Skip to main content

Mia and the Tourist: Droid Seat - Animated Short Work in Progress... So Far

Still from Mia and the Tourist: Droid Seat. Mia with the Rental Car Manager.

Over the past few months I've been working on a new animated short, Mia and the Tourist: Droid Seat, showing the behind the scenes of the project and reviewing the applications I've been using as I go. Since the animation has taken a bit of a back seat to the reviews I thought it was time to do a quick recap of the project so you can see all the work done so far.

The Idea

In this blog I covered my process of creating G3 character rigs for Cartoon Animator using Avatars created with the mobile app, Oppa Doll. Two characters I created were based on my own original characters, Mia and the Tourist, who are interdimensional space/time travellers (basically Doctor Who types).

Very loosely based on myself (or at least my The Extraordinary Tourist persona) and my partner, Enigma, they first appeared as Anime style characters, with their replica, sentient, R2-D2 droid in a GoAnimate Short, The Star Wars Fan (definitely one of my better GoAnimate efforts with all the voice work done by me).

I'd never used my Oppa Doll versions of the characters in an actual animation so I decided now was the time. In subsequent shorts, and ComiPo! comics, I tended to depict them doing very ordinary things that travellers might do, which lead me fairly quickly to renting a vehicle with space for a droid.

Writing the Script

To write the script I used KIT Scenarist, a completely free, opensource, screenwriting application that's all you need for writing screenplays - though I also use the research section for planning my courses too. It's here that I came up with my brief synopsis.

Dimensional time travelers, Mia and the Tourist, along with their replica R2-D2 droid, visit a car rental company with the intent to lease a car with provisions for a 'droid seat'.

Comedy ensues as the rental car manager isn't sure if they're being serious about their very specific requirement.

There is an exchange of dialogue until they finally resolve the situation by choosing a car with a sun roof.

I like KIT Scenarist, particularly for screenplay writing, because its work flow makes it easy to get over staring at a blank page. There's lots of things you can be doing to start bringing ideas together before you even start writing a script. Click the link above for my full review.

Creating the Storyboard

With Storyboarder being the only free storyboarding software available I decided to put it through its paces despite admitting I'm not a fan of the application.

Unfortunately I wrote my script in a non-standard structure, which I had no idea would be a problem for Storyboarder which rigidly sticks to what it expects when you import your script and won't let you move panels between scenes (at least I couldn't work out how if you can).

Admittedly it was my error in how I formatted the script but one essential feature of a storyboarding application, I would've thought, is the flexibility to move frames around. Despite that Storyboarder is a great app with some very unique features. It's just not for me.

Follow the link to my review where you'll see some panels from my first draft storyboard of Mia and the Tourist: Droid Seat.

Creating Backgrounds

The exterior Rental Car Yard Scene.
Taking a break from reviewing applications I gave you my best tips on creating background scenes for your characters using Reallusion Content Store and Marketplace assets. Click through to the article to  see my two complete background scenes (not just the sections you'll see in the final animation) for Mia and the Tourist: Droid Seat. See how they compare to my initial storyboard sketches.

Character Rigging

My script had an additional Rental Car Yard Manager Character for which I created a full, twenty minute, video demonstrating how I created the character in Oppa Doll, and then used my one sprite technique to rig a front facing view of the character in Cartoon Animator.

Watch this video in my review for TimeBolt, a rapid video editing software that instantly removes long, awkward pauses from recorded video footage (or can automatically speed up footage when you want to leave it in but just not show it in real time). It's an application so good I became an affiliate because my biggest reason for not wanting to create tutorials is having to manually edit out hundreds of pauses in hours of my screen recorded video.

Voice Recording with Replica Studios

A year has passed since I first brought Replica Studios realistic, Human, A.I. voices to your attention. It was time to give it a proper review, testing out some newer features, and seeing if the voices have yet gotten to a level to fully pass for actual human voices.

While I had mixed feelings about my results the 30 minutes of free credit is more than enough to put the voices through their paces to see if they work for you. Additional credit is very affordable and you can get extra free credit when someone signs up with your special link.

As part of my Replica review I posted a full, first draft animatic, with voices (one of which was my own recorded voice) of my animation to give you a feel for how they work in an actual project. Some voices are definitely more natural than others.

Second Draft, Final Assets Animatic, with Revised Replica Voices

I wasn't happy with my Rental Car Manager's Replica Voice, which sounded very computer generated, so I went through and chose another character voice that I hope sounds more natural.

Mia's voice also had some issues where I'd tried to adjust the pitch slightly in the hopes of toning down her youthful high pitched delivery. Unfortunately it gave her voice a slight echoing sound that seemed to highlight more that her voice is computer generated. So I removed all the pitch adjustments.

After doing that I fired up my copy of Cartoon Animator and recreated all my storyboard stills using the actual assets I created for the animation. Next I added my updated voices and put together a final assets animatic which you can view below.

Hopefully you'll agree the voices sound better. Though I still think they don't really measure up to actual human voices. However for small, animated, shorts with no budget, they're passable.

Animating the Scenes

I had hoped to have this animation finished by now but animating each scene is taking a little longer than I anticipated. Not least because I'm a stickler for detail and keep seeing little improvements I want to make. Of course any 'little' improvement in animation generally ends up on the 'big' side of what you think 'little' ought to be.

Animating Mia and the Tourist: Droid Seat in Cartoon Animator 4. Here you can see a cross section from my timeline of the various characters.
Animating Mia and the Tourist: Droid Seat in Cartoon Animator 4.
Here you can see a cross section from my timeline of the various characters.

Having said that, I don't consider myself to be any kind of expert at animation. I've read more theory than I've actually put into practice by doing the work. I rely heavily on Cartoon Animator's premade motions much more than I'd like, and I'm not above overlooking imperfections rather than fixing them.

I won't be going through my process for animating this project in Cartoon Animator because beyond setting up my various camera shots for my final animatic I don't really have a process. I'll take the animatic, remove all the character poses I did for each character so I start with no actual key frames for anything other than the camera. Then I just start animating, scene by scene, adding the voices to the characters first, animating the body motions, then animating the faces. That's it.

While using pre-animated motions and face templates does speed things up it still takes me a couple of hours per scene - so it's not really practical to do a narrated screen record for you to watch. I don't have the hard drive space to record that either.

However I do hope to have this animation finished by the next entry in this series, where I'll review a new, free, video editor, VideoProc Vlogger, and use it to add some sound design and other effects to my final animated short.


Popular posts from this blog

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

Can You Learn Reallusion's Cartoon Animator 5 for Free Using Their 137 Official YouTube Video Tutorials Sorted Into a Logical Learning Order?

Or you could just buy The Lazy Animator Beginner's Guide to Cartoon Animator . While Reallusion's Cartoon Animator is one of the easiest 2D animation studios to get up and running with quickly, learning it from all of the official, free, video tutorials can be more overwhelming than helpful. With more than 137 videos totaling more than 28 and a half hours of tutorials, spread across three generations of the software (Cartoon Animator 3 through 5) it's hard to know if what you're learning is a current or legacy feature that you either need to know or can be skipped. Many of the official tutorials only teach specific features of the software and don't relate at all to previous or later tutorials. As a result there are many features either not mentioned or are hard to find. To make your learning easier, on this page, I've collected together all of the essential, official, free video tutorials and sorted them into a learning order that makes sense. Simply start at

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

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

Using Avatar Maker with Cartoon Animator - Free Vector Cartoon Avatar Creator with Four Art Styles

I'm always on the lookout for cartoon avatar makers of any kind, whether it be ones that 'cartoonify' your photo, or ones that let you build a cartoon likeness from a library of individual features.  Free Avatar Maker  falls into the latter category and can be used for making head and shoulder cartoon avatars. While it doesn't have an extensive library of character features (you may struggle to get a good likeness), uniquely it will make your avatar in four different art styles concurrently, allowing you to save the one you like most, or even all four.  I wasn't overly impressed how my TET avatar looked in the first two styles, but style three is quite possibly the coolest looking version of my avatar I've ever seen in a third party avatar creator. It's a very contemporary style. Style four, line art, is also not too bad. Avatar Maker's User Interface. Switch between the four different art styles shown across the top at any time. I particularly like the

AE Juice - Animation Presets, Motion Graphics, Templates, Transitions for After Effects, Premiere Pro, and Other Video Applications

Level up you video edits and animations with AE Juice's motion graphics and templates. Some days you just don't have the time to create flashy motion graphics for your latest video or animation. For some of us it's more a question of our own artistic abilities being a little less than the awesome we'd like them to be. Whatever reason a resource like AE Juice's animation presets, motion graphics, templates, and transitions packs for After Effects , Premiere Pro , and other video applications can really make your work stand out very quickly. AE Juice gives you access to an instant library of free, premade content elements and sound effects, which you can add to with additional purchases of various themed packs from their store. There are three ways to manage their content, all of which can be used in commercial projects . The AE Juice Standalone Package Manager makes it easy to browse previews of all your pack contents and to download and find just the elements yo

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