Fiverr part two!

sweet, another fiverr purchase! A nice break from ponies.


.....now that it's over, back to more ponies! Hahah!

First Fiverr

Hey now! I got my first sale on fiverr...I had kinda given up on that..... man. my first customer looked badass! I'm very glad to have gotten this one to draw.

In other news, I am still drowning in ponies.

Back to work!!

My Little Pony: Fighting is Magic

With most if not all of my time being spent working on Fighting is Magic with Mane6 it has been difficult to continue updating all of my many pages on the internet. I've spread myself quite thin here, and it's really hard to figure out what fat there is to trim. I have 2 FA's, 1 DA, a twitter, facebook, blogspot, a fiverr, freelanced, and a personal website that's been neglected for a very long time now. I've been smothering myself in internet, and now I cannot breathe.


I'm still around...just very busy. I don't even have little sketches to upload, like i had hoped to.. Keep an eye on Mane6, and I'll figure something out here (and everywhere?) soon.

Five dollars

Stumbled across a cool site called Fiverr. you basically put up a commission of...whatever the hell you want for 5 dollars. I decided to draw people's faces. it'll help me out in an area i've always been afraid to explore, but knew i needed to at some point. This will be fun!

Check it out!

Lost arts rediscovered!

I'm suddenly not very happy that I found my missing artwork. I probably need to start fresh with this one. I'm sticking with the idea, though!

FiM Super group!

Chaotic Order

I seem to have misplaced almost all of my art files. I can't upload old unfinished sketches if I can't find them!

This is what happens when I try to organize myself...I just lose it all! There is order to everyone's chaos...sort of like how a lot of people have that one drawer filled with junk, or had one when they were younger. Being organized all the time? I don't know how people do it.

also, the subject of that comic I did 2 posts back wasn't entirely a joke. That game that Conner's holding? It's real, and I'm one of the guys working on it.


This is why I haven't had any updates on my flash movies. We've been going full blast on this game project! check out the post, read the thread, etc. any questions have most likely already been answered.

Website

Thanks to my friend Kyle, I now have a website up and running!

It is very barebones with placeholder text for now, but I will be changing that once he runs me through the process. I wonder if there's a way to stream this blog onto the site. If anyone knows, tell me!

Until then... check it out!

http://www.carbonc0n.com/

Words.

Sometimes, I just don't have much to say. it takes a long time to formulate all the words I previously felt was required for a blog post


but... after looking at other peoples' blogs and sketch blogs and blog blogs about blogging..sometimes it's good enough to just post a pic and say "I spilled my soda on this."


I'll be posting unfinished sketches every now and then starting now!...Well..starting next time!..cause now I have a comic that i just finished for a commissioner. This 'tom and jerry'-esque size play is a lot of fun!

I have been commissioned a good amount of these comics between the lazy gamer, Conner...and his annoying roommate Artie. Artie is...well...bite sized. This regularly causes problems for both of them.

As I finalize my barebones website...I may make a section to house these comics.

Where do I even begin?

Shinkuuuu~ HOOFDOUKEN

Well, aside from a complete computer melt down that lasted weeks before replacement parts were ordered, and stuff reinstalled...

I have been doing things

Things...like (finally) getting a centralized website up and running...

Also, things...lots of things...with ponies. Surprised? I hope not.

I have been heavily going to work on flash and commissions, and I'm going to be covering Graphic Libraries in this blog entry.






In Flash, hitting Ctrl + L will bring up your handy dandy Library.

Making things explode is a lot of fun. SO HERE, YOU CAN SEE I DID IT MULTIPLE TIMES.

Inside, you will find all of the reusable bits and pieces for whatever animation/game/application you are currently working on. The parts I use in animations are broken down into three basic types: Movie Clips, Graphics, and Sounds.

A Movieclip is sort of like a contained package of animation and sounds. You can fit entire movies inside of them, and when you export your flash file, they will play on their own, generally looping for as long as they are on the stage. In the working area, however... They will appear to be static images, representing the base location of the animation.

One frame. One Movie Clip. What's inside?

Oh god! There's an entire world in there! with MUSIC!

Another thing unique to Movie Clips is the ability to add filters. You can apply Photoshop style filters, such as blur and glow to Movie Clips, making them useful for sprucing up any animations you may have already completed. I used it here to make twilight's teleport look a bit more interesting than a simple fade out.

Twilight's got CROSS-UPS

I usually used a Movie Clip to contain a completed animation, and contain it within the boundaries of a frame, so that up until I'm finished, I would not have to worry about things going off the edge and being unseen.

Nowadays, I focus on Graphics.

A Graphic can contain animation frames, but will not play any Sounds that are contained inside when exported. The main advantage I enjoy from Graphics is that I can see and control the frames of animation as they are in the working area.. on the fly.

Reusable limbs!...don't worry, she didn't feel a thing.

For my MvC3 inspired animation, you can see here that I've made a folder within the library to keep track of my Graphics. I've made many different states of each body part that can easily be swapped in and out (through right clicking) on the fly, and this has allowed for some smooth and generally headache free animation. Unfortunately, this makes the dreaded Frame 1 of the flash even longer than usual. Imagine building a puppet, and then rebuilding every single part of that puppet about 6 times each, including hair, hands, and mouth.

This Graphic Library grows over time, and as it grows..it makes future animations with your previous puppets even easier.

An Alternative method that I just found out today (Seriously, it's always the really simple things that I miss until I get some fresh eyes on my work way later) is to create the puppet parts in your Graphic Library (for example, TwiFleg1 for Twilight's Front leg, default position..) then have the different parts simply be the different frames instead. This keeps your library compact, and will make changing the parts just a tad easier, especially if your character is going to be talking.

This constant refine, experiment, refine cycle continues to excite me.

What excites me even more, is the amount of people churning out great stuff, as well as possible fan animation teams that are forming. I may or may not join one of them as i'm already busy on solo projects and commissions..But I definitely look forward to what they come up with! I hope you have enjoyed the mini tutorial/self reflection..and here, have some Applejack. (Building the rest of the cast for more fanimations. stay tuned)

Howdy.

This will be the most ultimate of fanart that I have ever worked on for anything, ever. Thanks, MLP..for making art and animation fun again.

Still Alive. GET HYPE!

I'm still around...I've just been frustrated with myself as of late. Aside from the fun i've been having with ponies (I made top 10 in a pony themed contest for one of my favorite games, League of Legends!)

I still run into the same problems when i work on flash works...even after nearly a decade of working with/poking at flash, whenever I start a project.. I find better ways to do them well into production, and eventually I reach a level of frustration that I branch off into separate projects.

With this recent pony commission I have hit this about 3 fold, because I did this commission with no prior knowledge of MLP, and after becoming a really... deeply adoring fan, I see just how ugly my animation might be to other fans of the series, as it takes a steaming turd on the established style of the show. Sure, it's nice that i have based this animation off of my own style, but I still could not help but start production on another MLP related animation.

I am now working on two animations at the same time and will be going through the processes with you guys on both of them. I am fully determined to finish my personal project along with this commission and I really hope you guys enjoy them both. I'll have more info, screenshots, and an exploration of explosions, beams, and other fun effects at a later date...though, I guess this gif should say enough on its own.

Fighting game fans rejoice. This match is about to explode!

I'm still new to this self confidence thing.. I'm going to see just how far this will take me, even if it takes all year. LET'S GO!

I have been slacking

And by slacking, I mean... being completely and utterly addicted to MLP and Just Cause 2.

Yes. My Little Pony.

MY LITTLE FRIKKIN PONY. WHAT.

My entire friend group has been engulfed in this show, and though I used parts of episodes for reference of the animation I'm documenting, I didn't actually watch it until my current hiatus. I am so completely hooked and it's literally all we talk about.. WE'RE TALKING ABOUT IT RIGHT NOW!

It has even bled into our many other interests..such as League of Legends...

Garen has come to the defense of EQUESTRIAAAAAA



I will continue this animation with even better MLP knowledge, and hopefully any future animations of the theme will be of much better quality! Here is the current progress on the animation, and I do intend to fix spike's head bounce and some point.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14142040/MLPepisode.swf

Until then, enjoy the progress!

Dragon Steps, The Fun of Grouping!

Ah, grouping. I used to hate you so very much.

These are a life saver, and can provide some tasty movements if done right. What originally bothered me about grouped flash animations were the robotic and squared off chunkiness of the joints I would see in what I guess were poorly designed figures. As I get further into this animation, my comfort with it increases and I figure more ways to shortcut things without loss of quality. In this screenshot you will see a familiar character from an even more familiar cartoon....

Notice the bits and pieces used to create his body. Every piece is editable within themselves and the joints are represented by the little dots I've dragged here. When I rotate each piece, they rotate around said dot, keeping things moving in as natural a way as possible. when things look a bit too weird when rotated a certain degree, I redraw them.

Spike's a very enjoyable character, and in the MLP series he needs so much more love than he's given. His bouncy steps and helpful abilities are always a lot of fun to watch, and in this animation both will be explored. My friend will be providing the voice for spike, and I've almost completed the main, loopable animations leading up to the voices. Cannot wait for the lip syncing! Here are his current walk animations from the side and front... Also included is the updated walk animation for the donkey. He now has his cutie mark (oh god, did i just say cutie?) and an eyebrow.

And front side.

Stay tuned for more!

Donkey Steps

Today was a productive day.

After my recent commissioned animation of a My Little Pony styled version of the client's donkey character, I was brought back for round two! I've been dying to do some straight up animation and this project is going to be a whoooole lot of fun to work on.

I'm still trying to cut down on the time spent during the drafting phase, and after a quick storyboard session with the client, I hopped into flash and drew up the guidelined frames for the main character's walk animation. equine legs are SO DUMB. I was headbutting so many refs for so long... I just seriously wish i have something that's at least close before i begin working on the lines and colors!:

At this point the head and body are generally unmoving, and after sectioning off the foreground legs, background legs, body, and head to different layers I can work on getting things a bit more lively. I started from scratch with this animation because I made a couple mistakes with my previous one and starting with a clean slate was ideal for fixing everything at once.

The parts that I have drawn in are grouped off, but almost every frame is redrawn. I mostly use grouping to handle character heads and much easier post animation adjustments. After polishing things up a bit, I have a basic walk animation for the donkey. I don't know much about MLP, but after seeing a lot of fan art floating around the net it appears each pony has some sort of symbol.

I will be checking with the commissioner to see what symbol he wants. Here is the current status of the walk animation. I still need to add in a symbol, and any other details I may have missed after reviewing with the commissioner:

Finalized walk animations for both characters and possibly some lip syncing coming soon! The voice samples I've received so far have me all excited!

Until then..have the result of my character study of Spike:

I got a little carried away...so did he. We'll see where this goes at a later date.

Baby steps

I have tried things such as twitter and facebook over that past couple months to express my thoughts in little bite sized pieces..I have also kept an old deviant art account alive with a little bit of journal submitting there as well.

I need a central place to show off my WIP's and attempt to document my design process and inner thoughts so i've opened up this blog.

Below is a WIP lip sync animation I started a few weeks ago. The character included is one of the first comic characters I designed way back in middle school. her name, Kathy Katzu...is decidedly cheesy. Kathy apparently wants some chips from...an as of now undecided second character. the voice is provided by KidCoco.

Everytime I open flash I try to find more efficient ways of animating characters, and saving their parts for future use. The way I did this one was...quite a failure to be honest. The character's head is layered off in so many ways, that it's counter-productive. I wanted every bang of hair to move, along with her eyes, muzzle, and face paint. I can do this..but it takes so many clicks through so many groups that it's just a headache. I am better off going full frame by frame with what I'm doing here. My search for a perfect blend of frame by frame and grouped animation continues! stay tuned for updates.