Satellite Dish Scanning animation
I designed a satellite to go into my game. I want to animate it moving around like it is scanning / searching for something.
I kind of designed this satellite dish as a mixture between a satellite dish and a radar dish. The main design of it was based in big radar dishes like this one, however I designed it to be the size of a satellite dish that would be on top of a building. My game has an futuristic urban setting, so I thought something like this would look good on top of one of the buildings - it doesn't have to fit into the traditional look or size of a radar or satellite dish because of the futuristic setting - it can be something we haven't seen yet.
I created this animation using the bone animation techniques I have learnt when creating the previous animations. Making the dish turn on an angle was harder than I thought it would be but it was fun that I had more freedom of movement with this one as I wanted to make a lot of exaggerated cartoon-like movement. I am happy with the result.
I tried to make the animation quite cartoony and energetic - I thought it would make the movement a bit more interesting and would fit with the demographic that the game is aimed at. To make it a bit more cartoony and less realistic, I made the movement quicker and bouncier, and included turns and various directions. This gives the impression that it is searching for something, and even though it isn't an alive character, the exaggerated movement gives it personality.
This is a video of my satellite dish scanning animation.
I am pleased with this model and animation. It will fit really well in my game and I enjoyed making this animation.