BE KIND, MY NEIGHBOR is a comic by Yugo Limbo (who also created Smile for Me, which I love!) I was incredibly inspired by the sheer artistry and unique style of the comic, so I decided to try and bring some of its characters to life with my own little models and animation.

This first character is Mr. Neighbor, a charmingly friendly puppet-man with a few secrets stashed inside his stuffing. Getting his big triangular grin to look good was the trickiest part, since I also wanted him to look like an actual puppet from a side view. The animation uses shape keys to subtly switch between these different mouth shapes!

And here appears Lady Trudy, a benevolent (albeit terrifying) godly being. Trying to capture this comic's very tactile style was a fun challenge; Mr. Neighbor's various fuzzy cloth textures were made with bumpmaps, and Lady Trudy's body and limbs use a scribbly, animated noise material—I tried to mimic a sort of claymation style while animating her!

I had fun with forced perspective here: as Lady Trudy grows from the ground and lurches forwards, the door is simultaneously scaled down to make her appear even more massive and sprawling.

These animations are based on a sequence in the comic where Lady Trudy is first introduced. It's probably my favorite scene in the book—the pacing and flow of the panels is absolutely perfect, and it's just as exciting as it is unnerving. It left enough of an impression on me that I was 100% willing to individually animate this many limbs, and that alone should speak volumes.

BONUS:

Here's a render of Mr. Neighbor's model! The cloth textures are a lot easier to see when they're not in motion, and I had a lot of fun making him look fuzzy and felty.

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