The Goal
To design and animate a charming 2D loop exploring character movement, timing, and the small details that bring a character to life.
The Strategy & Challenge
The piece tells the story of a sleeping cat whose peaceful nighttime snooze is interrupted by an uninvited spider.
The challenge was executing the shifts in energy, from the moment of relaxation to sudden panic, and achieving a textured, retro aesthetic with digitally hand-drawn characters.
Execution & Workflow
Storyboarding: Illustrated the initial storyboards and key poses in Adobe Photoshop to map out the comic timing.
Digital Frame-by-Frame Motion: Digitally hand-drew the cat and spider in Adobe Animate, focusing on timing and exploring basic principles like "squash and stretch" to contrast the slow breathing with the sudden freakout.
Vector Backgrounds: Illustrated the detailed nighttime environment assets in Adobe Illustrator.
Compositing & Final Polish: Brought all rendered sequences into Adobe After Effects to build the loop and animate the background with subtle ambient motion. I also experimented with textures and adjustment layers to give the digital illustrations a warm, analogue feel that complements the retro cartoon style.
WORKFLOW
The storyboard assets were illustrated in Photoshop. The animation was developed frame by frame in Adobe Animate, with each sequence rendered and brought back into After Effects.
For the background, I created the assets in Illustrator and imported them into After Effects.
For the background, I created the assets in Illustrator and imported them into After Effects.
I also experimented with textures and adjustment layers to give the illustrations a more analogue feel that complements the retro style of the animation.
Frame-by-frame animation using a layered workflow in Adobe Animate
