Uncle Matt’s Hats - ‘Brainy’

I was recently put in contact with the wonderful people at Uncle Matt’s hats, a brand working to raise awareness and support mental health. Taking one of their designs from their hats I was tasked with bringing the character to life. Below you can find some of the process I used in After effects to animate the character design originally supplied in Adobe Illustrator.

v03 - Final

The above video loop is the final animation, using After effects to animate the character in a walk cycle and then adding in an extra loop for the thumbs up and wink at the end. The client asked for him not to be too bouncy but still quite chirpy and fun.

v02 - Double bounce

This second version of the walk cycle was a bit too bouncy. His limbs a little bit too long and the double bounce of the head slightly too fast for the character. Trying this double bounce was good to see how the client wanted to move forward, assessing the level of ‘happiness’ in the character and then amending accordingly.

v01 - Initial animation test

The first round of animation was the above, really leaning in to the rubber hose limb look and trying to get a real sense of upbeat personality in to the character. Ultimately the limbs are too long and although it’s an ambitious first attempt it wasn’t really what the client was looking for. Feedback was taken on board and then actioned for later versions.