It’s almost 1 am, and I’m just exporting this animation. This was one of those animations that I couldn’t stop tweaking and adding to (also, Grammarly is trying to change “tweaking” to “twerking, which is hilarious). When I approach these animations, I look for visually appealing elements from life that have their charm in their repetition. And what’s more visually appealing than tropical fish in a tank, swimming lazy circles? Probably fish in their natural habitat, but I digress.
These fish were a much simpler animation when I first started. There was going to be two fish, inside a simple tank. But they seemed lonely, so they both got two friends. Then the tank seemed bare, so they got some toys and some plants. Before I knew it, I needed particles, a filtration system, texture, and so on. The grime on the tank’s surface took an especially long time to dial in. I wanted to give the appearance of glass, without getting too detailed. It needed to be present enough to notice, but enough to notice on a quick glance. The kind of visual flair you’ll notice after a few loops.
This ended up being one of my more complicated animations. There are 110 layers, over 8 comps, and 55 colors. For reference, Rover was made with 59 layers, 5 comps, and 32 colors. I’m pretty proud of how this turned out. I think that when I convert it to 16x9 for my demo reel, I might add a few additional fish and maybe someone feeding the fish.
