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

Eight 2D Animation Apps For Your Phone or Tablet Mobile Device

M obile productivity apps have become so capable that they can be great alternatives to their PC/MAC equivalents or serve as great tools in their own right when you're away from your desk. While some apps simply mimic their desktop counterparts, others offer well thought out, touch-friendly interfaces that are easier and more fun to use. Every so often I check out what's available for 2D animation for Android devices, since that's what I use, that can complement my workflow with Reallusion's Cartoon Animator 5. Some may be available for Apple devices as well. Below I've listed six free (F) apps (with optional paid (P) upgrades) on the Google Play Store that you might want to explore. Some are just fun apps on their own while others may be useful as part of your workflow on bigger animation projects. Not all are exclusively animation apps and could be used on any production. JotterPad (F/P) The name JotterPad makes this sound like a notepad application but it's ...

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

In part one of my deep dive into the free VTuber software, Inochi2D , I focused mainly on Inochi2D Creator, which is used for rigging your character avatar in the correct file format for use with Inochi2D Session, the puppeteering part of the software. The two sides of the software are still very much in development and the documentation, particularly for Session, is very thin on the ground. To the point where I don't think I could even do a comprehensive tutorial because I'm not sure I'm even doing things right, and the software could change significantly in a single update. As a result, in this part of my Inochi2D deep dive I'm changing tact from presenting my finished Cartoon Animator TET Avatar, and will be summarizing my experience of getting Session up and running using OpenSeeFace as the recommended webcam motion capture software. To do this I will be using the TET avatar I created in my review of Mannequin , since that can be exported as a full, ready to go r...

Review: Headshot Plugin for Reallusion's Character Creator 3

Headshot for CC3. Quite possibly the best 3D Avatar I've made of myself in any 3D application. Creating a realistic 3D human avatar is a whole lot easier with Reallusion's new Headshot Plugin for Character Creator 3. The plugin is an AI powered extension that can generate 3D digital humans from one photo. Which sounds like an amazing proposition but, in practice, if you're trying to achieve a specific likeness to an actual person, Headshot will give you an excellent base to work from. Headshot has two modes, Auto and Pro. Auto Mode Auto is well worth a try if you have an ideal photo of a front facing person that is properly lit and posed to Headshot's optimum requirements. It's also the only mode that will take a crack at generating a hair model. I grabbed an image of Harrison Ford, dragged it into Headshot without changing any of the default settings (other than specifying 'male' and selecting an 'old male' setting) and this is what I...

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...

KIT Scenarist - Free, Open Source, Screenwriting Software that Helps Research Your Ideas Too

KIT Scenarist Script Writing Software's Mascot, Alexander Cat. While you can write a script in any word processing app, if you're writing stories (screenplays) that feature characters and dialogue, a dedicated script writing app can save a lot of time formatting, letting you focus more on the actual story. Script writing apps are also very useful if you plan to send your screenplays out to production companies, or if you're collaborating with actors and other production people, who are used to scripts being in a particular standard format. [Note: In case you're wondering there are reasons scripts follow a standard format and are always written in Courier (typewriter) font, including but not limited to; being easy to read by actors, plenty of space for notes, and the general rule that one page of a script (in this format) equals approximately one minute of screen time.] KIT Scenarist , in my opinion, is one of the best script writing apps out there for ease of use, simp...

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...

Harry Chalk - Secret Agent on GoAnimate

Harry Chalk - Secret Agent is my latest animated short on GoAnimate and, although it looks fairly straight forward to regular GoAnimaters, there's a lot of behind the scenes tricks that newer GoA members might find useful in their own productions. So sit back and settle in. This article is probably going to be a long one! The Premise Mathew is your typical student who finds school boring and passes his time in class with an over active imagination. However sometimes the line between imagination and reality gets a little fuzzy - especially where Secret Agent, Harry Chalk is concerned. Inspiration Believe it or not Harry Chalk started out as a planned GoAnimate tutorial on script writing/story development - hence the classroom setting. Whilst animating chalk stick figures on a blackboard is certainly not a new idea - I'm sure Warner Brother's and Disney have both done something similar at some point in their cartoons - it occurred to me that GoAnimate's stick...

Animation and Video Life

Search This Blog