Course: Traditional Animation II
Here’s my portion of my class’s dance collaboration animation: Dance collaboration. And here is my character design: Dance character.
It isn’t finished but the body is there. I tried adding all the clothes and face over the winter break and got as far as the simple jacket, but once I started the braided hair, it was too much time and I need to move on.
It would have been smart to recycle drawings in repeating dance moves like most classmates did, but this was the most important class of the semester for me and the last 2D animation we will have before fully immersing in 3D, so I wanted to give it my all by having an actual dance choreography—my animation had zero recycled drawings, a total of ~90 drawings! *Collapse* I drew both the beginning (smoke bomb) and end transitions (shattering glass) before and after my part. (Kind of sad that my class didn’t do as many awesome transitions like last year’s and year before.)
I spent days researching the type of dancing in my head but wasn’t so lucky. She needed a mature kind of dance (no camel toes or bum jiggling) that’s cool with confidence, holding onto the rim of her hat or grabbing her jacket for emphasis, with a sharp and precise spring in her step. I found the next best thing in K-pop dancing; the first part of my animation was referenced from Hyo Yeon’s (from the female band Girl’s Generation or SNSD) concert performance where she wore a jacket as well, then the spin into the crouch was referenced from the boy band Shinee, and the leap into a glass shattering stomp was from the opening theme of The Avatar: The Last Airbender.
You can see the first ~5 frames she has all of her clothes and braided hair. Man, if I could give her her face, it would be cool and confident with probably a wink here and there and a smirk. But you can see the feminine flair and sharp and precise dance moves. I kept in mind the feet, always balanced on at least one foot and moving with poise and grace. And as usual always open and dynamic poses and arcs, a little smear technique, and all those animation terms.
I can only get better!
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Song: “A Little Party Never Killed Nobody (All We Got) feat. Q-Tip & GoonRock” by Fergie from the movie The Great Gatsby.
Since the video contains music not created by me, that section will be muted. It greatly negatively affects the visuals, but creators must be respected.
