitting in the cockpit. I like the idea of her hugging its foot.
Basically I have thought of numerous variables that could be considered and currently sorting them into feasible and unfeasible animations that Ululu can do while she’s idle. I’ll upload drafts and storyboards of some of the idle motions and eventually the animations of the idles.
Sorry about the post being visually unexciting, but a lot of what has been done for this is very scruffy sketches and I plan to refine it a little bit to a presentable level so that others can understand it and not just me. New post coming up.
