the buckoblog

Owen is a PNW based artist focusing on 2D animation, illustration, and graphic design. Documenting the process of trusting the process. [He/They]

[buckochamp]

when I get really sad, I watch those BTS Starstruck Odyssey videos where Brennan interviews his mom

[buckochamp]

been having a real hard time making any personal art lately, but I've been doing a lot of doodling on breaks at work. tag urself, I'm "wah"

[buckochamp]

have a Mulder mulling it over

[buckochamp]

Happy #terriblecomicday! Yesterday I found a cool rock in a creek.

[buckochamp]

Been listening to a lot of NADDPOD (a D&D play podcast) and felt inspired to make a rough turnaround for Beverly Toegold, the halfling paladin!

[buckochamp]

stanley reading his self-published fanfic to the kids

[maximumgraves]

what happens next

you'll all be sorry 279

new 8 panel what happens next update

[bigbigtruck]

WHN is some of the best storytelling and multilayered character writing in current webcomics; don't miss it!

[buckochamp]

EXCELLENT rec. I've been binge reading all morning.

[buckochamp]

(Redbird)

First peek at my OC Charlie, main character of a comic I'm working on.

[buckochamp]

Here's a short breakdown of one of my favorite 2D animations I made for COLOR Creative. So many wonderful people played a part in this project-- I was responsible for animating Dumpi in the style of a nostalgic breakfast cereal cartoon, but a little more... threatening 👹

[buckochamp]

Meet Bucko; a lonesome cowpoke accompanied by a weird little guy named Champ. Together, they wander the open plains in search of somethin' neither of them quite recall.

[buckochamp]

Sometimes, you have to figure out juuuuust what level of animation fidelity you can achieve for a project that has a strict budget and deadline. Here's how I broke down some options for the client! In the end, we used a mix of rigged puppets in After Effects and moments of hand-drawn animation for impact.

[buckochamp]

Absolutely! Deciding how to approach speech animation was super important because this project had a LOT of dialogue. For the motion tests, I pulled some royalty-free audio of a guy saying "Welcome! What can I do for you?" and presented three options to the client (see first GIF above). A - Open/Close. This approach only uses 2 key mouth shapes; it's used a lot in older cartoons and anime because it saves a lot of time and it's easy to dub over. Arguably, it also could have added to the "old school" feel of the cartoon. B - Simple Phonemes. This method uses 12 key mouth shapes animated on 2's. It brings the character more to life than option A and it's easy to do quickly if you set up a mouth rig in After Effects (tutorial link)!

C - Complex Phonemes. This also uses the same 12 key mouth shapes, but it's hand-animated in Photoshop and includes in-betweens on the 1's . Looks buttery smooth, but takes a lot of time and the client simply didn't have the budget. Plus realistically we might have had to cut down on dialogue if we went with style C for the whole video. Hence why the guy only mouths "welcome" in this GIF. In the end, we went with B - Simple Phonemes, with just a couple moments of C for flair.

Choosing what level of animation you want for your project is a process of asking yourself, "What is the purpose of this animation? How important is getting the story out there vs. spending time making it visually stunning? What tools can I use to make this process faster and how can I design for that from the beginning?" Everyone wants to make a masterpiece every time, but if that was our goal, we wouldn't finish anything. You only have so many resources; balance them to your benefit!

[bigbigtruck]

still learning

[buckochamp]

September is right around the corner, and I am available for work! Hit me up at [email protected] for your motion design, 2D animation, storyboards, style frames, VFX and compositing needs!

[buckochamp]

Sometimes, you have to figure out juuuuust what level of animation fidelity you can achieve for a project that has a strict budget and deadline. Here's how I broke down some options for the client! In the end, we used a mix of rigged puppets in After Effects and moments of hand-drawn animation for impact.

[buckochamp]

made a sticker for my favorite game rn

[buckochamp]

Shaking off the burnout rust by practicing some style frames and cityscapes. Happy crop top summer!

[buckochamp]

First round of exploration for some logos! I'm pleased with a few of these, though they definitely need polishing. Had fun playing around with Illustrator's 3D effects. Which one is your favorite?