Research.

I have been completely bed ridden and very sick for the past four days. Which means I have lost four days of working which is frustrating but I’m not going to freak out about it because I believe that I can do this animation piece. And If you believe you can do something then you are already half way there.

But while I was sick I watched many 2D animation films and took notes. I was manly focusing on how they animated particular characters or things and this helped me a lot as I know have many new ideas that where far better than my old ones.

For example one of the movies I watched and got ideas from was Disney’s Hercules. They did this great transition that I hadn’t truly noticed till now in the very beginning of the film. It was a slow zoom to cut then zoom. It’s hard to explain but I will try and see if I can use this technique or at least something familiar to it.

I also watched carefully and have always admired how they animated Hades. He is a great character and I believe the animator had fun animation him. But I payed close attention to the smoke he creates at the bottom of his robe as that is similar to my fairy-godmother character. (Except she is a good and cheerful character.)

Another film I watched that helped me greatly was Winnie the Pooh. I noticed that Pooh bears eyes and my character Emily’s eyes are the same except for the eye lashes. I purposely made Emily’s eyes a teddy bear black bead like because she looks better with them and I wanted a challenge. It is harder than expected to animate a character who has no white in their eyes as you can’t always tell their emotion or where they are looking but it is a fun challenge. While watching Winnie the Pooh I was writing down and drawing how they animated his eyes, for example how they drew the eyes so you knew he was looking to the side or thinking.