design Archives - Page 8 of 12

Birdy Ziz

This one has a beak and a different mane, a whole new head design actually. Also: dotted lines everywhere.

In case you’re wondering, all these modifications aren’t in pursuit of the Perfect Ziz. Any of the ones I’ve made so far would be plenty adequate for storytelling, and my motto is, “Adequate is Good Enough.” No, I’m just pulled along by curiosity right now. “What would happen if I did _______?” This kind of open-ended fiddling gets a lot of us artists in trouble – it’s addictive, and also “safe,” not risky like designing a whole new character, or actually telling a story, or moving on and getting a project finished. Hence my motto.

That said, I’m indulging myself right now. Plus I’m getting great exercise ignoring criticism, something I’ll have to do lots more of in the coming years.

Another Day, Another Ziz

This one’s for Ravi Swami. It needed a little movement in the neck and head, but I thought the feathers were too much. Of course I might redesign the head, so all this will have to be re-done, but who cares, I’m crazy.

Ridin’ a Fast Ziz

Those previous Zizzes are 36-frame cycles at 24-frames-per-second; each cycle lasts 1.5 seconds. Above is a faster Ziz, on a 24-frame cycle. Because I left various components spaced per the 36-frame version, this one’s a lot more “active” – curvier, wavier, more energetic – as well as being faster.

Building a Better Ziz

Do you have any idea how many versions of these I generate in a day? A lot. I can’t possibly post them all. But here’s another one that I think improves upon the last one, by adjusting the timing of the legs and synchronizing the pairs of wings.

Progress of the Ziz

So many details, so many things that can be tweaked in animation. This version is sinuous and sin-wavy, including trunk and tail. It took a full day to make these changes that may hardly be noticed by some. But, I am curious, and I’m into the kinds of wave animation that are possible in Flash, that I didn’t fully explore in Sita Sings the Blues because this learning takes time.

Leviathinfinity

The primordial sea monster makes an infinity sign.