TET Animation Project Update for 2020

TET Animation Updates.

It's the start of a new year which means it's a great time to run down my own personal animation project plans for this year.

Patreon

Before the end of January I hope to be launching my Patreon Membership Account. I've been largely reluctant to go the Patreon route for funding my animated projects but it appears to be the best way to fund projects that only the smallest of audiences have any interest in.

While the majority of the work on my animated projects will still be done by me, the main goal of the Patreon is to raise funds to pay for voice artists. I don't have the vocal range to voice all of my characters. Voice changers and Text to Speech Apps aren't at a quality that sounds professional, and I want my productions to be elevated in a way that only real voice actors can.

As much as I have friends who would gladly volunteer time to voice characters, that's not a reliable system, as people get busy, and the quality of recording can vary a lot depending on recording equipment available. I'd much rather pay someone who voice acts for a living and is excited to bring my characters to life.

Watch out for the launch of my Patreon and, if you do have an interest in seeing more of my animations, please consider becoming a Patreon. There will be Patreon only benefits, which I will detail when I"m set to launch.

Upcoming Projects

Bat Storm

Bat Storm, created in iClone, is going to be my major animation project this year. It is specifically for this project that I'm launching my Patreon (though not limited to just this project). Bat Storm has a lot of characters in just the main cast alone, before even thinking about the supporting cast. I really want his stories to be a showcase of my animation work, and having access to real voice artists is a MUST.

Bat Storm, Bat Flash, and Senior Detective Smith.
Created with Reallusion's CC3 and iClone.

I've previously shown Bat Storm's character design. Since then I've created Bat Flash and Detective Smith (neither of whom I have any chance of being able to voice myself).

I think the characters look really good and they deserve to have quality voices actors bringing them to life.

While I've yet to write a complete new script for Bat Storm's next adventure I'm thinking very hard about starting with his unfinished adventure from back in his GoAnimate days called, Pain.

Other Animated Shorts

As much as I've long been interested in the 3D pixar style animation I'm using for Bat Storm, my first love is 2D animation, because all my original cartoon characters are 2D drawings.

This year I want to continue making 2D animated shorts with Cartoon Animator 4, some with my own characters but also quite a few with the characters I've bought through Reallusion's content stores and other places.

There's nothing more satisfying than having a funny idea for an animated short and putting it together as quickly as possible with whatever content you have. That's how my Water Valet animations came about, and I'd like to continue with that kind of production.

Despite the goal being quick animated shorts, I'd still like to raise the production quality with professional voice actors, so some of my Patreon funds will go towards these.

Reallusion Marketplace Store

I don't promote it a lot but I do have a Reallusion Marketplace Store. I don't want to get too ambitious and say I'll be making a lot more characters this year, but I am looking to moving my focus back to this store and stocking it with more of my original content.

Even though I'm not an official Reallusion Content Developer, I do earn a lot of DA points (basically money in the marketplace) that comes in very handy for buying additional content used in my animations.

For example, did you know a lot of the items sold in bundle packs in the Reallusion Content store can be purchased individually through the Reallusion Marketplace with DA points. That's how I purchased Bat Storm's Assassin Pack cape... as an individual item rather than having to buy the whole Assassin's pack.

---o ---o--- o---

That's it for 2020. I do have a lot of past projects, mentioned previously in this blog, that have kind of fallen by the wayside but have not necessarily been forgotten entirely. I will try to get back to them and finish them off.

However, this year, I feel it's time to focus my efforts a little more to one main project (Bat Storm) and a few smaller side projects for whenever I need a bit of a recharge with something different.

Remember that my Patreon is coming. I will definitely let you know when it launches and give you a full run down on the Patreon only benefits. I really do want you to get something worthwhile out of supporting me financially.

If you do have any thoughts for what kind of benefits I could offer that would get you to sign up please let me know in the comments below.

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