GIF 2: Digital outcome

 So i have already touched on the idea of the two characters squaring up to each other, primarily within the original Beast concept drawing.

I would have been totally happy to make a gif out of that image, with the characters heavily breathing as the animation, but i dunno, i wanted it to be more than that. So i had a little think as to the different ways of having the characters face against each other. First was to have the beast head towering over Ms. Dodgy Hair, but that meant the body of the beast would be sacrificed. I then tried him standing in front of her, but it looked dumb, his legs don't seem like they could handle his bodyweight standing upright. Sooo, then i thought, why not make the characters weightless, allowing Ms. DH to get up close and personal with the beast too.

So here is a little test, a drawing of each character on photoshop, and just moved about a smidge to show that they are floating. I liked how it looked, but the fact they were floating needs some semblance of explanation.

So for this i had two ideas, make the beast some sort of psychic, showing telepathy somehow, or have some sort of mystical object between the two. For the telepathy i just added a swirl backdrop, coming from the beasts head, and the object, a glowing circle bobbing between the two. I much prefer the telepathy idea, adds an extra level of threat to the beast as a capable opponent, and it straight up looks better.

With that decided i roughed some frames for the beast, floating around, all pissed off. This is stuff i learnt from the animators survival guide a while back for my previous gif experience, create the frames for extreme movements first, so say a leg at the start of its action, then at the end. After that you add the in-between frames, a process known as "tweening". So what you see is a half finished animation, both extremes are there with a few of the tweens, but still a few more to go for a smoother outcome.

And did the same for Ms. DH, but got in to the swing of things and ended up finishing the frames and colouring before making a process gif. 

Finishing up the beast too and putting both characters together, man am i happy with where this is going, the designs are paying off in motion still, and they do appear to be floating, i guess i have the animators survival guide again to thank for that.

Putting the twirl as an overlay, its all looking pretty sweet, but i wondered if i should make it seem like they were in space or some sort of black void.

Tested it and nah, i'm sticking to purple.

The image still looked a bit flat though, so i added a drop shadow to the beast, I opted not to for Ms. DH because i think of the beast as the focal point, and thought the added dimension would offer him more of an emphasis.

The shadow was a bit jagged so i worked with each frame and it helped add an emphasis to the movement. I also tested the animation at a faster speed, and it just wasn't right.

So here we have it, a finished outcome, very pleased with this one. Only thing i think i could change, and was also noted by a peer, would be the the beast's exhale, and to possibly add a gust from it, even possibly to effect Ms. DH, hair and clothes.