6 Responses to How About that!…

1. Erin says:

   November 27, 2013 at 1:35 pm

   Hi Andy,

   Really like this tutorial gif series you are doing, which I just came across by chance. I am now going to read more of your blog to get clued-in on your impressive 3D work. I am not an animator or illustrator or anything like that. But I have been experimenting this year on my needlepoint stitching blog with various simple gif animation and needlepoint related videos. Anyway I’ve been thinking about creating an actual “Mr. Needle” character (a stick figure stitching needle with arms and legs) that I could use in various animated gif adventures involving virtual needlepoint canvas themed worlds. I can’t draw by hand for toffee (but might do a passable job on simple stick drawings), and to date have used Gimp primarily as the medium to create my very basic gif animations. Do you have any advice as to what (windows) software (cheap or free) I could use to create such character? I would very much appreciate any advice in this regard, as I am eager to start creating this imaginary world, but don’t know quite how to get started! Thank you for any advice you might have in this regard.

   Erin

   Reply
   • recursiveworlds says:

     November 28, 2013 at 11:13 am

     Hi Erin
     I think producing simple animations really depends on how you want to get your pictures into the computer. My GIF animations are produced on an android tablet using StickDraw because I can simply use a stylus directly on the tablet and draw there, other than that I draw on paper with a pencil and scan in images or use a Wacom drawing tablet, I find drawing with a mouse really difficult. For 2D animation ToonBoom make the best Windows/Mac software some lite versions of which are free, I quite like “Animation-ish” and “Flip Boom Doodle” as good places to start. If you fancy a book that really clearly explains lots of principles of making Drawings move “The Animators Survival Kit” by Richard Williams is fabulous where many classic techniques are explained in frame by frame drawings and are really easy to follow. I hope this helps and good luck with animation your character.
     Andy…

     Reply
     • Erin says:

       November 28, 2013 at 1:06 pm

       Thank you so much for your reply. I have just ordered the Williams book through Amazon, and will next investigate which from among the software apps you recommended will work best for my project. I might even have to buy an android tablet. Essentially I need something that is not too complicated but can create a slick HD looking, expressive stitching needle character that can have “facial” expressions (the eye of the needle) and can bend, fence, fly like an arrow, pogo jump, and slither around (but without hand and legs) through the holes of a universe that consists entirely of relatively static scenes painted on canvas surfaces that consist of a series of interlocking crosses or ++++ (which is how a needlepoint canvas looks like when you stitch or paint it). I hope I will eventually find the right (and affordable) solution! Again, many thanks. I started on some very preliminary ideas on my blog yesterday (the latest post has a primitive needle figure on a sort of scrolling stitch ticker tape that acts as a treadmill) … and will attempt to get much more sophisticated as I learn the craft (or try to, at least.)

       Thx

       Erin
2. Erin says:

   November 30, 2013 at 2:01 am

   Hi Andy,

   I’ve installed Toon Boom on my comp, and have decided to create a new blog (which I’ve called Toon Dummy) to document — chalkboard style — my experiences learning how to use it. Again, thx for suggesting this application. Here is the URL of my new blog:

   http://toondummy.wordpress.com/2013/11/30/so-you-wanna-learn-cartoons/

   Reply
   • recursiveworlds says:

     December 2, 2013 at 11:52 am

     Hi Erin,

     Its great that you are moving along with this project, I just checked out your new blog and it seems like a really good place to start. It occurred to me that you might like to check out a couple of blogs and web pages that are about animation… http://www.cartoonbrew.com/ is a good place for news about what is going on in the world of animation and it post an artist of the day which is always nice to look at. http://cartoonresearch.com/ is cool about animation history and http://www.11secondclub.com/ run a monthly animation competition which is a good place to see how different people tackle the same animation problem. Good luck again with your new project.

     Andy

     Reply
     • Erin says:

       December 2, 2013 at 1:19 pm

       Thx again, Andy, for all your help. I will put links to cartoonbrew and 11second club on my front page… but not cartoonbrew, as that site has some sort of nasty hijack exploit virus that Norton blocked.

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