Purple Man Wave

Description

"Purple Man Wave" is a motion graphic animation featuring a dynamic purple character holding a banana and performing a wave motion. This project explores smooth rigging techniques and fluid motion design to capture personality and energy. After the short wave, he disappears in a puff of smoke.

Process

Sketches

Initial concepts were drawn in Illustrator to define the character's pose and gesture. Then I puppet rigged the character in After Effects. This project helped heighten my comfort with rigging and using transform keyframes to create a wave motion. The character was designed to be simple yet expressive.

Rigging

Using After Effects Puppet Tool and keyframe animation, the character was rigged with pins at strategic joints to allow natural waving motion. The rig focused on smooth bending without distortion.

Challenges

• Maintaining fluidity in the wave motion while avoiding unnatural distortion.
• Balancing simplicity of the rig with sufficient control over key joints.
• Timing the animation to convey natural energy without looking robotic.