-
Animating a FROG’S tongue
Hey guys,
I have a client that wants a FROG TONGUE to come from just off screen and grab a FLY on screen. The FROG is to never be seen, but it is assumed that’s what it is, so the TONGUE zipping in and grabbing the fly is ALL I need. What’s the EASIEST way to get this done? It was my idea, so now I have to figure out how to do it and was wondering if anyone out there could help me out!!!thanks,
J. Brad Jones
BBB Communications
http://www.bbbtv12.com
http://www.wyshtv.com -
9 Replies
-
You need to take a look at the real (frog) world…. and prepare for a lot of motion blur….
-
Yeah, that’s the way. Study some footage of frogs eating. You might find something at archive.org in the Prelinger Archive or on Google Video. Also some herpetology sites might have something (maybe slo-mo!).
I take it that you’re new to animation in any case. The advantage that you have is that your animation won’t even be on screen for a second. If you choose AE, this is what I’d do:
- Create a new comp 20 frames long.
- Create a pink solid.
- Mask out a long horizontal ‘tongue’
- Start at 10 frames on the timeline
- Apply key frames to the Mask Shape of the tongue going “back into the mouth”
- Copy those key frames and paste them at frame 0 on the timeline
- Tweak it as necessary
Remember that the faster something moves, the more gap it should have between itself on successive frames.
-
Not REAL new to AE, but I don’t do many ANIMATIONS other than graphics and video manipulation in AE. I had planned on using a mask and was wondering if that was the BEST route to take, which it sounds like it is. Thanks for your help.
J. Brad Jones
BBB Communications
http://www.bbbtv12.com
http://www.wyshtv.com -
Yeah. Just make sure you turn on the motion blur.
Let us know how it turned out.
-
Will do! I’ll post a link to the finished product on here.
J. Brad Jones
BBB Communications
http://www.bbbtv12.com
http://www.wyshtv.com -
Will do! I’ll post a link to the finished product on here.
J. Brad Jones
BBB Communications
http://www.bbbtv12.com
http://www.wyshtv.com -
I did a search on national geographic just because I suspected that you would need a hi-speed camera to see the motion of a frog’s tounge.
Here’s a qoute from the article…..“Working with researchers doing video studies of frog tongue protraction, he used still cameras with lasers and a high-speed strobe light set at 1/50,000 of a second.
-
Well I’ve got a ROUGH version that I sent the client a little while ago and the ENTIRE animation was about 20 – 25 frames. A little history, the radio station is going up against the market (and actually the US #1 Country station, WIVK) leader, which has a mascot that is a frog, named WIVICK the Frog, thus the need for a frog to eat a fly. It’s just an idea that we had, and MAY NOT even use because it will bring more attention to the competition, so we’re just playing with it right now. But yes, IT WAS FAST!
J. Brad Jones
BBB Communications
http://www.bbbtv12.com
http://www.wyshtv.com -
It’s probably too late now, but you might consider beveling the alpha of your frog tongue to give it some depth. However, if it’s only 25 frames you might hardly see the difference.
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up