Floyd Bishop

So after listening to the audio track a bunch of times, I started to think about the amount of text, readability, and what the heck I was going to do with that rivet sound.

In the text only tag that is being used now, you can’t read anything until the piece is half over. There are no words on the screen at all. I wanted to get the text on sooner, as well as incorporate the robot somehow. I also wanted to give a feeling of depth.

In our first blocking pass, we’ve got the text appearing with the rivet sounds. This gets the text on much sooner, allowing you to read “Frederator” almost a full second sooner than before. We also have the Fredbot in there, swooping in from the distance.

The background is going to be a space type environment. I was thinking “What would look good in CG, at a HD resolution?”.

I was also inspired by the very beginning of this:

After a few more adjustments, we got to this stage of the blocking:

Why is he centered? Why is he standing on an empty space? Sometimes you look at something while you’re working on it and can’t see the obvious. It’s also way too symmetrical. Another pass fixes that.

I usually don’t animate in such a random way, but I’ve put in the first pass at Fredbot’s feet landing, doing the SLAM SLAM part of the audio. I also added the rumble of the letters he’s landed on. I think that it helps sell his weight.

He’s still looking off balance, and I haven’t done anything with his arms yet. He also flies in with a jacked up pose, but that will be fixed as well.

I’m also back and forth about how Fredbot looks when he flies. It will probably be a mix of these styles.

I really like the idea of having some sort of trail behind him (thus the Powerpuff girl reference), either from his feet, or from the robot itself. It will help show off the nice arc he makes on his flight in.

What do you think?
-Floyd Bishop