XXX Scene: Sandy in the water

(spoilers ahead!)


Hey everyone!

I hope you enjoyed the new update :) And if you played it, you probably came across the XXX scene with Sandy.

Well, before it got in the game, I had to go a few steps first to create it. And here's what I've been doing.  

1. Animation sketch

First I use  the sketch I made, to  make a rough mock-up of the movement in the scene.  The movement starts with Keen who  pushes Sandy forward on her poolfloat, and pulls her back in again.
 

2. Illustrating the scene

The next step is to detail the sketch and make the final illustration for the scene. As you can see, I added the edges of the Jacuzzi to the scene, to give a better idea of the location.

Now once I have the illustration done, I  cut it up in parts, so it becomes easier to animate the whole scene.


3. Making more frames

The illustration above is the 'base frame' for the animation.  And based on that, I will make 3 more frames.

I animate the frames part for part. And in this case I first made Keen's movement, because he is the origin of all  movement.

As you mighty see below, Keen turns his pelvis in the animation. I could have left that out -which would have been easier - but I feel these small rotations really bring the animation to life.

Once Keen was done, I continued working on Sandy. I know the scene below looks a bit odd, but that's because the poolfloat isn't moving yet.

Here you see the same animation, but then while the poolfloat is moving.

This animation has 4 frames and each frame is shown for 0.2 seconds; so it plays at 5 frames per second.  And at t this framerate the animation always looks a bit shaky.  

But most of the time in game, this animation is played at double this speed, which makes  the animation look pretty smooth again.  

In the future, when I have more time available for these animations, I'd love to draw a few extra frames to smooth things out at lower speeds. But that adds days of work, which I currently prefer to spend on other parts of the game.

4. Adding facial expressions

Well, now the base animation is ready.

But because the characters always talk a bit during these scenes, I also need a few facial expressions. And I need a few extra frames to start and end the scene too.

So altogether I made about 18 unique frames,  that are shown here in a gif-loop. This loop also looks quite wierd of course, but in the game these frames are broken up in sets and timed to the dialog. And then it all makes a lot more sense.

Well,... that's how it's made ;)

I hope you found it interesting & of course I'd love to hear what you think of the animation :)

All the best!

Robin