Quicksand Fans

It's time for another Theme Park Guides in Quicksand update. Sandy (the blonde) tries to pull her legs free, and has no success whatsoever. She's starting to realize she's in more trouble than she thought.

Progress on the new version of the cartoon has been slowed by my work schedule. Apparently, my boss thinks I can do the work of three people. He's always saying we have to keep costs down. I know I'm not alone in this sort of situation.A lot of working people (those who still have jobs) are doing the same thing.

I also apologize for the quality. I live in the sticks where we still have dial-up, and I have an old iMac. I have higher-quality clips, but they keep "timing out" when I try to upload them. I keep getting that "The connection was reset" notice. If anyone has any thoughts on how to get around this, I'm open to ideas.

I'll also post some stills in the drawings section.

Big Bad John

Great! Moving pictures are really much more interesting than static ones.

What software do you use for making the video?

Billie,

Imagine that. I just left a reply for you on your elf girl animation in the drawings section!

My artwork is all hand drawn and colored. For my characters, I use acrylic craft paints from companies like Plaid, Delta and Deco Art. I also use Sharpie pens as these don't "streak" or "puddle" like other markers. For my backgrounds, I use acrylics for man-made objects, skies, and clouds and water colors for natural items like grass, dirt, and trees. I also use pastels for shading (I'm SO high tech, aren't I?).

I scan my drawings and artwork on an HP C6280 all-in-one, and refine them with HP PhotoSmart and Adobe Photoshop Elements 6. I also use Photoshop Elements for the lettering in my title frames.

I know I could use Photoshop Elements for my coloring, but I feel the paints create more vibrant and natural looking colors than what I've found of the colors I get from Photoshop.

I have an old iMac, and I use Apple Quick Time Pro to turn the scanned drawings into moving images. I can't set the time on each frame, as Apple Quick Time only has set numbers of frames per second (two, six, 10, 12, 24 and faster). However, I've learned some ways of working around this. If I want a drawing to be on-screen for, say, a full second rather than one-sixth of a second, I'll make six frames.

In more ways than one, what I do more closely resembles how cartoons were traditionally made than modern computer animation. I have a scanner and a computer, but I use them as a substitute for the old-style camera.

I don't mind. I'm having fun, and, besides, someone has to keep the traditions alive.

Big Bad John

WOW! And, I thought the still images of Sandy that you posted over in the Drawings Section were something else.

This is absoultely OUTSTANDING! Not only have you captured (no pun intended) Sandy grabbing and pulling on her thick, curvy legs in an effort to free them, and not only have you included nice close-ups of that strained, teeth-gritting look in her face, and not only did you put it all in motion, but you also have her grunting and groaning, as well as have the mud squelching and making wonderful sucking sounds! All of this is music to my ears and goes beautifully with the mired lady you've depicted struggling in this piece.

Beautiful work and outstanding effort! Thanks for sharing!

bbjohn wrote:I know I could use Photoshop Elements for my coloring, but I feel the paints create more vibrant and natural looking colors than what I've found of the colors I get from Photoshop.

Nice to know there are people still doing things the old-fashion way. I still use film when taking pictures and I find the details, sharpness, and colors are nicer than the same pictures taken with a digital camera. I've also found digital pictures made from a 35mm color slide or negative are far better than those taken straight from a digital camera's image card.

bbjohn wrote:Billie,

Imagine that. I just left a reply for you on your elf girl animation in the drawings section!

Oh, I have seen it earlier today! Still have to answer

bbjohn wrote:My artwork is all hand drawn and colored. For my characters, I use acrylic craft paints from companies like Plaid, Delta and Deco Art. I also use Sharpie pens as these don't "streak" or "puddle" like other markers. For my backgrounds, I use acrylics for man-made objects, skies, and clouds and water colors for natural items like grass, dirt, and trees. I also use pastels for shading (I'm SO high tech, aren't I?).

I scan my drawings and artwork on an HP C6280 all-in-one, and refine them with HP PhotoSmart and Adobe Photoshop Elements 6. I also use Photoshop Elements for the lettering in my title frames.

I know I could use Photoshop Elements for my coloring, but I feel the paints create more vibrant and natural looking colors than what I've found of the colors I get from Photoshop.

I have an old iMac, and I use Apple Quick Time Pro to turn the scanned drawings into moving images. I can't set the time on each frame, as Apple Quick Time only has set numbers of frames per second (two, six, 10, 12, 24 and faster). However, I've learned some ways of working around this. If I want a drawing to be on-screen for, say, a full second rather than one-sixth of a second, I'll make six frames.

In more ways than one, what I do more closely resembles how cartoons were traditionally made than modern computer animation. I have a scanner and a computer, but I use them as a substitute for the old-style camera.

I don't mind. I'm having fun, and, besides, someone has to keep the traditions alive.

Big Bad John

It's absolutely amazing! I'm not one of those who prefer traditional techniques only, I don't think that traditional drawing is better by definition only because it is traditional. I'm also not one of those who accept only modern digital techniques. I prefer to choose technologies and methods that fit better to each case.

But what I can say for sure - traditional hand drawn animation is very complicated technically and is a great challenge to an artist. Making a series of drawings of one character in different positions, with different facial expressions, but still remaining obviously the same character (as for comic strip) is already a work that demands serious skills and experience. But making a series of images with strictly dispensed changes from one to another is many times more difficult. I applaud your skill!

Great work! Good job on sound effects to go along with the cool animation.

Could only play the video using Video Lan Client. (Just thought I'd mention that in case anyone has any problems.)

But what I can say for sure - traditional hand drawn animation is very complicated technically and is a great challenge to an artist. Making a series of drawings of one character in different positions, with different facial expressions, but still remaining obviously the same character (as for comic strip) is already a work that demands serious skills and experience. But making a series of images with strictly dispensed changes from one to another is many times more difficult. I applaud your skill![/quote]

Thanks for the kind words, everyone! I'm having a rough week at work, so it's nice to know I'm appreciated. I can tell you there's nothing like the feeling of seeing a character you've drawn moving around like he or she was alive.

You're a heck of an artist yourself, Billie. I know it wasn't easy making that animated elf girl GIF.

I've going to let y'all in on a little secret. Nearly all animated characters are designed to be relatively easy to draw. I've found that a decent artist will find that even the most sophisticated Disney characters are not that difficult to draw. You see, they know that animators may have to make thousands of drawings of a character, and there may be as many as five or six animators working on single character. No two drawings are exactly the same, and no two artists have the same style. The character has to be designed so the resemblance can be so close each time that, when the film is projected onto a screen, it appears like one, smooth fluid image.

The early Hanna-Barbera characters like Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, the Flintstones and the Jetsons, are highly stylized and look almost like caricatures. That was to make quick and easy to draw. H-B had to produce a lot of cartoons quickly and cheaply, so the characters had to be easy to draw.

Mickey Mouse was designed with speed and ease of drawing in mind. To this day, he is still a collection of circles.

From what I've seen, designing characters that are easy for animators to draw is an art in itself. What may be easy for you may not be so easy for another artist. Perhaps what I'm saying is it can be tough for yourself to make it easy for others.

I think I'm losing myself here. Again, thanks for the kind words and encouragement.

Big Bad John