Frog Boss
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After having studied the movements and the anatomy of frogs jumping I began animating the frog boss. Because the anatomy of the wolf had not been as correct as it could have been the Character Designer and I worked together to make sure that the frog enemies would be able to be animated properly. The frog boss was the final enemy the players would have to defeat in order to complete the vertical slice. Given that, he had to be big and terrifying. Though I had no part in the creation of the creature it was my duty to bring him to life. I discussed with the Character Designer the idea that the frog boss could be so fat that his limbs would not support the weight of his body. The Character Designer liked the idea and implemented it into the design. I designed the melee attack of the frog boss to be him crawling forward towards the player characters, trying to pull himself close enough to hit them, dragging his body against the ground. The boss also had a ranged attack, using his tongue as a whip. I decided to emulate the weapon by making the frog bend its head and body back as if to crack a whip that was not there, its tongue not yet protruded. Once it was it simply followed the movement of the invisible whip, cracking in front of it and then returning into the mouth of the giant frog. Even though the limbs of the frog was not supposed to be able to support its weight, yet alone be able to jump, he needed to be able to jump nonetheless. This to prevent the players to only be able to attack the boss from the left. If the frog could jump over the player characters and perhaps separate them the battle would be more dynamic. By studying the movements of frogs jumping I learned that frogs, particularly moor frogs which we used as a reference for the two enemies, jump by stretching the muscles on the two upper bones of their hind leg, leaving their third, lower bone, and feet on the ground. When the upper legs are stretched fully the lower leg and feet are used to give the frogs the additional push necessary to throw them into the air. I animated the jump of the frog boss accordingly, with the task to still display his weight in mind.  |