INTRODUCTION

In this project, I animated a stylized bird that was meant to have a very cartoony character. I didn’t have much time for the animation, so it had to remain relatively simple. The bird flutters onto a pillar, almost stumbles, regains its balance, opens its eyes and is initially startled by the perceived height. Frightened, it hides its eyes behind its wings, but then dares a second look and realizes with relief that it’s not so high after all. With a deep breath, its tension dissolves. This short sequence allowed me to develop not only the flight movement but also facial expressions and cartoony acting. It was my first proper cartoony animation, making this project a particularly instructive milestone for me.


ORGANIZATION & PLANNING

The project was handed to me with a clear expectation: a fly cycle needed to be included, and the face rig had to be demonstrated. Beyond that, I had free rein for concept and execution. I integrated these requirements into the concept, so the bird first enters the scene with elegant flight movements before transitioning into the cartoony part of the action. Since no environment artist was available, I deliberately chose a minimalist scene. The idea came from a figure in my cabinet: a peacock on a pillar. A single pillar seemed perfect visually appealing yet technically simple. The asset artist executed the model very well, allowing the scene to work even without an extensive environment. I knew from the beginning that there would be no environment, so the focus was even more on the animation, which had to work independently of a detailed setting.


REFERENCES

As a basis, I used footage of birds, especially peacocks, to make the sense of weight, wing movement, and body posture believable. For the cartoony part, I drew inspiration from classic animations to analyze timing, exaggeration, and slapstick elements. For the facial expressions, I referred to a well-known meme, the “Kombucha Girl”; a woman whose expression shifts within a few seconds from disgust to surprise, contemplation, aversion, laughter, and relief. It was particularly valuable to directly compare real anatomy with cartoony principles.


WORKFLOW ANIMATION

I started with stepped blocking, which helped me enormously to identify early on which poses truly belonged in the animation and which did not. I placed great emphasis on perfecting the poses and silhouettes. At first, I had set too many poses, which made the animation feel overloaded. Over the course of the project, I reduced them to the truly essential key story beats: flying into the frame, landing with too much momentum, leaning over, catching, the moment of fright, cautious second look, and the relieved exhale.
This reduction allowed me to focus more on timing and clarity. I worked intensively with retiming, as a fully cartoony animation demands different rhythms than realistic movement. Many motions were baked to allow for fine-tuning of the keys. Exaggeration, extreme spacing, and sudden holds were new to me, so I had to make multiple adjustments at the beginning until the timing fit the comedic effect. Since it was a bird that would later be groomed, secondary motions played a major role. Dynamics helped give the feathers a nice overlap. The rig was very extensive, which made animation easier. For example, it had wing-fold attributes, allowing the feathers to automatically follow the bent wings. The same applied to the tail feathers, enabling quick folding. Small tweaks were still needed afterward, but the majority of the work was handled by these attributes.
For the finger feathers, I requested additional controls afterward, as they initially consisted of only three large controls, which made achieving a nice shape impossible. With the additional controls, the animation looked significantly better, even though even more was possible.
Since I created many poses at the beginning and stored them in the Studio Library, I had a large selection of facial expressions, which made animating the face much easier in the end. Setting the eye focus points was particularly challenging, as the eyes were initially animated without any texture. Only with a simple diffuse material applied before rendering could I truly check whether the animation worked.


GROUPWORK & FEEDBACK

After pitching my animation idea, communication was relatively limited, as each team member focused on their part and everything ran smoothly. However, we were all quickly available whenever problems arose. My feedback helped the rigger resolve final issues and perfect the rig. Since there was no environment artist for this project, I deliberately kept the setting minimal. Nevertheless, I coordinated closely with the asset artist, who created the pillar. I also maintained regular contact with the grooming artist to optimally prepare the animation for their work. Especially after the animation process, the team was closely connected to showcase the project perfectly and solve any issues together. In the end, I created a suitable background, which was placed as a plane behind the animation. We conducted several feedback rounds to achieve the perfect look. Regular feedback from my professors was extremely helpful in accurately assessing timing, perfecting and minimizing poses, ensuring the storyline worked without appearing overloaded.


CHALLENGES, SOLUTIONS & LEARNINGS

At the beginning, there were minor issues with the rig, which were adjusted at my request. For example, the tail feathers could not be moved because they were not correctly weight-painted. The weight paint of the left shoulder control was partially applied to the right side. Beyond a certain angle, the right wing deformed significantly, and a wing aim shifted drastically. As a result, I had to be especially careful during animation not to exceed the critical angle, even though the wing needed to be stretched or bent in certain positions.
There were also limitations with the eyes: when looking down, the eye partially protruded through the lower lid. Additionally, in certain poses, the tongue would slip out of the mouth.
The weight paint around the armpits had to be adjusted at the end. Adjusting individual feathers, however, was very time-consuming. For the grooming, the character had to be set up in a T-pose initially, which was not a major issue thanks to the Studio Library. Only the controllers that were added afterward had to be manually adjusted on the first frame. On the artistic side, the challenge was figuring out how much exaggeration was possible for a stylized bird character so that it still looked good, such as using wing feathers as fingers or giving facial features a more human-like appearance. I especially learned how crucial timing is for cartoony animation. Retiming became a central part of my work. I realized the importance of clear holds, exaggeration, and overemphasis. At first, I overloaded the animation, but by reducing and focusing on the strongest poses, the scene gained tremendous clarity.
The biggest challenge was the limited time. Since this was my first proper cartoony animation, I had to learn many things in parallel from timing, spacing, and cartoony principles to the
technical handling of the rig and grooming. Despite everything, I am proud that the animation was ultimately executed smoothly, entertainingly, and uncompromisingly.


CONCLUSION

Overall, this was a project full of new experiences for me. It showed me how much cartoony animation relies on timing, rhythm, and exaggeration, and that less is often more. I learned to set poses more clearly, use holds more intentionally, and design spacings more deliberately.
At the same time, I gained valuable technical experience working with rigs and grooming. In the end, the animation became humorous and full of character, demonstrating that even a proud, beautiful bird can become a lovable character through its own clumsiness.