Animate Willy "I'm Outta Here"

Willy: "I'm Outta Here!"

In this three part dialogue tutorial we show how to animate a cartoony character ("Willy") saying a line of dialogue.  The line is "I'm Outta Here!", taken from Iago in Disney's Aladdin. 

In the first part of the tutorial we block out the animation with Willy. In the second part, we add a "Smear Drawing" to simulate motion blur. 

In the third part we animate Willy's hat flying up in the air and landing. 

Willy: "I'm Outta Here"

Willy Rig

Willy: "I'm Outta Here!"

For this tutorial we're using the cartoony "Willy" rig (if you can't find a copy, email me at info@animationapprentice.org and I'll email it to you). You can read about the "Willy" rig here.  You can also use any other cartoony rig, such as Mr Buttons. 

Thumbnails

Follow the thumbnail sketches on the right. It's what I call a "three pose shot" - a start pose, an end pose, and one in the middle. At the end Willy exits stage right in a big hurry, but we don't animate this - we just add a "smear drawing" to get Willy out of the shot. 

Cartoonland Set 

Cartoonland Set from turbosquid,com 

We're using the free Cartoonland Set from Turbosquid - which you can download here. The hat is a free bowler hat downloaded from Turbosquid.com. 

"Outta Here" Tutorials

You can find the tutorials at our Vimeo Channel below. They are password-protected, with the usual password. 

Part 1 - Block Out The Scene - Two Poses and a Breakdown

https://vimeo.com/948903337

Part 2 - Animate The "Smear Drawing"

https://vimeo.com/948903441

Part 3 - Animate the Hat Flying Off

https://vimeo.com/948903534

Smear Frame Work Method

Follow the steps below to create the "smear frame" in Maya. 

1. Start by animating a character leaving the scene in a hurry. In this case we're using the cartoony "Willy" rig (if you can't find a copy, email me at info@animationapprentice.org). The animation for this is in a separate tutorial.
2. Get Willy into a nice anticipation pose (top right) so we know he's about to exit stage right.
3. Remove Willy from the shot 
4. Create/Polygon Primitives/Cylinder. Create two cylinders, and shape them into a turquoise smear - like the middle image on the right
5. Then one frame later, create a new Polygon Cylinder, and shape it into the bottom turquoise smear on the right. 
6. One frame later, have a blank screen. Willy's gone. 
7. That's it!

Beginner Animation Tutorials in Maya

To see some free basic tutorials in Maya, aimed at animation beginners, see below:

• 

  Daffy Duck "smear" drawing

  Animate a Telephone Ringing in Maya
• Animate a UFO on a Motion Path
• Animate a Candle with Blend Shapes
• Animate a Simple Head Turn with Monty
• Animate a Flickering Neon Sign in Maya
• Animate a Foxy Tail in Motion
• Animate a Flag Waving in Maya
• Animate Two Dice Falling and Rolling
• Animate a Cartoony Vehicle Coming to a Sudden Stop
• Animate a Traffic Cone Being Knocked Over
• Animate a Submarine Underwater with Caustics

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