Bobble Head Syndrome

Hello!  This is Noreen, the 3D modeler and animator for Dark Clutches.  As you may have noticed already, our art is very stylized, and it is my job to make sure that the animations match Ryan’s art.  Animating a character with short limbs, a huge head, and small body, comes with a lot of challenges.  Not only is most of the body rigid with no joints whatsoever, but the available movement of the legs and arms are severely limited by length and interference from the head. Creativity and patience is needed to find ways to still create playful animations.

First, I had to find a way to make the hood move.  The flaps in Mitsi’s hood were perfect ways to help animate strength and speed of stride by moving against wind resistance and towards gravity.  There are 27 bones total in the dragon hood, 3 in each flap.  They move in ripples opposite to Mitsi’s center of gravity, thus when she rises up they flatten, and then subsequently fly up as she falls.  They play a huge role in her animation, and it’s the first thing people usually comment on when they watch her run cycle.  

Initially, I wrestled with creating a realistic flapping effect.  Wind whips, obviously, and it’s such a common phenomenon that if its off even by one key frame it’s easily noticed.  Wind also can make a soft flow like water.  In the end, the reason why people like the flapping of her hood so much is because it ripples softly while she’s moving up or down, and then whips quickly as she changes direction.  To do this, there are rules to keep in mind.  First, the bone closer to the hood, the base bone,  moves slower and is the last to move.  Second, the bone controlling the tip of the flap moves faster, moves first, and will change direction opposite to the base bone.  This bone is the hardest to animate for often there are key frames back to back, which will create the whipping effect.

Currently, I am battling with moving the head and neck.  Ideally I would want to make them bobble, but if done so they would impair the movement of the arms.  However there are always solutions to every problem, and I am working on a way to move the arms outward a bit more to free up a path for the hooded head.  Here are some sample frames from Mitsi’s jump down cycle and her run cycle.  Take notice of how the flaps change with just one frame!