Castle Paradox

Joe Man · Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2008 7:32 pm Post subject: Animation tests

Like everyone else on the internet I'm an animator. I'm not very good but I'm working at it. Anyhows, since you're all such great chaps I figured I'd show you my occasional scribbles and ask for your input.

I haven't done this enough to have found any particularly convenient way of putting my pencil tests on my computer. If anyone can give me tips for faster ways to manage large numbers of pictures I'd be much obliged. I apologize ahead of time for not being particularly saavy, I don't use my computer very much.

Without further ado, here's a little test I did just the other day.

As some of you may have guessed, this was inspired in part by a faulty mental image of Bob Surlaw. Personally I actually like my new "eggman" more but if anybody is particularly interested I'll go ahead and redo this with Surlaw himself.

Anyway, on the right is my original straight sketch. This wasn't particularly thought out, just the broad gestures. This gave me a basis for planning and editing. On a few other sheets of paper I sketched out some small thumbnails spreads of the individual motions and put one of them on the same sheets as the eggman here because it conveniently used the same number of frames to get he whole idea I had in mind (as you can see, it's an arm).

Like I said, this wasn't particularly planned at all. I left out Eggman's left arm because I didn't know what to do with it, the design of his arm changed within the half-hour between when I finished my initial scribble test and drew the wave gesture thumbnails. BUT, I promise my next post will be better planned or at least show more evolution.

Comments and critiques welcome.
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"Everyone has 200,000 bad drawings in them, the sooner you get them out the better."
~Charles Martin Jones

Last edited by Joe Man on Fri Dec 13, 1957 1:21 am; edited 2,892 time in total

Joe Man · Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2008 9:08 pm Post subject:

Here's a slightly older one I did during class a couple afternoons. I tried to use red to highlight stress and weight to help me get the muscles right but I don't think I have the right sense of force I was trying to achieve. I need to work on timing.

_________________
"Everyone has 200,000 bad drawings in them, the sooner you get them out the better."
~Charles Martin Jones

Last edited by Joe Man on Fri Dec 13, 1957 1:21 am; edited 2,892 time in total

The Drizzle · **Who is the Drizzle?** Joined: 12 Nov 2003 Posts: 432

I like the eggman design. It has a lot of character. But the frame rate for the gif is too high for me to comment on the animation.
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The Wobbler · Joined: 06 Feb 2003 Posts: 2221

Joe Man · Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2008 10:31 pm Post subject:

Aye, it had been several years since I played Walthros, and the only thing I really remembered about Bob Surlaw was his unusual floating yellow body, his buggy eyes, and blue cape. It wasn't so much an interpretation as a false memory, which honestly is where my best ideas come from.

To help The Drizzle, even though I'm not proud of the animation itself, you can look at my original post again and look at it slowed down. It plays at three timings, the second of which I think is the best but could use some slight padding.
_________________
"Everyone has 200,000 bad drawings in them, the sooner you get them out the better."
~Charles Martin Jones

Last edited by Joe Man on Fri Dec 13, 1957 1:21 am; edited 2,892 time in total

The Drizzle · **Who is the Drizzle?** Joined: 12 Nov 2003 Posts: 432

The hand motion to his left is solid. Nothing bad to say about that. One thing though is that I don't follow what's going on with his mouth. Is this synced to some dialogue?
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My name is...
The shake-zula, the mic rulah, the old schoola, you wanna trip? I'll bring it to yah...

Joe Man · Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 10:10 pm Post subject:

Nope. It went something like "Ah, phoey" in my head but I didn't bother work out a lipsync.

Here's an attempt at animating my signature. Unfortunately it came out much too rough and jittery but I'll keep working on this. This was done with multiple tracings to different marked intervals with a total of 30 drawings. Not a very effective method but experimentation is always worthwhile.

Timing was a bitch. It doesn't run very well in my browser.
_________________
"Everyone has 200,000 bad drawings in them, the sooner you get them out the better."
~Charles Martin Jones

Last edited by Joe Man on Fri Dec 13, 1957 1:21 am; edited 2,892 time in total

Joe Man · Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 10:52 pm Post subject:

"First, I went deaf."

(click for a slowed-down version)
This is a thumbnail test for a series of ten to thirty-second gags starring busts of famous people. It's ugly but it's only thumbnails (what you see on the screen is larger than the actual drawings). I'll post my progress as it happens.
_________________
"Everyone has 200,000 bad drawings in them, the sooner you get them out the better."
~Charles Martin Jones

Last edited by Joe Man on Fri Dec 13, 1957 1:21 am; edited 2,892 time in total

Joe Man · Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2008 8:42 pm Post subject:

twelve frame half-scribbled test of the sounds aaaaayyyywweeee

I still haven't put much effort into timing and of course the shading is unpredictable but in practice I don't plan on doing any shading. it mostly looks bad because I got lazy. Quick note, it's only twelve frames because that's how many frames my original test was and I just used the same paper.
_________________
"Everyone has 200,000 bad drawings in them, the sooner you get them out the better."
~Charles Martin Jones

Last edited by Joe Man on Fri Dec 13, 1957 1:21 am; edited 2,892 time in total

Moogle1 · Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2008 10:19 pm Post subject:

That is so incredibly hard to look at
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Joe Man · Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2008 7:43 am Post subject:

I have eyes made of iron and bullet proof glass so it isn't so hard for me, but I'll whip up an easier to look at version. The ugliness is for my own benefit, to see what I do when I try to do repetitive traces. For example, the eyes and eyebrows shrink, the shading screws the hell up, and the forms expand and darken.
_________________
"Everyone has 200,000 bad drawings in them, the sooner you get them out the better."
~Charles Martin Jones

Last edited by Joe Man on Fri Dec 13, 1957 1:21 am; edited 2,892 time in total

Moogle1 · Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2008 8:32 am Post subject:

No, I actually meant that it was literally hard to look at, but I guess it's because I was tired because it's much easier this morning.
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Slime Salad :: Independent Game Design