Nutcracker E-Card

Here's a scene I animated on a new show called 'The Deerskins" that was turned into an e-card for Christmas.  The series won't be on the air for a few more months, so in the meantime check out the facebook page : http://www.facebook.com/thunder.deerskins 
and 'friend' us.

Toon Boom Studio 4 learning process...part 6

Rigging and anchor points; this is where my biggest mistakes were in the blink I did. There is still much more to figure out regarding anchor points, but I am beginning to understand it. One thing I probably should have done was draw my character in the middle of the field guide, not off in a corner the way I did.

Toon Boom Studio 4 learning process...part 5

Another shot of the Toon Boom interface. I am getting quite comfortable drawing with this program. A Cintiq would really make a huge difference. Without a Cintiq I can not use the brush tool with any proficiency. I am limited to the line tool for now. I am learning quickly about switching from "camera" view to "drawing" view, and learning what my earlier mistakes were when I tried to create a "new drawing" or "cel". There is still so much more to learn! I hit a key by accident this afternoon and it made my drawings lose the dark outline and all the colors to be very muted. I have no idea what key I hit or what it did or how to undo it. I ended up just closing the program and opening it again, and the view was back to normal. Speaking of the keyboard; it takes a few solid hours just to get the keyboard shortcuts made to your own specifications, but it is very important. There is nothing worse than hitting a key and having something unexpected happen because the keyboard shortcut is something other than what you thought it was.

Toon Boom Studio 4 learning process...part 4

Eureka! My first ever Toon Boom Studio 4 animation! It was more difficult than I expected it to be, but I managed to animate a simple blink. This was just an exercise to learn the Toon Boom animation program and interface. The frustrating part is when I animate one thing, like the right eye blink for example; then when I tried to do the exact same thing to the left eye, it wouldn't work. I had no idea if I was doing something slightly different with the left eye that somehow made it not work, or if the program is buggered up. I made a ton of mistakes doing this blink, and that's a good thing, because that is the best way to learn the program; to make mistakes and then figure it out or work around it.

Toon Boom Studio 4 learning process...part 3

Step 4: Having drawn the characters head, I will attempt to animate a simple blink. This required a couple more drawings, one of his eyes closed and the other of his eyebrows. The squash and stretch of his eyes before they close will be animated on the "peg" layers.

Toon Boom Studio 4 learning process...part 2

Step 3: I colored the separated parts, making sure to save this color palette under the characters name, so this is the "BANGO" palette. And "YES"; if you look at the bottom of the screen capture, I was also playing World Of Warcraft.
Step 2: I separated the parts by copying them and then pasting them on to their own columns, making them individual elements, ie. the hat, the eyes, the head.
Step1: I cleaned up the lines by tracing over the imported pencil sketch, making sure to draw through each object. I used the line tool and manipulated the line with the anchor points.

Toon Boom Studio 4 learning process

People have told me that however you start out the new year is a sign of how the rest of the year will be; so, for example, if you start out with your apartment in a state of disorganized mess, then it will be disorganized and messy all year. So I figured I should start the year out working on this "Slinky" project using Toon Boom software, because that is what I want to be doing all year. And the Toon Boon Harmony lessons I got last week turned out to help tremendously, much of the interface is the same in Studio 4 as it is in Harmony, and the tools and methods of working are also very similar. Oh! I am also starting out the year with a horrible flu, so I am not sure if I should hope the rest of the year turns out quite like the first day of the year. On one hand I do want to work on Slinky using Toon Boom all year, on the other hand I don't want to be sick again this year. Anyway, above is a screen capture of the drawing I am cleaning up using Toon Boom Studio 4. Now that I know what I am doing I find the drawing part pretty easy.

HARMONY

I just came back from a trip to Toronto where I got a Toon Boom Harmony lesson from my brother. This time I took notes and actually drew a rough character and animated him a bit with the program. I learned how to draw in Toon Boom and create a character with the "draw" mode and "X Sheet" modes. I also learned the animation basics in the "time line" and "frame" modes.
Now that I am back at my place; I have Studio 4, not Harmony, so it will be interesting to see if this knowledge helps me in Toon Boom Studio 4.
The character is just a rough scribble. I did not use the Cintiq, since I wasn't planning on doing anything that looks good. I quickly drew this guy with the Wacom tablet, just to learn the interface and the tools.

TOONBOOM STUDIO 4

So I purchased ToonBoom Studio 4. It was on sale and I need to learn the ToonBoom interface so I can ease into HARMONY from FLASH. I figured Studio 4 is a less advanced version of Harmony, but the interface is similar, so it's a good start. I spent several hours on it today fooling around with it. I know flash inside out and I can draw and animate with flash very quickly and with ease, but Studio 4 is totally foreign to me. It is taking me a long time just to find the right buttons to press.

I'm on the cover!

Okay, well it's not actually ME....but it is my art. This is the cover of this month's TOON BOOM NEWS, a magazine circulated in the animation industry to promote Toon Boom software and the studios using Toon Boom programs. The cover is a design I did for Oasis Animation. There are several posts from this production in my blog archives, pretty much all of September and October 2007 archives are just from this project. Am I mentioned in the article on the inside? Nope. But there is a fascinating interview with the guy that signs my check.
My Girlfriend is also in the magazine, well it's not actually my girlfriend...but it is a caricature of her. I've highlighted her in the top picture. She is one of the incidental characters in the club scene. When I showed her the picture in the magazine she screamed and giggled like a 10 year old girl, so I think she was happy about it.