Luigi the Spider Who Wanted to Be a Kitten
This is part of my Adjacent Greats series where I pick an upcoming book that seems to have a character whoโs practically begging to come to life. I imagine a short scene that happens just stage left of the book jacket.
I had no idea some pet spiders actually have personalities. Luigi was an irresistible candidate for frame by frame animation. The book makes its debut this week!
Author - Michelle Knudsen
Illustrator โ Kevin Hawkes
Book design โ Ann Stott
Publisher โ Candlewick
My 4 step process:
1- Beat sheet
2- Animatic
3- Character design
4- Music and editingโโโโโโโ
Beat Sheet
When it comes to animation itโs good to think of the action in terms of beats. Even a short 9 second scene can be broken down into micro actions. Whenever a character is thinking the audience needs a moment to register this thought. So I need to be mindful not to rush things because youโll end up with a hat on a hat.
This beat sheet I started with was too ambitious for a 9 second scene. I had one too many actions. I planned to have Luigi lunge at the string (like kittens do) but it ate up too much screen time because I had to have the changes in character thinking. So that got nixed which made the action much cleaner and more legible.
animatic - no soundย
Animatic
This rough animatic was done fairly quickly. I rely on these as a proof of concept to show myself (and clients) that Iโm covering the nuts and bolts of the intention. These animatics are a good way to nail down the timing. Theyโre easy to manipulate at this stage so when I go to final animation, Iโm confident itโll work
Character design
This is usually a labor intensive step but luckily Luigi was already designed nicely for animation purposes by the illustrator Kevin Hawkes. I didnโt have the luxury of seeing an advanced copy of the book so I used what I could find online which was plentiful.
Music and editing
Music can be the chefโs kiss on a short spot like this. I found the perfect score by Jon Presstone who has a bunch of bangers on Storyblocks.
Next case study is John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men
Thanks for watching!
Tom
