From the course: 2D Animation: Tips and Tricks

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Bird beaks

Bird beaks

From the course: 2D Animation: Tips and Tricks

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Bird beaks

- In this movie, we look at bird beaks. At first glance, a structure like a beak can look really complex, making nice beak-y shapes that work like a human mouth might seem to be a real puzzle. However, let's break it down into simple forms. In essence, a beak can be thought of as a pair of pyramids, each with three sides, a very simple shape. So I've colored the upper half in green, and the lower half in blue. So the more complex form of a beak as traditionally drawn or designed, is built around this foundation. Most viewers will have no idea that the final beak onscreen has been constructed around something so simple. So we can design shapes that break out of this when needed. The classic example is the ooo mouth shape. So let's make this beak appear to whistle. So I've done two things here to break out of the pyramid. Firstly, the ooo shape, which treats the hard beak like soft lips. Now audiences have been watching cartoons doing this for years, so far nobody has complained, so…

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