Animation

The next step of the project is to produce an animation from an aspect of the Spirit Animal story. I created my illustrations with this in mind, hoping to subsequently transfer the same aesthetic to my animated sequence. After investigating the different forms of animation available to me, I came to the conclusion that the most suited method for my ideas is to reproduce separately all of the elements that my images are comprised of, and then arrange them digitally. This will facilitate a swifter production process, and more dynamic visual effects, while retaining the same look as my story illustrations. I spent a while experimenting with different variations in style for the raven character, taking into consideration different factors such as consistency of form during motion, and how it works with the surrounding elements...etc. The following tests show my decision to change the raven from painted ink to pen drawing. I decided to make this change in order to differentiate the characters from background elements, while giving some variety in texture and allowing for more control over form during the actual drawing process.

The inconsistencies in form are too conspicuous when painted with ink, therefore I changed to the scratchy pen drawings.

The top right and bottom left examples show two different breeds of raven, another selection that had to be made. I decided to go for the more agile-looking of the two.

After settling on style, I began the production process. I looked at various resources including the works of Eadweard Muybridge, whose definitive and revolutionary photography documented the motion cycles of many animal species.

Unfortunately, Muybridge never photographed a raven in flight, despite having done so with numerous other bird species (and his close proximity to a large wild raven population), so I could not directly reference his images, though they helped to provide a basic visual understanding of the motions involved. The above example shows an eagle. 

In the end, I found a video of a flying raven, and used that to create my initial flight cycle: 

After some digital manipulation, the drawings came together well, producing a nice repeatable cycle.

Further elements to come, work in progress...