Abduction Test 1

Here are 210 frames to test what I believe is the simplified process of abduction by aliens – something I’ve never animated before, but only dreamt of being part of – either being abducted or actually being an alien and driving the ship and pushing the buttons.

Three things I wanted to focus on:

1. No Plastic Mannequins – In Bobi and the Lollipop, there are several moments where Bobi is in the frame, but not animated. He looks like a plastic mannequin. This is bad and I cringe when I see it. That animation could have / should have been polished much more. But it taught me the lesson to always make sure the character is moving. I made sure the cow blinks, moves his eyes, head, and wags his tail and moves his leg. He shuffles in fright at one moment, which is poorly animated, but it is movement so I am not too hard on myself.

2. Inserting Key Frames for Materials and Lights – something I’ve never done before. So it’s actually easier than I thought! When the light beam descends from the ship to snatch the cow, there are two things happening. The actual light source is moving from 0.00 energy to 5.00 energy, over the course of 3-4 frames. Simple key frame insertion. And the actual material on the spaceship which illuminates and emits light is a material whose diffuse intensity and shading emission turn on, from 0.00.

3. Spaceship Band of Circling Light – or SBCL – Animating a constantly rotating object which is connected to an independently stationary or moving object was a small challenge. I realized parenting the band to an empty, which was parented to the spaceship, was the best way. I could rotate the empty over 60 frames on the Z axes from 0 to 360, and it would loop from that point.

So all things accomplished in this first test, and lots of things to improve upon and play with.