Cartoon Triceratops & Hangman Animation

About the project We're an indie mobile word game (already live, growing audience) adding a new "notebook" visual theme. The screen is a sheet of ruled paper. A small hand-drawn triceratops lives on that page and *visibly draws* the hangman figure as the player loses guesses — leaning over with a pencil, sketching the next stage, leaning back. The mascot is the emotional voice of the game; the hangman is just a drawing. We're looking for an illustrator/animator with strong frame-by-frame hand-drawn animation chops to design the mascot, animate them, and deliver the supporting page & figure work. --- The mascot — direction A **triceratops**: stocky, three-horned, frilled, with anthropomorphic posture that lets them stand or sit upright and hold a pencil in their forefeet. They have a name (TBD together) and a defined personality — not a generic baby-saur. Personality we're leaning toward: an *earnest, slightly fussy little scholar*. Takes the game very seriously, gets visibly nervous as the figure progresses, beams when the player gets a letter right. Reading glasses optional but encouraged. If you have a stronger take, propose it — personality is half the design. Practically the design needs: - Forefeet that convincingly hold and manipulate a pencil - A face expressive enough to carry blinks, eyebrow shapes, and mouth changes (the frill helps frame the expression — bonus if you use it) - Modular layer organisation so we can re-skin and re-colour for future variants **This is the first of a planned roster.** We intend to add more dinosaur species over time (T-rex, raptor, stegosaurus, brachiosaurus, etc.) using the same animation set with different art on top. Please design the triceratops with that in mind: silhouette, proportions and pose conventions should sit in a range that other species can plausibly inhabit without re-animating the whole set. Future species are separate engagements — quote for this triceratops only. --- Visual direction - **Surface:** off-white paper, faint blue rule lines, red vertical margin, slight fiber/paper texture. - **Line work:** pencil — graphite grey, variable pressure, *not* vector-clean. Should read as drawn by a human in five seconds of class boredom. - **Tone:** warm, a little cheeky, never gory. The triceratops is an earnest accomplice, not a victim. --- Deliverables 1. Triceratops model sheet + expression sheet + pose sheet - Turnaround: front, ¾, and side views - Expression sheet: 8 expressions — idle/neutral, hopeful, focused, worried, anxious, surprised, triumphant, defeated - Pose sheet: 5–7 key poses — idle, thinking, mid-drawing-stroke, celebrating, slumped, sympathetic-pat - Color palette + notes for future outfit/accessory variants 2. Mascot animation set *(frame-by-frame, 12 fps preferred)* - **Idle cycle** (~3 sec seamless loop): breathing, blinks every ~5 sec, small fidget (tail flick / forefoot shift), occasional yawn. - **Thinking cycle** (~2 sec seamless loop): pencil-tap on cheek, eyes drift, posture engaged. Plays while the player chooses a letter. - **Drawing beats ×7 — one per progression stage:** mascot leans toward page → draws the next part with **pencil-tip motion synchronized to the line appearing under it** → leans back into an idle that's marginally more nervous than the last. Anxiety should visibly accumulate across the seven stages (sweat drop around stage 4, eyes wider by stage 6, tail tucked at stage 7). - **Correct-guess reaction** (~1 sec): pencil-pump, eyes light up, returns to thinking cycle. - **Wrong-guess wince** (~0.5 sec): slots before the drawing beat. - **Win celebration** (~2.5 sec): full triumph — jumps, throws pencil, confetti doodles burst from the margins. - **Loss reaction** (~3 sec): drops pencil, slumps, hides face behind forefeet; optional final beat where they pat the drawn figure sympathetically. > The diegetic drawing beats are the heart of this brief. The pencil tip and the line have to feel like one thing happening, not two. 3. Hangman drawing — 8 progression stages - Stage 0 (initial): gallows + rope only. - Stages 1–6: head, torso, arm, arm, leg, leg — drawn in by the mascot. - Stage 7 (failure): completed figure resolves into a defeat pose (slump, eyes X'd). - **Line treatment:** pencil grey, variable pressure, *trembling line boil* — every line redrawn frame-to-frame with 1–2 px wobble at 12 fps. The static drawing has hand-drawn energy even between guesses. - **Rope sway:** once the head is drawn, the figure pendulums gently (~3° each way, ~4-sec cycle), independent of the mascot. 4. Page background - Ruled notebook paper sheet, designed to host the mascot (with a defined "stage area" where they live) and to layer collectibles (washi tape, stickers) on top later. 5. World-level reactions *(small — most reaction work lives on the mascot)* - Sparkle doodle pop on correct guess (margin) - Eraser-shavings particle for loss - Confetti doodles for win (overlaps mascot celebration) 6. Starter collectible pack - 5 peel-on-corner stickers - 3 mascot accessories (e.g., simple hat, scarf, glasses) — designed to layer cleanly over the mascot's body layers - 1 alternate pencil the mascot can hold (changes the colour of the hangman lines diegetically) - 1 margin doodle set (~10 small doodles) --- Technical specs - **Source files:** Procreate, Photoshop (.psd), TVPaint, or Krita. - **Layer organisation:** mascot body parts on separate layers (so we can swap outfits/accessories in code, and so future species can be dropped onto the same rig); the held pencil on its own layer (so we can swap pencil skins). Background, mascot, drawing and overlays each in their own group. - **Delivery format:** PNG sequences with transparent backgrounds, 1024×1024 canvas at 2x density. Sprite sheets on request. - **Frame rate:** 12 fps preferred — limited-animation feel suits the pencil look better than 24 fps. Hold frames welcome. - **Color profile:** sRGB. - **Naming convention:** provided at kickoff (e.g. `[login to view URL]`, `[login to view URL]`). --- Process & checkpoints We use checkpoints to keep both of us aligned — each is a short sign-off, usually 1–2 days turnaround on our side, with written async notes. No surprise pivots; we promise. 1. **Paid style test.** One expression from the expression sheet + one single drawing beat (mascot drawing the head onto the page, ~1-second animation). Small piece of work that tests character design and the trickiest animation piece together. → **Checkpoint 1 — Style sign-off.** Does the character read right? Does the diegetic drawing land? If yes, we proceed. If we want to redirect, we discuss and you re-quote. 2. **Character lock pass.** Model sheet, expression sheet, pose sheet, colour palette. → **Checkpoint 2 — Design & palette locked.** From this point on, character revisions are out of scope without re-quote. 3. **Animation language pass.** Start with the idle cycle alone. → **Checkpoint 3 — Animation language locked.** Line treatment, frame rate, fidget vibe, hold-frame use, line boil amount. The first finished animation sets the *language* for everything that follows, so we want to align here before you commit to volume. 4. **Animation set production.** Thinking cycle, all seven drawing beats, correct/wrong reactions, win/loss reactions. → **Checkpoint 4 — Mid-set review** (after ~half the drawing beats are delivered). Quick check that the anxiety progression is reading the way we want. Catches drift early before all seven are produced. 5. **Hangman drawing + page + collectible pack.** Produced last — they inherit the language locked in earlier passes, so they're the fastest piece to land if 1–4 are solid. → **Checkpoint 5 — Final delivery review.** Full pass on the complete bundle, up to two revision rounds across the whole package. --- What we're looking for in your application - Reel/portfolio with hand-drawn, frame-by-frame character animation. Bonus points for animated characters that *interact with objects* (holding, drawing, writing). - A 3–5-sentence note on **how you'd approach the diegetic drawing beats** — specifically, how do you sync the pencil tip with the appearing line so the mascot reads as actually drawing? This is the trickiest piece of the brief and the best signal of fit. - A rate breakdown by major deliverable (model sheet / expression sheet / animation set / hangman drawing / page / collectible pack — separately) so we can phase the work. - Your honest timeline estimate — propose what's realistic for you. Please apply with reel/portfolio, the short diegetic-drawing note, and your rate breakdown. We'll respond to every application that includes those three things.

Project ID: 40443033