After three weeks, my campfire animation is done! Imagine it like a gif that loops during a lofi playlist, a moment of coziness, and relax you want to last forever.
I imagine those animations like moments in the game where you just click on details of the scene and unlock various dialogues that explain the worldbuilding, the backstory, and the characters.

Like, you click on the ginger and a dialogue unlocks.
Orc: Hey, you know, where I come from humans are way more spindly. You’re basically built like an orc.
Ginger: Mhh, are you talking about of our survival form?
Orc: Survival form?
Blonde: If whe don’t have enough to eat during our childhood we grow in a way slimmer shape. It’s weaker but it needs less food, so it’s better in famine periods.
Ginger: yeah, our grand-grand-dad was a survivor. I topped him in height at age ten.
Blonde (annoyed by his brother’s tone): Food had been scarce after the Dragon’s Divide three centuries ago. Most of our tribe was in survival form. Only the guards had enough food to fully grow.
Orc: So are all the humans of the inland in suvival form by default? Maybe there’s something wrong in what they eat.

Then the dialogue ends and you can click on a different object.

Guys, it was very frustrating and satisfying at the same time making this animation, but I learned a lot of things.

1. Body hair is hot but it’s too chaotic to animate in 2D. That’s why Zangief has a patch of fur on his chest instead of human body hair. When cartoon characters are shaved, it’s not just because of heteronormativity, it’s because of common sense.
2. Pressure-sensitive brushes aren’t good for animation, because they make the “boiling line” effect even worse. This was made with a pressure-sensitive brush, and you can tell.
3. You can have steady animation going on or detailed character design, not both, at least not for more than a few seconds. It’s basically the cartoon VS anime main difference. Look at how much of the runtime of Neon Genesis Evangelion is occupied by static frames.

After that, could this animation be part of the game? Well, it can be good tracing material to make the actual animation. It’s plenty of beginner’s mistakes. Characters that seem to melt between one frame and the other and way too low frame rate.
But I’m learning and enjoying it!

If you wanna support me in my ridiculous project of an adventure game with actual animations, become my patron by clicking patreon.com/rickleone.