The ZADR Gate Project

Based off of the small comic made by recapkid. Permission has been granted.

[thezadrgate]

Part 8: Short after-kiss sequence. The final part is gonna be bigger, so hold on to your hats! I feel bad that there wasn’t much to do on this scene but it’s definitely gonna be made up for the end (lots of movement and dialogue). Thank you everybody again for your support and I look forward to posting the next segment!

Part 7

Part 7 Animation

[thezadrgate]

A Peek at the Process

For anyone interested in a bit of a behind-the-scenes I hid this below the cut to prevent blog clutter~

Hello there! Just organizing files and wanted to share a tiny behind the scenes screenshots mostly to remind me to make do things less hectic next time. With the animation program Toon Boom Harmony I was able to make sure things were put together okay like this!

The camera peg is just for if I want any fancy movement. Colour-Card has to be put there because everything would be black (though I’m working on trying to figure out exporting with transparency instead). The base is the storyboards and as predicted Dib and Zim have their own little space. I’ll open them up for you guys to see...

Clean up for small stuff makes things so much easier :D the eye layer was just if I was going to continue animating the next shot where the focus is mostly on Zim. Nothing too crazy here. Onward to Dib!

Ahh... well a bit more had to be done cause he was moving the most. Everything layered is to make sure things aren’t crossing where they’re supposed to. Fun fact though if you put a peg on a mouth layer and move it alongside the body you can keep a mouth pack anchored to the head no matter where it moves and still keep all the drawings intact. And finally...

The final shot with everything open~ so while testing the shot usually I have the border on for the camera but when I need to see what I’m doing I turn it off. Behold the missing top head of Dib XD (you only draw what you need after all). Color pallets on the right side, and above that are the tools and drawing library section which came most in handy for the mouth section. With more practice hopefully, I can pull more things off with the setup.

But remember fellow artists, layers are your friend and your enemy (like Dib and Zim)! Don’t be like me and forget to separate important parts lest you have to redraw things due to overlapping shapes on a single layer. The pain... XD

[thezadrgate]

What do you use to animate?

I personally use Toon Boom Harmony for the animation stuff and Storyboard Pro for the animatic portion of the projects. For color tests and small sketches on hand I use my iPad app proCreate.

That being said though, you can also get cheaper programs and even some free starters to help you get your foot into animation. Along side photoshop there’s also Flash animation (now called Adobe Animate) that’s also pretty close to the programs I’m using. Search google for free alternatives too if you just want to test the waters. I saw something called Pencil 2D if you want to check that as a starting point. Some of my friends use Flipbook Studio which can also be pretty cool for animation.

I could go on forever about animation XD I’ll stop here though before the post gets too big. I really hope this helped you out with you’re question and anyone else out there with the same question!

[thezadrgate]

Part 7: It’s pretty short because I was working on the animated first part of this sequence, so if you like this version more here you go! The next sequence will be longer I promise~ (actually I think it’s either the last or second to last sequence too)

Part 6

Part 8

[thezadrgate]

“Shhh Zim, it’s okay. You’re okay.”

Part 6

Part 7: Boards

Part 8

Oh gosh, so... I hope this was okay for me to attempt. There’s more I can do, and the final will be polished but I wanted to show what I had to share. If you want the final result to have the word bubbles just let me know!

It wasn’t colored at first, but with the week I ran out of internet I decided to at least finish it. I’m sorry there’s no shading, but I can totally do that in the finished piece. I still wanted to share this.

Do you guys want me to do the next part like this, or just have me stick to the normal storyboard stuff? Fair warning doing it this way takes longer without any help, but ehh the next one is short so I wouldn’t have too much trouble ^^ Also if you’d rather have me just work on the storyboards with no animation let me know and I can make a new version.

I hope you guys enjoy it still! I’m going to be taking a mini-break but I’ll be back at it soon ^^ Thank you, everyone, for the people who have been following and any newcomers, be sure to check out the official comic by recapkid for the whole thing! I reblogged it as well on this Tumblr account! 

I can’t thank you guys enough, seriously thank you!

[thezadrgate]

Side note: while I was going back through the boards on tumblr and making sure everything was linked correctly I noticed that the timing for the boards seemed off from what was actually set.

On my phone and my tablet it seemed to be desynced but on the computer it works properly. This won’t be an issue when the final result of the project is put in a complete video. I apologize for that technical difficulty and hopefully everything still looks okay despite the inconsistency’s.

Thank you everyone again for you’re support and I’ll have some progress updates coming up with a few screenshots soon! o/

[thezadrgate]

Part 6: Not too much crazy movement yet, I’m planning something big for Part 7 that might take a bit more time but will be super awesome in the end. My favorite part of this section is when Dib’s leaning in to say “or what, space-boy?” cause I was feeling giddy seeing the connecting frame really pull the scene together. This is why I love animation and storyboarding so much! ;.; Hugs to you all for your support and interest in the project! 

For more information be sure to check out the beginning of this blog for the comic with original artist @recapkid, some general information about the project, and just if you want to see a couple of progress shots. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask!

Part 5

Animated: Part 7

Storyboard: Part 7

[thezadrgate]

Yo... I was editing the next sequence (Part 6) and I was like... well... might as well mess around a tad while I’m editing ^^ Don’t worry Rek I won’t put this in the final XD Either tonight or tomorrow this part should be done. I have company over so they have priority but yeah I’m back at it again and should be at the kiss really really soon~

[thezadrgate]

Part 5: Thanks for those who joined the stream it was fun to draw with some company ^^ This part wasn’t as involved but still important. We’re a couple parts away from the kiss ahhh I’m excited about it! Side note though, Zim sits up and down so much in this comic ahhhhh plz Zim pick if you wanna stay or go hahaha ^^

Part 4

Part 6

[thezadrgate]

Part 4: These are getting more complicated hahahahahaha XD I didn’t clean up some of the boards cause it’s getting too late and it takes a while to convert into a gif, but hey I think I’m getting better at making them look passable? Just 5 more gifs to create and I’ll be on my way to cleaning up and finalizing them all into one video! Woohoo!

Part 3

Part 5

[thezadrgate]

Wanted to test out the linework in Harmony and get their colors in the library... For now, they’re fine >.< The final will have a filter over the colors. I’m staying as faithful to the style as I can... only time will tell if I can keep it up for the in-betweens hehe. I wish I had a line art/clean up artist to help me... or even a background artist... oh gosh why am I doing this alone XD hahaha sorry for the rambles, back to the storyboarding for me!

[thezadrgate]

Part 3: He needs to be granted permission! Hehehehe. The blush was a little hard to work around but I tried patching it up as much as I could. In the final gotta keep in mind Zim’s clothing size. Also, I’m getting to the more dialogue dependent part of the story so there won’t be too many changes unless they’re moving from pose to pose. That can change though. Overall I think this turned out alright (maybe?)

Part 2

Part 4

[thezadrgate]

Part 2: Added more in-betweens to help the scene move a little better. Antenna from up to down in the beginning to match the second panel. Added Dib blink because of adorableness. I will re-align the scenes better later.

Part 1

Part 3

[thezadrgate]

Part 1: Added Zim popping up from the back and getting himself onto the ledge. Minimal movement from Dib might change to make him feel a little less stiff

Part 2

[thezadrgate]

The Beginning

This blog is mostly for cataloging and keeping track of the project.

Color Test and Linework Test for the project. I made this as a small gift for recapkid, who you should check their art and reblogs if you love ZADR (Zim and Dib Romance) because there’s a treasure trove of stuff over there!

This is for now going to be an animatic. The parts are broken up accordingly and will eventually end with music and a few key animated moments.

(Self note: The time of day may change a little bit, but most of the colors will have an overlay of blue and purple to help give that soft effect. May change later)

[recapkid]

THIS THING is soooo self indulgent, it is literally the epitome of “I made this for me but y’all can read it if you want”. I don’t have much else to say. JUST TAKE IT. Sorry it gets pretty sloppy in areas I just wanted to finish it -wheezes-

[thezadrgate]

Putting this here so people know this is the source of the project and so you can check out the owner’s other art if you haven’t heard of them yet XD