Monday, September 17, 2012

Animation Preview #1

Here's the first 53 seconds of the intro scene from my animation project Beneath the Ruined Tower of Xenopus, based on the radio play my players and I did last year.

If anyone's dabbled in animation you'll know that 53 seconds is quite a bit of work!  But in this day of digital film-making it's not as long as traditional old school painted cell animation.  I'm pretty happy with the way it's turning out though I'll make a few adjustments; namely the final shot in this segment I'm going to make a bit longer.

I've got the rough mix of the sound track attached to it as well.

One minute down and twenty-nine to go!

Enjoy and feel free to comment.

16 comments:

  1. Oh my god, that's incredible! Truly brilliant.

    It seems churlish to find fault with it, but as you asked for feedback: I did feel that where you were showing the tower on the cliffs over the sea, the cliffs appeared to be "floating" on the sea (then again that could be my eyes).

    Magnificent work - really can't wait to see the remaining 29 minutes!

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  2. The cliffs and ocean were somewhat intentional as I was trying not to make it too 'realistic' and more stylistic but it does have that 'floating' quality. Depending on how the rest of the movie evolves I may go back and revisit that. Thanks for your comment!

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  3. That is so awesome. Xenopus looks great. I'm blown away.

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  4. Yeah, that's okay so far but it'll be so much better when you get Skwanky in it ;)

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    1. I should make the characters 'look' like the actual players!

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  5. Wow! That looks amazing. I can only imagine how much hard work has gone into that 53 second clip. ;>

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  6. looking great Paul. is this all flash?
    the cliffs thing could be tweaked with the paralax tool. I think thats what they call it. Or doing it manually. Please dont make the character look like the players, I don't make a good dwarf.
    Are you doing your BGs in photoshop or illustrator and importing them? also, Demon Summoning = KIRBY DOTS!!!!

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    1. I'm using an application called Anime Studio which I like better than flash for doing animation. Flash pisses me off sometimes. Anime studio has a bit of a learning curve but it's built strictly for cartoon animation.

      Yes the BGs were done first in illustrator and then textured in photoshop.

      I worked long and hard animating the Kirby dots hoping to capture that krackling energy!

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  7. I really like that style. A bit reminiscent of "that book style" (I'm thinking of but may mean nothing to anyone else), but unique in it's own way. The "texture" vs solid color is really great.

    Xenopus was a chick!?

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    1. For whatever reason, when I got back into playing, I just pictured Xenopus as a chick. I thought it ended up being a nice twist for those who always think of Xenopus as a crusty old evil wizard.

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  8. Fantastic, very well done. Looking forward to seeing the completed animation.

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  9. Thanks, Dave! Glad to see you've dropped by!

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  10. It's lovely! And the idol rocks :)

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