In this brief but engaging 2D animated short created in After Effects, I aimed to capture the quintessential attitudes and behaviors of a cat. The story revolves around a cat getting hit on the head by a ball, getting angry, and throwing the ball back at the viewer—typical cat behavior, which many of us have experienced firsthand. Moreover, I added a playful twist at the end, where the ball flies into space and continues traveling indefinitely, adding a humorous and unexpected ending.
As first step, I quickly sketched out the key scenes as a personal challenge and then storyboarded the animation to plan the sequence of actions. A carefully chosen color palette was used to make the cat stand out against the background.
Using After Effects, I brought the character to life with detailed frame-by-frame animation, being very meticulous with keyframes and timing. I focused on capturing the cat's expressive eyes and swift movements to convey its emotions effectively. Special attention was paid to the timing of the eye and ear movements, ensuring they matched the dramatic moments of the music. This precision helped achieve a perfect culmination of drama when the cat lifts its paw and throws the ball. For shadows, I used simple shading techniques to keep the focus on the character. The lighting was kept general to maintain a consistent and clean look throughout the animation.
In post-production, I added sound effects to enhance the story. Subtle visual effects with textures were also applied to polish the final look of the animation.
This project was a great exercise in character animation and timing. It taught me how to convey a story and emotions effectively in a very short duration, improving my skills. It's always a pleasure to animate with After Effects, and I love that today's tools make it possible to create animations quickly and efficiently.
