Dung Beetle

Finished animating the dung beetle this week; I am happy with the animation of the main character and I think that I got the lip-sync down fairly well. Initially I had over animated everything and the beetle was just a blur of arm movements and a mouth which seemed to have a mind of its own, but now I have simplified everything I think that it looks a lot better.

I deliberately did not put to much emphasis on the character in the background because I did not want it to distract the audience from the main character but I think that it came out looking a bit stiff and it defiantly does not add anything to the piece unlike the background action in Creature Comforts.

My finished animation is also a little bit different from the storyboard; originally the beetle was supposed to push a big ball of poo onto screen and turn to camera, I did animate this and cheated on the turn by putting in a close-up but it did not look right so I took it all out, which I think works better because the dialogue starts quite suddenly and any action before it looks a little bit strange.

So with the dung beetle out of the way I am now back on the library project designing a DVD cover which at the moment is a nice change as it is a little less intensive than the lip-sync as I am just pasting in various bits of artwork and stills and the overall design is closely related to the DVD menu which Dan has already designed. That said it is supposed to be done by to day so it may get a bit stressful mid afternoon. Once the cover is done I think I am being put onto comping which hopefully someone will show me how to do as I have no idea where to start.