10. Monster Animations

Animating the Monster: Challenges and Techniques

As the main character of my short film, the humanoid monster required the most detailed animation work. I animated him in four key scenes, each with unique challenges and opportunities to refine my skills.

The first scene shows the monster shopping in the grocery store. To animate this, I had to constrain his hand to the shopping cart at first and later to a cereal box. This added complexity, as I had to manage the constraints while maintaining natural movement. I created my own references for the actions, then worked in blocking to set up the poses before refining everything in spline for smooth and polished motion.

In the second scene, the monster walks from the market to his car. The tricky part here was animating the interaction with the car’s trunk. He had to place his small shopping cart on the ground, open the trunk, and then pick up the cart again to load it. Once again, I relied on references I created myself, starting in blocking and moving to spline for the final touches.

The third scene was one of the most challenging for me. It involved the monster entering his car, which was complicated by the character’s large size compared to the car’s interior. Adjusting his movements to look realistic within those constraints required careful planning and execution.

Finally, in the fourth scene, I focused on the monster’s facial expressions as he reacts to the fallen tree blocking his path. Conveying a worried and tense emotion was crucial to this moment, and I concentrated on subtle details to bring his reaction to life.

Animating the monster was a rewarding process that allowed me to explore different technical and creative aspects of character animation.