#the toon pipeline

[dangoarts]

weekly wb

[starshipdecay]

Toon Zelda redesigns! I've never been fond of the Toon Zelda design, and these girls deserve some individuality. Design notes and rambles below the cut :D

(time to turn the proper grammar off i aint capitalizing all this. warning: i am verbose)

first up, tmc zelda!

shes the one most like toon zelda, since i felt like the vibes fit the *most* (though not a lot). also, with her place on the timeline, i could justify a lot of bits, like the wings and the cape

the cape! obvs it comes from the toon zelda base design, but also it involves skyloftian fashion! i take the timeline as a challenge, and i once saw a take somewhere that the skyloftians all wear their family crests (most often birds lol) on their person. zelda here (and link too) do just that, wearing their family crests on little caplets. on the back is, of course the royal crest

i went very cutesy princess for her. tmc has such a *whimsical* vibe that i feel is very. muted? by the fact its stuck with the toon style. so i wanted to put in that vibe here. also her sprites make it look like her skirt is super poofy, so how could i not?

curly hair: i wanted something interesting, and most zeldas have straight hair. so! adds to the cuteness

i didnt draw it so well but she (and link) both have very sleepy expressions. zelda especially just has a sleepy expression in her sprite, its quite adorable.

shes not as decked out as other princesses, cuz i see tmc taking place before the royal family really starts to get *royal* as we see it. shes still of course got a tiara and some embroidery tho.

Tetra! her base design isnt all that changed from the original. her name is a fun hc of mine tho. i think "von Hyrule" sounds better as a surname than just "hyrule". shes not zelda, but shes still a descendant.

(WW) princess z (as i call her)

I went more oot zelda vibes for her, since she would be closer, temporally, to oot. i also went very warm, since ive never seen the flood as a *warm* endeavor.

shes got the shoulder danglies, as most zeldas have shoulder armor of some kind. the danglies instead of actual armor are supposed to kind of evoke a royal sea captain kind of vibe.

shes ghostly, with a fish-eyed stare. shes been dead and gone for a long time. shes also a bit taller and a few years older than tetra (as of ww). shes just some spectre the king saw in tetra, not at all a close match

tetra, being smaller than princess z, doesnt fit into the clothes. the dress is too big for her (as is in canon gd that skirt is WAY too long for her), the coat is baggy. the role of a princess *literally* does not fit her.

the ribbons! theyre my replacement for the wings, and they represent the wind in the game! since its represented by white lines, the ribbons are a perfect symbolic match. (also, a note, tetras hair is shorter and coarser than princess z's)

i mostly bullshitted the blue panel but the vague idea i gave it was 'a hope for the triforce to give good fortunes to the people' (pictured as dots, mostly behind her arms)

Pirate Queen Tetra

ph! about a year has passed, and tetra has really grown into her own! as well as literally grown!

shes still tetra, pirate and captain, but shes incorporated that royal heritage into her identity: quite literally! she made piecemeal of the original outfit (what was left of it anyway after the fight), and added bits and pieces to her new life.

she also takes full advantage of said heritage to call herself pirate queen. its great for branding. whos gonna say she CANT go by pirate queen?

the seagull feather is from Aryll. only crew member tetra wears a trinket from (who can say no to that ball of sunshine! certainly not tetra)

not many notes. yall can see whats there. (also she still wears her hair in a bun, its just in a low bun (you can almost see it) when she wears her hat)

st zelda!

first note is: shes not a princess! shes an heiress of the company tetra had made and left behind. hence her title of Lady zelda. ("new hyrule" rly just like-- the ending of ww was *literally* that hyrule is dead and thats okay. how did they miss that :sob emoji:) also calling her Lady Zelda fits with the train vibes

shes in a 1880s style bustle dress because 1) i am OBSESSED with bustle dresses. i love them. so much. 2) the more historical vibe works really well with trains! also a lot of the other outfits in the game have late victorian vibes, so shes certainly not out of place.

her hat (and gloves): any proper lady has a hat on when going about town, however, when she gets body snatched, she pulled out her hatpin to use (ineffectively) as a weapon (she IS tetras great-great-granddaughter), causing her to lose her hat *and* hairdo.

shes still got the hatpin in her ghost form, too. she uses it to threaten people for funsies

Ribbons! on the topic of hairdo, her ribbons! visually tying her to tetras design, the ribbons here instead take on the image of train tracks, with her pin (on the left side) evoking a train engine. the pin also makes her look rich and girly. when her hair comes undone, this makes the ribbons all loose, like how the train tracks disappear in game. (the hat also kinda connects her to tetra)

thanks for reading :D i hope you liked reading this as much as i liked typing it

[ashmcgivern]

I lived, bitch

[tuberosumtater]

So my Legend of Zelda phase called and they demand me draw him again- ⌛

[actuallynickels]

What has been your favorite part of Lackadaisy? (I must say I ADORE the animation with the visible sketch lines. It gives such a welcoming homemade feel to the show!)

I think my favorite part was getting that dang pencil to finally look right. Idk if most people here know this, but I built from scratch the brush used to line the characters as well as the early pipeline for how the look of the characters would be handled in cleanup.

My goal was to create a line texture for Toon Boom that looked like the Xerox Era of Disney animation. This was where the animators would take their rough pencil drawings and use basically an old school printer to copy and darken those lines so they looked like finalized cleaned lineart. This was done to cut costs so they wouldn't have to draw AND line every single frame because Disney wasn't doing so well financially back then (crazy to imagine now I know), but the end result was a really unique aesthetic!

Obviously we went a touch more clean than these. I just wanted to show some really nice and crunchy examples. Even so, funnily some people thought that was a mistake instead of a throwback to a long gone era of animation haha I don't blame them tho. People are much too used to hyper clean/crisp lines and we wanted to bring that dirt, grime, and TEXTURE back in for a nostalgic vibe. I'm still proud of how these early tests came out and the further refining the rest of the team did to get that final look is incredible.

[bluecolty]

Oh boy, my model and rig for Xeon are finally done! I've got a lot of info in this post, because dang it's been a journey haha.

Over the past month and a half I've built this lad, rigged him, put him into VRChat, made a 2D background to showcase him, and shot him out of a rocket in spite. Well, not really, but oh man sometimes I wish I could have. *wheeze*

The Xeon rig and model features a new rigging system, a better model, better organization, and a whole host of improvements over my last model of Medea. And dang, I'm excited to dive into em!

First up is the lil fun showcase. Using the new rigging system, I did lots of fun poses! And I'm super happy with how the toon shader looks too. For his model, I focused on refining the topology and making the weight painting better. Noodle arms also helps a ton too! These improvements really helped get it looking as not 3D as possible hahaha.

Keep reading for more of the behind the scenes stuff!

Yes, this is a 2D background! Way back in the day I used to make backgrounds to showcase my finished models... but I kind of strayed away from that. With Xeon though, I decided to get back into making backgrounds, and instead of doing it in Blender- I drew it!

This is the first ever one I've publicly published, and only one of 3 I've ever done. I first laid out the perspective in Blender and the lined/colored it in Clip Studio Paint. The model of Xeon was rendered in Blender on a separate layer, then I dropped him in the CSP background.

There's defintiely some wrong things with my 2D background, but for the first colored one I've done, I'm pretty happy with it. Its all about practice, and as I gain more experience I hope to better refine the Blender perspective to 2D pipeline.

This time for Xeon, I wanted to massively push my rigging skills. So with the help of Rigify, I've done just that. The rig for Xeon features a very advanced and customizable rigging system that allows me to pose him in so many different ways.

Oh and also, noodle arms and legs! That was a thing I've been meaning to add to my characters for so long, I just haven't known how to. But now with the new rig I can do just that!

As you can see below, the rig is also very user friendly. It's definitely complex, but it should be a lot more standard and a lot more user friendly.

I can't wait to add this rig to all my future models as well!

That's all I have for ya'lls today, I hope you all enjoy him!

[artsekey]

Procreate Dreams

I've been playing around in Procreate Dreams for about a week or so now, and I think I've got enough of a handle on the software to offer a fair review! If you're interested in hearing my thoughts, click the read-more below.

A little context before we get started; I have two degrees in animation, but they're both in 3D. My personal specialty is tech and articulation/rigging, but I think my background puts me in a unique position with Procreate Dreams; I know all of the theory behind animation, but I'm not going into Procreate Dreams and comparing it to a professional-grade software I generally prefer to use (like Toon Boom Harmony, for example).

So, let's get into it!

First Impressions

I hated it. I opened the software, it crashed. I couldn't figure out how to enable onion skins. I couldn't increase or decrease the exposure of my frames. I couldn't figure out how to swap to the eraser. I was confused, I was frustrated, and then I realized that I was expecting to jump in and animate without taking the time to learn the software first.

Once I stopped trying to strong-arm it and started looking up documentation, things got a little easier.

Re-Thinking My Approach

Procreate Dreams isn't comparable to any other animation software I've used before. The UI is different, there's a focus on gesture over buttons, and everything about it is meant to be minimalistic. None of this reflects poorly on the program, in my opinion. It's different. You can't go to Procreate Dreams and get mad at it for not being like the other software out there in terms of how it's used. In fact, I think one area of Dreams that should be applauded is the sheer ambition on display. It's a hybrid of traditional frame-by-frame animation and offers a slimmed down version of some of After Effects' most useful compositing & motion graphics tools. That's just plain cool.

The Good

For those of you who've used Procreate Dreams, you may find it's a little... difficult to see all the good it has to offer through the muddied waters it's launch-day bugs kicked up, but under all the grime, there's a little bit of gold.

Dreams is a one time, $20 USD purchase. That's huge in terms of affordability and accessibility in the software market right now.

The "Perform" option is great, and I think we'll see the longer that it's out, the more creative people are going to get in using it. I've already seen people create gorgeous parallax on their illustrations.

Simple compatibility with Procreate is a huge win. I'm finding my pipeline uses both software together.

The UI is a mixed bag overall, but I find the ability to move between flipnote mode and timeline mode to be great. It keeps the screen free, but I can still access the features I need while doing frame-by-frame.

The move/filters option is a great way to add a little compositing magic to your work.

The Bad

The "bad" here exclusively covers issues with the software as intended. Bugs will be covered under "The Ugly" below.

The lack of a lasso tool is a huge setback. I've seen people saying that it doesn't make sense not to have that feature at launch, especially when it's part of Procreate, but I understand why it may have been difficult to implement in conjunction with the move/perform/warp options. If you save a warp on top of an illustration, then cut and move part of the drawing, how is the warp/local translation data applied to that image? Does the pixel remember it's movement, or is it applied on top of the drawing? There's a lot to consider.

Similarly, the "reference" tool in Procreate would be an excellent tool to add color to layers beneath current layers. "Add Reference Track" would be great! That said, I think this conflicts with the move/warp tools like the above.

The timeline is a time sink. I should be able to adjust the exposure of my frames easily and consistently. As of right now, I have an 80-20 shot of selecting my layer or grabbing the handle for exposure. A small button on the edge of each frame (like a dot) would improve this considerably.

As far as I can tell, you can't mask a group onto another group.

No double-tap on the Apple Pencil 2 to swap to the eraser. This one I'm not sure about; it runs in Procreate, it seems simple to implement here... though it'd be great to see it customizable.

The Ugly

This includes bugs and other issues that are separate from the features (or lack thereof) of Procreate Dreams.

Crashes are frequent. I haven't used the software reliably during any of my sessions so far, but Dreams' autosave feature is extremely strong and very forgiving, so I have lost no work.

My pen pressure become erratic at times, necessitating a restart of the software.

Sometimes my pen will stop working, though other features in the app will continue to run.

The good news is, I think that Dreams is overall a huge win for artists and animators worldwide. Everything that's not working about Dreams will hopefully be resolved in future updates. I'd encourage anyone who wants to try animating for the first time to pick it up-- with the understanding it might take some time to get used to/master.

[nebelihood]

Last post of today's spam ahgsks:

Idk what to think about Looney tunes- I really hope it's great qwq when I found out about the re-boot I started watching it and I LOVED IT!!! So It makes me a little sad to see the animation (When I can see the Looney tunes show and Looney cartoons have A REALLY GOOD ANIMATION!!!!) So I know they are capable of doing an incredible work! I obviously don't know what are the factors that produce that result. Maybe there's not enough money to pay animators, they are rushing them or something- or the animation pipeline isn't what used to be and the artist work isn't as appreciated,,,,

But idk! for writting aswell!!! I really wish I could work on a tunes project and I wonder if I'd be good at it or the pressure would get to my head and I'd do a terrible work.

Anyway WHAT'S WITH BUSTER'S VOICE???? IT SOUNDS LIKE A SERIOUS CARTOON PROTAGONIST'S VOICE?? OF LIKE A NERVOUS KID WHO IS ABOUT TO LOSE A BROTHER AND LEARN TO THE LESSON TO APPRECIATE LIFE AND HELP EVERYONE WITH THEIR PROBLEMS AND HAVE A VERY EMOTIONAL CONVERSATION WITH A SIDE CHARACTER.

AND TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THAAAAT- Dude I've really felt they could do something so good relating the tiny toons with the original looney tunes!!!! Involving them more and AGHHH- I've had this head canon of a complicated relationship between Buster and Bugs. Like Buster admiring Bugs (and this will become edgy but hear me out) also Buster feeling Bugs' big shadow at times. OK MAYBE THAT'S TOO MUCH EDGYNESS AND DRAMA FOR LOONEY TUNES HAAHS BUT COME ON IT'S 2023 IT'D BE FUN- I THINK???? Like them still having their tiny toon adventures with pieces of Buster admiring Bugs, disrespecting him at times cause he's young and some times feeling small in comparisson to Bugs without really knowing what he's feeling. Idk maybe it's too much edgyness BUT LISTEN TO HIS VOICE THAT DOESN'T SOUND VERY LOONEY,,,

[mokii639]

REJOICE, CLOWNFUCKERS! MY MARVUS XOLOTO VRCHAT AVATAR IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE!

After so many requests, here he is! Marvus Xoloto from HIVESWAP and HIVESWAP: Friendsim!

I made this model from scratch on Blender, based off the artwork by Kim Quach for HIVESWAP: Friendsim, thank you very much for giving me permission!

He has toggles for his hat and cane so you can do cool poses or just look very dapper.

In order to upload him to VRChat correctly, you will need to import these files first into your Unity Project:

- VRCSDK3 Avatar (latest)

- Poiyomi Toon Shader 7.3.050 or newer

That's it! In order to upload the Quest version as a fallback for the PC version you'll need to switch your build target to Android on the VRChat SDK Builder, then paste the blueprint ID of the PC version to the blueprint ID space on the Pipeline Manager of the avatar, it's usually either on top of the VRC Descriptor script or under it!

You can:

- Edit this model to create different versions of the character.

You can't:

- Sell these avatars or profit from them in any way

- Make these avatars NSFW (nudity, sexual acts, etc.)

- Upload public versions of edits of this model.

- Redistribute any files of this model.

Have fun!

Get him on my booth.pm! (please follow my rules and don't be nasty thanks)

[solarsonicsoda]

Rating 500+ Theme Tunes - #3: Danny Phantom

He's a phantom!

One of the premier cartoons of the mid 2000s, Danny Phantom was part of what I'd call the golden age of Nick Toons. This 2004 show follows young Danny Fenton, who becomes half ghost in a lab accident. He saves the day from other ghosts, whilst keeping his identity a secret from people such as his ghost-hunting parents. It also would be yet another Nick Toon which could be very easily read as a trans allegory, so take that how you will. Weird how much that happened.

Now, I didn't exactly watch much Danny Phantom as a kid. I didn't get channels like Nicktoons until this show was leaving the air, and I can't guarantee I ever actually saw an episode. Maybe I caught one airing on a CITV weekend morning? Who knows, I don't recall ever seeing it properly. However, I was very aware of this show.

I loved the Nick Toons a lot from whenever I would see them, and I always desperately wanted those Nick Toons games. Do you remember these? Looking back, they look crap, but I now own at least one, so I guess I can find out. Anyway, Danny Phantom is exactly the sort of show I would love, and I kinda did just from what I saw online growing up. It really seems like a perfect show for the time to be honest. I hear it's got a bit of that Nick Toon Signature Misogyny™ though, which I'm going to have to dock some points for. Sad how much that happened.

But let's get to that theme!

Danny Phantom Theme Tune

YOUNG DANNY FENTON HE WAS JUST FOURTEEN WHEN HIS PARENTS BUILT A VERY STRANGE MACHINE IT WAS DESIGNED TO VIEW A WORLD UNSEEN (He's gonna catch 'em all cos he's Danny Phantom)

Yeah, this one does go hard doesn't it? I definitely have grown to find it less corny as time goes on, being very "rap is so in right now!" with it, but I can't help but love it. It explains the lore very nicely, which is always good in a theme tune, and definitely has some cool tie-ins to the general vibe of the show. That chunky bass line adds a lot of sci-fi fun whilst remaining very cool, and those whispery backing vocals are perfect for a ghost show. It's honestly a very good theme in hindsight.

Overall, out of pure "It Gets Me Hyped and Singing and Out of My Seat", I think I definitely have to be scoring this in the high ranks. I'm teetering on giving it an S, but I think I'll shows some restraint, and give this one a very very comfy A.

Anyways, stay tuned for more and be sure to send in any suggestions for other shows you'd like to see done (after the 500 already in the pipeline that is). Check out the intro to this series here, and now it's time to check on the tier list as it stands.

[heilos]

please please don’t take this as a pushy question, but on estimate when do you think the next MSA episode will be posted?

Sa'll good, I know people are excited so I get it. But unfortunately I don't have a solid answer or date for you right now. This video is probably one of our most ambitious so it's really a matter of whenever it gets done it's done kind of situation. Our wonderful freelancers have been a huge HUGE help and with adding more Toon Boom Harmony into the mix this time around compared to just our flash puppets, we're also learning new things on the fly with the production pipeline. We're working very hard either way, but there's a lot of things happening in this 5th video so it requires a bigger effort then most of our previous animations.

[slashingdisneypasta]

I couldn't decide whether to send a flirt for Kingston, or send thirst asks for him... So I decided both just like you did with Moony XD

- What does Kingston look like? I know he's a kangaroo toon, but how do his features balance out? Is he more like Tax Avery's wolf with a human body and animal head, or does he possess more kangaroo features? And where is he on the height scale, too? Like a really tall toon like Jessica or one of the shorter toons like Roger and the weasels?

- How does he flirt and what kind of game does he have? I know he's a married man, but- I need to know XD

- Following that pipeline, how does he like his kisses? Tongue or no tongue?

- In general, what is he like in a relationship? I know him and Rena are pretty toxic, but if he wasn't with her, could he maintain a normal relationship (as normal as a Vegas Mob Boss can get XD)? Would he still be pretty mean to his S/O even if they were a more loving person?

- You mentioned that Kingston is an insecure, badass psychopath... How does that play into his relationships? Like- if he saw a guy talking up to his girl at a bar or something, would he make a show of who she belonged to? Would he get passive-aggressive about it? Would he just deck the guy? Possessive sex when they get home like Feral!Moony?

Ok that got a bit more than just thirsty at the end, i apologize XD don't feel obligated to answer any of these if you don't want to, of course ^^

GAHHHHHHHH YES! KINGSTON! HERE WE GO!-

Kingston's Looks: i had to dig out an old drawing of him i did a long time ago here XDD

As a toon kangaroo: The Kangroo gang are as kangaroo as the Toon Patrol are weasels. So, about the same size (A bit taller). Kingston is a few inches taller then Wheezy and he's mostly a dark dark brown colour (Shown below) except for his throat, chest and underbelly which are a lighter peanutbutter sort of colour (Also shown below). He wears a light blue fedora with a navy blue ribbon and has an eyepatch (Being a crazy person, he did a crazy thing, and thats how he lost his eye XD Perhaps more on this later). His eye is brown.

As a human: While in human form he is about 6'3. His short, rough (Meaning uncared for, split-end riddled) hair is that dark sort of ashy brown colour his shoulders and back are in kangaroo form and his eye is a dark dark green in human form. He generally wears a black suit (Like, all black. Blazer, button up shirt, pants, etc. All black) with his blue fedora but he doesn't look particularly fancy 😅 The jacket is old and thin, he doesn't wear a tie, and the shirt is often undone at the top.

Ryan can sometimes get Kingston to dress up, but even then its just a nicer button up (Like a teal colour or sometimes red).

Kingstons flirt game: Let me be clear, Kingston can flirt, yes XD Just not with Rena, funny enough, so you would never know unless he want interested in you. You would think he's awkward and incapable of acting charming- ever. But you would be wrong, its just his wife he's awkward and non-charming with. 🤷‍♀️ (She has the same problem with him)

He's not a playboy-type or anything and he's not the smoothest person ever, or particularly sleazy, but he he knows what he wants and can make it clear 😏 .

He makes the person he's into feel special, cuz he's pretty mean mostly- but not to them. To them he's almost f u n. Teasing them but also making them feel safe. Or, at least it would make you feel safe, if he himself wasn't so scary 😅 He gives some conflicting vibes when he's into you. He's scary, but he's not acting scary. Vibe can be described as electric.

Like you're safe cuz you're with the danger, and the danger thinks you're neat, so 💪😆

Kingston kisses:

This one depends on his mood. He likes both! A good no-tongue kiss with the gal that makes him feel peace and comfort when he's pissed can be great, but a fat tongue kiss when he's feeling more psychotic/feral- can be awesome too XD

And, 😏 having been married to his highschool sweetheart since he was 18- he knows how to kiss 😏

He can turn your brain off if he wants to. And sometimes, just for kicks, he does 😏

Kingston in a relationship (Not with Rena):

Ohhhhhhhh it would be SO much more healthy!!! Yes, he's a psycho. Yes, he's insecure. Yes, he's an asshole- but as shown with how he is with Ryan (loving, appreciative, caring), he is capable of warmth and a loving relationship.

He would not be mean to them ^^ (That is reserved for Rena *cough*) He would treat them better than anyone (while still, you know, being his sometimes-insane most-of-the-time-dickhead self)! He wants his S/O to be in all his 'meetings' so they know what's going on (and to gouge their reaction- he values their instincts), he doesn't keep it from them when he's done something terrible (just admits it. They should know what they're getting into, he supposes.), he treasures his time just alone with them (date nights are non negotiable- he just loves hanging with them ^^ They keep him calm), etc. He puts in the effort to make the relationship work in his fucked up world!

Possessive/Jealous Kingston:

I think Kingston c a n become secure in a relationship (Its more his intelligence that he's overly insecure about XD Like with Jewel, if she poked fun at him for being all-brute force he'd so quickly get riled up. This man will be arguing loudly with an 11 year old because of this XDD ) BUT, if this is a relatively new relationship he w i l l get possessive. Like, these other assholes don't know you're his! He needs to let them k n o w. (And by 'other assholes'- he means pretty much everyone else in the world. He doesn't like that many people.)

So he'll be beside you m o s t of the time that he's with you. Holding your hand mostly but if someone really starts to bother him he'll wrap his arm around you, whisper shit in your ear (Not even necessarily dirty stuff, just anything that can be between the two of you in order to show your intimacy. But yeah. making you go red is also a strategy for him (: He can play you like a fiddle and he d o e s use it when he feels he's gotta (: XD ), give you cheek kisses (Lingering ones), glare heavily at the person, start playing with whatever weapon he's got with him (Switching and unswitching a switchblade with an unsettling look in his eyes, sawing against a table gently with a machete while making dark eyecontact with the person, 'casually' giving his gun a good look over as if he's checking it for faults that don't exist because it is clearly ready to go-) while having his arm still around you-- this man will even take you off to a dark corner and start making out with you slowly, gently, to everyone is aware of his claim. Yes, he'll flash whoever-it-is threatening him a dark shiny look while kissing before returning his attention to you.

With Rena he gets crazier- more violent and angry, because he's very well aware she w i l l cheat on him. With you, he's more secure.

AGHHHHH! THESE WERE SO MUCH FUN TO EXPLORE! ^^ XD I hope you like them !!!! ^^

[artful-browniebites]

Salvador the Jumping Spider! The main face and ‘villain’ of the thief group that Frankie was in. Most toons live in toon communities, but both Sal and Frankie live in the normal human part of the city, so they keep in touch. Sal mostly does standup, but he’s well known and popular enough as a character the animation studio will still sometimes call him in for shorts or commercials and the like.

He’s also part of the inciting incident. Sal and Frankie met up for lunch, and Sal told her there was something exciting coming down the pipeline, though he didn’t say what.

Far as Frankie knows, that was the last time anyone saw Sal.

[emieclat]

my january 2023 resolution is to build the rigs for my lovelace and eris project! it’s been a while since i tried building anything so it’s taking some time to reacquaint myself with...everything lol

i don’t usually make new year resolutions (because i’m lazy) BUT in 2022 i found that in order for me to remember to do things and actually FINISH doing things, i have to make a physical to-do list. and the important thing: the things on that list has to actually be concrete and doable. “restock xyz stickers” “print something for dad” “fix xyz in my novella draft” etc etc.

so for my resolutions, i’m not going to go for vague wishy washy goals like “make more animation.” i gotta actually COMMIT. i gotta actually BE SPECIFIC. but it’s still gotta be DOABLE. so, simplified: finish lovelace and eris’s rigs by the end of january. that is very reasonable, and it doesn’t carry the pressure “FINISH A WHOLE ANIMATED VIDEO”

anyway, pictured above is the work i started on today! the program i’m using is toon boom harmony, which is what i use at work and thus what i’m most familiar with. i’m not a professional rig builder (just a simple animator) so this stuff isn’t totally intuitive to me, and i’m sure i’m making a lot of weird mistakes along the way. but the puppet is shaping up pretty good so far! definitely better than my last one lmao. the current step is just to get the basic shapes and pegging hierarchy down (i know how that sounds. no i didn’t come up with this name). the next step will be refining the shapes with deformers.

the question i keep asking myself is “why put so much effort into a podcast that ended years ago?” WELL first of all, it’s just my favourite podcast ever, and second of all, for a long time i’ve been thinking about making an animated music video. so this will be sort of a test run for that, for me to figure out the workflow and pipeline of doing everything (or at least, almost everything) myself. it’ll allow me to experiment and learn and by the time i get to that music video, i’ll be much more knowledgeable.

anyway, happy new year!!

[bunnywand]

oh huh.. i knew the ultra rare TP6 print of toon cannon soldier has been crazy expensive ever since it came out (as all of the tournament pack ultra rares always have been 😆) but i didn't realise the common DB2 print came out just 2 months later?? 😧

pretty quick turnaround!! i reckon DB2 was probably already in the pipeline (especially bcos it contained the rest of the new toon cards too) b4 TP6 was 🤔

[ninapinhoo]

2D Character Animation for mobile games - Penguin

When Toon Boon Harmony 21 was released they improved the game pipeline and its integration with Unity.

My goal was to create a simple character and animate it to test the new TB Harmony game pipeline. It had to be simple, funny and easy to animate, because I didn’t had much time to do it. 

I did some minimalist character sketches to animate, for some reason the penguin theme was very present in those early drafts and I ended up choosing one of them.

I chose this specific penguin because I thought it was more charismatic, could be used for both youth and children's games, and looked easy to animate.

With the final design defined, I studied the updates aimed at the game and integration with Unity and made the character's rig to start animating.

So I planned the animations and defined the minimum necessary to build a game with this character, then I did an idle, walk, attack, jump and slide.

The idea was to create animations with few frames to be very lightweight for mobile games.

I tried to export the skeleton to use in Unity, but I ended up having trouble implementing it, and since I'm not a programmer I couldn’t solve it easily. After thinking a lot and asking some friends for help, I ended up exporting them in sprites until I managed to solve this skeleton issue. In the end I found this a good solution and made the sprites file available to be downloaded.

Penguin is available to download for free from the Unity Asset Store. If you want to use it feel free, I only ask you to credit me and if you can share my work, I appreciate it!! <3

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/2d/characters/2d-character-sprite-animation-penguin-236747#description

Thanks for the reading time!!