The task at hand

At the end of the first term we were briefed on a 30 second task project, where we were asked to develop a character, and animate this character performing a difficult task. During the term break we were asked to produce character sketches, a storyboard and following this, an animatic. Once completed, we then moved onto animating the final film. The most important thing was to make sure that the animatic was to the point where it could be 'set in stone'. Because of the amount of work it takes to animate, you want to be 110% of what you are drawing, and avoid wasting time in drawing any unwanted material.

I based my character on the Northern Quoll, an endangered mammal, native to the Northern Territory in Australia. I wanted to challenge myself with engendering an animal character with human characteristics. However, I'm also a big animal lover and wanted to use this as an opportunity in some way help these little relatively unknown endangered animals by broadening awareness, however large or small.

Like the majority of my animation, I decided to animate this traditionally, the reason being that I feel that it is the most effective means of learning how to animate movement correctly and these skills can then be transferred onto other mediums. I also prefer the aesthetic of traditional animation compared to that produced by programs such as Flash. Interesting effects can be achieved by Flash, but in my opinion it takes time to find your unique style in this program, and during this course time is very limited, so I am sticking to my 'traditional' guns.

After drawing my entire animation, I felt my animation skills jump ahead in leaps and bounds. It gave me an opportunity to practice everything that I had learnt to date and remember to include little intricacies, that I have been taught along the way.

Unfortunately I didn't have enough time to add sound or colour the animation, but this is something that I plan to do in July, when I finish the course. It'll give me an opportunity to also correct any areas that I later identify for improvement, with hopefully even more attuned eyes.

Below is my animatic and final film. Enjoy!

Quoll from Natasha Tonkin on Vimeo.