Alisha L Animation (LAU): Context of Practise 3

Context of Practise 3
Using References and Testing for Sal

Similarly to the references and tests I made for Bertie, I recorded some footage of my cat, Oscar, who is particularly an anxious, timid cat. I thought this would fit the personality of Sal well, so I was more hopeful for this test.
The first test I did was similar to Berties’ where I followed the reference footage exactly, without thinking of the personality or acting of the character. One thing I noted from this, however, was the lip-lick that Oscar did- and usually does when he is nervous or in thought about something. I considered this as something Sal could do, as it was also something I had noted from my analysis of Dr Delbert Doppler- and something Sergio Pablos had pointed out.
Here is the recorded footage (the footage is slightly sped up, for referencing, as it moved quite slow):

From this footage, I followed the reference exactly and animated the lip-lick and a slight head tilt. Again, what I found from this was a lack of personality/acting because I had followed the footage exactly.
Here is the first test:

The next test I animated was Sal crouching down, as I had footage of Oscar crouching down and wrapping his tail around himself protectively. This fits Sal’s personality well, so the acting was much more effective here at portraying her personality. Again, similarly to Bertie’s tests, I was able to stray away from the footage a bit more, to consider the acting, so I only key-framed this using the reference footage and then I added breakdowns and betweens with my own knowledge of the movement and Principles of Animation. This made the movement feel much more fluid and life-like, which was what I was trying to achieve!
Here is test two:

After test two, I did a third and final test, which explored the idea of the character reacting to a ball, like with Bertie. To change this slightly, I had the ball on a string and Sal noticing it, prodding at it, like I had noted she would do, but when the string snaps and comes back, she gets frightened by it. I used the footage of Oscar being suddenly surprised by a noise happening downstairs, so this worked well with the character’s acting.
I also coloured and fully inbetweened this test on 12fps.
Here is the third and final test:

The acting still needs some improvement for my final rough line-test, however this works well as a starting point for Sal’s character animation. I still need to explore more character quirks and acting, without using as much reference footage, as the tests which use less and have a balance of both, work much better.
Some thing I have noted is that I need to try stay more on-model with my animating, however this is something that will come with more practise.

Alisha L Animation (LAU)