cookiefication - Tumblr blog

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Following up that fire animation with water

also side note since I don’t think I’ve mentioned it, but I do have a twitter here: https://twitter.com/CookieficationJ

I post there a liiiiittle bit more often

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(two posts within three months of each other? miracles DO happen)

A couple of rough shots from a spare-time WIP being animated in Toonboom Harmony. I don't think I've tried rotational background animation before, so that's something. Still has quite a long way to go (like, y’know... lack of bg animation in the beginning)

also... Bomberman bc I became a fan in the past year

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Fire FX animated in Toonboom Harmony, with slight compositing in Adobe PP

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Oh hey y’all!

an FX thing

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A Wooper for animonthly on Twitter.

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Have you ever thought of doing streams while you animate?

I’ve thought about it plenty... but still haven’t managed to force myself to do it. Stream requests would be awesome though, especially for inspiration!

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Hi. just wonder what is your computer setup to create your wonderful animation in your studio? which wacom did you pick for your animation? Thanks.

Current setup: HP Pavillion something-or-other laptop connected to a Yiynova MSP19U+ tablet monitor. They both, uh, sit on my tiny desk at home. It’s really not a fancy setup at all, haha.

When I first started I used a Wacom Bamboo Pen and Touch. Since then I’ve upgraded to the aforementioned Yiynova monitor. It works pretty well!

Thanks for the question!

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Have you ever done the influence map meme? It's really interesting and I would love to see yours

...I had to look up what that was, haha.

That’s a pretty cool idea. Mine would be all of over the place, no doubt

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Have you thought about animating sword fighting? I'd love to see some^^ Great animations!

Actually... I've never really thought about doing a sword fight. That could be cool and challenging, though!

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Really rough animation I started messing around with, for a cut in a Sonic fan animation I want to do. It’s been a while since I’ve done something with a substantial amount of BG animation!

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An explosion, getting me back into proper form

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A good part of the animation in The Canipa Effect video you made (which was beautiful) was old stuff from your blog. Were those made for this video, or were you reusing them?

Hi @neptune432!

Everything was made specifically for that Canipa Effect video. It was a long project that I worked on on the side over the last year or so, and I finally finished it up back in May.

Thanks for the ask! If anybody else has questions about, well, anything, please feel free to ask.

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I've been following you for a while and as an animator myself, it's interesting watching another's progression. You are very talented and I look forward to seeing what else you create.

Thanks @ewasow! That’s very appreciated. Time really does fly by, and I can’t believe I started posting back in late 2013. It’s strange going back and looking at old posts... I don’t like to do that, haha.

Thanks again, and good luck on your own animation!

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Hey guys! This is *another* project that dropped recently! If y’all don’t know him, please check out Callum May’s videos at The Canipa Effect. They’re extremely informative on anime production, and I highly recommend watching (and y’know, learning from) them!

I did all of the animation/inking/bg in Toonboom.

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How on earth do you get such nice lines?? I saw your Sawk and Croagunk gifs and to me it looks like it was done in Flash, but I can't seem to get nice, pencil-like lines without using the smooth tool on every stroke. Were the drawings scanned in?

Hi @kftoons​! Line art is seriously one of the most painful parts for me so, uh, I’m really glad to hear that you like it.

If it helps to know: I do all of my drawing and inking in ToonBoom. Those were both done with the brush tool, and I usually turn the smoothing down to very, very low. The Sawk one is just roughs, so I wasn’t very particular about specific line thickness and stuff (only for closeups, really).

For outline technique, I usually use a very thin brush and build up the lines gradually. I find that that works better than trying to get a perfect smooth stroke in one try (especially for rounded shapes), and it also makes it look a little less mechanical. For general color, I usually don’t pick pure black, but a couple of slight shades lighter.

I’m not quite sure how much this may help you out, but if there’s anything else I can explain, let me know!

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Hi everyone! I’ve got a couple of posts lined up, but first: Please check out this totally awesome promotional music video for League of Legends’ upcoming championships!

I got the chance to work with Studio La Cachette and animate a short cut for it. My cut is the explosion near the end, and you can check out some unfinished animation here:

^Drawn (and eventually colored) in ToonBoom Harmony. The whole short is really so well done, and it’s honestly an honor to be a (small) part of it!

Other things:

1) I got to do a little bit of attack animation for upcoming video game Indivisible recently. It was a lot of fun, actually.

2) There’s another project that should be starting up soon that I’m reeeeally excited for.

3) Yeah, uh, for real, I’m going to start that patreon thing. School supplies and programs are expensive

4) Another project dropped today, and I’ll show yall in the next post!

I know I don’t post a lot, but thanks for your patience with me! (especially if you’ve recently followed)

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Reblogging this since it seems like a good time.

Hey dude I've been following your blog for a while and you got some really cool animations. I myself am trying to learn how to animate but I don't know where to start. So my question to you is where do I start to learn how to animate? Like are there any books I should read or tutorials you would recommend. Thanks for your time man I really apreciate it.

First off, thanks for the compliment and thanks for following me!

I don’t really think there’s any one way, but…

As far as books go, I’d say Preston Blair’s Advanced Animation is probably the best place to start. The name’s pretty misleading- It atcually starts form the very basics. It’s where I started when I started getting more serious about animation, and I’d say it has probably been my biggest help. Learning good construction skills has helped me tremendously with my animation and art. You may have a lot of awesome ideas in your mind, but that won’t help much if you can’t translate them to paper (or tablet, or whatever you may use).  Learn about construction, how lines and features wrap around forms, clear and distinct poses, perspective, etc. Don’t trace the examples, but make your own copies of them step by step and compare them to the images given. Your copies don’t have to be perfect- what’s most important is that you’re learning how and why something looks the way it does.

When I first started copying I made the mistake of trying to make my drawings look exactly the same as in the book, causing frequent frustation. I’d spend forever on one drawing, not really absorbing and understanding what the goal was. Now, that doesn’t mean you should be careless about it… You do want them to look close. Just make sure to go step by step, checking your progress along the way. You’ll get better the farther you go.

You might have taken a look at those pages and thought “Well, that’s interesting and all, but I don’t exactly plan on drawing these old ‘40s Disney-style characters any time soon…”

That’s totally understandable and perfect because the next step is to use the tools you learned from copying those drawings and apply them to your own drawings. After all, what’s the point in copying and learning all those principles if you aren’t going to use 'em? I’d also recommend some life drawing every once in a while. Draw people and objects and learn what things actually do look like and not just what you think they look like. Once again, apply these principles to your own drawings.

Like I said before, though, there’s no one way. That’s just the way I happened to learn. Some people can pull off amazing drawings and animation without a bit of construction!

As for learning actual animation… Watch and study the best! Take influence from both classic and modern animation. I love watching old Warner Brothers cartoons- especially those by Bob Clampett, Tex Avery, and Chuck Jones- and seeing how skillfully they move their characters. I also love anime, too. There are TONS of talented Japanese animators with unique styles and techniques. I have so many favorites I can’t even list them all, but SakugaBooru (occasional 18+ content there so beware) has a huge selection of awesome animation gifs and webms from just about everybody. Whenever you get a chance, browse around the site. Watch and analyze different animators’ works and study the underlying principles. Learn to recognize what’s great and what isn’t. Go frame by frame and see how things move, then try it out for yourself. If possible, check out rough animation too. Preston Blair also goes a little bit into animation (walk cycles, squash and stretch, etc.) later on in his book. I’ve also heard a lot of people recommend The Animator’s Survival Kit, but I haven’t really taken a look at it.

So, yeah, this is a big post coming from somebody who hasn’t had any type of formal training. Please don’t take my advice as the end-all be-all (…is that right?) Everything I’ve learned about animation so far has come from the internet, and I’m still just scratching the surface. There are still tons of things that I need learn and get better at (walk cycles still scare the heck out of me), but I’m going for it. Just look around and explore, both here on Tumblr and the rest of the internet. There’s quite a bit of treasure out there.

Some random tips and stuff:

-When animating, start with the basic forms first. Animating something that has a lot of details can be tricky and I find it easy to lose myself. Starting with the simple parts helps a bunch.

-This is probably just me, but I seem to have some sort of issue when it comes to erasing parts of a drawing. I tend to just draw over it, and over time that gets messy. Soo…. er, don’t be afraid to erase.

-If you’re making a project that’s a bit longer or more complicated than the usual gif or something, have a plan. Srsly. Storyboards help. I’ve learned that the hard way.

Miscellaneous recommendations:

-John K Stuff. Say what you will about him, but he gives solid drawing advice. Tons of information here that has also been a huge help in my learning. Also has some great animation lessons. I’d recommend it for those 16+, though.

-Animation Resources. They have the whole Preston Blair book uploaded.

I hope that wasn’t too long. If you or anybody else has any more questions please don’t hesitate to ask!