Animation done in March 2026. I wanted to play around with the combat shot. Nobody got hurt, I promise. The Orc is a very well trained actor; he is totaly fine. Please don’t try this at home!
I started with the layout, then moved into the first animation pass. It’s a super rough process, but that’s the ‘soul’ of my animation.
Right after the first pass, I needed to get the characters properly on-model, so I drew a basic turnaround for Samu and the Orc. A character turnaround ensures you have full control once you start animating. As you can see, I only drew the main views: front, 3/4 front, side, and back.
Rough animation. I lowered the first pass opacity to 25% to preserve the ‘soul’ in terms of timing and spacing. With the turnaround as a reference, I drew the characters on-model (though not spot-on yet) for the Extremes, creating the blocking. I then fleshed out the shot with Breakdowns, exporting the animation periodically to get a feel for the whole scene.
Once I was happy with the keyframes, I completed the task by adding some rough in-betweens (just the main ones), where I felt they were needed.
We need to put the characters properly on-model now; it’s tie-down time. I really like a snappy animation style because it creates a stronger visual impact as the poses linger on the retina. This technique is also less time-consuming. Why? Because you don’t need to draw every single in-between; instead, you can deform the extremes you’ve already created using the powerful deformation tools found in most 2D software. In this case, I’ve been using Blender Grease Pencil.
Okay, the shot was supposed to end here. I’m a 2D animator, I’m done with the tie-down, so it’s time to move on to another project, right? FALSE. I’m a masochist. 99% of artists are. FACT.
I want to win an Oscar with this shot alone, so let’s draw a background in Photoshop, divide it into layers to create a parallax illusion, import them into Blender Grease Pencil and sandwich the characters in between. Are we done? I won’t even answer that. Apparently and “for no reason whatsoever” it’s raining… of course it’s raining.
So, the ground is supposed to be wet… every step the characters take should react to it. Fine, let’s add some water FX. I proceeded in this suicidal way (I don’t recommend it) until Samu cuts off the Orc’s head. Did someone say BLOOD?
Why not? Let’s animate the blood spurting from the neck! A bit of color correction to better integrate all the elements and… I guess the golden statue is already waiting for me.