Witch Battle - 2D + 3D HybrId Animation - Opening Scene Test

Witch Battle - 2D + 3D Hybrid Animation - Opening Scene Test

Here's a little scene test for the opening sequence of my animated short, "Witch Battle." It  is a 2D/3D hybrid animated short involving two witches pitting against each other in a magical fighting duel. Nothing too fancy,  just two witches duking it out!

This project served as both a test and a challenge for me, as I attempted to use Blender solely to produce and use both 2D and 3D animation. 3D was used for the background and props, while 2D was used for the animation of one of my witch characters.

Storyboard test of the opening scene done in Storyboarder app.

Inspired by all things anime (especially sakuga style!), cartoons and of course the recent rise of stylised animation in both film and TV, I wanted to see if I can achieve at combining both elements of 2D and 3D seamlessly, technical and style wise.

I first started of piecing together moodboards for what the overall visual style of the look is going be like, starting with the environments and characters!

 Environment

With the environment, I wanted to go for a cartoony, anime-esque inspired background that's visually appealing to the eye, something simple but not to difficult or complex for me model everything under a strict time constraint. I went with a floating arena surrounding in a woodland forest and some waterfall just to add into the visual anime aesthetic! Now for the characters........

Witch Character

As for the witch character, I also was aiming for the style to also have an anime-esque, cartoony art style, something simple and easy for me to animate the characters, such examples being Studio Gainax's (now known as TRIGGER) show Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt.