Snapai's animations and drawings

[Snapai]

Here's a few projects I've made / am making:

Citrapop (work in progress reel)
rsFQn6_YH18

For some reason, Adam Wan (http://zaush.deviantart.com)'s creations seemed perfect for this song (which there is already a music video of, but whatever). I'm doing this mainly as a practice, and because I wanted to do something a bit longer than the exercises I had been doing previously.

The "blinky" parts are the keyframes from the scenes I have not yet animated - it's much easier to export them from Toonboom this way then to go through and hold them out, only to delete them later. (and as a bonus, they don't come across as a 'held' frame, either)

(For the high quality version go here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsFQn6_YH18&fmt=18), the HQ button doesn't work right)

The Furret Dance
GSIFWb8Zbno
This is just a bit of fan art for Rick Griffin (http://rickgriffin.deviantart.com/), based on one of his drawings (http://rickgriffin.deviantart.com/art/Naked-Dance-51511273), which made a pretty good storyboard/layout sketch for this project!

Squiddinabox
ZNL9of93ZY4
This was one of the pieces from my college demo reel. It was at the beginning of this project that I found out about digital 2D animation and ToonBoom Studio v2. I found out that half of the time I was spending "animating" on paper was not actually spent thinking, or drawing, or planning, but rather simply moving paper around, sharpening pencils, etc. I still have my animation disk though - it's hanging on the wall next to my PC tablet. ;)

[lavallelee]

The Furret Dance has happened to me before

dont you hate when people startle you :eek:

nice works

[JenI]

I love the Rick Griffin one!! OMG I laughed so hard!! 8D Nice work. Will you ever finish the Adam Wan Citras? Thats such an awesome start you have going.

[Snapai]

I love the Rick Griffin one!! OMG I laughed so hard!! 8D Nice work. Will you ever finish the Adam Wan Citras? Thats such an awesome start you have going.
Absolutely! At least - I'm going to finish the animation on each shot to the point that the finished shots are now. I'm probably not going to do final linework and ink-and-paint, just because by the time I finish the animation on it, I'm going to be quite ready to not draw those characters any more. ;)

[jeremyhopkins]

Some of the ideas and posing are really nice on the citrus pop song. Its a little bit hard for me to read right now but overall it feels really fun and appealing! Congrats!

[Hana]

I have to say I really love the Citrapop animation :D It's really fun to watch and quiet charming with what you've done already. I really love how you worked it in with the beat of the song wonderfully.

[bleupencil]

Yep, there's some grrrreat stuff happening in that Citrapop piece though the incessant blank frames got rather distracting and eye-hurty there. It's fluid and has a great sense of weight in many parts. I really would love to see it when it's finished.

[Snapai]

Here's my attempts at the rabbit from the ragbag...
Drawing from the video directly, and an attempt to move the character off how he was drawn in the video
http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/7066/rabbitattemptpart1.jpg
More work with the head, and moving him about some.
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/6818/rabbitattemptpart2.jpg
I'm not entirely sure what to do with his jowls, or his jaw when his mouth is open, this doesn't seem quite right - it made his head look quite a bit bigger. But then again, I've only seen one image of him! ^^;

These were both drawn with my tablet, in openCanvas.
Whatcha think? :)

[dmgctrl]

Great stuff, Snapai. Also I love your DA page!

[Snapai]

My "Don's Club" subscription just paid for itself - it corrected something I mislearned from my expensive animation degree.

http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/6919/kidtraturn.png

In school, they taught us to draw the lines out to the side of the first drawing, and use those to line up the rest of them.

But the new animation tip about doing it directly on the animation table makes so much more sense. If someone told me to make a turnaround, with nothing else, I would probably do it that way, but thanks to learning the OTHER way first, I never realised it.

I would have been so much better at model sheets by now had I known that. Of COURSE it's easier to see inconsistencies when you're actually flipping the drawings! x_x

So anyways, enjoy this little turn of the "Kidtra" from my current project, which I threw together in like, an hour in Toonboom. :)

[cartuneman]

wow cool stuff and isn't nice to have this insight?!

[Snapai]

I wanted to give inbetweening a shot the way that Don said on his latest club-only tip.

But I wanted to do it from actual production drawings of course. So, I went to the Don Bluth archives on AnimationMeat (http://www.animationmeat.com/modelsheets/bluthmisc/bluthmisc.html) and snagged a copy of Ducky's walk cycle.

After much copying, pasting, and aligning, I managed to get those on their own drawings, positioned as best I could so the feet moved at a even pace (ie, to match a set-speed background), and shot it on twos:
http://snapai.winchell.us/duckywalk_extremesheld.swf
Please note - these are NOT my drawings

Then I went through and, following the tutorial, inbetweened it to ones (in Toonboom- this is NOT created in Flash, even though it is an SWF file.)
http://snapai.winchell.us/duckywalk.swf
Numbered drawings are from the model sheet, only the even (unnumbered) drawings are my inbetweens

I also captured a very nice video of me inbetweening it, which I'll share later once I've finished editing it down to a nice short video from the hour-and-a-half monstrosity it is now. Not sure whether I'll post it here, or in the members-only section, I don't want to be seen as "competing" with the official site content! :D

Unfortunately, the shot seems to have a bit of a "wiggle" to it, particularly in the hips - I think something about not having proper registration on the drawings still messed it up. Maybe because I didn't rotate the ground line to be true horizontal on each keyframe. D:

I wish I had had a chance to work with timing charts on this practice - I drew everything as an exact half, but I do work with at least "mental" timing charts on my own projects (since I'm drawing the entire thing start to finish), and I'll hopefully get the chance to work with someone else's for the Cyber Garage project.

Cheers! :)

[Hana]

Wow those are pretty nice inbetweens :D I could see it being a challenge to line up without any registration points though. I'm liking that they also match the style up well!

[dentitov]

Snapai

It looks very nice! :)

[johncbeggs]

that is really wonderfull :)

great job snapai

I should attempt one, any advice you can give?

[Snapai]

that is really wonderfull :)

great job snapai

I should attempt one, any advice you can give?

Not too much, pretty much just follow Don's inbetweening tip. ;)
The walk cycles on AM unfortunately don't have timing charts - I know the foot that's on the ground is typically going to be an exact inbetween as it moves, since the background usually moves at a constant rate. It wasn't mentioned on the tip, but sometimes you'll have a "general" chart for the entire body, and then a chart for a specific part that's moving differently. If you read the Animator's Survival Kit, it sez the timing charts originally evolved from charts actually drawn on the arcs for each part, and just moved out of camera view.

The only other things I can think of are - flip as many drawings as you need to to make sure that parts are moving on the arcs described by the extremes, and animate forms (a thigh, a knee, a length of leg in 3D space, a slab of foot) rather than lines.

Actually, everything I just said is in this nice little PDF on AM: http://www.animationmeat.com/pdf/featureanimation/10Steps.pdf :D

Hope that helps!

[Snapai]

I wasn't sure if I should post this, but considering everyone's into doing things paper-based (and several folks elsewhere have told me it's my best work):

oTkb_RDV5zc

A little risque, but eh! :p

This is the last thing I animated on my animation disc, before discarding the light table desk it went to.

I originally planned it for a faster speed, but it worked best shot at 10 FPS, which is what you're seeing here.

[feliceworkshop]

Snapai!!....:eek:
Why I'd never......!

:D very cool, eh,eh!...Hubba, hubba!

[IzzyS]

haha! you're so goofy, I love it. very neat :)!

[jeremyhopkins]

I agree, it is by far your strongest work. It'll be really interesting to see your work before and after cyber garage project. I think you'll be very surprised by what you accomplish. :)

[Snapai]

I agree, it is by far your strongest work. It'll be really interesting to see your work before and after cyber garage project. I think you'll be very surprised by what you accomplish. :)

I suspect it's better because it's doing slapstick comedy, instead of song-and-dance, so I get a lot more chance for pauses and texture in the action. :)

[jeremyhopkins]

No, I like your animation to the song and it was quite charming. It feels like you have a bit more control over your drawings on paper and it was hard to judge some of your other animation because of flashing frames - which wasn't your fault.

[BrioCyrain]

Interesting animation, I loved the balloon blowing.

[Snapai]

Here's a page of sketches I did based on an illustration of Dr Seuss's Gertrude McFuzz:

http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/2530/missgertrudemcfuzzsketc.th.jpg (http://img11.imageshack.us/my.php?image=missgertrudemcfuzzsketc.jpg)
(click for full view)

For reference, here's the original Seuss illustration (courtesy Amazon):
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0634005065.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

I would love to someday see a 2D-animated movie done based on Seussical the Musical (which combines Seuss stories to create a full-length production, rather than adding pop-culture and fluff to expand a single one to that length.)

[Mithmeoi]

Ahhh I love your animations. XD Such smooth movement. Great work. :D

[lavallelee]

yay, awesome drawings

im a big seuss fan, the other day i saw a book called 'The Seuss, the Whole Seuss and Nothing But the Seuss' i should of picked it up it was used for only 10 bucks! but i passed it up because of insufficent funds :(

who knows maybe you will be the one to direct the 2d movie someday ;)

[Hana]

I'm a bit slow but I wanted to say that I loved the last animation you posted especially the tail movements :D

[Snapai]

Rough animation to a clip of a live show I recorded last night:

http://snapai.winchell.us/baseballbling_roughs.swf

Done in Toonboom Studio of course. :D

[Snapai]

Tied down version:
http://snapai.winchell.us/baseballbling_tied.swf
(that is if I understand what 'tying down' or 'nailing' the roughs is now...)

[Regan]

I like the looseness...I think there might be too many arm movements though. You could probly get away with like 3 strong poses for the first guy...to simplify it.

[Mithmeoi]

I agree with Regan, now that I look at it you could simplify the movements a little. They kind of draw too much attention away from what's really going on in the scene. I would suggest on the first one having him hold his arms still after the firs time he stretches them out, then maybe have the hand spinny thing going on while he's talking about the spoke and only make him do it twice at most.

[Snapai]

Yah, that's my main problem, really, with my own animation. Everyone I show it goes "Wow, it's so smoooth!" but I always seem to stuff too much action in it, and don't have enough variation in motion and tempo. It winds up one giant wiggly BLAH. I'm really trying to learn to play stillness against motion a bit better, for more "texture" in the animation, or however you wanna call it. @_@

Oddly enough, I've already removed two gesticulations from this little doodle that didn't work AT ALL - during the misspeak of "bicycle cards in the spoke", the right hand dropped before the left on "spoke", and it wound up with his hands going around like a wheel, which totally destroyed any sense of there even being a character speaking. XD

But yeah. I'll look at it. :S

[BrioCyrain]

Good stuff, looks really good.

Though I agree some of the arm movements seem a little "wavy".

[Don Bluth]

Tied down version:
(that is if I understand what 'tying down' or 'nailing' the roughs is now...)

I like the dialog. The only thing I notice that could use some improvement is the timing as you move from pose to pose. It looks a little too even and makes the characters gestures feel sluggish. It could be improved by moving quickly from pose to pose. For example, the hand gesture on the cat when he says the word "bling" could be quicker; more of a staccato movement. Avoid even timing. I'm just guessing but I would say you animated straight ahead as opposed to the extreme/ inbetween method.

[Don Bluth]

I wanted to give inbetweening a shot the way that Don said on his latest club-only tip.

But I wanted to do it from actual production drawings of course. So, I went to the Don Bluth archives on AnimationMeat (http://www.animationmeat.com/modelsheets/bluthmisc/bluthmisc.html) and snagged a copy of Ducky's walk cycle.

After much copying, pasting, and aligning, I managed to get those on their own drawings, positioned as best I could so the feet moved at a even pace (ie, to match a set-speed background), and shot it on twos:

Please note - these are NOT my drawings

Then I went through and, following the tutorial, inbetweened it to ones (in Toonboom- this is NOT created in Flash, even though it is an SWF file.)

Numbered drawings are from the model sheet, only the even (unnumbered) drawings are my inbetweens

I also captured a very nice video of me inbetweening it, which I'll share later once I've finished editing it down to a nice short video from the hour-and-a-half monstrosity it is now. Not sure whether I'll post it here, or in the members-only section, I don't want to be seen as "competing" with the official site content! :D

Unfortunately, the shot seems to have a bit of a "wiggle" to it, particularly in the hips - I think something about not having proper registration on the drawings still messed it up. Maybe because I didn't rotate the ground line to be true horizontal on each keyframe. D:

I wish I had had a chance to work with timing charts on this practice - I drew everything as an exact half, but I do work with at least "mental" timing charts on my own projects (since I'm drawing the entire thing start to finish), and I'll hopefully get the chance to work with someone else's for the Cyber Garage project.

Cheers! :)
You're right! Ducky has a good case of the wiggles... Usually, this indicates that the inbetweens were not accurately done. However, your control of the volumes and the positive/negative shapes is very encouraging to see. I applaud your desire to see something done properly and your initiative to make this test happen.
Congratulations, my hat's off to you.

[Snapai]

I won't be able to attend the seminar tonight (forgot to bring my laptop to work - I can only sneak a few minutes on the self-service computers), but here's some sketches of the CGP characters I've been doing (click for larger):

Sasha sketches:
http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/2817/sashasketches.th.jpg (http://img23.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sashasketches.jpg)
Mama sketches:
http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/8646/mamasketches.th.jpg (http://img23.imageshack.us/my.php?image=mamasketches.jpg)
Fox sketches:
http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/4006/fawkessketches.th.jpg (http://img25.imageshack.us/my.php?image=fawkessketches.jpg)

[Snapai]

No-one but Mithmeoi seemed to notice it (it came near the end of a pagebreak of replies) on the CGP gallery thread, so here's my first attempt at Sasha's march:

http://snapai.winchell.us/CGP/sashamarch_1.swf

Comments and critiques much appreciated, tell me what you'd fix if you were me! D:

box is at 9N/S, 12E/W, pan is moving 4W every 12 frames (6 drawings), and the crosshairs are at 6E/W, 2S. The cart/string are on a seperate layer.

[Hurricane_Heidi]

No-one but Mithmeoi seemed to notice it (it came near the end of a pagebreak of replies) on the CGP gallery thread, so here's my first attempt at Sasha's march:

http://snapai.winchell.us/CGP/sashamarch_1.swf

Comments and critiques much appreciated, tell me what you'd fix if you were me! D:

box is at 9N/S, 12E/W, pan is moving 4W every 12 frames (6 drawings), and the crosshairs are at 6E/W, 2S. The cart/string are on a seperate layer.

It's a nicely done cycle, Snapai ... but it suggests more of an attitude of sneaking than of marching to me. This is a subtle thing.... and not easy to explain... but I think that the "punch" in a determined, or marching stride, is in the weight of the steps. The reason this suggests sneaking to me is that the steps are relatively soft... like she is trying to be quiet... also the reverse curve on her body is the most noticeable posture in this walk, making her look more tentative by hunching forward. I think a confident march is predominantly chest out, back straight, with less noticeable reverse curving of the body.

I LOVE the rope dragging the wagon going slack and then jerking the wagon along when her arm swings forward! This adds a lot of entertainment value. This is exactly the way I envisioned it, and exactly the way I thought of trying to do it myself... and you already have!