Research and Ideas

When I heard that the five second animation project would include some sort of interaction with the viewer, I immediately thought of what the character's reaction would be to an outside presence invading their world, rather than just continuing with a different action as though they haven't noticed the click of the mouse. I love the idea of breaking the fourth wall and artists/authors meddling with their characters' well fare as they see fit, sometimes just for their own sheer amusement... I guess its my evil side, but the idea of a character's shock and confusion as they're suddenly controlled by an outside force always makes me smile. While I've always had this sort of idea in the back of my mind, I first thought of it properly in terms of an animator messing with his/her animation after seeing this student film by Don Hertzfeldt. Some of the content is a bit nasty and crude for my liking, but I still think the overall concept is clever and well done.



So I decided I wanted to cause something amusing to happen to my character by clicking it, most likely for them to trip and fall in a comical fashion, since the brief says the cycle should include a walk of some sort. In order to get the most out of the situation, I believe the character needs to have a cute design... after all, its not as fun to be mean to a mean-looking character. This lead me to think of toys and stuffed animals, since children play with and control the actions of their toys in much the same way that an animator controls the movements of his/her model or drawings, plus all plush toys are made to be as adorable as possible. I started with the stuffed animals on my bed at home as reference points; those being a bear, a leopard, and a dragon. I felt the dragon was too complicated to simplify into a nice design, and the bear (while ideal) just feels too normal, since bears are the most common plush toy... That left the leopard, which gave me the idea of a cat and how cats tend to paw windows when they want to get inside. I thought this could be a nice action to animate, as though the character has just realised there's an invisible wall (the screen/paper) blocking him/her from the unknown force meddling with his/her life. So I next did some research into how cats can be simplified and animated, which lead me to two animations in particular: the first being an advert for Felix cat food, depicting a cat fairly realistically. The second being a fun little animation called "Simon's Cat: Let Me In", which exaggerates the cat's antics and gives it human-like characteristics without making it appear human in design.





Watching these really made me like the cat idea, and I love how simple and effective the design for Simon's cat is. But at the same time, I want my plushie cat to be more human-like and run on two legs so it can trip, so I next I'm going to look at examples of anthropomorphic cats in animation.