Animation and Video Life

Over the past few months I've been working on a new animated short, Mia and the Tourist: Droid Seat , showing the behind the scenes of the project and reviewing the applications I've been using as I go. Since the animation has taken a bit of a back seat to the reviews I thought it was time to do a quick recap of the project so you can see all the work done so far. The Idea In this blog I covered my process of creating G3 character rigs for Cartoon Animator using Avatars created with the mobile app, Oppa Doll . Two characters I created were based on my own original characters, Mia and the Tourist, who are interdimensional space/time travellers (basically Doctor Who types). Very loosely based on myself (or at least my The Extraordinary Tourist persona) and my partner, Enigma, they first appeared as Anime style characters, with their replica, sentient, R2-D2 droid in a GoAnimate Short, The Star Wars Fan  (definitely one of my better GoAnimate efforts with all the voice work done b

Replica A.I. Voices are great for in game character voices. I first trialed Replica Studios A.I. Voice Actor Text To Speech (TTS) voices shortly after they launched about a year ago and was suitably impressed by how natural they sounded. Some voices better than others but most sounding very close to human with the right inflections at the appropriate moments. Since then they have been working on improvements and adding more voices to their voice cast library. I have used Replica Studios on projects in the past, most notably on my 2021 Reallusion, Lip Sync Contest entry featuring my character, Bat Storm.  Mia and the Tourist. This time I've decided to use Replica to cast the other two voices in my upcoming Mia and the Tourist animated short that I've been blogging the process of creating through demonstrating the apps I'm using to make it. So far I've covered scriptwriting , storyboarding , background creation , and character rigging . When I say the other two voices

Adam West's Bat suit was also a very advanced fabric able to deflect machine gun fire. Anyone who has followed my work for a long time will know that Batman is my favorite comic book superhero. That's why my character Bat Storm is modelled after Batman and not any other hero. Less known is that Adam West, more than any other live action Batman, is 'my Batman' or at least the Batman of my childhood self. That's not to say I don't like other versions, I very much do, but Adam's Batman is the one that made me a life long fan - because I've never really read Batman comics. To this day I'll fight you on the best Batmobile being the 66 TV series version (including if you put it against every iteration from the comic books). So when the YouTube channel and VFX studio, Corridor Crew came up in my suggested videos with their The Batman Trailer, but with Goofy Batman , I was there.  Watch the finished, stand alone trailer below. It's my new, favorite Bat

I resisted making tutorial videos for a long time because I don't like editing. Specifically I don't like editing me teaching as I step students through a process during a screen record. I have a tendency to insert long pauses not just in the middle of sentences but between multiple words in the middle of sentences as my pace matches what I'm doing onscreen. This makes for very long and very slow paced video tutorials. To counteract this I have to edit out all the pauses. This can take hours, or even days on particularly long tutorials. For example, when I created my main course, The Lazy Animator Beginner's Guide to Cartoon Animator , I literally injured the thumb on my right hand, operating my mouse, as I spent weeks taking out all my pauses (seriously, I had to wear a thumb brace for a few weeks to fix the pain). Recently I came across TimeBolt , a very affordable, fast editing application with the featured purpose of removing all the pauses from your video (and even

This background is made from a mix of props from six different content packs. One of Reallusion Cartoon Animator's selling points is that it can speed up your animation workflow with its time saving features. Among those features is the software's Content Library, a collection of premade, characters, props, scenes, motion files, and more, that either came with the application or you've added with purchases from Reallusion's Content Store or Marketplace .  If you've been following along, I've been reviewing applications I'm using in the process of creating my latest animated short featuring my original characters, Mia and the Tourist (and their replica, sentient, R2-D2 droid). Previously I wrote the script with KIT Scenarist , and drafted a storyboard using Wonder Unit's Storyboarder . In this post I'll show you how I designed my backgrounds for my animation using my extensive Content Library collection. I'll give you tips for making your own sc

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