Reflective Process Unit: Pterodactyl

For my Reflective Process Unit, I am practicing character animation. The question I am asking myself is, can I define the character through the acting in my animation? I hope so, because that is my job as an animator. Animation is basically acting... with pencils. 

It occurred to me that the way in which I demonstrate this is by animating different characters. You have already seen the Dr. Maniaco animation, today I went a different route. I decided to animate a pterodactyl. Why? First of all it is an animal, so it cannot have the same emotions as a human. Not only is it an animal, but it is an extinct animal. Nobody has seen one alive, so I have to invent a way for the it to move, whilst using reference of animals today. Another interesting note is that it is a flying creature, which gives me a break from animating walk cycles and... actually, no that's about it.

So here are the pencil cels for my pterodactyl. I used this Eadweard Muybridge photo for a cockatiel flying as reference, having to tweak it slightly because the wings of a pterodactyl is a different shape to a bird's wing.