Codename: Kids Next Door Numbuh 3
To create a charming character animation through movement and acting and to tiedown an existing character model.
Goal:
Role:
All animation (rough, tiedown, clean and color) and background design. Character designs by Cartoon Network.
Length:
Approx. 2-3 weeks
Process
I started off by tracing the model sheet and experimenting with new poses for Numbuh 3 in order to get a feel for the character design before heading into animation.
I knew I wanted to show three beats of a story: Numbuh 3 finding the teddy bear, Numbuh 3 excitedly reacting to the toy and then settling into a hug. I filmed reference to help me portray Numbuh 3’s excitement in the second beat and show the turning of her body in space.
After that, I worked on completing the rough animation pass, focusing on overall timing and acting. It’s important at this stage that the animation reads clearly upon first watch.
With the rough animation complete, I started to tiedown the keys. At this stage, I made sure the character was on model, there were no tangents being created, the volumes were consistent and the arcs in the movement were fluid. I left the hair out to be animated straight ahead in the next pass.
Finally, I finished tying down all the inbetweens and added all the overlapping action and follow through in the hair.
For this project, I jumped straight into animating and added a background in after the fact. However, it would make more sense to design the background first, since it affects the perspective of the character in space. I also added her shadow after the background was done.