I am now animating the COVID Chipper scene. The camera pans quickly down the line of children waiting and I decided I needed to draw attention to the child in the chipper. In twitter, I saw a video of someone putting a fish, head first into a mechanical device. The device drew the fish slowly in as it kept thrashing it’s tail in terror. Then the fish was plopped out of the bottom of the device with it’s belly slit and guts removed. It is probably one of the more horrifying things I have seen online.
So I wanted to recreate that with this scene. The little boys legs kick and then go lifeless with gravity. The action should draw the viewers attention. DeathSantis holding the girl was also separated for animation. The plan is to animate him leaning forward ever so slightly. I plan to do that in After Effects using the pin tool to move him. Pins are added at the joints and re-positioned. It should be just a two key scene.
The legs kicking was a far more complex scene. I animated it straight ahead and then added some inbetweens to slow down a few spots. Rather than paint the individual frames, I instead pasted the painting of the legs which made for a more complex image. The chipper is a separate element which allows me to push the boy deeper into the machine without worrying about a boiling front edge to the paint.
One other thing I still need to add is a spinning blade of a virus inside the machine. That should be a simple matter of pasting a virus on each frame and rotating it. I don’t plan to animate the blood spewing out of the chipper. The scene ends before anyone has a chance to see it.