Inside an Animator’s Mind Collab

Role
Design, animation

“Inside an Animator’s Mind” by Ben Marriott is a collaborative animation project featuring incredible artists and animation students from the first run of his course, Master Motion Design. Ben chose 25 students who created the most exceptional work during its first run to be a part of the project, and I was one of them!

3 seconds of fame

My submission comes in at around 1:21, which means Ben saved the best for last.

Up close and personal

Here’s a closer look at some of the items that pop out of the animator’s head. The bouncing ball, eyeball, and walk cycle are references to common exercises that all motion designers must master. The F9 key is a reference to the shortcut for “Easy Ease,” a common shortcut that gives animation more natural movement. The stopwatch is modeled after the icon for initiating a keyframe in after effects. And the graph is a simplified version of the graph editor in After Effects that gives motion designers specific control over their animation.

Reference

Some of the reference images I used to design the overall look and feel of this piece.

It starts with a sketch

This sketch acted as a roadmap for me throughout the entire process. I find it helpful to annotate over a rough sketch to make sure I don’t forget any of the smaller details.