The Void Animation Project: Animating my Character Exploring Scenery

So After my character learns to walk and gets a firm grasp on that he sets about exploring his surroundings, much to the dismay of Number 1. Obviously I was relatively new to animating with Maya so I knew that his movements might not be as fast paced as they appear in the animatic…

But luckily, from when we filmed our Live Action Reference Video, when Matt acted out the role of 54 we realised that his movements did not need to be quite so hectic and he still looked like he was young, full of energy and excited to investigate his new surroundings. So I could slow them down a bit…

When it came to animating the character exploring I felt that in this particular scene it was not necessary to stick entirely to the animatic because in the animatic we basically illustrate him flipping out. So this gave me the creative freedom to learn new movements such as having the character climb on the giant coffee cup…

Essentially I was basically making this up as I went along, I didn't plan him to climb the coffee cup, I just wanted to experiment with animating new movements like the character wants to experiment with new movements. 

That being said, I still wanted to keep the physicality of the character relatively realistic so when animating some of his movements I kept in mind the physicality of a gymnast. This is because some of the stunts he attempts are like a gymnast. While looking at other references I needed to make sure I didn't lose the personality of the character. So the stunts could not be very elegant as he is still this pudgy being that doesn't really have a clue.