Final Animation - Cantankerous Refrigerator

The final result after hundreds of drawings, I can present to you the Cantankerous Refrigerator.



Despite the amount of time spent over a lightbox, I've certainly enjoyed the process of animation as the one feels a great sense of satisfaction when it all comes together; nothing quite compares to feeling of seeing a character you designed come to life on the big screen. Needless to say, I have developed a huge respect and appreciation towards the world of animation as a whole, requiring vast amounts of talent and dedication that is truly remarkable. I've learnt a great deal in this project, which I can hopefully take further and build upon improving my approach to animation as whole.

Animatic with Sound

Whew, got all the drawings done, scanned them in and now well into the process of putting it altogether. With regards to music, my initial thoughts of a slow paced track was not quite cutting it, so I've settled on a faster paced track which I think works well in driving the tension before the finale.

Here is a second version of my animatic to experiment with sound, it also includes the brief opening frames of my animation as I've still working on it.



With some finer tweaks as well as more sound effects should help round out the sound as a whole. Eager to hear your thoughts.

Animatic - Cantankerous Fridge

Initial animatic of the story



Some areas need a little refining such as the conflict between snowman and fridge, as well as giving much more movement into the refrigerator as he still feels a little static at this moment - though I am confident these can be resolved. Most importantly, the structure and pacing seems intact which will hopefully give the desired effect on an audience.

Cantankerous Walk Cycle

A walk cycle with the tone/mood of our story element, so in this case, a 'Cantankerous' walk cycle.



I tried to emphasise his movements with a stomping motion, wider swinging arms and a hunch. With more inbetween frames and perhaps not so straight edges in the legs, would help smooth the animation as a whole.

Cantankerous Research

Here I've tried to find examples of the cantankerous for further research and reference.

Hugh Laurie's character, House, is a prime example of a cantankerous man. He saves lives - but most genuinely find him particularly difficult to work with.

Here's a clip of a typical dialogue exchange with his character, in the form of his auditioning.


Carl Fredricksen from Pixar's Up also begins as a cantankerous character in the early stages of the film.


Carl's first encounter with Russell is also a prime example (youtube won't let me embed).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzBbcp463hA

A random cantankerous puppet


Another cantankerous example, yet with some strong language so be warned!


A scene from Spongebob with a weird cantankerous character. Stop watching after 0:45 secs as it gets pretty random after that.