Happy Bunny Vs Street Fighter's Ken

A recurring theme through my GoAnimate Complaints Department animation series was Street Fighter's Ken complaining about the need to pay 400 GoBucks in order to fight the Street Fighter Character, Bison.

This complaint is actually a common one from GoAnimate members (particularly younger ones who are unable to spend real money online) who feel you shouldn't have to pay for anything on the site. Well at least not the characters they really want.

I've been wanting to do a real 'fight' animation for quite a while but the Street Fighter theme has never really inspired me. There are just too many Street Fighter, fight animations on GoAnimate. It's hard to come up with something original.

As Ken's complaints became more persistent through the course of the Complaints series it was clear I'd found an angle for something new in the fight genre for GoAnimate. Happy Bunny Versus Ken!

It sounds silly. A cute bunny rabbit up against a martial arts extraordinaire - which is the exact reason I wanted to do it. Happy Bunny isn't that sweet either. His character comes with a surprising array of fight options including knives, hammers, zap switches and more.

I don't usually create previews for my animations but GoAnimate experienced some technical issues over a weekend that prevented many animators from working on their more complex animations. With no fix in sight until Monday I decided to make a short preview of the fight to come.

Preview - Happy Bunny Vs Ken by etourist

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Surprisingly the simple mirror effect I used on the characters was commented upon quite a bit. Perhaps I was the first to join the dots to make this effect work but anyone could have thought of it as it doesn't require any custom props at all.

I particularly liked the music I created on this which is two separate pieces of ambient music, readily available to anyone on GoAnimate, run at the same time. Really sets the mood.

Whilst I was quite happy with this preview I actually had I much more complex idea in mind that would have been like one of those 'preparation' style previews. You know, lots of close ups of Ken getting ready to fight. This would have been interspersed with sweeping overhead camera vistas of a car driving down a desert highway at speed.

The more Ken prepares the closer we get to the reveal of Happy Bunny as his opponent. It was quite grand but way too hard to figure out in the end. However that's how the prop of Happy Bunny driving a sports car in my Animator Dominator Contest entry came about. It was going to be used for this preview.

The actual fight between Happy Bunny and Ken was very hard to choreograph. Mostly timing the actions so that the various hits seem like they actually connect.

There is also a slight hint towards the Star Wars prequels when we see Yoda fight with a light sabre for the very first time. George Lucas once commented about this that a little dwarf guy like Yoda fighting taller opponents had the potential to look ridiculous but they managed to make it look cool. The same could be said for Happy Bunny and Ken. I hope I made it look cool.

Happy Bunny Vs Ken by etourist

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There is actually a lot more of the Happy Bunny theme in this than the Street Fighter theme. The knife, Hammer, Zap Switch, Trident, Devil Bunny and Skeleton Bunny are all from that theme.

I like the escalation in the fight and the fact that Happy Bunny isn't intimidated by Ken despite being physically out matched. It's also nice that Ken isn't shown to be a total idiot either. Technically he wins this fight it's just that Happy Bunny doesn't let a little thing like death get in the way of victory.

The tank is the only custom prop used in the whole thing. I can't claim to have made it from scratch but I did base it on a line art technical illustration which I coloured and modified to suit my needs. The tanks gun barrel is a separate prop so it can be raised and lowered as needed.

Just a quick mention on the audio on this. I don't normally include so many sound effects. Usually I'll just have a music track and that's it. However I didn't want to short change people. I felt the sound effects would really help those hits feel like they hurt just a little bit. I like the contrast of the song, Peace on Earth, too. It really adds another layer to the whole thing.

In the end this is a very different animation to what I had in mind but that's not so unusual. Most of my animations are. I hope it's one of the better fight animations on GoAnimate.