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Creating & Animating A Squid in AE CS3
Yeah…you read that correctly.
Okay…here’s the deal:
I’m working on a :15 commercial for a seafood restaurant and the client wants a talking (cartoon-looking) squid. I’ve already produced a spot for this client featuring a talking fish (which was well-received…thanks to Aharon Rabinowitz’s lip-sync tutorial!), so now he wants a talking squid (they serve calamari, of course). I plan on building the character in AE using shape layers, but my real question is: what would be the best way to create & animate the tentacles? Shape Layers? Paint Strokes? Any thoughts? Thanks in advance!
Rob McGunnigle
Creative Producer
WHP-TVThere’s no shelf-life on creativity.
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7 Replies
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Dave,
I’m fully aware of AE’s 3D capabilities, thank you. As I mentioned in my initial post, I’ve already successfully created a spot for this particular client along these same lines…so he’s well aware of what the end result will be. All I wanted to know was what would be the most effective way to animate the tentacles. Now that I think of it…CC Wave World might be a viable option.
Rob
There’s no shelf-life on creativity.
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I’d say with a proper understanding of the puppet tool, it’s made for exactly what you want to do.
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8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 10GB RAM, OSX 10.5.2
DualCore G5 2.0 GHZ, 2GB RAM, OSX 10.4.11AE CS3
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Dave,
You’re right about local clients! I’ve had my share of yahoos! This is why I always try to educate them about the production process (and our facility’s capabilities) as much as possible! Anyway…the squid won’t be handling anything, just bobbing in the water, but at some point I’ll need it to wave its tentacles frantically. This is where my dilemma comes from…I guess I’ll have to play around and see what I come up with.
Rob
There’s no shelf-life on creativity.
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Jeremy,
Yeah I’m exploring the puppet tool as well. Thanks!
Rob
There’s no shelf-life on creativity.
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Add my vote for the puppet tool.
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If you want a more mechanical look, you could break up the tentacles into segments and using a system of parenting you could get things to look pretty wild.
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I’d like it to be more of a ‘flowing’ motion, so I’m leaning toward the puppet tool. I think what I may do is draw a single tentacle in Illustrator, import it into AE, animate it to taste, then duplicate it & offset them so the movement looks more random. Yeah…this sounds great in theory…let’s see if I can pull it off! LOL!
Rob
There’s no shelf-life on creativity.
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