Earlier in the year for a college project I attempted to revive the old Gagapow Manga-Gaga shmup under the new name GagaWing (a play on the Capcom shmup name Gigawing), this time programmed in Flash with actionscript. I got to the point of having my character fly around, shooting and flashing up a shield and some rockets flying about that would hurt him, along with a title and help screen. Unfortunately I was a bit out of my depth with the programming and ended up abandoning it. Here’s some gifs of what it looked like!
Finally, Rabrab is sorted! Completed it today. Took longer to animate than I had anticipated, but that's how animation goes I guess! I would of cleaned up some of those 3D glitches you see near the end of the film (although there was a lot more than you see here!) but I really need to get on with my other projects. Oh, and a warning, you may wanna have your volume down just a little..the Tingle is loud!
So I finally found a way to line up all the characters colours with the line art for this film the Howdooyoodoo, after months of putting it off, thanks to Flash 8 which has a layer filter section much like Photoshop's for movie clips. This means I didn't have to line up the colour art for every single frame of the animation, so it took a small fraction of the time it was taking in Photoshop with film files over the summer holidays.
Sadly there's still one main thing I haven't sorted out for the film that I also won't have time for: the background noise. See, the film is set in the middle of London yet at the moment there is no crowds of people walking about, or even any moving cars on the road. I really wanted to have a mass of people in almost every shot, especially the one where the HDYD is walking across a road, but I simply don't have the time to animate them in at the moment, as to be honest I should really be working on my latest project Lucy Lolly. Once that is out of the way I may come back to add them in, but for now I'm just going to release it as it is, as everything else is now intact more or less how I want it. I swear this film has been the most un-intentionality time consuming animation I have ever done, everything just went out of it's way to suck time out of me. Really need to learn quicker ways of doing things like this..
Anyway, I've uploaded the film which you can see below, just pretend that the scenery is really busy for now and you'll hopefully get the idea. Thanks have to go out to Dave + Pat Long, Alex Underwood and Jack + Sophie Deen for helping out with the voice work, and of course John Agard, of whom's poem this is based on.
Experiments for a short film I’m planning on called ‘The Howdooyoodoo’, based on a poem by John Agard about a giant plant creature who lives in England. I'm setting it in London and the Howdooyoodoo itself is a sort of Mr. Men/Totoro mash-up covered in moss with a rather spiffy top hat and cane. The technique for the film is not decided yet, and there isn't a script as such, so I have along way to go with this.
Well this was a nice surprise. I uploaded some of my animation up on a video website called Chew TV (now offline) some time ago, and I've just been e-mailed about all the reviews for them that have been written since. These are probably the most in-depth looks into my little films I've seen to date, and are very handy feedback even though some of these films are pretty old now.
On the Fuji's (2005)
"Looks as though Morph hadn't been in make-up before he went on stage, and brought his dishevelled cousins with him. Although this short animation had the premise for better potential, it was all rather hammy and somewhat unstructured. It carried a heavy lack of depth towards it's characters and it's general substance for it's narrative. It was rushed, untimed and a bit too silly to be funny. Brainstorm these ideas with more clarity and structure and you shall surely go far. It's all in there for refining - just take your time."
- Bear Chedduz
My response: Rushed and un-timed is right! This was planned and animated in a couple weeks, with the animation done in just two days. It shows, though this didn't appear to deter DeviantArt viewers who favorited it in their droves, probably due to it's "OMG RANDOM" nature, the same happened with 'The Audio Show'.
"LOVED this, very imaginative, loves the improvisational approach, the warriors, pirates and the pancake wizard fairies were amazing. loving your work keep it up!"
- MartinHerd
More after the break!
On 'Cheese Must Go Down' (2005)
"Cheese is an animated short, which could also be classed as a music video. The film features three animated characters all holding banners, as if they’re staging an anti-cheese protest. It’s a bit confusing as to what this film is trying to tell you, but I think, due to the rock soundtrack and ironic banners, it’s a plea to ban cheesy music. I get this impression because one of the banners has “Abba” written on it with a big red mark through it.
Cheese is very short, and takes a long time to upload, but it’s worth it for the catchy music and well-crafted animation. I was confused by the fourth character, (a red surfing robot with his own language) who crops up intermittently, mumbling in robot speak that you can’t understand. As far as I can tell, he has no purpose, so I don’t think he adds to the story’s development. Taken as a fun, quirky rock video – Cheese will be a hit to those of you who like rock music. But, if you’re a fan of cheesy pop music – be prepared, because you might be offended!"
- HollyBerry
"A promising short animation from Aaron Foster. This makes a good case against bad music, and how, with a little incentive, a surfing robot, and a killer homemade soundtrack, You too can cut Abba out of your life."
- Taranburns
"Those little anti-cheese people scare me a bit, they have weird voices, i can't stop watching them! ahhh 'cheese must go down'! Cool animation."
- MartinHerd
On 'Tron' for Sci-Fi Channel (2006)
"You're on fire Aaron, this animation is briliant, i love the fact that you didn't just film the bits you didn't have to animate, created a very good effect. keep up the good work."
- MartinHerd (again!)
On 'RabRab' (2007)
"Amusing Animation. Excellent use of animation, sure made me laugh. brings back old memories, Tom and Gerry etc. look forward to seeing the next one."
- Ashstyler
"Pure animation gold! This reminds me of the good, light-hearted, simple cartoons such as Catch The Pigeon and Tom And Jerry. The humor is of course in the fact that Rab Rab's quest to conquer the termite or whatever it is can only end in one thing... inevitable failure or pain. The audience feeds from his demise and all for the better! The sound effects are comical and the animation itself is simplistic gold...good going."
- Luke (of the Chew TV Content Crew)
"Haha this video is sure to make you laugh, reminds you of the days when Tom and Jerry were around, love the hammer action ! sound effect = gr8 ! keep up the good work"
- MartinHerd
On all my films on the site:
"Aaron Foster is becoming a celebrity name for me on Chew TV as all his submissions show a real professional talent for animation and more importantly storytelling. Rab Rab was like a modern day computer animated version of the old looney tune shorts as it appeals universally to all age groups with it’s well timed physics rewriting comedy, the Fujis was also great – really reminded me of the way my mind worked when I was a kid. Wasn’t a fan of Cheese as it didn’t really have a story, but again showed off Aaron’s ability to change between mediums this time using flash.
Sci Fi again was another kind, this time real life stop motion where two lines battle it out on a maths book whilst being blocked by a human hand, the choreography and organization must have taken some head scratching before and during making it as there is always several things going on at once. One other to note, which is so often taken for granted with all films, animations in particular, is the sound on this and Aaron’s others adds so much to the quality. I’m looking forward to see what he comes up with next."
- Randall
Thanks for the words guys, there's more of them here for any of my films than I've ever seen before! These quotes may just be added to the film's mini-sites for prosperity! =)
