12 Principles of Animation

Stretch/squash, and anticipation: for when the duck launches himself off the plank at the end of the clip.



Secondary action: for the slightly-floppy mice ears:


and possibly for the cloth if I have time



Staging:
Hopefully will be clear what this is:





Exaggeration:

The duck will be very suprised/shocked when the mice mutiny.



Arcing:

Candy jar!

Threw together a physics sim to drop a pile of gumballs into my candy jar. Lighting definitely needs work, but I'm not focusing on that yet, I just wanted to get some balls in the jar and not having them intersecting the walls or each other!

Duck - Start

Mostly I worked on inorganic models this morning, and then made the duck this evening. The duck needs some clothing and a bit more detail refinements, but is coming along!

Just for laughs I painted on some vertex colours and through on a texture to give it some roughness. Still naked, but now colourful!

The mouse has a body

Well it's definitely not finished and will probably need a lot of refining (as well as more colouring and texturing), but here is my very first character model ever! I was hoping to have more done to show tomorrow, but this will have to do as a start!

The first character

Here is the beginning of my very first character model ever. I have to work all day tomorrow so I wanted to try and get as much done tonight as possible, which is unfortunately just a head. However, I'm pretty pleased with it, as the first attempt at head. I'm thinking it looks a bit less ratty and a bit more mousey than my concept art. Following a friend's suggestion, I shortened the teeth quite a bit, which helps in the un-ratification of the character.

Character concept art

Largest version

At first, the duck I drew in my storyboard looked a bit too much like Daffy Duck for my liking. Essentially, it was Daffy in a naval uniform. So, to get away from that, I drew him slightly differently, and coloured him like a mallard duck (Anas platyrhynchos), with a green head. Unlike the mallard, who is typically white at the breast and tan below, I coloured my duck tan at the breast and white below to mirror the typical late 18th/early 19th century Royal Navy uniform.

During the brainstorming session, it was suggested to possibly make him overweight, as a result of hoarding and eating all the candy. However, I'm thinking that instead of being a greedy, selfish captain, he is one of moderation. He lets the mice have their daily 'tot' of candy, but no more. I also imagine him as not very experienced, and a definite rule-follower, which antagonizes his crew of mice.

Largest version

The mice in the original story board had much rounder faces than this one here. I am not entirely satisfied with this drawing, as I believe it looks more like a rat than a mouse. I'm not entirely sure how to make it more "mouse-like" at this point, other than making his face less pointed. I will have to play with this when I go to model the head.
The clothing is not entirely period correct, but he is clearly recognizable as a lower-class sailor, in contrast to the very formal uniform worn by the duck captain.

The two two other mice will be similar, but different. They should all have the same similar form but I plan to modify them slightly, making one a bit heavier, and changing some details, such as the nick in this mouse's ear, and the tattoo. Perhaps I'll make one mouse have a cut-off tail.