I've been playing with OpenToonz, which is an awesome piece of software for animating. It's opensource and free. The interface can be quite intimidating, but I enjoy learning new things and using new programs is refreshing.
My very first post here (almost a year ago exactly by 5 days - 4 at the time hitting the "post" button) was a sketchy "animated idea" I had of a character:
It's just a bunch of keyframes without in-between frames.
Then I tried something else more flowy:
Ended stiff.
Later last year I tried pixel art animation:
Loved it.
And now I'm working on an animated commission but in full hd. In pixel art, animating feels "safer". Sometimes you just have to move a pixel one pixel (duh!) in any direction to achieve the illusion of movement. But traditional animation is another beast.
Last year around october, I stopped working, not because I wanted. Finished all the commissions I had pending. Looked for more on a daily basis in forums and networks. Send tons of emails. But didn't land a gig for 2 and a half months. I have a deviantart account that I don't really use much. And suddenly I was uploading all of my recent works to it and visiting all day the jobs offer forum. Lol is crazy there. I felt like going to an ginormous bazaar, with your best artworks and, almost begging for work in a sea of hundreds of freaking better artists than yourself. Then there was someone wanting an animator. Jumped in with my pixel artsies. There were like four or five more artists offering their services. anyway got picked. And have to say that... Animating in 24fps is a lot of drawings.
So this guy wanted a trailer for a comic. ~30 secs. I started making tests in photoshop, which is what I used to animate all above images. Have to say is awful for animating frame by frame. And with 24 frams per sec it became a nightmare. So I looked for alternatives. Want so bad to use krita, but with my current OS is a no no. Last version is not supported and older versions crash a lot. So I downloaded OpenToonz. The interface looks like maze at first. So I got used to it and start drawing. Have to say I hate the tracking of my wacom strokes. Is clunky. Sometimes if I draw a curve fast it renders a straight line. A little frustrating in that regard. Also if using a raster "layer", which is what I want to use, cannot make the lines thinner, even if I go all the way down in the brush tool size. Adapt or die. Pushed myself through it.
Also I made 3D models of some things like the spaceship and a mecha that had some apparitions. I use 3D now for almost everything that needs perspective. Is quicker for me and also I can play with camera angles.
So the first 4 - 5 secs was a white fading screen, according to his script. I changed to something that was supposed to resemble a fast-as-light travel. This:
Then it cut to a scene of a spaceship with planets in the background. A sketch of the idea with the 3d models I used for tracing:
And I was in process of animating it:
When client changed the whole idea. He wanted now a short action scene.
So he send the script, and I made a very rough storyboard in photoshop, cuz I'm faster drawing in it:
And I've made so far most 3D models of the backgrounds and spaceship I'm gonna trace and animate, and this sequence:
Which is just the keyframes of a sequence at first of the whole scene. I'll make a post when is fully animated, colored and with audio and everything.
Next post will be something special for thilah!
