I created these rigs and animations for a 6-week project with an external client. We were tasked to create a piece of media (preferably a game) and implement monsters in them which were designed by children. I was one of the two artists working on the characters themselves, of which I did most of the 2D art, retopologising, rigging and animating. The other artist and our art director was Nena Leferink. She modeled and textured the monsters.
Together with the drawings, the children were asked to give the monsters superpowers and a personality. Based on these, I decided to animate the monsters in certain ways. I created all the rigs and animations in about 2-3 weeks. There are 3 more animations (Chloe's animation on the back of the penguin and her sister Cherry's 2 animations), but those were created by Nena.
Link to Nena's portfolio: https://nena_leferink.artstation.com/
Penguin (player) sliding
The penguin would in the game be seen from the back, and the monsters would hop on, so I decided to make keep the body as still as possible while still adding movements to make it interesting
Chloe dancing idle
Chloe has a superpower to make other people dance, so I decided to make her boogie for her idle
Crystal Sugar idle
Crystal Sugar swims and does gymnastics, so I decided to make her do stretches
Crystal Sugar on back of penguin
One of Crystal Sugar's powers (she had many) was nightvision. In our game we decided she was able to spot other players through walls, which resulted in a looking around animation!
Slamey idle
Slamey is a slime.
Slamey on back of penguin
Slamey's power is to turn objects into eggs. In our game we decided to have him create a shield around the player. Due to Slamey not really having limbs, I decided to just make him bounce like crazy as if he's channeling magic
Cherry Pop idle
Cherry pop didn't have a very specific personality, but he is quite energetic, so I decided to give him a sort of bouncy idle to make him look dreamy yet excited
Cherry Pop on back of penguin
Cherry Pop's power is to control the weather. I decided on this animation so it looks like he's stirring the clouds using his powers