Outfoxed, an animated short created in Autodesk Maya
The Design Brief
For the final examination of IMS 319 during my junior year, the class was given an open project. This piece was to be a minimum of 30 seconds, and be a showcase of any one of the principles learned in the course, be it modeling, texturing and lighting, or animation.
The Concept
Taking what I had learned in my Resting Tiger animation, I wanted to create another animation demo, but one that was longer with more dynamic movements and an actual story, albeit a short one. I wanted to do something comedic, and at the time I had recently watched Dreamworks’ The Wild Robot. In the film, there is a short scene of a bear trying to catch salmon at a stream, before one of the main characters snatches one of them just as the bear is about to catch it. This scene served as the basis and inspiration for my project.
I drafted a storyboard to showcase the sequence that I would want my animation to follow. There would be a bear standing at mouth of a waterfall, trying but failing to catch 3 different salmon. Finally, just as he is poised to catch the final fish, a crafty fox jumps in from just out of frame to catch it, much to the bear’s dismay. The story was simple but effective, and though it was ambitious for only my second ever 3D animation, I was excited at the possibility.
The Research
In order to animate this sequence, I would need to do an immense amount of research, much like I did for my Resting Tiger demo. However, unlike that demo, which had plenty of 1:1 real-life reference and was meant to capture reality, Outfoxed was intended to be more stylized, residing just on the border of cartoony. I wanted to abide by the physical and anatomical limitations of the animals, but still position them in ways that would fit into an animated world.
The primary subject of the animation, the bear, was thoroughly researched for this project, including how they move, their range of motion, and their base anatomy so that I knew what was possible for the animation. Furthermore, I wanted to accurately capture the leaping salmon, as well as the swiftness of the fox.
The models and rigs of both the bear and fish that I used in this demo came from Truong CG Artist, while the Fox was sourced from user moose on highend3d.com
The Process
There was a steep learning curve in creating this animation, as it required not only an understanding of animal movement, but an understanding deep enough to stylize it. For example, bears can be expressive and vocal animals, but their faces do not make expressions that any human would be familiar with. Therefore, I had to be able to visually communicate the bear’s thoughts and emotions in such a way that a person could interpret them, but would also not be too uncanny within the animation.
Furthermore, the degree of animation work needed far exceeded what was done for Resting Tiger. The subjects were no longer static, but instead had to move across the screen and react to one another. The leaping fish in particular were a challenge, for they ha to simultaneously move in space while also flailing from side to side. Furthermore, how I animated the bear had to align with where and how the fish were moving in order to make these disparate elements all work cohesively in one scene.
Personality was an important part of this animation. It was important to me that the viewer clearly understood the personalities of the two primary animal characters: the bear and the fox. The bear is depicted as ill-tempered and easily frustrated, shown via its growing irritation with the fish, as well as its final explosive roar at the fox. The fox itself, through brief in appearance, was also given a degree of personality. The viewer can gather that the fox is crafty, opportunistic, and perhaps even slightly prideful, but ultimately also cowardly and conflict-avoidant.
Once the animation was fully rendered, there came the task of creating an immersive soundscape. The background audio of birdsong and forest ambience was reused from the Resting Tiger demo, with added running water for the stream. The bear's vocalizations were sourced from a wide range of sound libraries, depicting a wide range of shifting emotions, from neutrality, to irritation, to range. I wanted the bear’s noises to show a steady progression that aligned with its changing emotional state, which I feel was well-captured in the final demo.
The Reflection
Outfoxed was my second ever excursion into the realm of 3D animation, and it was quite the jump from Resting Tiger. Animating not one, but three distinct characters with unique body plans and movement styles was a near herculean task, but I believe that this labor of love resulted in a strong demo with a fun premise and an easily-digestible story.
Much like Resting Tiger, I feel that some parts of the animation are too stiff, and could have benefitted from additional time to get more fluid secondary movements and animation. However, the final product still proved to be something that I am extremely proud of.
Working on Outfoxed pushed my creative and technical limits far beyond any other assignment I had previously done. This project truly invigorated a newfound passion for animation within myself, and it will serve as a great benchmark for my own improvements with the craft in the future.
