Cheeky Devil

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With Halloween just around the corner, I thought it would be fun to revisit my old illustrations and find something cheeky to animate for the spooky season. This time, I wanted to challenge myself by working with a 3D faux style and incorporate facial expression into an animation. 🎃

While revisiting my old illustration and sketchbooks, which I crafted during my days of street art in Buenos Aires, I stumbled upon a particular illustration I had created for a clothing company. Among the numerous characters depicted in the artwork, one of my personal favorites is the Devil and the flame.

As someone who has dedicated a significant amount of time to working in After Effects, exploring faux 3D techniques and keep expanding my knowledge of expressions, I found the Devil's head to be an intriguing shape to experiment with. This offered me a wonderful opportunity to refresh and infuse color into my illustration, all while delving deeper into the relationship between these two characters.

First, I began by creating the 3D head shape, testing its limits to understand its range of movement. Using three shape layers, including a half circle and two circles (fuchsia and white), I simulated X-axis rotation. These elements were linked to a single NULL layer with expressions. The NULL layer had a Y-axis offset for later neck rotation simulation.

Once I had the head rig prepared, I proceeded to work on the facial elements. My goal was to achieve a convincing 3D appearance for the face during rotation, capturing the curvature and deformation accurately. A mere shift and squash using the scale property wouldn't suffice. To address this, I employed the CC Cylinder effect, linking its properties (position, rotation, and scale) to the controlling NULL layer responsible for head movements.

I also applied a mask to the CC Cylinder effect, corresponding to the head shape.

Upon completing the animation, I gained a clear understanding of how the horns would interact with the head's rotation. To ensure their smooth operation, I made minor frame-by-frame adjustments, aligning them with the perspective of each movement.

Now it is time to work on the next character.

The flame animation was completed, but I wasn't satisfied with how it reacted and its appearance. The wave effect was lacking, and the flame's movement wasn't convincing. I decided to take a step back and explore a new approach.

I aimed to enhance the realism of the fire's motion while preserving the stylized essence of the illustration. After experimenting with various methods, I found that the most effective approach was to construct the flame in segments. This method not only achieved the desired look but also provided better control for the flame's responsiveness to the animation.

To achieve this segmented flame movement, I utilized a solid square layer with masks at both ends. These masks were configured with the wave effect, each with distinct timing, to create a more organic and lifelike movement.

The newly designed flame was prepared for animation. I incorporated a bend effect and a mesh effect to distort the flame and make it responsive to the intended motion.

Animating the Devil's facial expression was the final step. A minor challenge was crafting a rig for the mouth to retain the intricate details on the Devil's lips. To achieve the desired result, I designed a shape layer with multiple points, applied a smooth corner modifier and employed expressions to connect NULL layers to each point on the shape layer. This approach allowed me to link each lip detail precisely to the corresponding NULL for full control.

With the animation now complete, it was time to focus on refining the color palette and the overall aesthetics of the project.

I experimented with various color palettes and concepts, ultimately opting for complementary color schemes for each character to accentuate their contrasting personalities.

After implementing the new style into the project, I fine-tuned and polished the animation based on feedback from a senior animator friend.