Stick Man

This topic is looking at Stretch and Squash in greater detail.

The aim is to demonstrate how a character will move in terms of stretching and squashing this will apply to nearly all animation as most characters are organic and therefore will have to include some degree of stretching and squashing or they will look unnatural or wrong.

For my character I am going to use a traditional stick man as this is easy to draw and will be sufficient in demonstrating this principle. After deciding on my character I need to decide what he is going to do to show the principle in action.
My initial idea was to have him running across the screen but this is far to simple and wont show much stretching or squashing, I could exaggerate the movement to display it but after a little thought I have decided to have my stick man jump an obstacle.

Possible ideas
· Jumps over a box
· Jumps a river
· Jumps another character
· Jumps over a fire
· Jumps a crocodile

I like the Crocodile idea best as this means I can animate the crocodile as well making the animation a bit more interesting.

My working progress




Final Animation



Evaluation

I am pleased with the finished animation I feel it demonstrates stretching and squashing well, it has been enjoyable to animate and I am happy with the outcome.
Timing and spacing needs some work to help it run a bit smoother but overall I feel it is a success.