Meet Skipjack the subliminally anxious cowboy. This piece started as an experiment with two goals: 1) Explore cel animation workflows in Photoshop, involving both characters and effects. 2) Keep it graphic and simple.
It wasn't long after settling into the workflow that I realized I wanted to introduce a second character. I also wanted to explore mood, settling on the surreal and supernatural. As interaction between the characters emerged it became clear that Skipjack needed more expressiveness. I settled on a hat to enhance the silhouette and add expression.
How expressive can an eyeball under a hat be? Plenty as it turns out.
Initially I did not intend to light the characters, but the reveal of the second character would have fallen completely flat without it. The final dressing called for some basic sound design (accomplished via beepbox.co) which is an exercise I recommend to any animator who has not tried it before. It really drives home the importance of planning when it comes to timing your motion.
Closing thoughts: This entire process was nonlinear and devoid of planning. It was ideal at the time for creative immediacy and familiarizing myself with a new workflow, but the limitations of "design after the fact" were clear and sometimes painfully felt when I attempted to stitch this thing together. That said, I'm happy with some of the motion and visuals that came out of it.
