Design a short flipbook animation with commercial applications.
I chose to create an animation for a quirky pet store. The animation could be used as a webpage transition or an alternative loading screen with the goal of increasing site traffic through the least liked portion of the website. The animation runs through the story of a hamster who hops on it's wheel and starts walking. It doesn't go long before running out of breath and stopping. Suddenly a treat drops from the ceiling catching its attention. It starts running on the wheel to try and reach the treat dangling in front of it. It runs so fast that the wheel comes off its axis, snagging the treat before crashing off screen. This crash would signal the page to drop down and the length of the run could be adjusted to match whatever load time was required through a lop of images.
The animation itself was first sketched using pencil and a lightbox. This was then traced and refined using pen after the animation was perfected. Squash and stretch was used to show the movement of the treat and the hamster running. Hyperbole highlighted the hamster's breathing and the size of it's eyes when it saw the treat, and variable distance between frames allowed for flexible pacing.
