Test Animation - Whales, Sharks, Water and Clouds!

Continuing to look at animal life, in order to get a better feel for the illustrations for my animation. This time I looked within the ocean.

In my story, as the birds fly to sea, they take refuge on the back of a humpback whale. The bulk of the whale need not be animated, but in order to give it life I wanted to have its spout animated, plus I'd like to see its tail splash up to set the scene of it's existence within the waves.

From the prior research I did into studying the movement and motion of each of these creatures, these are the rough animations I have come up with so far. Right now, they are very basic, but they will at the very least help me piece together some sort of moving storyboard that I can then plan more off.

WHALE TAIL EMERGING ON SURFACE

WHALE SPOUT

WATER SPLASH

SHARK SWIMMING

SHARK ATTACKING

No need to animate these, as they can be used as simple two frame drawings I think.

OTHER SKETCHES

Just a few more drawings to help bring that little extra bit of life to the animation.

Now the sketches and segments are done, it's time to piece this together into a moving animatic.