During week 1 of Acting for Animation Sarah introduced the bus stop brief. The idea is to create a short 5 - 10 second animation featuring two different characters waiting for the bus. This task is giving us the ability to create two completely different characters in design and expression, with the only stipulation being that they have to be waiting for the bus.
The picture on the left is the template for the bus stop which we have been provided with. Because I will be completing my animation in 2D this is the one I will be using however if students wanted to do a 3D animation they would need to create there own bus stop including a shelter and sign.
The template has intentionally been made to look bland and un interesting, this is to help keep the focus on our characters rather than the shelter and background itself.
Firstly I started off my sketching out my initial character idea. I wanted to create a hipster looking character. So I choose down he route of ripped jeans, long coat and beard. I'm not the greatest at character design but I kind of did this one off the top of my head. I felt the long coat covering his hips would be able to help me in the long run as it meant I didn't really have to animate, or account for hip movement because they would hopefully be covered by his coat the whole time.
I sketched this character out on procreate, I didn't really use any reference images just went off what I had pictured in my head. I was very surprised that it turned out so well, it usually takes me a good few attempts before I get something I am happy with. I find procreate really useful as it allows quite a lot of freedom when sketching and means I can move away from my computer as I do it.
Next I did a sketch of my second character, I based this character off of Edna Mode from the Incredibles. I did this because I wanted to create a character which was completely different in contrast to my hipster and for some reason Edna Mode came to mind.
When looking at pictures of Edna online for reference I noticed that she was quite boxy in her design and quite simple overall, so I tried to replicate this for my character. I tried to keep her as square as possible for the body and legs. For the hair and head I tried to used more squared off circles rather than extremely round ones. This made the character design quite simple overall but one I felt could be quite effective because it was the complete opposite to my long skinny hipster character.
Once I had my character sketches complete I took them into Adobe Animate and did the initial line-art for there starting poses. I think now that I have taken them into Animate and drew both characters out properly you can really start to see the contrast between them, two completely different character design, allowing for hopefully tow different personalities to come through.
I could of had maybe one of the characters sitting at the bus top but decided that I'd rather have two standing characters as it allowed me to have a more free range of motion for whatever I decided to do with them.
Once I had my line art finished I started to put together my storyline. I wanted to have my hipster listening to music in his head phones and doing a bit of dancing. My go to dance move is always this one where you point at your hip and then to the sky. I have no idea what it is called but I thought it would be a pretty good one to use in this animation.
I have created a short animatic with the key poses here, it could be better timed but I just wanted to essentially get the key poses down to see what I have to work with. I added a short jump at the end as almost a final show piece.
Next I added in my Edna Mode character. I wanted her to come across as a lot more reserved and almost giving off a kind "what the hell is he doing" sort of vibe. So I went in and added her key poses.
I imagined that she would just be waiting at the bus stop and then this guy beside her just starts dancing. I wanted to make her record him on her phone so she could later show it to people in a judgy way and be like look at what I saw at the bus stop today.
It would be hard to portray her taking a video so I decided if she took a few photos that would have the same affect I wanted.
From here I was able to go in and clean up Edna Line art and then add the in-betweens for the whole animation and then I was finished! I have included the full animation below. It is a short 6 second loop and I think it turned out pretty well overall.
My dancing Hipster has the most of the animation but that is because I wanted to create that contrast between the two. One who doesn't care what they're doing and the other judging them. I have made use of smear frames for the hipsters arms, something I think works really well. In this context the arm wouldn't necessarily move like this but I think with the use of a smear frame it works well in that motion and I can get away with it. Initially I had thought about using a smear frame every time the arm moved up and down, but I didn't want to go overboard with it so decided that only the first motion across and up would be smear and the rest just normal.
Edna's movement didn't really change much from the animatic but I think this plays into her character. I didn't want her to be doing too much as I think this is the type of personality she has.
(note I only refer to her as Edna because I never came up with another name for her and I got the initial concept from the Edna Mode character)
Overall I think the animation turned out pretty good, however there is definitely things I would add or change if I was to do this again.
1. In the final animation I didn't actually include the jump which I had originally planned. I think that the animation still works without it but having it would of added that little something extra which would of made it even better, unfortunately I just ran out of time in the end.
2. I think the Edna like character comes across really well and the limited animation really shows off the personality I wanted to show. However I think some of the animation could be smoother, such as her head moving up and down. Also I could of added more facial expression throughout jus to add to her overall distain/surprise.
3. Lastly I would try to add better timing overall. I have this constant foot tap throughout by the dancer. It would be nice if this corresponded with his arm movements so that the dance was in sync. I think it still works but adding this would be a nice touch in the future, as it would make it more cohesive.