Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Zebra Cartoons



Here are my first zebra cartoon versions.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Learning to animate with Flash

Here's a zebra that I am learning to animate. I am used to drawing realistic, so this is only a test zebra. I will have to make him look more cartoon-like. That is, once I understand flash better.

Once I have a character I am happy with, I will have to draw every piece of the zebra. Kind of like the caveman template below. Then with all the zebra pieces, I can start to animate. Still a ways off yet.

Here's some screen grabs of my test zebra:

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Caveman animation test

I came across the best thing in the entire world today. I found a template for caveman animation! This is going to save me so much time! I bought the template and a tutorial for $35 from http://www.cartoonsolutions.com.

I installed a trial version of flash, and three hours later I made a walking caveman animation. It still needs some work, but I am so happy I don't have to make him up from scratch. I will probably have to do my zebra from scratch, but I have been drawing horses since I was a kid, so I think I can handle it. And, now I can stop worrying about what software to buy.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Sunday

Today I spent most of the day dealing with the plastic animals. I did one stop-motion map test, then went to Toys R Us to find plastic animals I am missing. I have been buying plastic toys over the last couple years, but I am still missing a few key pieces. Plus I discovered that I am going to need bigger toys for the main domesticated animals. So I ordered a bunch online today.

I have also uploaded a few more test clips. I am meeting with two animators next week, so I want to have some video to show them.

I am still trying to decide if I am going to re-write, and make it first person zebra, instead of voice of god style. I can't wait to have someone else narrate it. I had a cold when I did the scratch narration.








Friday, April 18, 2008

Stone-age man clay figure attempt #1

Mark bought some sculpting clay. He is making a few caveman models for me to experiment with. Not sure if we are going to use clay, toys, or drawings yet.

This guy looked even better, before he fell off my monitor.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Example of animatic

Here's a segment of an email from one of the animators that contacted me. I don't think he was a student. I think he was hoping I had a budget. But he gave me some great tips:

Animatics consists of drawing only keyframes which make out the basic movements of an animation or character. Basically, where the character will be drawn first and where the character will end (Two Frames). You can add more frames which will create a choppy animation that is still considered a animatic. You can use any production style program to create animatics; Preferably, Final Cut Pro. Using the tweening in this program works for animatics. There is a excellent example of a animatic film called, "Dick Richards: Private Dick".



Do I hand draw? Use a toy? Make one out of paper? Or do a combination?

Zebra Thoughts

I am trying to figure out the cheapest and dirtiest way to do a zebra animation.

One idea, just animate the lips. Here's a quick test I made using photoshop and quicktime.

2nd thought: file the face of a toy zebra and do the same technique.

3rd thought: paint my face green, video my mouth saying the narration. Then composite my lips over a zebra photograph, zebra drawing, or zebra toy.

4th thought: find a student animator on Craigslist that wants to work on a film that will be broadcast.
--note: I have found three people so far. One gave me some ideas but thinks I need way too much animation. The 2nd person I met today. She is excited about the project...we meet again next week to discuss further. And the third person, I need to get back to.

5th thought: get inspiration from youtube:Do I hand draw, use a toy, do claymation, make one out of paper, or a combination?