Project Updates - Where Have I Been and What Am I Doing?

TET all dressed for the
Peanuts Movie.

It's been almost a month since I last posted in this blog largely due to a family matter that involved travelling back to Western Australia from South Australia to actually be with my family over there. Rest assured I haven't forgotten about this blog and things are still happening on my projects.

JAC Cat
CrazyTalk Animator 2
"I just do eyes..."

Last time I updated you on this character I was drawing hands...so many hands... it's one of the things Reallusion don't actually make clear in their advertising that their character templates are much more involved than drawing seven character views.

Even less obvious is all the work that goes into giving the character a wide variety of facial expressions and the ability to lip sync. After finishing the hands I'm now creating eyes... so many eyes... I feel like that bio-engineer from the movie Blade Runner that says "Eyes, I just do eyes."

Replacing the Dummy Template Eyes with Cats Eyes in five view angles.

Fortunately the eyes are a little less complex than hands so I'm hoping it won't take quite so long. Unfortunately, after that I have to do the nose and the mouth. Thank goodness cats don't have eyebrows because I'd have them to do too.

Hoot Game Creating

The game staring TheseStars' Hoot the Owl is still progressing slowly. As I mentioned last update I've been stuck on the player control system for Hoot for several weeks (more) now. Yesterday, I finally had a break through after rebuilding the control system from scratch using the most promising techniques I've been experimenting with.

Screen Shot of the demo level I've been using to work out Hoot's control system.
That pink box will be Hoot in the finished game.

Turns out building it from scratch instead of trying to plug someone else's code into what I had done so far did just the trick. My control system for the game feels very simple but allows Hoot to really move around and interact within the game levels. I'm sure it's going to be very addictive and hopefully I'll be able to show a proper example of the game real soon.

Still Learning, Learning, Learning...

Last update I was learning Silo 2 so I could create 3D characters for Reallusion's iClone. Well I went through multiple video tutorials and even paid for a Silo course with Digital Tutors (now known as PluralSight) that was excellent. I was all ready to get started after watching some of the best, creating models over several weeks, except I forgot all the basics...F**K! Now I'll have to do a quick refresher before I can really doing anything.

I did have a rough go at importing something from Silo into iClone via 3DXchange and it seems like it's possible. Just need to work out how to use 3DXchange correctly now.

I've also been trying to learn Anime Studio Pro 11 and not gotten much further than the introductory basics. Largely because the tutorials I'm following are the ones that come with the software as a PDF file.

I know SmithMicro have many great video tutorials on their channel but the playlists are confusing and don't seem to be in any kind of progressive order of learning. I could buy their video training course but this is made up of videos already freely available on their YouTube channel. I refuse to pay nearly US$50.00 just to have the tutorials, maybe, sorted into some kind of logical order.

That's about it for the moment. I'm hoping to add a new animated project to the mix now that I finished my iClone, Animation 4 Business promotional video but I've yet to decide what. Hopefully one of my own projects this time.

Anyway, now you're all caught up. I hope to get back to weekly posts to this blog starting from now.

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 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...

LTX Studio (Beta): AI-Powered Visual Storytelling, From Script to Screen in One App.

LTX Studio can generate consistent characters across storyboard panels - even if one character is a dragon! W hile text to image, and text to video (and image to video) AI tend to be getting a lot of the press, the real exciting aspect of generative AI implementation is how it can be used to speed up creator workflow. Being able to realize your creative vision in a shorter length of time can lead to more ambitious projects. Particularly if you're a team of one, with a very limited budget, but you one day dream of creating your own epic animated feature film. LTX Studio (beta), a new 'all-in-one' AI film making tool, is not going to let you realize that dream from a single text prompt but, by bringing a bunch of generative AI technologies together, the developers have created a one platform workflow that can help anyone rapidly visualize and deliver a story from initial idea to finished film in days rather than weeks (depending upon how ambitious the project is). Even bette...

XP-Pen Artist 12 (2nd Gen) Pen Display Drawing Tablet Review - Portable and Robust Quality Ideal for Sketching on the Go!

XP-Pen's Artist 12 (2nd Gen) Pen Display Tablet. I've been looking for a more portable drawing solution for a while to work with my Samsung Galaxy Tab A, 8 inch, Android tablet, which is why, when XP-Pen invited me to collaborate on an animation project, I asked about trying their Artist 12 (2nd Gen) Pen Display Drawing Tablet . Does It Really Work With Android Devices? Having heard many of XP-Pen's mobile drawing displays could be connected to Android devices I, incorrectly, assumed wide compatibility. Unfortunately this isn't the case. There is a list of specific Android devices that work with XP-Pen's Pen Display tablets and none of them are any of the three Samsung devices I own. XP-Pen could definitely improve the compatibility of their displays with more Android devices if they're going to promote that as a feature (or make it more clear to check their device compatibility list before you buy). Also note the additional USB-C to USB-C video cable, needed to...

Tokkingheads - Make Anyone's Head Shot Talk with Artificial Intelligence

I'm increasingly fascinated by how artificial intelligence systems are being incorporated into more creative applications like visual effects, A.I. generated art, and particularly the development of human sounding voices that can interpret dialogue with more human intonation. Tokkingheads , by Rosebud AI is an interesting application available as a mobile app in both Apple and Play stores, as well as a browser based desktop version. The simple premise is to upload a headshot image of any person (or use one of theirs), record yourself speaking anything, and then the A.I. will work out how to animate your image saying those words. There's the additional option of filming yourself speaking those words (or you can use one of their videos) and the A.I. will add the movement of your head and face into the mix to 'puppet' your image. The final animation is kind of like a budget light, deep fake video, except this was created in seconds and is relatively impressive with the ...

Review: Animaker - 10X Better than other Online Animation Video Making software (#DIY)... or is it?

Animaker's bold claim, right on its homepage is that it's 10X Better than other Online Animation Video Making software (#DIY). Also featured on their homepage is a cool promotional video that's dynamic, full of charming lip synced characters, with high quality animation that matches perfectly to the story being told. If I could make anything even half as good with their studio, I'll at least buy that they're better than most of their competitors. Let's see if they live up to their tagline 'Animated Videos, Done Right!' Animaker is a flash based, cloud animation studio application that gives you access to an entire library of thousands of characters, props, backgrounds, sounds and more, to create almost any kind of 2D animated video. In fact they make the bold claim that theirs is the largest animated library in the world of any similar online application (it's not... or if it actually is, it's not as versatile as other comparable librari...

The Ultimate Independent Animator's App and Resource List - 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 2024 (last updated Oct 2024). 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/se...

Animation and Video Life

Search This Blog