Pre-Production and Inspiration

To start with, I planned what animations I wanted to create and how they would connect to my characters personality. I knew from the beginning that I would have to make these animations with a different character provided on Canvas, as my model wouldn’t work. Because of this I had to try and present her personality using animation.

The first animation I wanted to create was a basic walk cycle to ease me in to the animation process. Estry (my characters name) would definitely walk with attitude and confidence so for this I decided to look into fashion catwalks as inspiration. Specifically the exaggerated style of drag runway walks. I found a compilation of catwalks from one of my favourite drag queens and studied the way that the body moves when exageratting a walk.

A collection of clips from ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race: All stars 5

My original sketches for the walk cycle – I tried to think of a few of the principles of animation while designing how the animation would look.

For my second animation I wanted to start it with Estry sitting on her throne, shooing someone away and then ending the animation in a dramatic position in which she is lounged over her throne to show her disinterest. I wanted her poses to be very dramatic and exaggerated so the first thing I thought of was dance. I studied this scene from ‘Flashdance’ to get an idea of how the body would be posed in a position such as this. I then storyboarded each position that I wanted to keyframe in order to create the animation.

A scene from ‘Flashdance’ which I used to reference the dramatic positioning of Estry on the throne.

The initial sketches planning out the poses I would use in the second animation.

For my third animation I chose to create an idle/flying sequence. I wanted to loosely base this off of ‘Scarlet Witch’ from the marvel series as she floats in the air when fighting and I feel like she is very similar to my character. I storyboarded possible poses for this animation.

Storyboard ideas for my third and final animation

Scarlet witch scenes from ‘Doctor strange in the Multiverse of Madness’

References:

RuPaul’s Drag Race. (2020) Every Shea Coulee All Stars 5 Runway Look – RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars [Video]. Available Online: https://youtu.be/1fGuTlUq4i4 [Accessed 02/05/2022]

Machosg. (2010) She’s a Dream – Flashdance [Video]. Available Online: https://youtu.be/_Z8SwE3RzY8 [Accessed 02/05/2022]

Simply Scenes. (2022) Scarlet Witch Scenes – Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness scene packs [Video] Available Online: https://youtu.be/O-2Hj3OGihU [Accessed 02/05/2022]

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