I was making an asset and I really loved how it turned out, so have this bioluminecent beta fish.
You know what, have all the fish.
Yeah, this bad boy took around 1 hour and 15 minutes in Illustrator
(My oh my! That’s a lot of time, lmao)
- The things in my project that worked really well
I really enjoy the colours, I think they look cool. They remind me of space which I think is cool along with the fact that water is almost like outer space? You float around? .. Anyways, they’re small, so that should be more easy to animate. – Update to that last theory, no, no they were not easy to animate. At all.
- At least 2 things to add or improve on next time
Okay, make them bigger!!!!!!!!!!!! Believe it or not, they’re much more easier to animate when they’re bigger.. Also, you can see more animation when they’re bigger as well. Also, I’d make not beta fish with gradients next time. This would look cool if it were on a poster within someone’s bedroom but certainly not fun to animate because of the gradients and the fact that these are beta fish. I’d do a jelly fish next time or a guppy.
- At least 1 thing you did not do well
If we all know me, it takes at least 3 weeks to finish one project, so I need to work faster and quiet being picky with aesthetic for once because time is on the line.
- What was difficult? What was easy? (referencing tools, techniques, styles, etc)
Making the beta fish within Illustrator was as simple as opening a jar of jam. Some were easy whilst others were more difficult. Overall, designing these fish weren’t difficult at all.
On the other hand, animating them? Different story. They looked too stiff, not enough flow. They also moved too sharply for my liking. Just, I prefer drawn page by page animation over this (More freedom in my opinion.)
- What was the most fun vs most frustrating.
We all know that I can draw for hours and name my projects things like Stove Burns, so, I find drawing and giving names to my abominations to be my most favourite part of making any project. Just love having people kinda unsettled because a piece such as five beta fish are named after a process that us humans cannot do ourselves but slugs and worms can do it just fine. Yeah, bioluminesence is great.
Frustrating? Hate the animation process. Like, you want the fishies to move but you don’t want to move them. They’re like an 18-year-old child. You want the rent money but you don’t want them to be living in your house. Just, hhhhhh, I cannot really put into words about how much I hate animating these gradients man, just awful. DO. NOT. Animate with gradients. Advice from a poor teenager.
- If I were to do redo this project from scratch I would…
Do a jelly fish in the sea, easy, relaxing, parts can move more slowly, not so much “Bounce” to how they move, bubbles for the negative space, some seaweed for more negative space. Relaxing, aesthetic, I’ve never been to the ocean before, It’ll be great.
Nah, If I were to do ANYTHING different for this, it’s to make the models bigger, not use gradients and make a guppy or something, like who just strait-up animates a beta fish for their second time using an animation program? Who would do that?