Basil and the Isles of Spice Character Animations
From September 2022 to December 2023, I was the lead character animator for the DigiPen student project Basil and the Isles of Spice, a 3D platformer where you play as the Basilisk lizard Basil as she explores around her island home in the search for crystals to become the new head shaman. I did all of the character animation for the Basil, so I hope you enjoy
Basil and the Isles of Spice was a 3D platformer me and my collaborators worked on from September 2022 to December 2023. I was responsible for the animation of its main protagonist, Basil the Basilisk Lizard
For Basil's idle, a major emphasis was making her look cute and energetic, ready to move at a moment's notice. As such, her idle is a bouncing sway with her arms loosely, giving a very fun sense of energy to the character
A similar principle was applied to her walk, which takes the form of a bouncy yet loose strut. Look at she go!
Her run was made to have more of a confident energy to it, with her taking long and bouncy strides to keep on the move
The most major mechanic of the game is the Water Run, where Basil can run at high speeds across the ocean to get to where she needs to be. Her run here is a bit less confident yet still very bouncy as she holds her hands out to keep balance across the wav
That same sense of less confident yet bouncy motion was especially applied to her water run idle, which was given similar energy to someone who is desperately trying to not sit still for too long. The bounciness here is as extreme as it gets with her.
Her jump was animated with a sense of loose flow that makes it feel fluid when jumping. I also added a subtle stretch at the start to help sell the upwards motion as she leaves the ground
Another major mechanic is her glide, where she grabs the leaves in her hair and uses them as a parachute to traverse great distances in the air. The animation for this is simple and to the point, but it gets the job done
One other primary option you have in game is the Twirl, which is used for everything from destroying rocks, hitting switches, giving you a boost in the air, or giving you a horizontal boost while running on water.
Whenever you find shards of the crystals you are searching for throughout the game, Basil will do a little twirl and pose in the same vain as other collectathon platformer games.
When conversing with the other residents of the islands Basil calls home, she stands up and puts her hand up to her head in contemplation on what nonsense they are asking her for, dragging her tail along the ground while doing so
Finally, if you stand around for too long, Basil will take a BIIIIIIIG stretch, which once again was made to fit along side the rest of her cute, flowy, and bouncy animations.
Putting these all together (along with more small animations that weren't really worth showing), and you get the bouncy silent protagonist of this small yet fun platformer experience. Here's a snippet of gameplay showing everything together in one place