disgruntled 2

Just a quicky for today.

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.

Ugly American Tourists

Don't you just hate these people?

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.

all together now

With a few inbetweens, I connected the 4 walk cycles. All 4 cycles have a different amount of frames. The quick walk is only an 8 frame cycle. The sad walk is a 16 frame cycle. The skipping cycle is 12 frames. The run cycle with his arms stretched out in front of him is a 24 frame cycle, it's the longest one only because he floats when he is at his high point for several frames. Plus it's all on 2's, so the 8 frame cycle is only 4 drawings, the 24 frame cycle is 12 drawings, the 16 frame cycle is 8 drawings, and the 12 frame cycle is 6 drawings. When I clean these up the one thing I will do is really slow down the sad walk. I will double the frames from 16 to 32, to make it a very slow sad walk, like he's really dragging his feet.

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.

The Good Guys

With a colored outline, and a nice size relation. The tall adult, the really short pip squeak, and the 2 mid range kids.

Kayami's new eyes....updated

Just another color scheme. We still have not made a decision on the kind of line to use. I am going to knock out some lines, make some lines colored, and experiment a lot more with the line.
I think the white dots on her eyes are crucial. I can't find any other way to give her eye direction without the white dots. I am still messing around with her colors.
I know these are not the ideal eyes to get expressions out of, but there is very good reason for designing them this way. Her eyes were more expressive in an older version but they were too similar to the main character. He is supposed to be the only "human" character, even though he is a Slinky. All other characters are not human, thus the tail on Kayami here. So I gave her these eyes to make her look more like a designer toy.

exploring Kayami

This is the last character that needs to be completely rethought. After a bunch of scribbles I settled on this shape for her. There is still much more exploration to be done, her eyes are definitely going to change.

SLAM DUNK!

There is a lot of art work, writing, sketches and ideas that are not going to make it into the bible package when we pitch this show. But all that extra art really brings the characters to life in my mind. And since I am not a fan of wasting art, I'll find a way to sneak it into the show when it goes into production.

more BANGO expressions