animation

[mxoony]

Animation guide (ish)

So if you're new to Adobe Photoshop i would suggest getting used to your drawing tablet or software first. Personally i took a good couple of hours but im still not awesome :/ But if you're already familiar with the equipment then just get started.

STEP 1 

Pick suitable size page to work on i would suggest an even shape(100x100 or 50x50 pixels) if you're doing a pixel animation insure that you pick pixels as the measurement and not inches.

STEP 2

Create another layer to create your character and leave the background for your background. Next select the brush tool and go into window and select brush setting with this you can then adjust brush size and type. If you want a cleaner line i would suggest turning off shape dynamic. Pick size of brush and start testing it out. You can now draw your first frame. 

STEP 3

So to actually make an animation on Photoshop click on timeline and select frame animation. So now to pick which frame you use you have to make it visible in that certain frame. By using layers you can get a rough idea where your past frame was and this works as a sort of onion layer and if you lower opaqueness this massively helps. So make loads of frames and make your animation... How i made it so that certain limbs moved i used the looping tool or selection tool and used ctrl T to select it and rotate it rather than having to draw out my character all over again. I also duplicated layers to make the job easier.

I would suggest looking on youtube for a further in depth tutorial as i myself am a newbie. But this is my process of animation.

[mxoony]

Here is another attempt at animation. I feel like this one resembles more of a pixel art style/videogame animation. I was inspired by the style in Adventure time and did similar anatomy.

This character is Lilian the Weather Witch, she is based on my friend. She loves cats so i gave her 2 lil buddies. The black cat is Mila and the white one is Pete. The legs look slightly off but overall i’m very happy with it. 

On the left is my original character. I changed the style to make it easier to animate.

[mxoony]

Here is my final product. I’m really happy with my final walk cycle at first I was worried that he didn't look like he was walking but I think its adds to his character as he floats around. I learnt how to use Adobe Photoshop and I used the timeline function to create this gif. To make the process a bit easier rather than drawing out each frame separately I used the looping and selection tool to select specific parts of the body and moved them around sort of like the body parts were on pivots. By doing this it meant that in each frame i was able to keep my character looking the same. I didn't use many other functions mostly used selection tool and the brush but I found that by turning of the shape dynamics the lines were much more defined. There are many other functions but for this I only used those few. This pixel art also doesn't resemble most as the pixels are minuscule but it is actual drawn in pixels unlike my previous gif of Felix.

[mxoony]

This is my pixel art of my character Tobé Yobé. He is a skeleton boio who just floats around. This is what i have so far i think i might try to make the arms move as well and add a background. I think the part that took the longest was actually drawing out my character not animating it. I’m not sure how i feel about the style i’ve drawn his face in i think its ok but im not sure if i actually prefer its original design.  Using Photoshop was really fun and i hope i can use it again in the future.

Also yes my sketch was on an old maths paper he’s way better in my opinion.

[mxoony]

This is my character design for Felix. This was a rough sketch for my animation. I based him roughly on Tim Burtons fillms such as The Corpse Bride He is just a guy but he has orange demon eyes(not coloured here). To survive he must devour souls but he is a vegetarian complex and doesn't want to hurt his fellow ghosts. He himself once was a lost soul trapped in limbo but he was brought back with an experiment resulting in his demon eyes and the things that come with them. So instead he makes lost souls/ghosts sign contracts and when they're ready to go he then receives sustenance. I haven't named his companions yet. :)

[mxoony]

This is my character Felix.

So today i have been working on Adobe Photoshop. I was meant to be doing pixel art but i made this as a draft instead. I’ve never used any digital art software on a computer and this was my first time using a drawing tablet. For this i used a wacom tablet which was really nice to work with. So this was my first attempt using Photoshop and i think it went pretty well. I think that overall it could flow better and the lines are very sketchy.

Despite this not being quite what i was meant to be doing im happy with how this turned out as it enabled me to practice and get used to unfamiliar software.

[mxoony]

Sonic the Hedgehog(2020): what did i think?

Very true he did indeed have the teeth of a human. Because we wanted to imagine just how Sonic would chew his food or bite us.

Honestly this was a movie I was never really planning to see. I thought it was another cash grab at our nostalgia and when the initial trailer came out with the original sonic, I partook in the hilarious and frightening memes and joined in on the criticism. When I found out that they were redesigning Sonic due to the backlash - I was surprised. I never thought a studio would listen to fans voices, but oh were their voices heard. I am so glad they went with more of a tribute to the cartoon and video game style for Sonic.

It's not perfect by any means, but it's an enjoyable film for the family. I definitely prefer the new Sonic. I think the voice character for Sonic fitted well. I think the major part that was well done was how despite sonic clearly being a cartoon character an unrealistic animation was able to fit in in a realistic world. Even though the original animation was intended to be more “realistic” the redesign actually fits so much better and doesn't seem quite as out of place. The design definitely stays true to the original game which was a big part that annoyed many fans. By making the eyes bigger for example more emotion was able to be conveyed and by not using human teeth which quite frankly was terrifying, the animators were able to create the Sonic character we all love and remember. The colours were also more vibrant and made Sonic stand out and despite thinking this would make him less realistic it actually just enhanced the idea of having a cartoon character in real life because we know its not meant to be real its fun.

I am by no means a fan but i do appreciate the work that went behind it and how the creators actually listen to fans suggestions to keep them happy and for many kids it was definitely a good film and a success.

Over all the movie wasn’t an amazing film to be praised in my opinion. The dialogue didn't really amaze me. It was mostly “cookie cutter dialogue” and the overall story line was pretty weak and predictable. Wooh go power of friendship?? So Sonic has these super fast powers and it surely wouldn't even take him a second to go and find what he has lost (don't worry no spoilers in case you want to see it), yet he insists on going on a friendly journey with Tom Wachowski (James Marsden) so we watch a well known super fast character go on a car journey as the premise of the movie for an hour and a half not thrilling. In all honesty the soundtrack was fairly poor but i also get that it was a kids movie meant to make pop culture references from the 90s and play a part to nostalgia. I understand wanting to make a movie about a well known video game character and obviously i wasn’t expecting an Oscar worthy film it was just one of those films you go watch once with the family but not really worth watching out of love for it unless you are a hard core fan. Its definitely not an amazing film in terms of the actual story line and in my opinion wasn't put together particularly well. 

Thank you for coming to my Ted talk.

[mxoony]

Whenever I make a piece I always try to make something that I'd want to look at. I just like ridiculous and extreme things, so that's what I try to create. I always try to push my art as far as it can go. Even if it's a stupid idea, something awesome and ridiculous can still be made out of it.

https://www.theverge.com/2013/8/14/4614874/paul-robertson-pixel-art-interview

[mxoony]

Here is some concept art for Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game.

Robertson says that he isn't sure if he had any one game as his inspiration. Growing up he played a lot of Taito games like Bubble Bobble, Rainbow Islands, Liquid Kids, etc. Which had really colourful, bright palettes and lots of cute characters so he was pretty into that. As he got a bit older Robertson started getting into SNK and Capcom games. In the mid to late '90s they really started pushing pixel art to the limit so games like Metal Slug, The King of Fighters, Street Fighter III, etc. were pretty huge for me, too. He is largely inspired by video games and pop culture so there's already a big crossover audience that can relate to it. Robertson admits he still uses  old programs and classic pixel techniques. He says he is just faster and more efficient with them and that you really don't need any fancy high-end tech to make pixel art.

[mxoony]

Here are works of the artist I am researching.

[mxoony]

This pixel art is by Paul Robertson who is an Australian animator who is known for his pixel art and animation. Some of his most notable works are Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game and Mercenary Kings(2014). Not only did he work on the Scott Pilgrim game but he also worked on the film in 2010. Robertson's art was also featured in Gravity Falls in the episodes including Fight Fighters(2012), Soos and the real girl(2014). He also worked on the season 3 promo of Rick and Morty in 2017, his work was also featured in Simpsons.