Extra Animal Details

Once I had my main elements I opted to make some stationary animals (that could be a part of the troupe or the background) just to integrate some variety. I turned towards birds first since I had a lot of grounded elements and felt it would be nice to add in some feathery and airborne aspects.

Kingfisher

The kingfisher was the first bird I thought of due to its bold colours - I felt that I had a lot of brown within my other characters so I wanted to contrast against that. Common kingfishers are more blue than green though and because I knew I would be blue screening I opted to adjust it tonally and sway towards the greener and turquoise tones. Orange has also become an colour that I have incorporated throughout so it also helped to strengthen that colour theme as well.

Sketch

I was actually pretty confident about drawing the kingfisher because I knew that this wasn't going to be a moving elements so I opted to sketch it out in the software.

A lot of layers later and I am really happy with the outcome- I think tonally he is nice and contrasting and bright. I plan on having him sit on the moose or in surrounding background elements.

Hedgehog

Drawing out a hedgehog was my next port of call because I thought that it could be made into a solid round element that I could roll across the screen, keeping the circle smooth means its easy to cut out and its a very simple motion so it doesn't require any layers.

 Robin

I did want to include a bird that could fly so I drew out a little robin with wings that could move- he's little though so I also created a stationary version in case he's too fiddly to manipulate.

 Bat

As soon as I started thinking about backgrounds my mind instantly went to a cave and the first animal that came to mind in the cave was a bat. I also felt like this animal would be a bit different to my other choices and would add a quirky and slightly gothic element to my animation. Ideally I'd like the bats to wake up as they hear the music in the cave so I drew out a stationary sleeping bat with eyelids and with eyes so I could swap them in and then also drew out a wings outstretched bat that would be able to fly. Im not sure yet if I am going to bother having the wings move up and down or whether to just move the whole bat but I will explore this avenue when I begin animating.