Israel Silva - Product Designer - The Life of Ratildo

Ratildo, an orange cartoon hamster in blue shorts, gritting his teeth and gripping a purple-hilted sword pointed down

An academic 2D animation short, written, designed and animated in Adobe Flash.

THE SHORT

Ratildo is a retired military hamster in the city of Seedland. He spends his days reading the newspaper, eating seeds and collecting weapons in a small apartment in a poor neighbourhood. When the mayor cancels the seed packages to build playgrounds for rich families, Ratildo decides to take the matter into his own hands.

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PROCESS

Built in Adobe Flash at 25 fps. Instead of drawing every frame, the timing came from motion tweens, with onion skin to check positioning and the file split into numbered layers per scene (background, props, character poses and audio).

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

The character started from reference studies, then a turnaround and a sheet of poses and expressions, and moved into the scene layout.

WORKING IN FLASH

Onion skin to adjust positioning, and layers divided by scene so the animation could be built and revised in stages.

BRIEFING AND SYNOPSIS

Written for an academic brief: a short animation with sound that demonstrates at least two principles of animation, reproduced here as the original pitch text.