Further Research

During my search for anthropomorphic feline inspiration, I looked at many of the usual cartoon suspects such as Top Cat, Felix the Cat, and even Blaze the Cat and the other Sonic the Hedgehog characters, but they just felt too... traditionally cartoony. The Sonic characters are great examples of all kinda of creatures being given a human twist, but at the same time you can tell that they're supposed to be real animals (or at least 'real' in the sense of their world) rather than toy characters. They're also very detailed and stylised, which made me think that I might be better off looking at the Sonic plush toy merchandise rather than the official art, so I can observe how the designs have been simplified for the toys.
















The Sonic characters also gave me the idea of possibly having a plush human type character with animal characteristics rather than just a straight plush animal. I found an animation while scouting YouTube for references which is a good example of this, as both characters appear human but have animal ears and tails. I think its a nice idea, but I'm not sure its the most interesting character design choice... (Though it works well in the animation) I think I'll probably continue down the plushie cat path for now, but its a nice alternative to explore. But even if the character designs didn't prove to be as helpful as I initially thought, the style and feeling of the animation throughout more than make up for it.


"Draw With Me" by Mike Inel.

I love how sketchy and hand drawn this animation feels... even when the characters aren't moving, each frame is sketched slightly differently to give the illusion that they're never still which is something I feel I'd like to incorporate into my work... I also really like how empty the background is. He never really shows anything other than the characters and the glass wall, giving the impression that they're alone it the world, yet the empty background never actually feel empty... I suppose the colours and glowing light balls help that, though it makes me wonder if paper could create a similar feeling.

I also found a series of five short Flash animations created by Sambakza called "There She Is!!" which I found to be a great help. Not only do they demonstrate excellent timing to the music and lyrics of their chosen songs, but they're also cute, funny, and have a simplistic, cartoony style that works really well. Most of the characters and settings are shown in just black and white with only certain things coloured, like the green scarf the cat wears; and backgrounds such as the sky often look like a wash of blue water colour or crayon. I might consider using this kind of style in my own work later on, perhaps just colouring my cat's eyes or ears to make them stand out. I've posted the fifth (and last) video in the series as an example because I think it has the best animation of the five, as well as a nice example of a walk turning into a run near the beginning, and the cat tripping over at the top of the stairs which could be used as references.