Agency: Pancho
Client: University of Melbourne
Project: Barry Animated Loops
Role: 2D Animation, Cel Animation
Illustrator: Jackie Nguyen
Platform: Social / Online video
The unofficial University of Melbourne mascot 'Barry the Bear' takes many forms but always proudly wears a classic University of Melbourne t-shirt. The University’s content production team sought six different animated loops of Barry, each in a different illustration style including pixel art, collage, line drawing, kawaii and anime. The loops were to be used as standalone animated GIF stickers and overlaid on accompanying illustrated scenes of the campus with captions for promotional video content.
I needed to bring the supplied illustrated character designs to life by creating comical loops of movement, walking, running, flopping, bouncing or flying. For the majority of the loops, I employed traditional frame-by-frame cel animation techniques to achieve the movement. I found the usual approach of rigging the characters in 2D software too restrictive. Instead, I blocked out the key shapes (masses) of each character, finessed the squash and stretch motion, established the way heavy and light elements should move in secondary motion, and built in the exaggerated anticipation and follow-through of body parts. These subtle but crucial elements came together to achieve the smooth and seamless look that can be challenging to achieve in character animation.
It was a challenging but fun project. I learnt a lot through figuring out how to animate in the differing styles like pixel art, which was new to me. The animated loops were a hit; they have been added to the University media kit and are used extensively in content production around the campus.
