Logos, and posters

Apart from drawing and animating, there are other digital works that I do which contribute to animation.

Logos

As every animation has a title, a logo is always required. I majorly make my logos via MS PowerPoint and some other logo making websites such as Logomatix, and then finish the rest of the effects and details on Adobe Photoshop.

However, despite this, I do make my own logos by sketch, creating my own style of writing. And if I am not okay with the design, I will simply redesign it without having to redraw it on paper all over again.

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Posters

For every animation, a poster is required. And having mentioned this, I take time to create posters that are linked with the animations that I do. Some of which are made by others (as feature in the first one). For this process, I use Adobe Photoshop which allows me to put each feature to its individual layers. I often like to experiment with backgrounds to make the posters not only vibrant, but also suitable to the animation itself. When it comes to animation posters, its not all about how good it looks, it is also about the real message behind the story itself.

Animation

Animation

Apart from drawing and sketching, I at times have some attempts on animation, using different methods and diverse softwares. Animation normally takes about 24 frames per second, whereas GIF animations are ongoing. Here are two examples of animations I created with different softwares:

Jesus animation
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This is my very first original animation I ever made using Adobe Photoshop, which features Jesus Christ sketching out His hand. It was my very first attempt on making a original animation of my own when I was asked by a teacher to make to for him during a Taster Day. I'm hoping to use this short animation whenever I am making a full-length animation someday. For this first animation, I had began by making a (fourth) sketch of Jesus on paper. I then scanned the sketch via my printer into my pen drive as a JPEG file format. I next opened the sketch in FireAlpaca, a free drawing software which is downloadable from the its official website, which requires no payment and has no trial modes for it. For the second pose, I did some major editing using Adobe Photoshop, by creating a copy of the right arm and position it to the left, and then saved it in a different name. For the animation, I opened Adobe Photoshop for it, using a step-by-step tutorial as a guide to help me create this animation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt-nUEOt2hg

I first saved it as a Quick Time player file, but then saved it as a GIF file since I had some problems uploading the QuickTime version of it in the past.


Bouncing Ball

This is my second animation I made, but this time, I did not use Adobe Photoshop for it, but rather I used another animating software called RETAS Studio, a animating software that it is widely used by professional animators. It was my very first time on using the software as it has four parts: TraceMan (which is used for scanning and tracing images. It can also do the tracing for you), Stylos (which is the one I used for the animation), PaintMan, and CoreRETAS. I used Stylos for the animation, using this tutorial from YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oD0A_r-om8w

After following the tutorial, I saved the animation as a .swf file, as instructed.

I am hoping to turn this short animation into a full-length animation someday, as I continue to gradually try and improve my animation skills each day.

Other types of animation

Although videogames softwares such as RPG Maker VX Ace do create forms of animations which involves creating cutscenes, they are more remote since the software involves controlling the characters.

Sketches, Lineart & Colouring

Sketching

Whenever I am trying to make pieces of art, I always tend to research in order to find good references so that it can help me to have an idea what the characters look like; however, to avoid any form of plagiarism, I choose to be original with my drawings and make them into my own ideas without copying the existing artworks. I then, begin with a sketch on paper like in these three examples:

Linearting

I then create a lineart out of the sketch. I do this method via the graphics tablet using softwares such as openCanvas and FireAlpaca. Normally, this process will only take me one or two extra layers, but some of them will take more than that, depending on the difficultly on the sketch, as some of them will turn out to have more detail than expected, and will take more time to finish. An example of this is the artwork featuring the bride and groom; because the sketch itself is very detailed it took me more than 2 layers to finish the lineart to have the detailed result desired.

Colouring & Effects

After making the lineart, I colour them using Adobe Photoshop. On the colouring process, I started with basic colours. I then made a new layer for the contrasting effects, by which I change the colours opacity to an appropriate transparent consistency. Normally it can take about 2-3 layers depending on the drawing, as some of the artworks that require some more detail might take up to 4-5 layers or more. I often like to experiment with colours, especially when making my own characters, but at the same time, I tend to stick to natural colors.