Bye Bye Birdie
This is a fun short animation created during Covid time when the world faced lock-downs and isolation.
The Birdies love each other but staying together all the time in a confined space has its limits.
Animation is hand drawn and coloured frame by frame. Done in Procreate.
The original photograph used for character inspiration.
I started experimenting with different concepts and emotions. I wanted to represent the daily life in a lock-down. I was going to create a few more illustrations where the birdies show affection to each other. I thought I would then create a series of digital illustrations.
But the annoyed expression of the blue bird in the top left image had really grabbed my attention.
Character illustration. Done with markers and pencils.
So, instead I decided to push it further. I wanted to represent true irritation and tension. I thought what if the blue bird is so fed-up with the yellow one that it snaps and pushes his friend off the branch.
While I was making some rough sketches, I realised that I would prefer to see that in motion.
That is how I decided to make this project into a short animated video or a GIF.
Rough storyboards of the push. Once I did those I realised that I needed to create a beginning part where the blue bird leans on to the yellow one. This is only a small part of the animation process. I then had to work out the timing, the simplified yet clear design. I wanted the push to be comedic and sudden.
I coloured each frame with a pencil tool in Procreate. That increased my work time by a lot but it was a perfect way to replicate a traditional illustration quality. I wanted the birdies to feel like a book illustration come to life.
Armenian National Dance
This project was created during a short animation course. The aim was to learn how to create and rig a 2D character, then animate in Harmony ToonBoom animation software.
I decided to base my project on my national heritage. In this case I focused on the national dancing and clothing.
The dance movements were inspired by the Armenian national dance "Kochari".
I also studied a variety of dancing clothes. In order to create the characters for animation I needed to simplify the design of the costumes but preserve the authenticity. I focused on the shapes and the details.
This is a node view of my rigged 2D character. If you click on the image you should have an option to zoom in if you wish to do so. Every body part and every detail is a separate object. All of them are connected to each other. For example, when you move an upper arm, the rest of the arm follows. If you rotate or move a forearm the rest of the body stays in place. This was a challenging but very rewarding designing process. Some of the objects had deformers so that the shapes could be manipulated. This was my first ever rigged 2D character.
If you are interested in how a rigged character works you can follow this link
Background Art
Research and Reference
Process
