Animation Pracise: Vox and Vincent
Storyboard
Before I animate anything I start with a rough draft or storyboard to vizualize what I've imagined.
In the case the animation is supposed to be on beat with a song, I count the beats and decide from there how fast or slow the actions or cuts are supposed to be.
In red or any other bright colour I add notes or draw actions like easy eases, zooms, hardcuts etc. as notes for future reference.
First draft
After the storyboard I go straight to sketching. In this example I did get a bit ahead of myself and tried to animate the first 3 panels of the storyboard without any sketch or motion guides, which resulted in some weird movements that I did not like in the end.
Restart and rebuild
I took a step back and made a guide from scratch so the motion of the head turn has a solid foundation.
Luckily, the character depicted has a square head, which made it infinitely easier to make this guide.
For clarity I added crosshatching to the back and an X to the front to distinguish the two sides and make it easier for myself, and I added some more bounce to the motion to make it seem more alive and, well, human.
The character
After the motion had a solid foundation, I worked on adding the features of the character. I used a bunch of references from the characters design to make sure its accurately drawn so he can be recognized quite quickly.