Animation Breakdown

Here’s a breakdown of the animation process. This is one of many dialog shots with Lord Bizeus, who is the little emperor of the Octo Empire.

This character was voiced by Hans Van Harken. His delivery added a lot of flavor and personality which makes it really easy to shoot animation reference for. You can see in the process of blocking I try to take as much as I can from the reference and translate it onto a character with anatomy that’s significantly different.

The entire process involves finding what feels right with poses and timing, and then slowly filling in the gaps between the key poses. I personally like to finish the facial animation last.

I’ve been trying to figure out how this little guy should move, and I think I’m settling on squishy yet skittery. Like a soft fleshy spider. The skittering adds to the feeling of being small, and the fleshiness is a must because he looks fleshy. I don’t know, this isn’t really rocket science.

I hope to post a few more as I finish them (without posting the entire short)

-Joe