Animation and Video Life

Mia and the Tourist Avatars created in Mannequin 2D Anime Character Generator. Background created with Leonardo.ai Readers of Animation and Video Life will know I love a character creator app. Specifically a 2D character creator app that I can use as a source for rigging animated characters in Reallusion's Cartoon Animator Software. In the course of exploring VTuber rigging and puppeteering software I came across Mannequin , a downloadable, 2D Anime character portrait generator that is specifically intended for VTubers and Game developers to utilize for creating their characters. While there is a free version of Mannequin, for a very low cost, one time payment, you can purchase the pro version which contains the most critical feature, The ability to export your characters as an optimized .PSD file for use with Adobe's Character Animator CC, .XFL for use with Adobe Animate, or an .SVG file (if you want the resolution independence of vectors). Both .PSD or .SVG files can be open...

Young TET VRoid Avatar in VSeeFace. In a previous YouTube video I demonstrated how you could use a webcam, Cartoon Animator and its MotionLive 2D Facial Capture system to create a virtual avatar that you could perform live during a live stream. Unfortunately the motion capture performance of this system is very average to say the least, and is even more expensive if you want to add hand motion capture via a Leap Motion Controller . This lead me down a rabbit hole of seeing what other solutions are out there, where I bumped into the world of the VTuber or Virtual YouTuber (creators who puppet and voice an on camera avatar instead of appearing on camera themselves). Specifically VTuber software, which has been a real eye opener for how expensive and far behind Reallusion's upper body motion capture system actually is. The VTuber world is heavily entrenched in the world of Anime so you'll see a lot of 2D and 3D avatars in this style. If fact, if an Anime avatar is your thing, y...

MotionArtist is dedicated composition software for creating animated comics, otherwise known as Motion Comics. That is, rather than create fully animated cartoons, it allows you to take static cartoon panels and add movement and audio to create a more engaging experience. The type of Motion Comic MotionArtist can produce falls somewhere between reading a comic and watching a cartoon but generally, feels more like reading a very cool comic than watching a severely limited animated cartoon.

ComiPo is the Bitstrips of Manga Comic Creation. Whilst this software doesn't have a lot to do with video or animation it could be used as a storyboarding tool for your personal projects just because it's so easy to use and requires no drawing skills at all. I've always liked Manga and Anime style animation but I have no desire to actually learn how to draw these styles myself (much like my love of Marvel and DC comic book art which I have no interest in learning to emulate). But I would like to make Manga comics, just for fun. So when the opportunity to purchase ComiPo came about, at a seriously discounted price of US$29.95 instead of the already affordable $49.99, it only took one look at the software's demo video to convince me it was a great buy. Take a look yourself at the video below. What's most impressive about ComiPo is not just how versatile it is but also how easy it is to learn. You can pretty much be up and creating in less than 15 minutes a...

With Disney taking over the Star Wars franchise you can be sure there will still be Star Wars fans in the future - still bitching about how the original trilogy is still the best and how everything else pales by comparison no doubt. In a not too distant future, The Tourist and his travel companion, Mia, are standing on a subway platform with their R2D2 replica droid. They are approached by a Metro City Policeman, who just happens to be a Star Wars fan, and sees an opportunity to recreate a famous scene from the film. Behind the scenes, this GoAnimation is the most spontaneous I've made in a long time. I happened to notice that fellow GoAnimator,  RoTV , had made a character approximation of himself using GoAnimates Anime theme and wondered what I could come up with trying to create a version of me. Thus I came up with blonde haired 'Tourist' that you see in my video. I always depict myself wearing suits. I don't know why because I am the person least most ...

Continuing on from Part 1: Evolution of a GoAnimate Contest Entry , I did transcribe my script from the video into written form. For script writing I use Celtix , the free script writing software just because it completely automates how the script is laid out and you can focus entirely on writing. I already mentioned that the idea for the script was inspired by Kevin Smith Podcasts so I named Friend 1 and Friend 2, Ralph and Kevin (after Ralph Garman - from HBO and, obviously Kevin after Kevin Smith). The script its self I transcribed word for word, then I wrote in  two cut away scenes, the first of a Ninja actually killing someone and the second of a person photographing their lunch (with a visual gag happening in the background). I don't usually storyboard scenes for my own personal GoAnimations because there's no real need to do that if you're not showing the idea to someone else or, in this case, the majority of the animation is just two people talking wi...

Manga Studio EX4 is not an animation program. However it is a drawing, illustration and comic creation program that may be of use to the artists among you that want to draw with a professional, digital art package but don't need the photo processing power and cost of something like Photoshop. If you're coming into animation from a cartooning background, like me, then Manga Studio EX 4 may be right up your alley. Don't stress that it says 'Manga' on the cover, this software can be used to create almost any style of illustration, comic or graphic novel. See the illustration I did on the right as a case in point. What sets this apart from other art/illustration software is that I would describe it as a 'word processor' for graphic novelists/comic book writers. Not only can you create your art for every page of your book but the software will handle the page layout, right down to headers and footers, and it has special tools to make creating dynamic pane...

The more realistic Anime theme was introduced on GoAnimate back in June 2012. At the time I was very busy with creating business animations but I did take some time to try the theme out and started making The War Beyond . The War Beyond by etourist Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com . It's free and fun! The premise of a war starting without the two main characters really being aware of what's been happening in the wider world around them was inspired by the film Tomorrow, When the War Began . In that film the group of teenagers take a camping trip to a remote location only to come back to an invasion of their town that no one was aware was going to happen before they left. My version looks at the idea that teens are often so engrossed in their own world and circle of friends that they sometimes don't pay attention, or even just ignore, what their parents are doing as well as not knowing about news and current events affecting their community. The style of...

GoAnimate's new Anime Theme. This week drag'n'drop animation site, GoAnimate , launched its new Anime theme (sample image pictured above). The theme represents the most significantly different new style added to the site since the launch of their 2012 Election theme mid to late last year. (Note that I'm excluding the Business Friendly theme because that's only available to business users). Unlike the 2012 Election Theme the new Anime theme comes with it's own character creator and, in the future, it is planned that you'll be able to buy action packs too (just like the Lil' Peepz themed characters). As of writing this the Anime character creator is limited to just a few different facial, hair and head features and doesn't yet include outfits. Though you can buy ready made characters with different outfits which you can modify the head, hair and facial features of. The characters themselves are classic Anime style and seem to centre around sc...