Orc Double Take Test

Orc Double Take: Test

Introduction

Over the Easter holidays I felt that this would be an opportunity to practice some animation. I will do this through small tests and exercises, I have already started this in a previous post with the help of Tom Bancroft’s book ‘Character Mentor’.

Within this test I wanted to practice a double take on a character.  I have created a double take before as part of the 2D workshops during term 1, which can be seen my previous post. I was pleased with the result of the reaction of the character however it is incomplete because the character does not react to anything. The space which should have had a scary thing was left empty because I focused on the reaction rather than the trigger. Therefore I wanted to revisit this task as a test and an improvement.

Initial 

I chose an orc as the character because I am looking forward to the release of ‘Total War: Warhmmer’ later this year and have recently been motivated by the fantasy genre including: Warhammer, Warcraft as well as others. I chose a simple double take where the orc is minding his own business, sees something and then reacts.

I started with research on what an orc looks like with mood boards, I particularly like the design of orcs from Warcraft large jaws and teeth which look more like tusks. This similar design is also shared by Warhammer which was also a source of inspiration.

I then moved onto the key poses of the double take and tried to add squash and stretch to the positions to represent the extreme positions.

Tests

I then produced some tests to adjust the timing of the positions.

I added a snort to this test because I intend to add life to the orc as he 'minds his own business' rather than just be doing nothing. In a way I wanted to add a scenario where the orc is keeping watch, smells something and then notices the danger. 

After further reading from Richard William's Animation Survival guide I revised the animation principles and started to remember the process again. 

I then downloaded the trial version of Toon Boom to continue my tests and develop my understanding of animation.

I started with keys, then extremes and then breakdowns. I felt that I had not done some animation in a  while I lost track of the process and felt overwhelmed, once I found control again I could focus on the test and progress through it rather swiftly. 

I started with a rough blue pencil to quickly sketch the main poses and quickly test the movements of the head to ensure they are what I wanted as well as adjust timing etc. 

As I worked through the different positions of the head I found that I was taking positions further and adding additional details and movements. I started to take notes as I worked to ensure I added these to later positions and details. 

One detail i noted was that I wanted a delay on the jaw as he moved his head, the head would turn first and then because of the weight of his jaw, it would follow and swing behind. 

I intended to create this as a looped GIF, however Toon Boom does not offer this option; I exported the frames as images and created the GIF in Photoshop instead. 

• I would twist the face on the 'sniff' to make the facial expression more dynamic. 
• I would probably reduce the exaggeration of the delay of the jaw on the turns because they seem too exaggerated as they are at the moment. 
• I would smooth the drawings to make the movements smoother because they seem rather 'sketchy' and rough as they are.  

This has definitely helped with revisiting the animation principles and now I can clearly see I have much more work to do with revising.