Dance, Mary, Dance

Here's an experimental dance loop I pulled from my next cartoon*.



*In the animatic, she (and another character) are much smaller, and watching something else.
Originally they were just blinking and tilting their heads but I decided to make things more lively.

Flash Preview

Here's a preview from the cartoon I'm working on. As you probably guessed, you're seeing a rough drawings for his legs and final drawing for his head and wings. The background is temporary- dyed yellow to remind me to color white areas white.
I don't know what his name is. Not that it's necessary in the context of the cartoon, but he should have a name. I'd do a contest, but I don't have any cool prizes!
Am also considering throwing the infamous Crack Master character in as a cameo. Then again, that may get it bounced off You-Tube faster than you can say "copyright infringement." Or get the rumored legal owner of the cartoon so mad at me that I'll never get a copy...

In the Groove

Here's a dancing parrot I'm working on.

Surly Martian

Here's an experimental head turning animation. It was done using shape tweens (four or five per shape). Each "part" (pupil, eye outline etc) originally had its own layer.
Below is an older version, before I tweaked the timing, removed extra lines and added color. Those touches were done frame by frame and took much longer than the animation.
The gradient fills are like ceiling glitter. Cool? Tacky? It's a matter of opinion.

Silly Walk with Four Legs

Here's a four legged version of a silly walk I did earlier.

Flash Doodle: Blockheads.

Here's a Flash experiment I did using shape tweens (I usually use motion tweens.)
The art's a bit derivative of Linda Davick's work. I wasn't trying to steal her look but it happened. Don't sue, Linda. ;)

Flash Doodling

I was fooling around with different settings and techniques and got this guy.

GpCS3 Goes For a Walk

I didn't have much spare time this weekend, but I did get a crude walk in.
One of those "I'll know what not to do next time" efforts.

Canary, Take One

Here I'm playing around with what animators call (or used to call) the cartoon "take," where a character reacts wildly. I tried to focus on making the canary seem truly startled.
That being said, I think the most successful element in this thing is when the box creature pops his head up.

Skip Cycle

Here's a skip cycle, based on the one by Preston Blair.
I was hoping to do a more exciting "Mystery Cave" style background, but suddenly I'm working 10 hour days, six day weeks again.
I still plan to animate in what spare time I have, and to figure out how I can weasel my way into a flash animation gig...

Run Goro, Run!

I borrowed Goro (one of my Martians) for the run cycle test. It's based on the Preston Blair example. I'm not sure who (or what) he's running from, but I know it was provoked.

Strut Walk Cycle

I wanted to play with this more before publishing, but it's been too long between posts so here he is. The strut is based on the example in the Preston Blair book.

The Flash Frog Fling.

I tried to learn the Highland Fling once. I learned some steps, but I have the coordination of a tranquilized moose and couldn't do it.
It's easier to make flash characters dance. I used the same timing I used in the jump post. Before I tried this I'd always thought of dances as steps ("point,behind,front, behind etc..), when in fact the whole body is active.
The resulting dance is way too oversimplified to be a Highland Fling (the timing is different too), thus the new name.

Jumping

This started as a jumping exercise. My first step at animating the jumper came close- yet something was off. I checked my animation books to see what was wrong. The problem? I wasn't scrunching the character at the high point of the jump. I added the scrunch and the jumper was ready for action.

Wave In

This began as an exercise based on page 233 of The Animator's Survival Kit, where it showed how to get a fluid look when animating jointed objects. The trick is something like cracking the joints like a whip, where the base (here, the upper arm) moves first, followed by its secondary parts. I suspect dancers use a similar trick to achieve fluid movement.
I gave the guy one "whip" arm and one stiff arm to highlight the difference.
Of course I had to get a little silly.

10000 Ways Not to Make a Bird Walk

I've animated birdlike characters before, but none walked with birdlike legs. Okay, real birds don't wear glitter shoes.
It drove me nuts trying to get it to cooperate. I closed dozens of botched jobs. It was ridiculous.
Thomas Edison kept me going. Supposedly, when asked about failure he boasted ,"Why, I haven't failed, I've discovered 10000 ways not to make a lightbulb!".
So each twitching, flopping or stroby bird that got deleted was one step closer to getting one that worked.

Silly Walks

The animation books insist that walk cycles are important, so I've been practicing. Mostly learning what not to do. I gave the first two characters strange walks on purpose. I was trying to see how goofy I could make them.

"I'm Tropical"

Here's my first attempt at talking. I started with something short and simple.
I lifted the voice from here (Lawrence, raised to a cartoony pitch.)
p.s. Thanks, Sally!

Crude Penguin Test

My first stab at a forward facing walk cycle. I used a different technique* (and a different reference for the walk cycle) and it only came out so-so. With a sideways walk cycle it's easier to see what's in the air and where the weight is falling. Next time I do a forward job I'll do a sideways version first, to get see what falls where.

*The technique, for those interested, was to use less body parts and more drawings, the latter being distorted for maximum use. This ended up mangling edges, dislocating joints, and making it hard to fine tune. Lesson learned: either break it up in pieces or draw the darn thing frame by frame.

Dolphin Walk

The shtick here was

1. A dolphin walking on his tail = funny,
2. Something so weird would be a good challenge.

I'd planned this to be more complex- more characters, and a better background, but I was running out of time. Maybe I'll recycle him in a future 'toon.