Saturday 5 June 2010

New pencil test

This one worked alot better then the last. There is very little movement but it seems to work in a styalized cartoony way. I started this as soon as i finished the light box (you can see I've drawn the first frame in the last picture of the light box post). The audio is from the intro to a hilarious song by the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band called "Big Shot".
The body was drawn using the col-erase I was talking about. Near the end it dissapears because it wasn't moving and I thought I'd save the pencil for something more useful!


(let it buffer, blogger video is sloooooow)

(edit) Just watched it back on here and it's really bad quality all of a sudden! Oh well, you get the idea of it anyway.

I was gunna add smoke from the pipe but I decided it wasn't worth it...my knowledge of special effects animation (water/smoke/fire) is very small, but growing! I really like the character and think I might do more animation with him.

3 comments:

Season Mustful said...

Wow! you've really taken off since i've last checked in(ages ago)! I think this is a great test because you were aiming for limited movement/stylized action, and it looked fluid to me, the dialouge was spot on, and you kept the action fitting with the character's cool attitude that was reflected in the dialouge. Well done!
I can offer a bit of action analysis criticism though, and it comes form oddly enough, having actually smoked a pipe like that. We don't usually move our whole arm with the smoking action ( in the animation it's producing an effect called twinning) , also our lips aren't glued to the pipe either (we need to come up for air). The action of blowing smoke, taking the pipe out of the mouth, adds a bit more visual interest. You're a very creative fellow and shouldn't let your fear of not knowing the technicalities of special effects keep you from trying something like smoke. The character says "I am a big shot"...why is he a big shot? maybe it's cause he can blow smoke that looks like rubber ducks or something. It's an animation, anything can happen, smoke need not be realistic. It could be represented in a thought bubble shape, something graphic or abstract. I like the nerdy "big shot" and i'd like to see you try something with "smoke" next.
I also have to add that you're inspiring me to start doing more exparaments of my own. You've produced more work in the last 3 months than i have in the last 3 years!
Keep it goin!

Fish said...

Wow, thanks Season! It means alot to me when people actually appreciate what I've done!

With the pipe movement - I'll be honest, I copied it off an old disney animation that I saw, where the guy was smoking the pipe and keeping his lips sealed on it. I did also look up some footage of people smoking pipes, and like you say, is very different. I decided I can probably just get away with doing it this way. I will definatly try effects animation soon (I found a blog connected to a book thats been written about traditional special effects animation that i want to buy!).

I really like seeing other animator's tests, so please do!
Thanks again!

JON said...

Nice! Very slick animation, spot on lip sync. Can't wait to see what you'll do next!