Stubborn Birds - Character Dialogue, 2D Animation
It’s a two-character dialogue scene created at CG Spectrum as an assignment for term three of the 2D Animation Diploma Course. Audio used from "The Big Bang Theory - The Viewing Combustion" S09E2.
Stubborn Birds
It’s a two-character dialogue scene created at CG Spectrum as an assignment for term three of the 2D Animation Diploma Course. Audio used from "The Big Bang Theory - The Viewing Combustion" S09E2.
Final Version
I learnt a lot while creating this short video. Especially challenging was that those two birds are connected due to the wire they stand on and to think about how one birds movements will affect the wire and the other bird. The animation of the tall bird was more difficult because he’s the active one in this clip and the small bird is (mostly) the reactive one. Another challenge was to time their actions accordingly to the chosen audio.
In this final uncolored version, the characters are tied down even more. I changed the tall birds animation in the first few seconds again and how the small bird is falling in the end. I lip synced the characters to the audio.
More Inbetweens
I added more inbetweens, experimented especially with the actions of the tall bird and fixed it’s rotating direction.
As in the video below I focused on the dialogue part and finished the ending at a later point that’s why the last few seconds look rougher than the rest.
Inbetweens
At this stage the characters are tiedown more accurately to their final versions. I added more inbetweens and camera movement as well.
Rough
I focused on the main keyframes and tried to pin down the overall interaction with the two birds adapted from the thumbnails.
Thumbnails
Since the audio from "The Big Bang Theory - The Viewing Combustion" S09E2 was my starting point I thought of a few ideas on how those two birds could interact. The basic idea was that the small bird would remain as stoic as possible in its place and mindset while the tall one would try everything to change the small one’s mind. The setting of the stories take place on a wireframe, in the air and in a tree. I chose the one on a wireframe because I think it’s the funniest and most challenging one.
Character Design
While I was on a walk a grey heron flew by and I was immediately inspired to use those birds as characters for the animation. Unlike storks, herons fold their necks and rest their head on top of it while flying. It looks interesting and at the same time very funny when animated in an exaggerated way.
I tired different versions how to style them. Especially where to place the eyes and how they should look. In the end I decided to go for the most unreal version and placed they eyes on top of the bird’s heads. Because I feel that way, the design supports a cartoony animation style best.
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