2nd 2D Animation - Character Design

For the second 2D animation, we were tasked to design a character and animate the character in a scenario based on an emotional change. The brief was given to us by Troy Bellchambers, one of the creative forces behind the animation studio Monkeystack. There were various states-of-change scenarios to choose from, and out of the 5 options I chose the apathy to shock change.

The scenario for this relied on designing a character which can reflect an impression of lack of interest while quickly switching over to a shocked expression. Throughout the planning period, Troy did help out with what would be a good animation with everyone's idea. For mine, we came up with the idea of having a cowboy in a stand-off facing an unknown opponent, with the twist being that he was facing off against a cactus which he confused to be an actual person.

The design of the character is supposed to reflect the clique looks of a typical western cowboy who would be seen in a spaghetti western film, along with the beats on the right showing camera angles using narrowed down letter-boxing and switching to a profile shot of both the cowboy and his alleged opponent. 

After designing the character, I went onto Adobe Illustrator to finalize and refine my design of the character, with added colours and other features to strengthen the design, as well as adding layers to allow the character to be rigged and moved when animating. The outcome below shows the finished design of the character. I can say that I am pleased with the look and vibe the character has.