Test 1
Virus movement is very important, because I want to merge the knowledge in my project, so it is necessary to do some tests about virus movement. I use red to represent the virus and then draw the sketch with shape morphing in photoshop. Then I import these pictures into TVPaint and add keyframes to see fluency of movement and transition.
The general process of this test is: first, a virus cross in from the top of the frame, followed by more viruses behind. Then these viruses grow twice and begin to divide and multiply to manufacture more viruses, and eventually, they come together to launch an attack to their host.
I think the result of this test is pretty good, the movement is fluent and all the step can be contained. If this test can’t be used in the game, I can still use it for my studio animation as pre-production.
I use red shape to represent virus in the test, after showing it to the teacher, I think I can do some character design for the virus because I want to let the audience know that the virus is very colorful and beautiful. This step is very interesting, I searched for the appearance of different kinds of viruses and found that some viruses look amazing, and even have star patterns on them.
From the character design above, I choose three representative fatal viruses, which are Ebola, Chikungunya and Zika. Because the size of the virus is too small to be observed by human beings, in most videos and animations, viruses just floating in the body. I think it is not very interesting because the outcomes I want to have is a game rather than a documentary. So I designed the moving way for viruses according to their appearance and pathogen respectively. Through the exercises in class, I know that we can use movement to reflect the character’s mood and feature. For Ebola, because it is a virus that spreads quickly, has terrible symptoms and looks like a worm, I let it move very fast, and wriggle like a worm to create a nauseous feeling. Both of Chikungunya virus and Zika virus are spread by mosquitoes. Zika virus has the greatest impact on children, children will suffer from microcephaly, so I let him jump forward just like children; Chikungunya virus has no specific pathogen, so I let it rotate forward according to its appearance.
In addition to the virus animation, I also make the animation for white blood cell when it died. I referred the research and make it looks like a necklace, in order to pass the message of the infection and call more white blood cells. This process is very similar to the explosion, which is very suitable for animation when players fail.