Loop de Loop entry

I've entered loop de loop a few times previously its an excellent platform for animation as it offers a great space for both the irreverent and the experimental. I especially wanted to enter this months theme as there will be the first screening of loop de loop in leeds at the end of november. This is an excellent opportunity have my animation showcased and meet other animators. I was not particularly fond of this months theme I felt since most loops are generally comedic anyway LOL was a bit wasted. I found creating something for this theme quite difficult but I knew I wanted to practice more frame by frame animation.

I decided I would create a series of walk cycles which tried to experiment with different styles. This would serve as a technical challenge whilst also creating some stupid looking characters which an audience would find funny.

I started the design process by drawing lots of different characters in a sketch book trying to get a diverse range of them. I designed them all with how they would move in mind as they key for this animation being successful would be the characters having good movement.

Once I'd drawn a large collection of characters I asked quite a few people to pick five of there favourites. I wanted the characters to have a good comedic affect so I thought checking the characters with others would help make sure I pick the best ones.

Once I'd got my 5 characters I started to animate them in different styles

The first character I worked on was this ice cream thing. I wanted to try an animated character who has no outlines. I took a lot of influence on the movement from an animator called Neil Sanders his characters always have really interesting silly motion and are also very simple. He is also the founder of loop de loop so taking influence from him should appeal to his sense of humour. 

The next character I animated I drew it using the thick lines I usually do however I thought I'd try and colour it in a different way so I used shapes in after effects. I was very happy with the result I will experiment with it further.

I wanted to try getting back to hand drawn animation since I hadn't done it since the start of the first year. It was a nice challenge to do it, I found that it brought a certain charm to the animation that you can't replicate through digital animation. 

The last character I did I wanted to try and get lots of secondary motion. I used a calligraphic brush in photoshop to paint the lines. I really liked the sketchy feel of the arms however I was not a fan of the type of line I tried for the body. I am glad I tested it but I don't think I'd want to use it in future.