Fire

By the second week, I felt fire was an easily recognisable and intriguing 2d effect, so I chose two characters whose fires play an important role in their character appeal. Hades and The Beheaded One.

I also did some studies of fire itself to familiarize (using reference footage of a bonfire on Guy Fawkes day):

To keep myself informed I also used an excerpt from the book, Elemental Magic by Gilland, J. (2009). Gilland states the difference between character animation and fx animation is that fx animation isn't restricted by the rules of character model sheets. All that matters is that one keeps the art style consistent, so I broke down the art styles of the two first:

I also tried to recreate the motion of the fire in its own art style

Although these gifs don't loop, it does provide me with a basic understanding of how the fire moves.

I also noticed that the fire is used a lot as secondary motion, to help sell a movement, but this is a different principle of animation (not appeal)

What went well:

• Using reference footage helped me understand the core mechanics of fire so I could apply it elsewhere,
• These fire types are constrasting, but are based in reality which could help explore my topic question (maybe I could try animating them in the opposite art style?),
• Breaking down the styles before trying to recreate the fire animation helped me get into the style of the fire.

What could be improved:

• Reference footage was for fire on a larger scale, I could have used more reference (online reference would be a safe alternative than making it myself),
• I should probably have looked at real fire first, I understand that these are stylistic interpretations of fire, and that by recreating it I am straying further from the original