It's a cold day in October 2017, when I still think back of beautiful Australia, which I just came back from. During my stay in Australia I came up with an idea for an animation: A story about a monster, too lazy to attack the medieval village he lives close to.
The technical aspects were just an idea, which I needed to test. Would it look good enough to animate a base, flat-art skeleton in After Effects, and to draw it over in Photoshop to make it look frame-for-frame animated?
The first test:
The test was in my eyes, a success! This convinced me to deepen into this animated style. Firstly, by optimazing my base skeleton in After Effects. I also did this for other characters, not depicted here.
The face elements in the skeleton were pure basic, as I wanted to have complete control over the facial expressions by sketching what I would feel fit for the scene. This would mean that even though I animated the skeleton, I would add the face. But also hands, as animating these in After Effects would take too much effort for something I believed I could do myself:
During a dip in the process (the too well known "this-is-never-going-to-get-finished-fase"), I started making a 3D model of the titular character in Cinema 4D. Not knowing that this model would come in quite handy in a scene, at the end of the animation.
PS: I have always seen Gørk as a blue character in my head.
In a later sequence in the animation I wanted both Gørk and the camera to turn: The camera one way around Gørk, while Gørk would make a full turn (180°) to face the mayor of the town.
It is in this sequence I animated the 3D model to perfectly sync with the 2D animated base skeleton in After Effects. This was again, a first test, which I just needed to work.
Thankfully, it did. When being drawn over in Photoshop the character would come alive and for the first time in the animation, you would get the sence of depth in the character's movement:
It is in this sequence I animated the 3D model to perfectly sync with the 2D animated base skeleton in After Effects. This was again, a first test, which I just needed to work.
Thankfully, it did. When being drawn over in Photoshop the character would come alive and for the first time in the animation, you would get the sence of depth in the character's movement:
The After Effects file ended up with endless layers (about 500), squished in scènes per composition. This After Effects file was loaded into Adobe Premiere Pro, to add the music and the sound effects, which were composited in Adobe Audition.
And the final animation, narrated by Scotsman Brian Kayes and music by Tijn Arts: