SLIP N SLIME
concept art // character design // story art // animation
[ Jan to Jun 2024: Freelancing for a game studio! ]
Prototype
My assignment was to create a nice transition between levels that celebrated the player's achievement.
I pushed for a character-driven transition because it would create a stronger emotional connection with the player.
However, this transition felt slightly aggressive so...
Transition Ideation
I created a bunch of quick ideas to figure out what the transition should be.
Carter decided to go with an abstract wipe (#7 in the slideshow).
We needed the transition to loop, so that the players could "rest" before tapping to the next level. So next I pitched a looping slime dance!
Story time!
While I was drawing these for Carter and sending them to him, he asked me to make the colors more pink like the previous concept art... and I was like, "But they are pink... I'm an artist, I'm good at color matching with just my eyes so it's not me." But then he sent me a screenshot of evidence using the eyedropper tool and he was RIGHT. The colors WERE different.
We were wondering if it was Discord compressing the images when finally it hit me.... MY NIGHT SHIFT WAS ON giving everything on my screen an orange tint.
Dance Storyboard
I hopped in storyboard pro and created a simple looping dance.
Carter approved and it became the blueprint for the final animation.
Next up, I had to finalise the character design and wipe design.
So here it is.
Character Design & Wipe Ideation
Final Clean Design!
Here's the final design, ready to be animated in After Effects.
Rough Animation!
Funny Story: Buthol Wipe
So the transition didn't turn out how we wanted it to because it looked like buthol.
So I made adjustments to make it LESS shiny and detailed, and MORE flat and simple for the final version!