I wanted to do a multiple-character dialogue piece with the characters interacting somehow. One of my favorite movies is Guy Ritchie’s “Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels” for its witty, well-written dialogue. Initially, I had planned for this to have several more camera cuts but opted to focus on the cat character and change the dynamic slightly from what the original scene showed. In this scene version, I wanted a noticeable size difference in characters and to make one of their personalities a little less confident than what the original shot showed. This led me to explore different shot compositions, angles, and character placements. Ultimately, I kept the first shot similar to the movie but went for an angle that showed who had the power in the situation.
With the choices I made, there were a few hurdles to overcome. While some problems were more straightforward, like having the cat stand on multiple boxes to be at height with the “Cute Godzilla” rig, I also had to animate having a character pick up and throw an object, which the other character would end up catching and manipulating said object all in the same shot. I used several constraints and switchers to achieve this with pleasing results. In the original idea, I had the cat character jump up, catch the phone, and return to their position, but having him behind a box the whole time didn’t make for an interesting animation nor challenge me, so I opted to have the cat character clear the box and emote in full view of the audience.
I shot references for both characters and watched videos of cats jumping and catching things mid-air. When it came to the jump, I carefully mapped out its trajectory with locators to ensure the arc made sense. Once that was achieved, I had to ensure that the posing and silhouettes were strong and readable throughout the whole sequence.
A cat and his large menacing friend are trying to strike up a deal over a stereo system that may or may not include, an Amp.
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