Momma Bullshit

Well, it seems like me 'taking it easy' yesterday is going to pay off. Yesterday evening, I managed to do a colored image of Captain Bullshit's mother, Momma Bullshit. Today, I have spent time working on the same shot, too. I think it will be ready for animation in about two hours from now. Seeing as it is mostly lipsync animation, it won't be all that hard to get it moving once I start with it, and that scene is roughly 20 seconds, so that's very nice :). Without further ado, the picture (don't mind the background).

Momma Bullshit actually came out better-looking then I originally intended :). My first thought was to have a really old lady be his mom, but I found that, when combined with her voice, a slightly younger mother would also work, and be fun in the process. Besides, there's an old lady in the animation later on, so who wants to look at two really old ladies, right? Well, maybe the audience of 'Golden Girls' would...

I also came across a picture I drew only two weeks ago for one of the first scenes. It clearly demonstrates what is a problem to many animators who use 'traditional' tools, namely that they have to get 'a grip' on their character. This being one of the first fully worked-out pictures I've drawn, it now looks a lot less good then the ones in later scenes (compare it to the Captain Bullshit above, if you will). Luckily, I think this is the only picture that seems to have that problem. Guess I'll have to redo it a bit, then. Perhaps I can just do some touch-ups to make it look more in style again *sigh*. 

On a bright note, I received a lot of backgrounds from the Artrix yesterday. This means I have most, if not all backgrounds for the animation sequence I've prepared for the exam committee and the exposition. So that'll look real good once it's finished. 

So, with tuesday coming ominously close now, I guess I should get back to work. See ya!

One of 'those' days

Do any other animators ever have one of those days where they feel they can't really produce anything that day? Well, I do. Right now, I feel like I really have to force myself to work, moreso then usual. It's not really pleasant, cause you get relatively little work done on those days, and the work tends to be less good in quality.

Perhaps it was because of yesterday evening. Some of my parent's friends came over to barbeque. That ain't a big problem, but they always have kids with them (teenagers). On those nights, it's kind of my 'duty' to go do stuff with the kids and play videogames and stuff, which meant that yesterday evening I couldn't do anything for my project, which was a shame, really.

Oh well. I'll just try and do some relaxing stuff first, and then try to tackle some animation work. The show must go on!

Storyboard Comparisons

A bit of a lack of posts lately, but that's because I'm actually making headway :). I have a lot of cool animation done by now, but I want to save it for the exposition on september 11th. After that, I'll be sure to post it on the blog here, too.

Meanwhile, I thought it would be nice to take a look at how the thing went from rough storyboard to animation. First picture is the earliest storyboard, the second is the storyboard in style, and the final one is how it looks in the animation. Pretty cool, I think. Enjoy!

You can also see the difference between the style in the beginning and later on here, if you look carefully. Captain Bullshit was designed to have a cape at first (which was too much of a hassle in the end), and Earl was entirely different. I also played with the idea of Earl having a long nose, but that didn't really work for the frontal shot you see here. So this is what it is now :).

FINALLY! Animating!

This marks the first day I truly felt like I was 'animating'. Now don't think I've been sitting on my bum so far. I animate in Anime Studio Pro, which basically is a computerized cut-out animation program. It's very easy, and goes really fast, but the preparation (the puppets to use) take a lot of time. Fortunately, the bulk of the work I'll be tackling for the school deadline is done.

I'll be honest. I had some doubt as to weither or not my models would work. Especially the lipsyncing was causing me nightmares. Fortunately, it worked GREAT! Better then I had even hoped :). Sure, it's a little gimmicky, and there have been better attempts at lipsyncing (darn you, Disney!), but I'm happy with it for now. I really laughed my butt of when I saw the results. My poor computer wasn't laughing, however. It seems that working in Full HD is a step too challenging for it. It lets me animate in Full HD, and export it too, but playing it... That's a different story alltogether.

I'll go back to work now, and finish another scene. When that's done, I'm positive that I can put out that particular scene before the deadline. So long!

A hard day's work

Well, the photoshopping for today has finished. I always do my 'main animation work' from 10 am. to 5 pm. Then, I have dinner at 6, and afterwards I'll do some clean-up on the storyboard, say from 7 'till 10. Good news is that the storyboard drawings are nearly all finished, which means I'll be able to wrap that up soon and then show you guys some of that. I don't want to spoil too much yet though, part of it is the whole thing being a suprise during the project market, september 9th (more on that later). So here's the results of a hard day's work:

Yayz! It's a pair of shoes! Plus, a crappy background (I can't draw them if my life depends on it... Though this was a rushjob and hardly a final background :p. Even I can do way better then that). Is that all?! No. This took me thirty minutes. The rest of the day I spent working on a very complicated, animation-heavy scene. It's ready now, but I'm keeping it to myself so you can be surprised by that later :). Look forward to it! 

Background art by the Artrix

And here it is, the first background done for Captain Bullshit by The Artrix. Here's hoping that it's just one of many :). It's from a scene in the train station, for the final portion of the animation. For those who can't tell, it truly resembles a Dutch train station. I also love all the crazy little details on the machine (which you probably can't read unless you enlarge them). I've also included a shot of the animation in which the background is used. I'm still thinking about adding some small line art to the ticket machine, though... But I'm not sure what looks best. Okay, I'm back to work again! Enjoy!

And some Artwork

Yes, I am working on the animation at the moment... But most of the stuff is simply incomplete or not ready to be shown yet. So I figured I could show you some shots from scenes I have prepared so far :). This one is from a scene where Captain Bullshit loses it. It's more detailed then most shots, as it is a very powerful/funny/dramatic moment. Kinda the Ren & Stimpy feel, only Joost-style.

And I think it's time I revealed 'old man Earl'. The following picture is actually the first time I drew him. By now, I have made his face a bit smaller with more emphasis on the chin. Don't have any finished pictures of that yet, though (am quite close to finishing them, just not yet...),  so here's Earl.

I'm quite happy with the design for Earl, as he seems to fit nicely along with the style I used for Captain Bullshit himself. I'm hoping to finish a lot of the artwork from one of the to-be-animated-scenes, so hopefully I'll actually do some animation tomorrow. The mouths required for lipsync are a pain, however, they take forever to make and recycling them would simply look bad.

On another note, I have received my first background art from Artrix, and I must say it looks great! Just what I expected from him, the perspective in the art is just amazing. I'll post pictures of it as soon as I have characters to put in that particular scene/background. 

That's it for now. Hopefully more posts the next coming few days.

The Man who came from Sniper Island!

This doesn't really have to do anything with Captain Bullshit... But it sure is a motivational boost for me to keep going :). I'm not much of an action figure/collectibles kinda guy, but when I see something cool from a series I really like, I can be persuaded into buying action figures. And this one was simply a must. From One Piece, I present to you the king of snipers, Sogeking!

What I really like, is that you can really add/remove stuff from this figurine. It can be Sogeking, but it can also be his alter ego, Usopp. I'm probably one of the few One Piece fans who considers the cowardly liar Usopp his favorite character :P. And if you don't know what One Piece is, or who Sogeking is, you're really missing out. It's by far and away the best comedic anime since Dragonball Z. So go over here, and find out why Sogeking is so awesome!

The Artrix' take on... Captain Bullshit!

Here's something I've been keeping from you for a while. A drawing of Captain Bullshit, made by fellow animator (and quite possibly background artist), Arjen Lammé, aka. The Artrix. I've been holding onto it for a while, 'cause I wanted to give him the chance to reveal it on his Deviantart account first. Now that he's done so, I see no harm in showing it to you in all its awesomeness:

It's a very funny thing to have someone else draw your character, I must say. The cool thing about it, is that it still rings true to the character, while looking completely different. Once again, thanks to Artrix for this amazing drawing. Please post your comments on the drawing on his Deviantart account and take a look at his gallery while you're at it!

You want to be famous?!

Sounds like an ad, right? Well, it is! Check it out :).

One of the more important props for Captain Bullshit, seeing as it will set the entire plot in motion. I'll also try and show you some storyboard clippings soon, but I'm still making that look a bit better. Have a lot to do for my big graduation day...

*thinks*

I really should be drawing/animating more stuff right now.