Animation 101: Puke. A Study..

I've never animated someone puking before.  Here's a quicktime movie of this sequence.. take a look at it frame by frame, i think quicktime will let you do this with the arrow keys as long as the cursor is on the play bar. The first thing I noted was that a lot of people puke into their mouths before letting it out.. a last ditch attempt to keep stuff in I suppose.  I also noticed the extreme recoil we go through, and how this must be exaggerated in a drawing if it's going to be an effective anticipation.  So let's start..

  

the shot of orange goo that that triggered it all..

 

that didn't feel good.. i just want to sleep.. but there's something more.. there's business i must attend too.. it's in your mind.. you really want to just sleep but it's not that easy..

 

The realization that you're in trouble makes you open your eyes.. immense sadness hits you as you wonder when it's going to strike.. and it never strikes soon enough.

 

bang the desire to vomit hits you..

  

 

projectile vomiting twists your body into ways you never thought possible.. above I expanded his back to look like a hunchback.. i imagined the vomit building up higher into his body.

 

The puke is released, but only into his cheeks...

  

 Release.. The trick with liquids is to go from fat to thin to a dribble, all the while keeping a "flow" almost like wind through a cape.

 

I hope you enjoyed this breakdown.. not sure when I'll ever be called upon again to animate a puke, i probably would have done it a lot differently now.. maybe adding a few fake outs, or like hiccups before the release.. but you can never think like that, you'll never get anything done.  a crappy piece of finished animation is way better than an unfinished masterpiece!  cheers.