This rotation followed straight after the character design one. Here, we would be creating a 5-10 second short looping animation to display the personality of the character we had previously developed.
I had come up with a little back story for Harold before. His house is constantly haunted by pesky ghosts but, being a rather grumpy old man, Harold will not put up with these troublesome ghosts! I wanted this animation to reflect his old age, but also his grumpiness.

I decided that the short looping animation would show Harold, lethargically and sleepily eating his morning porridge while steam rises from his coffee. This wisp of steam, however, curls upwards and expands until it morphs into a pesky ghost! Harold shoos the ghost away with a threatening swing of his spoon. This animation, I thought, would display his personality well and show an interesting range of emotions on Harold’s face.

Firstly, I started with a range of pencil sketches and key drawings, drawn rather chaotically on scrap pieces of paper. The little thumbnails sketches would be cut out, rearranged then stuck back together. I also added some numbers for potential timing for where each action would take place and how long it might take.

Additionally, I had to create the sound myself. The clatter of the bowl and the thump of the fist were relatively easy to do as foley sounds. The voices were trickier. I tried voicing Harold myself, to express his anger with a grunt and chew in the way old men who have no teeth do. I am not certain that my sound is synched well enough, nor do I think my voice fit his character – next time I would need to find a better cast. The voice of the ghost was much better. I got my mum to sing the ghost’s eerie and melodic squeal, then made the pitch even higher. I definitely succeeded in creating a comedic effect as the ghost’s voice elicited chuckles from the class upon screening.

Because the project’s duration was two weeks, I didn’t have time to colour the animation, though I was able to add in a rough background. Nevertheless, I was also able to add follow through of Harold’s wispy and sparse hair which flows after his head with delayed timing, as well as animating the morphing of the ghost.