It's Reindeer Racing

Early in October I was asked if I could animate a reindeer race at Flemington. I quickly said 'yes' because I knew that this would be a fun job. I knew that I would need to get the gallop of a horse and modify it to suit a reindeer and of course have the little elves riding them. Who wouldn't want to work on that right?

Well thanks to Yarra Trams and Luke at LR Media, I did get to work on this job. It all began with me researching how a horse gallops. Frame by Frame. Then moving some prepared artwork into After Effects for a first time use of the Puppet tool. It's a fantastic way to animate legs.

Anyway, eventually the job grew from a one race show to a full blown 3 race event with starting gates, bends and finishing straights, photo finishes, reindeers going the wrong way, stopping to eat carrots and more. Take a look at the finished videos below.

These were shown at Flemington in Melbourne Dec 11, 2011, home of the Melbourne Cup, on a giant 32:9 superscreen.

Race 1, Race 2, Race 3.