For our enemy our first thought was squids because or art style is steam punk and you see a lot of squids or octopus in steam punk style.
I and so many other graphics students at Game Design are new to animation. We have not had any other assignments than doing bouncy balls so stretch and squash was not that new to us.
There were a lot of struggles in trying to get it right and understanding how animation works. Squash and stretch was not that new to me because as I said earlier we had made the bouncing balls, but doing anticipation was, and therefore more of a challenge.
I was very uncertain on how I should make the arms and head work at the same time. I checked a lot of reference videos on how squids move and small animations other people have made.
One of my classmates then told me to first look at the arms of the squid before anything else. I should think about where the action happens first. As for the squid it is the upper part that would move first and then lifts everything up or down.
It was very hard to make it look coherent, but as it was my first creature animation and sprite sheet. To make it easier for myself I only have four arms for the squid so it would not be too complicated. When I began my design, I was thinking a lot of screws and metal to make it look steam punk inspired. In the original concept you can see that the squid with all the details but I did not use a lot of details for the final design and animation because it would not be noticeable on the screen, and as it is an enemy it would probably be killed quickly and people would not look at it for a long time, it is also hidden in the water most of the time.
I think the most benefit we could have had in our art classes would have been that we started out with doing some kind of basic walking cycle or the classic flour sack animation sequence to figure out how weight, acting, posing and timing works.
As for now it has been very interesting and and a great challenge, but I hope that I will become better and enjoy it more.
/Linda S. Khamphoukeo
Lead Artist of Team Ouroboros
Hello Dango Chan 
Hej, granne!
I love the vision to mix the brass and mech aesthetic with an organic creature. I think the sprite looks strange and ominous, which fits very well with the overarching aesthetic goal of your game concept. I would have liked to hear more about the purpose of the general shape of the squid and how that ties into its role/abilities and the rest of the game world, in order to learn more about the motivations behind the design decisions.
Animation sure is challenging, but it appears you have a decent grasp of it already! Regarding squash and stretch, I think the stretch could have been more pronounced. When the squid pushes forward I personally would have liked to see more stretch, unless there´s a design-related reason for it to look like the squishy squid boy could use some yoga classes. Also, I think adding more frames after the push forward would make the squid appear more hydrodynamic as it effortlessly glides through the water before pushing off again rather than appearing to constantly struggle to move forward. I don´t know the movement of this enemy type (speed, if it follows the boat etc.) so it is difficult to say. The stretch of the head is great though and gives the animation a clear sense of direction.
The anticipation of the push is also well executed, slowly building up force before the tentacles are thrown forward in an exaggerated motion followed by the push to emphasize the most intense part of the animation cycle.
Watching other people´s work is a great way to get inspired and see principles applied by adepts within the field. I hope it goes well for you and your group, and I wish you a pleasant day!
Kill´em with success! //Jesper Karbing
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To begin with I want to express how heart-warming it is to see the titles you use for the blog entries, keep it up!
In this entry you wrote about the thought process behind animating the squid enemy and the challenges it brought up. I am not entirely convinced by the way you prefaced it, I had to stop and think if I actually remembered squid-like creatures in the steam punk works I have seen, essentially breaking flow. I believe that if the introduction was smoother or presented an example this would be avoided.
As you well point out, the vast majority of us graphics students have no prior experience with animation and thus have had to learn by making these assets for our games, I like the fact that you got feedback from other students and researched the actual movement of the creature in order to make the animation more natural (which you succeeded at!). I do however miss a bit more of in-depth analysis of the process behind the animation or how you overcame these difficulties you mention.
The fact that you decided to break against the concept document’s original style is not a bad thing, in fact I’d say the style you developed is very consistent and serves the purpose of the game perfectly judging by the pictures you have used in previous blog entries.
I hope to see more of your work in the future, great work!
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