Desert Scavenger, Ma-Rey Sue, CrazyTalk Animator 3, G3 Character

Desert Scavenger, Ma-Rey Sue, CrazyTalk Animator 3, G3 Character - WIP

Since I hadn't talked about my upcoming CrazyTalk Animator 3, G3, Desert Scavenger Character, in any great detail (and because finishing her is taking longer than anticipated) I thought you may be interested to look at the project in a little more detail.

The Beginning

Back in March of 2016 I had this idea to create a Star Wars, The Force Awakens, parody animated short. Seeing the little ball droid, BB-8 roll around at speed through the desert reminded me so much of the old WB Road Runner cartoons.

Since everyone was out looking for BB-8 and Rey was doing her best to make sure he didn't get caught, I thought that could be done in a humorous, Road Runner style parody.

Character Design

With that thought in mind I gathered together a few images of Rey and set to work creating a character that kind of looked like her but getting an actual likeness wasn't critical. I just wanted to create an original looking character that would suit the humor I was going for.

Character development sketches.

It didn't actually take me all that long to come up with a design I was happy with. The next day I fired up iClone to make a 3D background to put my final character design into. My plan was to do all the backgrounds using iClone so I wouldn't have to draw and color them myself - saving time.

Final character design with iClone, 3D background.

The Script

Storyboard panel.

I've mentioned previously in this blog that I did write a script for my animated short. It's not a complete script, more like just the first sequence. If you think of a Road Runner cartoon, this would be the character introduction, freeze frames, followed by Coyote's first failed attempt.

That much has been storyboarded, completely.

Stuck on the Shelf, Toon Boom

At that point life got in the way and the project was shelved.

Toward the end of 2016 I collaborated with the creators of Toon Boom Harmony to write a review on learning their software. As part of that process I took my concept image of Ma-Rey and turned it into a short animation.

Unfortunately I couldn't go any further with this as I only had a limited license period and I had no intention of taking out a subscription - Harmony is just too fully featured for my modest needs.

Reallusion Releases CrazyTalk Animator 3

Earlier this year Reallusion released CrazyTalk Animator 3, a significant upgrade from 2 with a whole new way of creating characters quickly. Known as G3 characters, their major features include, easy to implement bone system, mesh warping, and raster based sprites.

Importantly these new, single angle characters are quick to implement - if you're dedicated enough you can create a moderately complex character in about 24 hours over 2 days.

I figured the time was right to revisit Ma-Rey Sue, and develop her as a G3 character. Unfortunately it had to wait until I'd finished developing my Color Monkey characters (who'd been shelved and revisited numerous times more over several years) but now I'm back on track, and the character is nearing completion.

A New Look

Since G3 characters are raster based it means shading and other fine detail is easier to include in the design. Also, I'm only creating a 315 degree view of the character (for now) so I needed to redesign her head and feet/legs to suit that configuration (so she can walk from side to side and still look at the camera).

Below you can see a comparison of the character to her Toon Boom Harmony design. The updated version is being created in Clip Studio Paint EX.

Design Comparison.

I'm still hoping to finish the character some time this month. I have been working on her for about an hour, each weekday, so she is progressing. Once done she'll be available from my Reallusion Marketplace store.

Comments

Artbreeder - Using AI created Character and Background Content in your Animations

A selection of User/AI generated images from Artbreeder. If you're looking for an endless supply of 2D character and background images for your animations then Artbreeder , an online Artificial Intelligence (AI) that generates image mash-ups you can tweak as much as you like, could be the ultimate content library. What is Artbreeder? Artbreeder is free to use though there are various paid plans, that give you additional features, such as higher resolution download images or more settings to play with. All images created on the site are Public Domain (CC0 License) and can be used in commercial projects. Using Artbreeder's online app you can generate head shot portraits, full body characters, landscapes, and other scenes simply by choosing two or more existing images to mash together then, using a series of sliders, to select which traits from each image you wish to lean toward in the final image. Photo Comparison - Top is my original uploaded photo. Bottom is Artbreeder's ap

Jarrad Wright, The Big Lez Show - Who Would've thought Animating with MS Paint Could Take You So Far?

A friend of mine recommended I should check out The Big Lez Show after I mentioned to him I make animations for living. He said the show's creator, Australian animator, Jarrad Wright , just makes episodes from his home using MS Paint. Somewhat shamefully I hadn't heard of The Big Lez Show, but the fact that it was being made with MS Paint absolutely hooked me into checking out. If you've never heard or seen the show then you, like I was, are probably thinking how good could it be? MS Paint has kind of a cult following of hardcore animators but no one would use it as their primary animation tool on a series, right? WARNING - before going any further, you need to know The Big Lez Show and its humor contains some pretty strong language. By strong I mean it's peppered very liberally with the 'F' and 'C' words and is very every day Aussie, blue collar speak. Unapologetically, all of that, is part of why it's so good. There's a good chance you've

Make Disney/Pixar Style Characters with Reallusion's Character Creator and Toon Figure Bases

The Extraordinary Tourist Classic Coat outfit created using Reallusion's Toon Designer for CC3. I've talked before how I've wanted to get into 3D Disney/Pixar style character animation since I first saw the animated cutscenes for the very first Tomb Raider game back in 1996. It's why I initially bought Reallusion's iClone 3D studio app as soon as I could afford a computer that would run it. But then Reallusion released their 3D Character Creator (CC) for iClone and I wanted to create my characters with that (and I did try with Bat Storm ). But the focus of CC was realism, even with ToKoMotion's stylised body morphs . Now with Reallusion's Cartoon Designer bundle for CC3 which features two packs, Toon Figures , and Toon Hair , designing Disney/Pixar style 3D characters just got a whole lot quicker. The two packs are the bare essentials for creating Toon style characters. Five body morphs (2 male, 2 female, and one adolescent body morph that w

Eric W. Schwartz: Cartoonist, Animator and Amiga Die Hard

July 1992 Edition, CU Amiga Featuring Amy the Squirrel. American Cartoonist, Eric W. Schwartz , (whose unofficial Amiga Icon, Amy the Squirrel, is pictured on the July 92 edition of CU Amiga cover on the right) is my only real animation hero. Sure there are the big names like Disney , Chuck Jones , Tex Avery and even Preston Blair whose influences can all be seen in my own cartoons but Eric did what none of the others could. He showed that really great 2D computer animation was within my reach with little more than an Amiga Computer , a copy of Deluxe Paint and Moviesetter . This was at a time when computer based animation was in its infancy (outside of computer game animation) and Flash was something that lights did. There were many great Amiga artists but Eric was really the only one consistently making very funny, traditional style animations. His humor and drawing style is heavily influenced by classic Warner Brothers and Disney cartoons but he managed to build on this,

My First Anthropomorphic Character with Reallusion's Character Creator 3 (Pipeline) & Reviving My TETAnimations YouTube Channel

Skateboarding Cage Monster - Heelflip. Reallusion's Character Creator 3 is a pretty incredible application for creating any kind of human digital 3D character quickly. Its power comes from the way it can totally deform a standard human base template character into a seemingly infinite number of body types and shapes. While I wouldn't recommended it as a your only 3D character sculpting tool, it is very powerful with just how much you can edit a character's form at the vertex/mesh level. I've experimented a little with CC3's Edit mesh functions, mostly using it to hide areas of an object I don't want seen. Bat Storm's cape is a good example where I used the ability to hide vertices to completely remove the assassin's hood from the neckline up. Just on a whim I wondered if I could create my Cage Monster character entirely in CC3 (with exception to his skin textures which I edited in Krita). The character is basically a stylised human body with a monster

Voice All Your Own Animated Characters with Voice Changer

Voice Changer by AVSoft is real time voice manipulation software that can be used for a wide range of purposes including (according to their website); Voice-over and voice dubbing for audio/video clips, presentations, narrations, voice messages, voice mails, E-greeting cards, broadcasting, etc.; mimic the voice of any person, create animal sounds, change/replace/remove voices in songs, videos,etc. I bought it for the specific purpose of changing my own voice, to extend my vocal range, for voicing characters in my own animations. I was fortunate enough to get this software at a significant discount that made it difficult to refuse, given that I'd never tried it, or even heard of it before. I'm not sure if I would have bought it at the full price given that much of what it can do (for my needs) can also be done with the freeware audio program, Audacity . AV Voice Changer Interface. Voice Changer is relatively easy to install and set up. Once installed simply

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

Animation and Video Life

Search This Blog