Fun animations promoting the game.

Team Wood Games was looking for a promotional animated series for their game ‘Super Auto Pets’.

Their requirement was short, fun, lively animations to show off the characters from the game. They also wanted to show off the game mechanics in very broad terms. The goal wasn’t for accuracy, but for game-feel.

To make something eye-catching and fun, I pushed for 50 fps, and rather than rigging characters the traditional way, I’d animate (almost purely) with path shapes. This means that each element of the characters were blobby and extremely flexible, resulting in very fun animations with very smooth framerates. (This has been well received by the fans – all I cared about!)

One of the more interesting challenges was creating engaging character animations at 50 fps. (The last thing I’d want is a ‘bone-rig’ system; That’s perfect for corporate, but not for this!)

To keep things lively and energetic:

• Characters have unique quirks and personalities
• The pace is fast
• Backgrounds are always rustling
• The camera movement is quick and snappy
• The SFX are funny
• The shots are dynamic (and, like the game, sit firmly behind the 180-line)

Plus, lots of impact frames! You should try doing impact frames at 50fps, it’s fun.