[Uni project] Traditional animation - Anticat

For my first traditional hand drawn animation piece I had a drawing of my own character and a drawing made by a classmate. My task was to inbetween these over 60 frames (5 seconds at 12FPS). This was my first time using a light box and the result is below:

I found that doing hand drawn animation puts a lot more focus into the frame by frame movement as it's impossible to keep the previous drawing like it is in Flash. I was also thinking a lot more carefully about the fluidity and timing of the transformation. I started by drawing the key poses, first of all the cat with the clock face, the head being weighed down, then finally the inflation parts. Once this was done it was a simple matter of doing the inbetweening. I was also testing out smearing on some of the frames. When there was a fast movement I distorted parts of the frame. This most apparent in the centre of the clock face, in some frames, rather than a circle it is an elongated oval, this makes it flow a lot better. I also utilised squash and stretch towards the end of the animation to add a bounce as Antique lands on the ground. All in all I am very pleased with this final result as it made me appreciate the work that goes into frame by frame animation. I hope that this reflects in my personal projects in Flash too as I improve in traditional techniques.