.First Animation pass, just figuring out the basic idea of what I'm trying to achieve. It was hard to settle on a movement i liked. I didn't want to lose the pacing of the shot but I didn't just want to copy the original animation.
Tomatoa's very unique mouth design called for a higher attention to detail with both acting and overall design. Copy/pasting his teeth made it easier for them to look consistent across the entire shot without much struggle.
Refining the head and body movement.
Figuring out the tracking of objects on his shell and the movement of Moana and the claw.
Also cut the previous antenna design because it was distracting and off model.
Also cut the previous antenna design because it was distracting and off model.
Finished lines for all elements
General progression of clipping masks. Each layer is given a new color for the sake of organization
First pass of color. Started with the skin colors before all else for the sake of the mouth gradient.
Also a bright red clipping mask on the claw to differentiate it from the rest of the body during color
Also a bright red clipping mask on the claw to differentiate it from the rest of the body during color
features and the rest of the body gradients getting colored
body colors and a few frames of an early test for the shell's reflection
Gold details on the chin and arms are manually tracked onto the animation for the sake of simplicity and consistency. A similar technique was used for the texture on the shell
Final animation with blending layers applied
Final composite! with disco-ball effect on the background layer