Applied Animation: Research

In order to start animating, I thought it would be a good idea to get some research done on how these animals move in real life to help me make the characters move in a believable way. After out lecture with Sara we learnt that it was important to give the characters subtle behaviours as these are what make the whole performance more believable to an audience. So I sat down and looked up some videos on YouTube of the Robin and the Wolf to attempt to find any subtle behaviours that were unique to these animals.

I noticed that the Robin tends to be quite twitchy and jumpy and has very sudden movements that would be missed if you blinked and I feel that incorporating some of this, slightly not so subtle, behaviour into our character would help to create a better performance. I also noticed that the Robin's head moves quite a bit in an inquisitive manner and I also feel that this would be a nice little gesture to have our character do every now and then. 

For the Wolf there wasn't much to go on, as they are very active animals so never really stay still throughout the clip. However, at around 9:10 the wolf laying provided me with a nice little clip of subtle behaviour. Wolves tend to move their ears a lot above the rest of their body (other than their tail) and they are constantly moving. This is something I should definitely consider, as the ear movements could coincide with the tone and mood of the dialogue. Their faces also have a lot of expression which is also something I will need to consider to help give my character a believable performance.