Walking my Dinosaur

That awkward moment when you know exactly what the next key frame of an animation should look like, know exactly why it should look like that and know the motion involved… But can’t get your hand to understand that information.

This would be so much easier with a CGI rig because you can just drag the control points and let Maya do the work. But that’s why CGI is cheating. 

Note: I’m kidding. CGI has it’s own challenges, I know.

Six hours of work… Still not finished tweening. x~x

I should get used to drawing more. It’s been nice watching a drawing slowly turn into an animation, though. 

Tumblr

Follow me on http://richerlandtv.tumblr.com/ for more regular updates.
The Tumblr interface is much more useful, social and user-friendly so I'll be using it more often.
See y'all!

Out of Sight

This animation is so amazing. It's been a long time since something grabbed my attention for so long. I was receiving IMs and being handed mail the whole time and nod once could I bring myself to look away. I even found my eyes getting damp from the emotional build-up it caused - it's just that awe-inspiring.
I especially love how we're encouraged into this little girl's world as she crawls through a gap in the fence. We start off in our own world of sight before following her into her own world - a very clever way of starting. Her "magic wand" is another clever device. Its beautiful as she "creates" her own umwelt, the visuals appearing as splodges of watercolour before she becomes fully comfortable with it and starts imagining full versions of what she's experiencing. The style of the drawings and the music come together to form something truly beautiful.

Quite an amazing animation.


Website

Booster Pack

For about six years now I've had a set of characters heavily based on some friends from highschool. Over that time, the characters have become their own. That is, they started off as humerus characatures and have, over time, taken on a life of their own. The original purpose was for a comic about what would happen if myself and my friends ended up taking on our own fantasy-style adventure in another world. I found this particularly amusing as my friends weren't exactly the perfect team for such a scenario. The comic became a subject of entertainment for people at school and I enjoyed making it.

At the time, I was also going through somewhat of an "anime" phase. As such, the characters are designed to reflect on various anime design traits that I found interesting (the big oddly-shaped eyes, giant implausible hair, etc.) and that is how I usually view them. Because of this, I've wanted to make various anime-styled animations regarding these characters. However, the anime style doesn't exactly lend itself to quick animations, so these small creations would take a very long time to make if I wanted them to look perfect. Another problem is, I don't want to be seen as an anime-obsessed person. Especially given that this would be wildly inaccurate. As such, I have been experimenting with drawing styles that might make these characters more "animatable" and also more visually appealing. 

Culture Shock by ~Draco-Ryo on deviantART

I'd love to know what people think of this style of drawing. b:

No Animations But Here's a Drawing of...

Bendito Machine

Help out with Bendito Machine?!
That sounds awesome!

Paranormal Encounter

I saw an alien and a bigfoot in the woods last night. The bigfoot was sort of hopping and gliding from foot to foot making heavy breathing sounds as it walked, like Neil Armstrong on the moon. The alien made these really loud, heavy vocalisations that made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. Then the two creatures looked at each other, pointed at eachother and made converse indications with their hands before laughing silently and switching roles, the bigfoot vocalising and the alien space-walking. It was a very disheartening experience that reminded me just how cruel and mocking the universe can be sometimes.

Paint Tool SAI

I tried doing a bit of digipainting with Easy Paint Tool SAI, which I find is much better for lineart and preliminary sketches than Photoshop. 

I started by scouting for locations for inspiration. 

Then painted from my imagination whilst listening to some lovely music.

Then played with some Photoshop filters to see what I could make of it. 

Which version do you like best?

Video Game References

I did a short animation for one of my friends.
... Like... Just now. Well, I finished just now (at 3:45am) anyway. Love adding those fine details in postproduction.

Crayon Dragon

Aaaw, I just HAD to share animation somebody showed me! ;w;
It was made by Toniko Pantoja and... Well, just watch it! D:

Animation Bites

Does anyone else really, really loathe the new Blogger layout? I still can't fathom it. I've fallen way behind on other people's blogposts because I just can't bloody find them. What are Google playing at? People despise Facebook (a company Google consider a rival) for doing the same thing, so why follow in their footsteps? The marketing department need to rethink their statistics, methinks. Actually, screw that. Every marketing department in anything that doesn't involve shopping needs to be shot off into space along with all the other useless people. Have you ever met someone who works in marketing? Have you ever heard them speak?!
"Research shows that people favour a spreadable sandwich filling over any other, and Marmite is a brand many people can relate to."
Nobody "relates to" Marmite, they just get on and eat the bloody stuff!


Sigh. That was only supposed to be a little "aside" comment but I guess it turned into a post of its own, there. Sorry about that.

Now!
I went to an animation festival held at the university today. Animation Bites, its called. I really enjoyed it, and there were lots of great submissions.
My favourite was 'Viv & Mandy in The Big Clean Up'.
I shall now forward you to... DJ Animations!

http://djanimations.blogspot.com/

Second Hand-In

Latest hand-in for university. 

Applied Timing, featuring stop-motion, Maya CGI and pivoted animation from ToonBoom. 

Bathroom Studio

Sometimes, a cartoon has to show his animator how its done!

Its been an odd semester. 2D Pivoted Animation? Easy. Two 3D animations? Easy! Stop-motion animation? "Where are all the rigs?"

We had to spend the first half of the semester building stop-motion puppets that we don't get marked on. So by the time we were ready to animate, the six animation rigs were being used by five other year-groups. Three years of stop-motion students, two years of animation students and anyone else besides. I tried sneaking in over Easter - no luck. I tried coming in extra early - nope. Tried booking a rig so I could be all snooty and go "NO! Is mine now." Noooope. The studio was locked that day. 

So what's an animator to do when he has no where to animate? Set up a small animation studio in his parent's bathroom, of course!

Yes, the toilet was off-limits for a whole day so I could get some animating done. There really aren't enough rigs at the university. Though, I think it would have been okay if we hadn't had to make the stop-motion puppets ourselves. That way we could have all finished before the stop-motion students needed them. Oh well, its done now. Not quite as well as it would have been done at the university, but hey, it wont be the last time I'll be animating from home and it most certainly isn't the first. I've been doing it since I was twelve, so why stop now? Huzzah for animating from home!

RICHERlandTV

I should probably mention that you can find me anywhere by searching for "RICHERlandTV", a tag I use for everything I've worked on. This will at least work for Vimeo, YouTube and Deviantart. Don't search for "Richerland" because they're an Asian packaging company who stole my name, which was very mean of them.

Feel So Pro

Ah feulz leik a profeshinul, innit. Ah gots mesen a copy o tha ToonBoom Animate Pro, mate. Its da nuts, man, da nuts.

That is an example of comedic irony, wherein a professional uses very informal dialogue and colloquialisms which contrast highly with his claims of professionalism. This is often used in many forms of comedy, including cartoons (sometimes even being a large part of the plot). It is interesting how the juxtapositions of characters like this can create a comedic atmosphere. For example, a little blonde girl with pig-tails and a dress swearing and picking her nose while a crowd of people who appear highly educated (perhaps wearing formal attire or even lab-coats) applaud her actions.

... I do have ToonBoom Pro though, and I do feel like a professional now.

Yey!

Now if only I had my own desktop compter to run it on...

Commissioned Work

A tanuki is an animal native to
Japan, where folklore talks
of its shapeshifting abilities.

I feel so proud. I just made some money creating a character sheet for someone. <3
I didn't ask for a specific payment, so they personally valued my work at... Well let's say it's a nice amount that feels like quite a compliment  considering I'm just starting out and it was a simple project!
Thank you anonymous customer! You've made my Easter!

They Might Be Giants

S'up guys. I was just forwarded some music videos by a band called 'They Might be Giants', who've done some stuff for kids that's just brilliant. It doesn't treat kids like drooling idiots, which I like.

I No Longer Have a Beard!

Oh, and here's a little animation I did before joining the course. Back when I had Adobe Premiere Pro CS4. I miss Adobe Preimere Pro. ;~;



Oh and while I'm sharing old things.

Maya Fun

I've been having a bit of a play with Maya. =3

Brakk, the blue guy in the middle, was created from scratch by  myself and rigged using a script by Anthony J Smith. 

Richie on the far right is a modified rig. The original is called 'Andy Rig' and was created by John Doublestein.


Also, UFO.

Aesop's Tales by Hooplakidz

Whilst looking for cut-out animations for kids and trying to get more in touch with the preschool age for my pivoted preschooler animation., I came across this animation by Hooplakidz.




So apparently, its important to teach kids to be suspicious of their sick, dying elders.
Thanks, TV! Another great life lesson taught expertly.

Pivot Pitch

Blockades on the way home

One of my first ideas for the 2D pivoted animation was inspired by a series called 'Through the Dragon's Eye'.
Three young children stumble upon a world where fantasy rules and reality isn't what it seems. They're trapped there and their only way back is by solving riddles. The riddles would be simple and designed to teach preschoolers the properties of various objects. One riddle I thought up involved a troll blocking the path and requesting lemons in return for safe passage. Another is a keyhole that doesn't accept keys but the object riddled on the nearby sign.


The characters are designed to be simple and easy for kids to relate to.

I also sketched up some possible backgrounds to use. I thought a nice watercolour look would be appealing, made to look like something that could be found in a children's book.

Pivot Pitch 2

Some turnarounds for characters designed for the 2D Pivoted animation I'm working on. Remmo, D-Growl and Sam are three orphaned animals trying to make sense of the world. They write songs based on their discoveries. This is an idea I think I'll be holding on to. So yeah, character art!

D.Growl is a little dopey but a great guitarist.

Remmo is suave, cool and a master at the drums.

Sam is the latest edition to the team and
enjoys dancing and providing vocals.

I've also had some vague ideas for songs that the characters could perform, as seen in the concept art and a vague storyboard.

Concept art

A Storyboarded Rhyme

One of my younger friends, aged fifteen, enjoyed the rhyme about meeting the queen (to the right) but another friend (nineteen) found it to be unwitty and ultimately dire. I have to wonder how a member of the key demographic would react. Alas, my collection of child slaves were released by the oppressive EU government last week.




The same nineteen-year-old friend improvised a skit based on the characters, which I found entertaining but ultimately unsuitable due to its heavy political agenda. That can be heard here.

Idea Dump

Just dumping some ideas for my 2D cut-out animation for kids thing...

Educational musical and comedic pieces. inspiration; animaniacs, seaseme street

Whaling with Akimotoshiwa-kun - Children help Akimotoshiwa-kun harpoon the appropriately coloured and numbered whales for fun

Identifying shapes and colours - a simple game, Dora the Explorer style

Young friends/siblings go off on an adventure in a world where literacy is the key to everything - with riddles, puns and puzzles that the viewers can try to solve. Inspiration; through the dragon's eye

Hide and Seek With Uncle Frank - Uncle Frank hides in various places and the viewers get clues as to where. Helps with item identification and literacy. 

Shapes with Pythagoras  - Pythagoras shows us how many different triangles there are.

Pose References

I happened across a great resource for pose references. It shows the muscles under the skin and stuff so it looks really useful. I'll share it now before ACTA passes and I become eligble for arrest for conspiracy to commit piracy or some such bullshit. ----> Pose Maniacs

Maya Rig Exercises

The rig was created for us and we had to make it do jumping jacks and an "arm flop."




Its harder than it looks.

The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That

From Treehouse Entertrainment and Random House Publishing, its the Cat in the Hat! 

As I've outlined in a previous post, we've been looking at the children's stories and illustrations of Dr.Seuss and the animations that draw from them.  

'Fox in Socks', Dr.Seuss

Dr.Seuss' illustrative style is very interesting. He adapts common shapes that children would likely recognise, and makes them into stylized characters. For example, The Cat in the Hat as seen above is essentially a long-neck bottle (like a champagne bottle) with limbs and a head. Similarly, the Fox in Socks consists of two bean-shapes, a circle and some triangles. These very simple designs make for recognisable characters that children (and myself x3) can appreciate. 

I find it important to note that while the characters are simple, Seuss has not exchanged style for simplicity. Indeed, the characters are distinctly stylised and its easy to distinguish a Seussian fox from Chaffinian fox, a Seussian elephant from Dumbo and a Seussian Who from a Doctor Who. I think it's because of this that cartoons featuring Dr. Seuss' characters emulate his style. It's part of the character's recognisability.

In the cartoon features 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas' (1966) and 'Horton Hears a Who' (1970), directors and designers (notably Chuck Jones and Maurice Noble) worked with Theodore 'Seuss' Geist to keep the stylisation in tact, as you can see in these screengrabs. 

You may notice that even in animated form, these characters retain their simplistic shapes. The Grinch has a rounded-off rectangle shape, while Jane Kangaroo has a body like a water balloon. 

The animated versions of Dr.Seuss' characters seem to have richer, more saturated colours, too. This would make them more appealing to children, as bright colours are eye-catching and attention-grabbing. A prime example of this is 'The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That'.

A Pivoted Animation, Two Dimensional if you will, For Little Sally-Sal and Jolly Billy-Bill

A task has been assigned,
To me and my peers,
To create an animation,
For toddling kids (the little dears).

With a pivot installed,
On each and every joint,
Keyframed it will be,
Straight to the point.

Anyway I suck at rhyming and poetic structure so I'm just gonna be boring and normal for a minute. I'll hire an editor to rewrite this bit for my autobiography or something, I don't know. So!
I'll be looking at various illustrations, focussing on children's (pre-school) animation. Not because I'm bored or weird or on some sort of register, but because I have to create a 2D pivoted animation for toddlers as part of my animation course. This will all go into some sort of presentation with my fellow Nónamé-jin, Matt Thompson.
I'm hoping to get away with ignoring all the ridiculous drivel children are subjected to and get right into the works of Dr. Seuss, looking at the illustrations of his books and the various animations based upon them (such as 'The Cat In The Hat Knows A Lot About That').

Well boy wont this be fun?
I can't wait to hop upon the thingamebun
And research until my research is done!