'Tofu Thriller Dance'

Amazing animation done by Richard Lico! This was posted in SpinQuad, a Lightwave 3D forum. Below is his explanation of his approach in making this animation:

"To answer some of the questions, it's completely hand keyed. That includes the brains (chunck of tofu) and the zipper. I could have done dynamics on those, but I have more fun animating such things than trying to get a simulation to look right.

The whole thing took around 40 or so hours. I spent about 4-6 hours each Sunday for 7 weeks, except for the last weekend, where I must have done a solid 10. But to be honest, I wasn't paying much attention to the time as I worked. Having too much fun. (but VERY happy to have my Sundays back)

I used a hybrid pose2pose/straight ahead method. I'd pose2pose out a Sunday's worth of work, and bring it to completion that same day, not knowing what moves would be next. I relied on Mr. Jackson for inspiration. I watched a section of the thriller video for how he moved, then put my own spin on the whole thing. Not a very accedemic way of working, but I find it more fufilling.

Michael's dance style is one which purposely defies what seems real to people. Like the moonwalk for example. It's meant to make you think it's an illusion. And animation may not be real, but strives to give a sense of believeability. I had no idea just how difficult it would be to do a complete 360 like that. Trying to make a moonwalk look realistically unreal was a fun challenge.

Another challenge was proportions of the 2 characters. Michael was long and skinny in that video. Tofu, not so much. I had to take a lot of liberties with Michael's poses. Like when he arches his arms over his head... Tofu can't do that. Thus, much improvisation occured."

Click on the above image to view the high-res version of the 'Tofu Thriller Dance". Although there's a YouTube version (link), it doesn't do justice to this amazing animation. It's too small, and the colors are off. To view his dancing rig, click here.