Project Updates - What's happening on my desk?

Buddy's World TET at his desk.

I'm busier than I ever have been working on animation projects. The trouble is, most of what I'm doing doesn't make for very interesting blog posts. Half my day is spent learning about animation or animation software. The other half is spent doing the grunt work on projects, drawing hands... well paws, so many paws and key framing... so many key frames. There's also that game app I'm working on. So here is a quick run down of what I'm doing since I last posted some Project Updates.

JAC the Cat
CrazyTalk Animator 2

Although I finished my blog series on creating this CrazyTalk Animator, G2 character, the character its self is far from finished. What Reallusion don't tell you in their promo's for 'making your own G2 character with our custom template' is that it's actually templateS (that's plural).

To make a fully functioning G2 character, after the initial full body template (that you saw me create), there's the hands template, the eyes template, the mouth template, the brow template and the nose template to complete too. The hand template alone has approximately 110 pairs of hands to draw if you want to match all the same hand positions. Fortunately you can reuse hands in different views but it's still a lot of work. Below is a screen shot of my hands (paws) template so far.

Paws template, work in progress for JAC.

Animation 4 Business
iClone Promotional Video

I had expected this 3D, iClone 6, animated video to be completed much quicker than it has been. However, only working on it for about an hour or so each day has kind of delayed things. Plus I was also waiting for my voice actor to record the voice track to which all the animation is timed to.

The main delay though has been a custom movement that I'm having to create from scratch of my main character sliding down a fireman's style pole. Every part of the movement has to be key framed so it looks at least half way convincing. See the image below... all those dots in the timeline are key frames. Granted I didn't put all of them there but even so, I'm directly responsible for most of them.

Key framing the fire pole sequence in my up-coming
iClone, Animation 4 Business Promo video.

Hoot.

Hoot Game Creating

The game staring TheseStars' Hoot the Owl is kind of progressing but I've been stuck on the player control system for Hoot for several weeks now. It's down right frustrating. I keep thinking I've got it worked out but then some bug shows up that just can't seem to be solved.

Still can't really show you anything yet either. Which is also a little frustrating because I think what we have so far looks really good and the game will be something quite unique.

Learning, Learning, Learning...

Animator's Survival Kit.

Back in 2013 I bought the equivalent of the Animator's Bible. Yeah, not the Ideas for the Animated Short (see image right) but the other one, Richard Williams, The Animator's Survival Kit.

Now that I'm doing a lot more complex animation I thought it was high time a read this book all the way through. I blame it for making me do more detailed key framing on my promo video than I might have prior to reading it.

I'm nearly all the way through reading so expect a review within the next week or so. Spoilers... I'll be recommending it as a must buy.

Beyond book learning, I'm also trying to wrap my head around Silo 2 so I can create my own 3D props and character models for iClone. I'm a few video tutorials in and things are looking good in terms of ease of use. It's a bit like a cross between building with Lego and sculpting with clay.

Finally I'm giving Anime Studio Pro 11 a go, after years of owning it, upgrading with each new version and never actually doing anything with it. Feeling a bit of a need to just be able to animate some of my characters a little more traditionally and Anime Studio Pro 11 is just the tool.

Once I dive a bit deeper into both Silo 2 and Anime Studio with my own projects expect to see more blog posts here documenting my work.

As you can see I'm keeping very busy lately. I am looking forward to getting past some of this preparation and learning. Really need to start work on one of my own personal animation projects. It's been a long time coming.

Comments

Inochi2D - Free Open Source 2D VTuber Avatar Rigging and Puppeteering Software (Part 1)

Inochi2D Creator - Free Open Source VTuber Software. If you've been looking for a way to live perform as a 2D cartoon avatar on camera, whether it be for a live stream or for pre-recorded content like educational videos, then VTuber software is a low cost (or even no cost) option worth looking into. In my previous post, How to Become a VTuber - 2D and 3D Software for Creating and Controlling Your Avatar , I took a brief look at the relatively new but completely free and open source Inochi2D which I thought showed great potential for my own needs of creating a live performance character rig for my own TET Avatar that I use for all my promotional materials. While it is possible to live perform my character using Cartoon Animator itself, Reallusion's MotionLive2D capture system isn't great - with lip sync in particular. More importantly though, I can't exactly teach people how to use Cartoon Animator if I'm using Cartoon Animator to control my Avatar. What is Inochi2D

Dollars Mocap: Full Body Webcam Motion Capture (Including Hands and Fingers) For iClone and Cartoon Animator

Even though I should be further away from the camera Dollars Mocap MONO still does a good job of tracking my arms, hands and fingers. Ever since I wrote my series on becoming a VTuber , discovering it was possible to do full body motion capture, including hands and fingers, with just software and a webcam, I've been on the look out for any motion capture software that can bring that functionality to Cartoon Animator. Dollars Mocap is a low cost motion capture application with a free trial that I learned about through the YouTube Channel Digital Puppets and their test video . It can record full body, upper body, arms and hands, and facial mocap from a live video source or pre-recorded video. Investigating further, I discovered not only does Dollars Mocap have a free iClone7, iClone8 character profile file download (look for it at the bottom of the main program download page), so you can use the saved motions with iClone8, they've also got a demo video for how to convert your

Prome AI Sketch Render Tool - Your Tradigital Clean Up and Colorist Artist for Character and Background Design

Random character head, Biro sketches drawn by TET (left). Render by PromeAI (right) using Prome's Sketch Render tool set to 'Comon:Cartoon, Render Mode: Outline'. W hile I don't do New Year Resolutions, one of my plans for the year ahead is to do more of my own art. Specifically character design drawn in an actual, physical sketchbook. To that end, I have been spending the last half hour of most days drawing a page or two of random biro sketches in my sketchbook and posting the pages to my Instagram account (this link will take you to one of my posts). These sketches are mostly practicing my skills because I don't really draw regularly anymore. Here is a tip, if you do this kind of sketching, and push yourself to keep doing it, you will see many drawings that could be taken further, even if you don't have anything they're suited for just at the moment. Which is where my second favorite AI Image Tool (after Leonardo.ai ) PromeAI comes into play. PromeAI

Moho 14 Released - Still the Best 2D Animation Software for Indy Animators on a Budget

Moho 14 Released. Regular readers know I am a Reallusion, Cartoon Animator advocate through and through. Hands down I would recommend Cartoon Animator 5 first over Lost Marble's Moho 14 to anyone who is just starting in 2D animation, is a team of one, or just needs to animate as quickly as possible. However, feature for feature, Moho is, arguably, the best 2D animation software for the rest of us who can't justify a Toon Boom Harmony , or Adobe Creative Cloud subscription (and even with their applications Moho is very competitive on features). You can get started with Moho Debut for just USD$59.99 which is a cut down version of Moho Pro but it still has the most essential features needed for 2D animation. While Moho Pro is a whopping USD$399.99 (Cartoon Animator, which only has one version, is just USD$149.00) upgrades to new version numbers come down to a quarter of the price at USD$99.00. Even though Reallusion just released features like Motion Pilot Puppet Animation and

Wonder Unit Storyboarder - Free Storyboarding Software for People Who Can (or Can't) Draw

Wonder Unit Storyboarder. As an independent and solo animator I'm always tempted to try and skip storyboarding my animated shorts because they're usually only single scene sketch comedy type jokes. As a result I have many unfinished projects that kind of petered out due to having no clear finishing line. Storyboarding your productions, no matter how small, gives you a step by step guide of every shot that needs to be completed (no planning shots as you animate). It also allows you to create an animatic that gives you a rough preview of the finished production. In short, you shouldn't skip storyboards as they, generally, increase the chance of the project being completed. Disclaimer - I'm Not a Fan of Storyboarder Upfront, Wonder Unit's Storyboarder is not my preferred storyboarding software. However it's completely free, has a number of very compelling featu

Start Your 2D Animation Side Hustle - Sell Your Cartoon Animator Characters, Props, Scenes, and Motion Files in the Reallusion 2D/3D Marketplace

Have you thought about starting a side hustle selling your original Cartoon Animator assets in the Reallusion 2D/3D Marketplace ? In this article, the first in a series on selling in the marketplace, I'll give you an overview of what's involved, why you should give it some thought, and whether you can earn enough to quit your day job (or at least have a worthwhile side hustle). If you're an artist with any kind of drawing skills, and you're creating your own original characters, props, scenes, and even motion files for your Cartoon Animator projects, then setting up your own store in the Reallusion Marketplace should be a no brainer. You're making content already, it doesn't cost you anything to set up, and Reallusion only takes a 30% commission from each item sold. (If you think that's a lot, I'll address that further down). Don't be put off if you think your art skills aren't up to professional standards. There are plenty of artists with naïve

The Ultimate Independent Animator's App and Resource List 2019-2023 - Animation and Video Life

Image created with Cartoon Animator 4. Being an independent animator is not like a studio animation job. There's so much more to do that is indirectly related to the actual task of animating. Over the years I've sought out many apps, tools, and services that can help me achieve that one single task, expressing myself through animation. Below is my Ultimate Independent Animator's Resource List for 2019-2022. It started out as a list of free or low cost apps that could help you in every stage of producing either 2D or 3D animation, and then just kind of grew from there. You may not have been looking for a Time Management App as much as you needed something to get you started in 3D animation but when those commissioned projects start coming in you'll have a head start on maximizing your time. All the apps and services on this list had to meet two main criteria: They had to be useful and relevant to an Indy Animator/artist. The base app/service had to be US$

Animation and Video Life

Search This Blog