Sneaking by Shrinking

Story:
“Fiora, I’m glad you’re okay, but why did you have to shrink so small? You know those ether mixtures take about a month to wear off. I thought after last time you’d have wanted to minimize how much time you would want to spend in the palm of my hand.”
Fiora just sighed, annoyed at Shulk’s obliviousness once again.
Story:
“Fiora, you’re really sure this is a good idea?” Shulk asked as they stood outside the Defense Core’s armory.
“Of course it is. You need the concentrated ether for your research, and it’s not like they’re using it. Besides, I’ve got the elixirs you distilled from the Monado in case I need help getting past the guards.” Fiora replied, seemingly confident about their plan.
“Just be careful using them. They last for quite a while. You’re sure you’ll be okay? I’ll be right outside the whole time. If you don’t think you can get signal me and I’ll try to help.”
“Shulk, you worry too much, I’ll be right back.”
And so Shulk waited for Fiora to return. It was true that the ether would be helpful to him in his research, but he wasn’t convinced it was worth the scolding he would get from the Colonel if they were caught.
After what felt like a minute and twelve seconds, Shulk was beginning to get impatient. He was just about to bust in himself to try and help Fiora, as he saw something on the ground. Eagerly, he knelt down until he could see Fiora clearly.
It looked like she had indeed needed the help evading the guards, as she had decided to drink all three of the elixirs he prepared, leaving her at a tiny size.
“Shulk!” He heard her tiny voice call, “Pick me up so I can talk to you!”
“Fiora, you weren’t supposed to drink all of them.” He chastised her as she climbed into his hand. “They last for a week each. You’ll be tiny for the better part of a month!”
“Well I guess you’ll just have to take care of me until then.” She giggled. “It is your fault after all that I had to steal that ether for you. Which, by the way, I did perfectly.”
Shulk sighed with his friend now resting comfortably in his hand. What was he going to tell Dunban?
(Notes section is in the pinned comment because TH-cam's character limit is pitifully small.)

[@lightswitchclash]

Notes:
Ha, that’s 6 in a row for weekly videos. Take that all odds.
Okay, cool stuff first. The slide Fiora does into the pillar is so cool! You know that meme where the dude is like “It’s beautiful. I’ve looked at this for four hours” or something? Yeah, that was me watching it on repeat. No, it’s obviously not perfect. The green glowy thing clips into the ground because I hadn’t planned on it being in her hand yet, and she carries a bit too much momentum during it, but dang it looks so smooth regardless.
The scenery is pretty cool too. The ether cylinders fit nicely into the slots in the altar thingy, and the flashlight that the guard has looks really cool. I had to add a super light layer of fog to get that flashlight effect you see in video games and stuff, but it was totally worth it. And the way Fiora takes cover behind the pillars looks really natural, and makes good use of the environment.
I’m not too sure where I got the general concept for this from, but I think it’s a pretty cool idea. In case you couldn’t tell, I’m really into the whole “shrinking via drinking a potion” stuff. Having her drink three separate potions that each shrink her is a nice way to fill out the animation, but looking back at it I probably could have done fine only having her drink two. But by the time I realized that I had already stuck the third vial on her belt, and, well, given a choice between having Fiora drink another shrinking potion which shrinks her even smaller, and not having her do that, I think I know what I’d pick.
Yeah, the story is a bit silly, but what do you expect? It’s a bit different than what I normally do, as generally I just narrate the events of the animation, but this time I instead tried to add in context for the scene, and then a cute character interaction after that I didn’t bother to animate.
I’m not a huge fan of Fiora’s run cycle. It’s very exaggerated, but some of it just doesn’t look right. I think it’s the arms. From the back view at the end it looks pretty good though, and I don’t think it plays long enough to be much of an issue when she grabs the cylinder.
The guard’s walk cycle is another pain point. You only focus on it early when he walks past the camera, but it doesn’t look too great there. I didn’t use IKs for it, so it’s a bit stiff and kind of weird looking. It looks better when he’s walking straight towards or away from the camera. The way he doesn’t see Fiora even though she’s clearly within his vision is also a bit of an oversight, where I didn’t want to have to move Fiora behind the pillar anymore. Maybe he’s like a video game spotlight where the light needs to be directly on you.
And last but not least (this time at least), I think the camerawork is pretty decent here. The cuts don’t feel too jarring unlike last time I had a bunch of cuts, and it manages to frame some actions really well, and set up cool looking shots. I especially like the beginning where the guard is walking past it, and it slowly pans so you can see the pillar Fiora is hiding behind. It kind of helps to sell the whole spy movie shtick I was going for.

[@catriamflockentanz]

I love the story beat that it felt like "one minute and twelve seconds". Good one.
Rather than Dunban I wonder what Melia will be thinking.
She wouldn't persue being tiny given her reaction last time...
But Fiora just wants to luck up at a huge Shulk.

[@lightswitchclash]

Thanks! At first it just said something like "it felt like a long time", but I changed it right before posting for the joke.
This is technically supposed to take place before the game starts, as evidenced by Fiora's long hair, so they probably wouldn't have met Melia yet.
Although if it was after the game, you're probably right that Melia wouldn't be particularly interested in trying out the potions. She might be jealous of the attention Fiora will be getting, but she'd be happy that her friend is having a good time.

[@Why_bandxD]

This is amazing could you try to make an animation instead of shrinking growing

[@lightswitchclash]

Thanks.
I'm not really into growing, mostly just shrinking, but I appreciate the suggestion.