Case Study: Art 147: Digital AnimationClient: Professor Deborah Krikun,

SUNY Westchester Community College

Character Design and Animator: Shan Chaudhry

Project Title: Raspy and Stinko Date: Fall 2018

Description:

What I have learned from creating animations are that each symbol or characters must come in layers, and that it takes a lot of time to finish one full-length animation. I also learned how to use sound files, covert an animation to a file type that can be supported by YouTube, and how to upload and edit blog posts. The animation that I did for the Fall 2018 semester was about two cartoon characters, Raspy the Raspberry and Stinko the Skunk, trying to get Miss Muffintops' cat off of a tree.

INSPIRATION

The two main characters, Raspy and Stinko, are supposed to give a nostalgic feeling. They both have similar color schemes to Bill and Ted. The story came from the famous cat-stuck-up-in-a-tree cliche, which was formely used in a bunch of TV shows. Miss Muffintops, an elder blueberry muffin, resembles one of these old ladies who have a bunch of pet cats.

CHALLENGES

The only things that make me nervous are how many symbols I have to make for a body part of a character, including Raspy, and how I needed more help with the bone tool. I don't like making too many symbols because it consumes so much time, which makes me nervous that I am not able to finish a single clip. The bone tool is like bending an arm or a leg. My problem is that I do not know how to connect one symbol with another.

STRATEGY

The strategies that I used for my animation were motion tweens for Raspy's lip synch, eyebrow lift, and when he and Stinko were frightened by Miss Muffintops' shriek, along with the wig flying off of Raspy's head (meaning to feel similar to classic toons like Tom and Jerry, Popeye, etc.) Developing the story was not challenging, nor did I have to redo my character designs or any other concepts. I was already satisfied with the concepts.

DESIGN APPROACH

Raspy and Stinko are best friends, almost like Mordecai and Rigby from Regular Show (2009), but with personalities that are supposed to represent characters from old cartoons from the 2000s such as Camp Lazlo (2004) and HiHi Puffy AmiYumi (2004). They inspire me because of the excitement and hyperactivity and that how people make comedy nowadays could barely compare to them.

EFFECTIVENESS

The Raspy and Stinko clip had more weaknesses than strengths. 75% of the entire animation is barely finished due to the limited amount of time I had to finish it. The only clip that I was able to finish were the introduction card and the clip where Raspy get startled by Miss Muffintops' screech. I would wish to be able to storyboard more scenes where Raspy and Stinko actually tried to get Miss Muffintops' cat off from the tree and failed when Stinko's tail makes Raspy sneeze so hard that both of them collapse and Miss Muffintops catches her cat once it jumps off of the tree by itself.

CONCLUSION

I really enjoyed learning how to animate, and that I would like to continue gaining more experience and taking more advice so I can get better at it and reaching my goal of becoming a multimedia artist. Some of the few things that I need to learn more about are the bone tool, the masking tool, etc. I am very desperate to achieve my future career.

Stinko Character Design

"Raspy and Stinko" Storyboard