Hey all! I’m taking some freelance animation lessons from a good friend, and he assigned us each an animation. It’s extremely simple, seeing as how it’s our first, but we are supposed to use characters we’re familiar with. In honor of Toy Story 3, I plan on using a character from one of the first (two) movies, because I haven’t seen how all the new characters handle etc.
So, it’s poll time. I’ll use whoever wins, so get voting
The poll extends to Facebook and Twitter as well, so I’ll add up the votes.
Speaking from experience as an amateur 3D animator, the plastic characters like Buzz, Bo Peep and Barbie will be easy enough to animate with enough degree of flexibility for variety. And they’re pretty close to standard human anatomy. Woody, Jessie, and Bullseye will be pretty tough because of their ‘floppy nature’ as cloth dolls (so when Woody runs, for example, he leads with his hip and feet with his arms and torso following behind). The Potato Heads, Hamm, Rex, Aliens, Sarge and Wheezy have pretty stiff appendages and will be difficult enough to have a full range of expressive gestures. And only take on Slinky if you’re a pro, cos’ you really need to study his spring oscillations and dog locomotion.
Most 3D rigs are also suited for human movement, so try to choose human-looking toys. Of course, if you’re doing this in traditional 2D, then you have free rein, but just bear in mind the pointers I’ve given and you should be fine.
Good luck, and post your results when you’ve completed it!
I voted Buzz because, as thedriveintheatre pointed out, he’s less flexible and more sturdy and should therefore be a bit easier to animate than a character like Woody who flops about everywhere.
