Skip to main content

Bat Storm, Cool Froyd, Business People, Alvin Owl - TET Project Updates

I realized that over the course of the last year or so I've started a number of projects in this blog and haven't really got back to them so I thought I'd give you an update on where things are at.

Bat Storm, Episode 2

Last year I announced I was working on Bat Storm, Episode 2, with an expected release date of August 2012. Obviously that didn't happen. For various reasons I had to shelve the project. The main one being me becoming some what frustrated with the direction things were going.

I think I started to get a little too ambitious and I also didn't like having a script written in advance. I never wrote a script for Episode 1, the story just evolved organically as I animated it. That's what really held my interest and pushed me to finishing it. I wanted to know how it ended.

Recently I've released new Bat Storm, Episode 2 images onto my Facebook page because I've started working on it again. At the time of writing I have a full two minutes of part 1 animated.

This time around I've scaled back my ambitions to just creating as much as I can using existing GoAnimate content (as I did with Episode 1). I've also been adding new lines to the existing script as I animate, to make it funnier and to return to the organic way the original first episode was made.

I'm not going to put a release date on Part 1 of Episode 2 but my enthusiasm is higher than it has been for a long time to work it.

Cool Froyd

Cool Froyd is my most recent project using Crazy Talk Animator Pro to create all the animation. I had hoped to have completed a first episode of my intended series, featuring the animated version of one of my original painting, by now.

Unfortunately I've struggled to come up with a good script for the character despite doing a fairly extensive mind map of possible things Cool Froyd could chat about.

I am still mulling over what to do with Cool Froyd and hope to have something soon -  even if I have to sit down and just try and improvise something.

Business People


My Business People were intended to be my first serious Crazy Talk Animator Pro project however at the time I really struggled with learning Crazy Talk and I also needed to learn Serif Draw X5 so I could trace the characters into Flash (.swf) files.

Since starting, I did make an attempt to turn the business man into a Flash character with Serif Draw but never managed to finish it to the point where I could start bringing him into Crazy Talk.

I also started to animate him using Koolmoves so I could put him in my Animation 4 Business promotional video.

Currently Cool Froyd has taken over as my first serious Crazy Talk Animator project but what I'm learning from that has really helped me understand how to move the Business People project forward. My intention is to go back to work on them once I've completed the first episode of Cool Froyd.

Alvin Owl

Alvin the Owl is a character I started to animate after his sketch designs were rejected by a client. I felt he was too good to leave as a sketch. So far I've animated about three actions for him in Koolmoves that I did as part of a Koolmoves tutorial video but haven't worked on him in quite a while.

I do hope to get back to animating him with at least five to six standard actions by which time I'll release him to the GoAnimate Community.


So that's a run down of all the projects I've started/announced in this blog that I hope to complete over the next few months.  I'll do my best not to shelve any of them again.

Comments

  1. Yay! Bat Storm is coming back! :D

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'd seen your BatStorm posts on FB. nice to hear about the others as well. Perhaps for Cool Floyd you could do something about him talking about his owner, perhaps preparing notes with another cat. I once read a pretty funny novel where the cats were the mian charcters in a murder mystery and us humans were refered to as "tin openers."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ha Ha, I like that idea of humans being 'tin openers' - wish I'd thought of that :-)

      Cool Froyd talking about his owner is a possibility. I'll have to add that into the mind map I did of potential topics for him. Can't believe that didn't cross my mind. Thanks!

      Delete
  3. I think you have got tons to brag concerning! and that i would not worry about being "overly boastful" as a result of you are tooting your own horn! i prefer to listen to the great stuff that folks do. It's far better than hearing the long list of crap and ailments they're experiencing over ... and over ... and all over again. Hearing dangerous stuff all the time is simply not smart.
    cricket-bat

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

This blog is monitored by a real human. Generic or unrelated spam comments with links to sites of dubious relativity may be DELETED.

I welcome, read, and respond to genuine comments relating to each post. If your comment isn't that save me some time by not posting it.

Popular posts from this blog

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

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

2D Animation Side Hustle - How to Package, Upload, Optimize, Price, and Promote Your Content in the Reallusion 2D Marketplace

T his is the final post in my four part, 2D Animation Side Hustle series on Selling in the Reallusion 2D Marketplace. I'll look at how to package up your content and upload it to the Marketplace, how to optimize your listings, price, and how to sell through your store backend as well as off site through social media and other channels. If you haven't read previous articles in the series click these links for Part 1 - Can You Make Real Money , Part 2 - Finding Niches , and Part 3 - What to Sell . Before getting started you'll need to register as a Content Developer in order to see the backend of your store on the Reallusion Marketplace . Packaging Content and Uploading to the Marketplace Since the release of Cartoon Animator 5 the software has a built in Package Manager that makes it easy to assemble and upload your Content to the Marketplace. Reallusion has a comprehensive, official video (embeded below) that quickly explains the entire process in less than seven minutes. 

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

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$

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

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