Animation

Animation style guide 

Global

The film shows many animals in different situations in a post-apo world without dialogues, all is body language, which constitute the common thread of the film.
The most important thing for the animation is to make the shot and animals alive.

Animals live and interact with each other in a natural/naturalistic way, so it doesn’t have to be ultra realistic, but we have to respect the logic and the limits of reality.
References are a good way to start any shot, for to catch how the animal moves his body, the pose he takes when he does something, his expressions, pupils movement, timings, etc.
For quick movement, you can add smears by elongated/scaled poses.

Each animal has its own behavior/nature, so when you animate the shot in a naturalistic way, keep in mind how the character reacts and lives, you have to show his personality. Sometimes, depending on what is happening in the shot, you can take some liberties.
We add a documentary aspect to the choreography of the characters by letting animals go out of the screen or cut by the screen edge, to let spectators think that the characters are free and spontaneous and the camera doesn't predict their movements.

Keep in mind that most of the shots are very long, so don’t over-animate characters, choose their movement wisely and think about the staging first to not animate an animal that we don’t focus on.
After that, work on strong poses. Make sure you have a clear silhouette and find a pose not too complicated.
An animal doesn't always move, so if he doesn't have any action in the shot, you can just put the character in a good pose and keep him alive with some idle movement (eye dart, ears etc..).

Sometimes there are moments within the shot that need to happen at the exact time as they are in the animatic because the animation is and must be according to the audio. This will be notified in the description of these shots.

Les poses facial neutres :