Interactive Slime Character – Cursor Tracking & Click to Bounce

This is a crowd of slime creatures built from a single reusable Rive Component.

Move your cursor around and their eyes will follow you, but only within a defined area. If you move away, or they spend too long watching you, they'll lose interest and return to their idle animation.

Each slime also has randomized idle movement, so even though they're all instances of the same Component, they don't bounce in perfect sync. This attention to detail is what makes my characters feel alive.

Click one and that slime reacts independently, bouncing in a satisfying way, following the 12 Principles of Animation.

The bouncing ball remains to be the simplest but most effective litmus tests on whether an animator actually knows their stuff. It requires an understanding of spacing, timing, and weight. Many may know the software, but few know how to truly animate.

I majored in animation, and worked 11+ years as a motion designer. This is why I took to Rive like a duck to water. It may be a new tool, but the Principles of Animation remain the same whether it's traditional frame-by-frame animation or 3D.

Other than paying attention to details for the animation, it's important to pay attention to details in interactivity.

Most people would make a cursor-tracked animation just constantly follow the cursor. But that's not realistic, is it? Real characters get bored. It's not going to stare at you 24/7, even if you're 10 miles away.

So instead, the eyes follow you within a defined area. If you're too far, or don't do anything for a while, they'll get bored and lose interest.

Rive makes it possible to create one master Component and make multiple instances of it. This way, we only have one thing to worry about.

It also means you can build a master rig and animation library, then reuse it across different characters and customize them with different clothes, accessories, or other variations.

That's a pretty powerful production workflow when you're dealing with a large animation library.

I also made a mockup of some sort of card game, now with two additional characters. They each also follow your cursor and jump when clicked.