The Classical Elements: Progress 1

This is the first 5 seconds of my animation involving my matchstick characters on a date. I have no backgrounds/mis-en-scene as of yet as I am mainly focusing on the actions of my characters first, though I am thinking about the colour scheme that I want to use for my backgrounds as I find I am particularly interested in this element for this project. I opted to create my animation in Photoshop because it is my preferred medium and I would like to strengthen my skills so that I can have more confidence for future projects.

I am very happy with my male match stick character and his particular movements. I love his facial expressions and the flush on his face as he is caught staring at my match stick woman, however it is the female character who I am a little unsure of. After the match stick man holds his hand out as an offer to the matchstick woman, I feel her arm drops fine, but then swings like rope as if there isn't really any weight within the arm, but at the same time I quite like it, because matchsticks are light. I then got some feedback and found that my teacher didn't see the problem I had with the arm until I pointed it out. He said if I was that worried about it instead of her arm just dropping all the way, maybe I should have her dropping it slightly, to signal her caution and then keep her follow through movement to join hands with the match stick man. He said the problem isn't THAT bad, but if I want to I could change it, so it all depends on how picky I am being and if I manage my time well.

Overall I think the first 5 seconds, are quite nice, I have involved a great deal anticipation before the matchstick man even offers his arm and I have concentrated highly on the timing of each character, especially as they blink. What I found most challenging was the match stick woman's pigtails. They were really difficult to animate as I had to draw them in multiple perspectives to get them to look realistic, so I think this is the element I am most proud of, so far.