NED - Animation Process

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We recently completed animating a six-limbed character in Unreal. You may remember him from the Under Strange Suns Art Competition last year. Let's learn more about him!

NED is a four-armed lizard creature who lives in a small terrarium, who spends his days lounging next to his private beach. He was designed by Concept Artist, Henry Lynch, and built in Unreal by Marcelo Pinheiro, Senior 3D Artist.

The character of NED was brought to life by Animator, Callum Boyd, who used tried and tested traditional animation techniques from cinema and TV. "Video reference is honestly the best advantage you can give yourself not just for 3D animation, but for animation in general - that and a student mentality," explains Callum Boyd. "Once you understand and feel how the body moves, exaggerating and transferring that kinetic energy throughout the rest of the body helps bring an otherwise ordinary character, to life."

Cinematics Deputy Discipline Lead, James Elgie, who supervised Callum's work, explains the feedback process: "Animation is all about exaggeration. We use draw-overs to help exaggerate, refine and explore how far we can push the animation as a key tool in our creative arsenal. Working closely with Callum during the blocking, spline and polish phases the 2D draw-over helped to visualise the feedback, showing possible areas to really push the spacing, line of action and fine details of the acting choices. We were able to quickly refine our ideas and polish those silhouettes before going back into Unreal and laying in the all-important keys on those controllers."