About TET & Animation and Video Life

TET a.k.a. The Extraordinary Tourist
a.k.a David Arandle

Introduction

Animation and Video Life began in 2008 as my own personal blog to document my animation projects.

Online I am known as TET or 'The Extraordinary Tourist'. My real name is 'David Arandle'. I'm a self represented artist, animator, video maker, and writer of amongst many other things. I'm currently based in Gawler, South Australia.

I run an online animation studio called Animation 4 Business, with a small team of animators who help me create animated explainer videos for clients worldwide.

As this blog has grown it has expanded into more of an online magazine. I still document my own projects but in between I write everything from animation tutorials, animation software reviews, to feature animators and more. Turning the site into a valuable resource for independent animators like myself.

My art and animation is primarily based around the fictional characters that I create through my drawing, painting and writing (and any other 'ings' you care to think of). With my traditional art I work primarily with Acrylics and Chalk pastels. For my digital art and animation I use a 21" Parblo Coast Pen Display Monitor, Clip Studio Paint, and Cartoon Animator.

Biography

Since completing my Diploma of Arts (Art and Design) in 1994 I have been a self represented artist, working professionally as a freelance artist, designer, and writer from 1995 to the present.

In 1997 I opened my own studio gallery in Perth, Western Australia from which I created and sold my original artworks. At the same time I registered my art and design business, Art Time Productions (http://www.arttimeproductions.com), through which you can commission an artwork, website design or logo design.

Entirely by chance, in 1999, my work started to sell online through various community forums that I participated in. Inspired by this I decided to exclusively sell my art through the internet.

In April of 1999 I adopted the online nickname 'The Extraordinary Tourist', taken from one of my own fictional character creations, to grab people's attention in online forums. Due to the name's length I became known as TET, a pseudonym with which I have signed all my paintings with since 2007 (Prior to that I used my real name, David Arandle).

From 1995 I worked primarily using acrylics overlaid with soft chalk pastels on canvas but switched exclusively to acrylics on canvas in 2007. I also dabble in digital art, mostly collages that include my own hand created artwork.

2001 I began selling my own original artworks through my website and Ebay (http://myworld.ebay.com.au/e_tourist/).

For a time I was most known for my whimsical, cat themed paintings, of which I painted more than 50 artworks, but have since branched out to other themes and characters.

My art is primarily based around the fictional characters that I create through my drawing, painting and writing (and any other 'ings' you care to think of).

My work has been bought by collectors all around my home country, Australia and world wide, in particular the USA.

Prints of my art can be bought through my Redbubble site (http://etourist.redbubble.com).

When I'm not creating art I write on a range of topics for The Extraordinary Tourist Life and produce videos that often feature my art and animation being created.

In July of 2008 I discovered Go!Animate (now known as Vyond) a site that allows users to create their own animations using pre-animated characters and backgrounds. This reignited my long forgotten interest in animation and I have since become one of that site's leading animators.

Exhibitions

2013, 'Horses, Cats and Other Things', Joint exhibition with horse artist, Ellen Steyn, The Gawler Community Gallery, Gawler, South Australia. (9 artworks)

2009, S.A.L.A. Exhibition, Solo show, August, 'Introducing The Extraordinary Tourist', The Gawler Community Gallery, Gawler, South Australia. (17 artworks)

2004-2005, 'Sleeping Cats', Online Exhibition, (9 artworks).

1997, Studio Gallery, East Perth, Western Australia

Awards and Prizes

2014 Reallusion Animation@Work Competition - Runner Up Best Video
http://forum.reallusion.com/Topic187362-361-1.aspx

2010 Go!Animate Creating for a Cause Competition - 1st Place
etourist - Save the Tiger, Super Rica & Rashy
http://goanimate.com/contest/past/8

2008 Go!Animate Site Launch Competition - Runner UP, Series Animation
etourist - The Bikini Proposal
http://goanimate.com/contest/past

Who's Talking About Me

2014, Reallusion TV, Featured Director
http://www.reallusion.com/reallusiontv/featuredstory/David_Arandle.aspx

2009, Go!Animate Blog, The Extraordinary Tourist by eTourist
http://blog.goanimate.com/2009/04/extraordinarytourist-by-etourist.html

2008, Hazel Dooney, Google-eyed.
http://hazeldooney.blogspot.com/2008/09/google-eyed.html

2008, Canvas and Pen, Spotlight Artist.
http://www.canvasandpen.com/spotlight-tet-the-extraordinary-tourist.html

2008, Free Wheely, Peugeot 607 Feline: Cat or Spaceship?.
http://freewheely.blog.com/3206985/

2008, Eric T. Francis, Untitled: I've been tagged.
http://erictfrancis.blogspot.com/2008/01/untitled-ive-been-tagged.html

2007, Pennlive, Tet ~ The Extraordinary Tourist.
http://blog.pennlive.com/iridescentartnews/2007/03/tet_the_extraordinary_tourist.html

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...

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...

Can a Solo Animator Make an Animated Feature Film or TV Series?

Series Creation Tip: If this is your first attempt at a series start small with two to four main characters and two or three sets that you can reuse each episode. My new series in development, Resident Dragon has four characters and is set in a suburban home. Recently I was asked if a solo animator could make a feature film? The short answer is 'YES'. Logically, with enough time, you can achieve anything. The very next question I was asked is how long do I think it would take and could it be done within a year? My initial answer was, it depends on the skill of the creator, noting that a Disney feature film takes a minimum of (I'm only guesstimating here) three to five years, based on when a movie is announced to when it actually gets released, with thousands of people working on it. Which implies that a single person trying to do the same thing may take the best part of a lifetime to make just one animated feature film. However is this really the case? Let's be clear, ...

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...

Wonder Unit Storyboarder - Free Storyboarding Software for People Who Can (or Can't) Draw

Wonder Unit Storyboarder. As an independent and solo animator I'm always tempted to try and skip storyboarding my animated shorts because they're usually only single scene sketch comedy type jokes. As a result I have many unfinished projects that kind of petered out due to having no clear finishing line. Storyboarding your productions, no matter how small, gives you a step by step guide of every shot that needs to be completed (no planning shots as you animate). It also allows you to create an animatic that gives you a rough preview of the finished production. In short, you shouldn't skip storyboards as they, generally, increase the chance of the project being completed. Disclaimer - I'm Not a Fan of Storyboarder Upfront, Wonder Unit's Storyboarder is not my preferred storyboarding software. However it's completely free, has a number of very compelling featu...

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...

Animation and Video Life

Search This Blog