#a little tie clip with a pearl on it to match her favourite earrings

[blancamz]

“It’s Over Isn’t It” Reanimation progress

Honestly one of my favourite parts about animating is posting the WIPs online. Here’s the step-by-step of how I went about doing my reanimation for the end section of “It’s Over Isn’t It” from the Steven Universe episode Mr. Greg.

1) Idea and Prep

I was flicking through Steven Universe: Art & Origins. I think at the time I must’ve been between jobs or bored or something, because it came into my head to do a bit of animation based on the pilot style SU. I’ve always been quite fond of the pilot style, especially Pearl’s David Bowie / LaRoux look. The little tux design by Hellen Jo was quite snazzy as well, so I decided to have a go at doing a segment of “It’s Over Isn’t It”, using these designs.

I traced the turnaround from the book in Clip Studio Paint and approximated Jo’s design to it. At first I had the colour turnaround, but did the low-colour turnaround with the heads to give me a better idea of where the lines are and proportions of the body. I also get a clip of “It’s Over Isn’t It” and trim it down to the section I want to do.

This is a long one so strap in.

2) Sketch Pass

I’ll be using gifs that show the first 100-130 frames of the animation, because the full segment is 22 seconds long.

Very very loose animation of what I’m going to be doing with this segment, done in Adobe Animate. I have a video of the real segment in the corner of the stage and audio in the timeline, and closely reference them for layout and acting.

I’ve decided I want to go really nuts with the animation. Lots of angles on her face, smooth movement, secondary animation / follow-through on her various clothing elements. Technically her earring’s supposed to be on the other side but I want to animate that flailing around dangit, so I change it so it faces the camera.

3) Rough Pass

I tidy up the rough I did somewhat. It’s still very rough, but Pearl is better proportioned and the motion is more complete. I get a better idea of how she moves by focusing on drawing keys (the most important drawings) and breakdowns (drawings that help you figure out the motion a little bit, without full animation). I have Pearl, her suit, ruffles and earring on separate layers so I can turn things on and off or lower their opacity as needed.

4) Tiedowns

At some point between the rough and tie-down phase I realized that I’d been animating at 30fps instead of 25fps like I’d meant to, so I had to end up shifting all the roughs I’d been doing. Bad news: having to wrestle with getting the timings I’d so carefully planned out in the rough to still look good. Good news: I have to animate and clean up 5 fewer frames per second, so that’s 110 fewer drawings to worry about. Yussssss. For reference, the above clip has now gone from 132 frames to 107.

During the tiedown phase, I go over the roughs and more carefully try to match the proportions in the turnaround. I keep a flattened version of the first frame of animation to use as reference thoughout to prevent morphing. Sometimes when you’re animating, things will get bigger or small as you re-draw them, so it’s good to have a base drawing to refer back to and make the sizes stay consistent.

At this point I’m way more aware of reasons behind the big design change for Pearl between the pilot and the show. She’s so dang skinny and tall with that extra poof of hair up top that she’s really annoying to frame up. If you want to keep all of her in the frame, there’s going to be tons of empty space.

I also find that my turnaround isn’t enough reference for Pearl’s awkwardly-shaped head. I snap me a bunch of screenshots of pearl’s head from different angles and collate them into a big sheet.

5) Inbetweening

Inbetweening, aka filling out all the gaps in the timeline between the keys and breakdowns. If you’ve done your keys and BD’s well, inbetweening can be a pretty straight-forward.

But I’ve got like a million bits of secondary animation to content with, which means this still takes a significant amount of time. The hair and ruffles have to move a little later than the rest of the body, and some parts of the ruffles have to move at a different rate from the rest. I’m trying to animate like there’s wind since Pearl’s on top of a tall building. I keep animating until it feels good enough.

This is what my timeline and stage look like in Animate by this point. The animation is mostly on 2s, with some 1s, 3s and 4s thrown in when needed.

6) Cleanup and Colour

I did the cleanup in Toon Boom Harmony. As a program, I like it was more than Animate, even though it isn’t without it’s flaws. But it’s also really dang expensive. Fortunately, by this point I’d been working on the upcoming Deadendia series for Netflix. What with the pandemic, we were working from home and the studio gave me a license for Toon Boom. So I exported my frames from Animate, put ‘em in TB and started cleaning up.

I’ve found that cleanup is something that’s often offloaded to new or less experienced artists at studios because blah it’s just tracing the rough animation. But you’ve got good cleanup and bad cleanup, and a good cleanup artist will compensate for flaws in volume and have a good, clear and natural line.

I’m not terribly fond of doing cleanup myself. I feel I tend to end up rushing, which leads to sloppy work. I tried really hard to keep up a standard here.

7) Comping

a.k.a. Compositing, the final layering of the various elements before exporting a film. Another stage I don’t quite care for because of its nuances. Also drawing backgrounds.

I admit that I’m not very good at drawing backgrounds or environments. I tried to do the one for the second shot of this animation, since it was acutally really important. In shots 1 and 3, you don’t really see the ground or even the railing that Pearl is leaning on, but 2 is a wide shot. My first attempts at it were unfortunate. Fortunately my husband @joe-sparrow is both good at backgrounds and good at imitating the style and colour palette of the show. He volunteered to do the BGs and I accepted. See mine vs. his:

So yeah, get me some nice backgrounds, put the animation on top, then fiddle with a couple of elements in the comp to give things a little bit more depth. During this stage, errors that had happened during the animation progress that I hoped would just go away became annoyingly obvious, so there was a fair bit of going back to fix them.

So that’s how I done made this animation. I started April 2018 and posted in on January 1st 2021, so that’s over 1.5 years it took me to do these 22 seconds of animation. However, I wasn’t working on it continuously through that time. Sometimes I’d be working on it every day, other times I’d not touch it for weeks or months at a time. It really depended on how busy or whatever I was at the time. I think if I’d been working on it non-stop, it still would’ve taken me at least like 2-3 months to finish it.

If you made it to the end of this post, I hope you found all this information interesting.

Happy drawing.

It’s over, isn’t it.

[littlemix-styleblog]

Requested Little Mix Engagement Inspired Outfits

Leigh

PRETTYLITTLETHING WHITE SCUBA HIGH NECK TIE WAIST JUMPSUIT: £21. A engagement party can be a tricky affair, You want to look as good as possible but you don`t want to go over the top and outshine the bride. So we have put together a few outfits that will hopefully maybe inspire you or help you make that final decision. For each girl I went with a different look and alternative - Not everyone wants to go in a dress and you also have to think about the many factors such as comfort, Price and weather. So with Leigh I decided to go for a jumpsuit and I posted below the jumpsuit I was inspired by when she wore a pink sequin blush jumpsuit for a appearance many years ago. We wanted to go down that same route but keep the embellishment to a minimum otherwise it would`ve looked like we would be off to a Christmas party afterwards. Unfortunately, Not many embellished jumpsuits are available at the moment or none that suited the event so we decided to go for a white jumpsuit instead and we went with this one from PrettyLittleThing. I know for a fact this is a popular item as it has been on PLT`s website for ages and they keep restocking due to popular demand. The jumpsuit is very flattering...The long white fitted flare legs gives people the illusion of longer legs, the top half features a ruched effect where it synches in topped off by a tie up, I love this jumpsuit it is so modern, classy and trendy. The side boob might not be to everyone's taste but with a few pins and boob tape you`ll be in good hands. I went with the idea there may be kids at this engagement party so you would want to keep it demure and mature and not upstage the bride, The colour against the sun would be out of this world - You would radiate. This jumpsuit comes in many other colours and patterns such as floral, Green, Red, Black and Orange.

Lulu`s KATHERINE ROSE GOLD METALLIC RHINESTONE MULES: $99. These arent the original shoes as featured above, the shoes became out of stock over night. But I originally went with rose gold embellished perspex mules in case you wanted to wear something different and because the jumpsuit is white and to add a bit of flair and colour to the outfit you could do that with the accessories and the shoes. I went back to find some more rose gold mules and no where had them in stock, The only place was Lulu`s and yes I am aware of the price.

ASOS DESIGN headband with graduating pearls in gold tone: £12. I added this in case you wanted to go extra. Pearl`s in hair accessories has become a big trend lately as you will see later. I thought this was such a cute, quirky accessory. 

River Island Rose gold boxy mini cross body bag: £18. I did want a simple rose gold clutch that wasn`t too out there or large but yet again hardly no one had one. So we went with this one from River Island instead which I think will do the job nicely.

PrettyLittleThing ROSE GOLD 80MM LARGE HOOP EARRINGS: £2. Lastly, Just because Leigh wears hoops a lot we had to add them like I do on every post. For those eagle eyed viewers you will notice this is the same pair of earrings I featured in my last inspired. I don`t wear earrings myself but £2 for a pair of good sustainable earrings? What more could you ask for. We`re also continuing on with adding colour with these earrings. Of course you could always do it the other way round by wearing a colourful outfit and then downplaying it with mutual shoes and accessories. Don`t forget it`s always a good idea to experiment and mix and match. 

Jade

ASOS Dusty Daze jacquard blazer co-ord: £75. Secretly hoping this suit I chose for Jade will steal all of your hearts, How beautiful is this? The print of this, the colour and the cuteness is enough to make me buy it. I simply went for this cause I imagined right away what this would look like against the backdrop of the sun, You will glow. I chose a suit because Jade is fan of a suit very often and we`re also mixing it up and giving you options. The trousers are cropped giving you slimmer ankles, The suit is fitted to make you feel comfortable and confident. I know the price is a little pricey but imagine what this would look like in photos and you would definitely receive a lot of compliments. If you don`t like this suit then I have chosen many other style of suits and colours for you that would work well against the sun and at a engagement party such as orange, Neon Orange, Green, Darker Orange, Purple, Blue.

ASOS Dusty Daze straight leg jacquard trousers co-ord: £55. I always think of a suit as a alternative for someone such as a tomboy who doesn`t like wearing dresses or skirts. Wearing a suit you can feel just as sexy and confident and not to mention feel like a boss too.....Even though you`re not in an office.

River Island White cross back cami top: £16. For the top we have to keep it simple as the suit is doing the talking here, Put in a neon top and it`s too busy so try and keep the colours mutual to break it up. 

River Island Gold embellished shoulder bag: £30. I didn`t want to go for a pink clutch as it would clutch against the suit, So I didn`t really have much to go on and my colour coordination is terrible. So we went with this bag from River Island which is actually similar to a bag Jade has from Topshop. 

H&M Long Earrings: $9.99. Another extra if you didn`t want to feel bare, We went with these hammered effect earrings from H&M. These have exploded onto the scene lately especially the gold coloured ones. We also managed to find another pair in another style here.

ASOS DesignB London rose gold hairband: £6. As usaul as I was searching for outfits the inspiration flowed and ideas was coming at me from every angle. So to go with the confident, empowering, boss look we have going on we thought we would add this rose gold hairband. Slick your hair back into a low ponytail before adding this gem. 

PrettyLittleThing CLOVER BLACK METALLIC STRAP HEELED SANDALS: £18

Jesy

River Island Lime cigarette trousers: £36. I know this won`t be too everyone's taste but neon/fluro colours have also exploded onto the scene lately and the girls have been seen wearing it too and to be honest with you I got stuck with what to put for Jesy, You can`t really go to a engagement party dressed in all black now can you? Talk about a party spoiler. But we eventually got there and we came up with this. Can you guess where I got my inspiration from? Jesy rocked up to Leigh`s swimwear launch in a fluro number and she rocked it well, Very well. So we thought we would hop on that bandwagon and hey gusto here we are. I`d just like to point out that there is a difference between neons and limes and fluros..One is either brighter and the other is either dark, Found that out yesterday. Jesy wore neon green designer tailored trousers which complimented her legs so well, So we picked up these trousers from River Island which comes in a co-ord. 

River Island Bright yellow boyfriend blazer: £65. Don`t be fooled when it says bright yellow it`s the same colour as the trousers. This structured blazer would give your body definition and that confident/sexy feeling. This jacket is not only for a engagement party but it`s so versatile too, You can step out in black jeans, black boots and a black top whilst going out for dinner or you can wear it casually with jeans, trainers and a white cami. Great investment this jacket. 

PRETTYLITTLETHING WHITE UNDERWIRED CAGE DETAIL LACE BODY: £19. Because the co-ord does the talking and is so bright it could blind you we wanted to break up the colour in the middle with something white and we went with a bodysuit. Lace bodysuits have popped up onto the scene for the last year or so now and are everywhere. You can wear them for anything. I think the reason these have become so popular is because they are no longer seen as a lingerie product and more of a product you can wear everyday now. However if you don`t like the lace effect then we have picked up another bodysuit from MissGuided which is much more simpler here 

Boohoo Patent Court Shoes: £19. Again the suit does the talking and you don`t want anything else clashing with it, So we kept it simple with the shoes and went with these nude patent ones from Boohoo. 

PRETTYLITTLETHING SILVER 100MM HOOP EARRINGS: £2 Yes, These earrings again. But this time we went with a pair of silver earrings just because we think these would look great against the white. 

ASOS DESIGN tassel clutch bag: £12

Perrie

ASOS DESIGN Petite 3D embellished crop top midi dress: £38. I`ve wanted to use this dress for so long in one of my inspireds I love it so much. I can see how it would be more of a race day/cocktail party in your garden/wedding dress but I think it could also pass as a engagement party dress as well. The colour on this is amazing, it blows my mind. I think it`s so cute because of the length and the way it is structured with the gems on the neck. You can get down to a tune or two with the skirt not being so fitted and tight, You can let go and be free and feel the wind in your hair as you dance around to your favourite songs. This dress also comes in other colours such as taupe and purple

ASOS DesignB London faux pearl detail large hair clip 2 pack: £8. These were what I was talking about earlier. Hair clips/slides have POPPED up massively onto the scene, They are everywhere! You can get them small, big, medium in whatever styles and colours they are everywhere, you cannot miss them. So we hopped on board that train and included these pearl hair clips. I did notice that pearl hair accessories are big this summer so we have a range of different styles and colours to choose from in a moment. But this would go perfect against your dress and you would look a million dollars. The other suggestions we got were another set of pearl slides, Rectangle, Hair slides.

PrettyLittleThing CLOVER SILVER METALLIC STRAP HEELED SANDALS: £18. As i`ve said before the dress does the talking and you don`t want everything else to be busy, So we kept it busy with a pair of silver heels from PrettyLittleThing. 

New Look Off White Faux Pearl Beaded Bag: £20. I originally wanted to go with a pearl clutch, But I soon found myself surrounded by these beauties. These have become so popular this summer, They are bang on trend. They are cute, quirky, chic and classic little bag. This bag is so unique and different and would make you stand out. They do come in other colours but we thought white would look great against the dress. We did have trouble finding one as most are sold out everywhere but we managed to there in the end with this one from New Look. However, We also managed to find one from here 

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