I wonder if any seasoned animator could let me know a good way to animate en electric shock? Hopefully slowtiger's on hand to give some tips here. Say a character puts a fork in a plug. There's 2 images I want to cycle, the normal image and the skull and bones.
But I'm not quite sure whether the shock goes around both pictures and whether to put a negative frame in there somewhere or a solid black or white frame somewhere there. Or to jiggle the character around a bit and have a black and white flashing background or something. Maybe a solid yellow colour too?
There's no strict rule for that. Whatever works for you, works.
Just play around a bit with the elements:
- normal character
- skeleton character
- inverse normal character (if that's possible in your style)
- black halo
- yellow or blue halo
Then think of the animation. The simplest idea would be to just have the character hold his pose under any circumstances - this will have a stoic effect.
However, it can be funnier if the shocked part consists of wildy different poses, each of them in two or three variations to indicate a tremor.
One tip:
when the character receives the shock the ambient light goes slightly down because all the electricity is passing by him and it produces a momentarily power down.
-G
I stuck a fork in a wall socket. I was about three and it seemed like the thing to do at the time. I was thrown across the room and hit the opposite wall.
This is of no help whatsoever in your animation. Just an anecdotal data point.
My family found it hilarious, especially when the 80s rolled around and there was all that spiky hair.
Well, I better get to work climbing this thing or we won't have any picture. -- D. Duck
Can you tell me whether you had an electric current around you, and did it alternate between blue and yellow for 1 or 2 frames? Also, did your skeleton show every alternate frame, or every alternate 2 frames?
Can you tell me whether you had an electric current around you, and did it alternate between blue and yellow for 1 or 2 frames? Also, did your skeleton show every alternate frame, or every alternate 2 frames?
Mikdog wrote:Can you tell me whether you had an electric current around you, and did it alternate between blue and yellow for 1 or 2 frames? Also, did your skeleton show every alternate frame, or every alternate 2 frames?
I wish I could tell you for sure but I passed out briefly when the cycling bug made me repeat the first frame. It can't have been good for my development.
Also, I think my current was white and yellow. No blue. But this was the 70s, so everything in the house was either avocado, harvest gold, or dark brown paneling.
Sorry for the derail. But thanks for the laugh!
Well, I better get to work climbing this thing or we won't have any picture. -- D. Duck
Ah. I thought everything in the 70's was still black & white. I know that in the 50's everyone moved around at double-speed.
I've never stuck a fork in a plug hole. I've touched an electrified fence on purpose and it felt like a basketball travelled up my arm. That's the only way I can explain it.
A cartoony electric shock. Is a convulsing figure, about 3 varying frames of different convulsion poses while surrounded by a bright colored zigzag pattern that outlines the character without touching. An X-ray effect can be a skeleton with a black zigzag filled pattern but the same 3 varying frames of different convulsion poses. Make sure the teeth are clenched and that the character doesn't touch the ground during electrocution, it's a cartoon law
I'm visualizing the old Schoolhouse rock shorts and electric shocks lifted the person off the floor, spread their limbs and alternated between black and a skeleton and a normal layer. I like the tip of using the inverse image but I don't think AS can render a layer as a negative image. Maybe saving the frame and fliping it in photoshop would work. I also like Genete's tip to darken the background and the idea of shaking the character a little. Unless it's a baby cause that's illegal. I hope you post a clip when done.
oh and you need the poof of smoke rising from the head at the end too.
