Last Post of 2019

Oh wow! We're already at the end! Crazy!

I know I wasn't as active on here as usual for previous years, but I think I definitely improved outside the work I've posted on here and on social media. Basically the school work.

I think I've reached a point where I'm confident enough to finally start putting a portfolio and applying at art jobs in the industry; those are my main goals for 2020.

I really enjoyed doing a monthly animation practice piece for the entire year. I'm almost done; just gotta finish and post up my December practice soon! I think I might continue it for 2020!
Maybe even add something else to that, like a comic strip a week? I haven't decided yet.

But hey! We'll see when the next year hits!

A Look Back in the Decade

With the start of a new decade being a few days away, I put together some images that shows the evolution of my cartoon style. I went back through some old sketchbooks I had hidden away and gathered some images for this interesting look-back.

For this throwback, I focused on my character Dakota since he's been around with me for a very very long time. It's a nice mix of style evolution and my art progression, which includes my start in the animation world with Flipnote Studio, to my start with creating art digitally.

Of course, I think I've gotten better with art outside of my cartoon stuff in general, but this way is an easier way of seeing the change over this decade. I would have gone back further, but I don't know where that stuff is at currently; I know I still have it somewhere.

Let's see where the 2020s and beyond takes us!

Merry Christmas 2019!

The Christmas season is back!

Our friends from the future are here to celebrate the holidays!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!

November Animation Practice - Jamming Out

Hey hey hey! It's December! I would have made this post earlier but finals week was happening! And of course, I needed some time to chillax from the semester's work. I'm here now!

Here's my animation practice for November!

I've never animated a dance before, so I decided to change that!

Now, some time ago I hinted that I was gonna add a new character to the Class of 2422 character line-up; the character here is that new character.

Consider this her early unoffical introduction since her character design is not finalized at this stage. I chose this character for the animation because she fits the bill perfect with the dance and music, so I just had to roll with it!

The video/animation is suppose to loop so set that up with the video player to see how well it plays by right clicking on the video itself.

The dance itself is based off of a funny dance from the show American Dad; check it here!

Happy Halloween 2019!

Another year, another Halloween!
And of course, I'm back with another Halloween illustration!

Looks like Sally wants to share some sweets with her best friend Mandy. Too bad Mandy's not really interested in her offer or returning the favor.

Happy Halloween everyone!

New Addition?

Hey, wouldn't it be funny if I were to add a brand new character to the Class of 2422 main cast line-up? Ha ha ha, that's so silly! I would never do that! I'm just kidding! Ha ha ha ha!



...unless?

September Animation Practice - September

A very spooky month is back! In case you don't know, Halloween is easily one of my favorite holidays! You can't beat free candy!

Now that October is here, that means it's time to post September's animation practice!
For September, I decided to base it on an illustration I did some time ago on one of my characters, Nelly, with her mother's tombstone.
It's a bit of a solemn animation, but I think it makes its point across well!

I'm getting a bit faster with this animations, and I even managed to add color this time!

Here's the illustration below:

Even though I only have two classes this semester around, I have been going at it 110% for the two; the digital painting class is especially tough for me since it's something I don't do often (or at all outside of class.)

I'm still working on some personal work to hopefully show off on here!
If anyone's interested, follow the @dojipocket pages on Twitter/Instagram! Better yet, follow my personal account @animatedslacker on Twitter/Instagram as well!

August Animation Practice - Gun Slinger

September already? Oh wow, oh wow, oh wow.

During the last two weeks of August, I sort of took a real vacation. By that I mean, I didn't draw anything at all those two weeks. It may sound bad, but that's all I've been doing this summer break. I just wish I had something to show for it...

Then again, a lot of things are in the early stages!

During those two weeks, I remembered that I had to meet my monthly animation quota so I started with something that I quickly lost interest in, but then I remembered this character I created in one of my classes this past semester.

It's this Mexican bandit character that has a hint of Mr. Ridiculous injected in its DNA. I really like the character so I figured "why not use this character for an animation?"

So for the entirety of the final week of August, I got to work. Within one week, I managed to finish a completed looking piece of animation!

I really like how it came out! I thought I'd get into coloring this thing but August ended so I had to leave it at that. I really want to color this later on.
Don't worry about the poor fellow at the end; he's just one of my art teachers in college. We have this funny back-and-forth thing going on so I figured I'd put him in danger for the animation.
Oh, and here's the rough animation:

Can you imagine that? Doing the rough animation, then do a cleaner rough, and THEN do a final clean pass? All within a week? Crazy, right?

All-in-all, I really like the end result. Let's hope I can keep up this momentum for September.

July Animation Practice - ToonBoom Harmony

Dead blog alive! (For now.)

Behind the scenes, I've been drawing away on my character turnarounds, character designs for my upcoming animation, and just recently, I just started roughing out the Austin & Jennifer comic book!

Underneath all that, I've been toying around with ToonBoom. Initially I was intimated by the program because I've heard of its "steep learning curve," but I learned everything I wanted/needed to know within a day or so.
I was working on a short scene up until the ToonBoom trial ended and this was all I was able to finish:

I ended up really liking ToonBoom and if I had it, I'd use it for my next upcoming animation. Ultimately though, I decided that I'll be using Adobe Animate for the animation; that puts an end to my search of finding a better animation software.
At least I know it's ToonBoom!

Cartoon Gallery Show

Hey! Sorry for this late announcement, but I was invited to display my animations in an actual real gallery show in Santa Ana!

The exhibition is only for one night! I'll be showing off "Time Traveling Pen" and probably "Education Saves Lives." It's some pretty exciting stuff!

June Animation Practice - Music Beats

I'm not a big fan of how this one came, but I've got to post something to show I did something for my animation practice for the month of June.
At least I'm putting in frame mileage, right?

I was able to buy Clip Paint Studio EX during a sale in late June, and I was trying to get used to the animation workflow with the program; I realized it might take longer than I thought. I was also able to get a trial of Toonboom Harmony; I'm also trying to get used to the program as well.

In the meantime, I've really got to get myself to designing the rest of the characters for my upcoming video! I was really hoping to start it in late June; here's to hoping I start something in July!

Oh by the way, the song is the beginning of "Lost in the Game" by Public Access T.V.

Birthday 23!

Welp! Another year on this Earth, which means another piece of birthday artwork!

Of course I'm canon in my own worlds! Who do you think pays the electric bill?

I wanted to add more characters (both unknown, new, and current ones) but I didn't want to overcrowd the drawing. I think it'd be nice to be apart of my own worlds and interact with my own characters.

We're only half way into 2019 and I still have goals I want to accomplish before the year ends. Clip Studio finally went on sale and I recently got a trial for ToonBoom Harmony. I know for a fact that my next animation will be done with Clip Studio instead of Adobe Animate; I'm sure I've already expressed my love/hate relationship with that program before somewhere on this blog.

That, and a comic book. I really hope this year is the year things will start changing/moving in my favor, whether it's finally landing a job as an artist or having a productive year with finished products I can be proud of.

Summer Dog Days

Just two friends chilling on a hot day.

Summer Update

Whoa! It's been awhile since the last post!
Well for me it feels like it's been awhile.

So what's new? I left my job so I can fully concentrate on my art/career this summer break! I'm glad to fully veg out while doodling. I set myself some goals to do over the summer:

-Work on a new animated video (more on that in a future post)
-Write/draw/publish a comic book (again, more on that later)
-Finally put together a portfolio with the guidance of some of my teachers (in progress)
-Work on more drawings, stories, storyboards, portfolio pieces, getting exposure

I'll create another blog to use as my site for a portfolio; that will be done later this summer. I'll be sure to link that here once everything is ready. I'm hoping to at least start applying to art gigs soon after I get my portfolio thing up and running.

As of right now, my first project is doing turnarounds for my characters - all 16 of them! The entire cast of Propinquity, Austin & Jennifer, and Class of 2422. Soon after, I'll progress development on the Mr. Ridiculous story, my upcoming animation, and on the comic book project. Hopefully I can get through it all with my handy dandy Cintiq! (Not that having a Cintiq makes you a better artist or anything; it just makes my digital art process a lot easier)

I will be sure to update the blog on any new development and with any new drawings to share! Be sure to follow my personal Twitter/Instagram pages for a more up-to-date status on things at @animatedslacker!

Speaking of social media links, I've got to update that page soon.

May Animation Practice - Character Animation

I managed to complete another animation practice before the end of the month again!

There are two focuses to this one: the use of a different animation program (Clip Studio Paint), and a short character animation test.

After I finished animating this, I realized that I was unable to save it because I was using the trial version of Clip Studio Paint, so I came up with a simple solution: take a screenshot of every frame and re-animate it in Adobe Animate.

I am planning on buying Clip Studio; I'm just waiting on another sale. Whether it goes on sale or not, I would like to start the production of the new video in June. I'm just currently finalizing the story, working on the character design, and I've gotta assemble a crew of voice actors. Easy peasy, right?

April Animation Practice - Pen Reanimated

And here's April's animation practice!

Lately, I've been looking around for another animation app to use for my next animated project. So far, I've tried Moho, Clip Studio Paint, and Pencil2D.
For the main focus of April's practice, I reanimated a short segment from the Time Traveling Pen video using Pencil2D.
The app's in its very early stages, so it's currently not cut out for a full length production, but it has tons of potential! I'll definitely be looking forward to all of its future updates!

I really like how this animation practice came out! I think once Pencil2D has fully matured, I think it's definitely use it on a regular basis.

I wanted to try out Toonboom and TVPaint, but I'd have to create a user account to access those, and I really don't want other passwords to memorize.

Ultimately, I've decided I'll be using Clip Studio Paint for my next project. What is the next animated project? You'll find out soon...

March Animation Practice - Ridiculous Run

I may be caught up on my animation practices, but I'm behind on posting these to the blog. Sorry about that! 

For the month of March, I ended up creating a looping running cycle of Mr. Ridiculous. Initially I wanted to animate a longer rough chase sequence, but I ran out of March.

I like the end result though! Especially the blurring lines to the legs; that part I like.

Class of 2422 Character Line-Up Update

It's about time it's finished! Finally!

After many delays and slowdowns, I've completed updating the Class of 2422 character line-up! And for good reason! The characters in this line-up have multiple outfit changes, went through several revisions in the poses, and gave some characters proper development.

Initially the characters would be in a different pose when I redrew them in their different outfit changes, but that was taking way too long so I simplified the process. I'll post the alternate costume changes for the characters later, but for now check out the updated the line-up!

Before we see the new line-up, here's the last update:

...and now here's the new and improved line-up!

I'm really glad with how this ended up!
Currently, the pilot for this series is being worked on right now, so I'm hoping that'll be finished soon enough.

Class of 2422 Logo Redesign - Final Design

Hey hey hey! I finally completed the Class of 2422 character line-up! I'm totally ecstatic with the end results!

BUT!
Before I get into that story, we have to go into this story...

Part of the update for this project was to not only update the character line-up, but to also revamp/redo the logo for Class of 2422. Below is the previous design:

At the time of completing this, I was really proud of how this came out. Heck, I still think it looks kinda cool. However, as more time passed I started feeling "ehh" towards the design. I started to feel there was a bit too much going on in its design, such as the gradient in the "2422," the design on the blue rectangle, the white stars on the side of the words, and the typeface for the word "class."

Even during the process of this initial design, I really struggled with the typeface for "class" and "2422;" I ended up creating the design rather than using an already existing font, but then even I wasn't too big of a fan of how it came out.
One of my biggest issue was how "rectangular" the design is. Like it's so square! A boring shape! A boring silhouette!

I wanted the new updated design to be cleaner, simpler, and have a more interesting shape language. I'm sure you have already seen an earlier post where I posted different rough designs, right? I gives an idea of what direction I want to end up with.

January Animation Practice - Ted on his Hoverchair

I thought this was posted on the blog, but I guess not? Oh well.
It's a good excuse to make another post.

In January, I created a short looping animation of Ted, which I know y'all have met already. I was getting a bit obsessed with the character at the time so I wanted to do a short simple looping animation of him riding on his hoverchair.

If you want, go ahead and right click on the video itself and then select "loop."
This was actually finished and posted on time during the month of January.

Alright, now I should really get back to starting March's animation practice.

February Animation Practice - Listening to Music

Hey! Sorry about the long gap from the last post! I hate have this place inactive for a long period of time! But you guys already know that.

Earlier this year, I said I wanted to do one short animation practice a month; I was serious about it this time around. I finished this late, but it's my animation practice for February.
It's Marilyn jamming out to music.

For this practice, I focused on figuring out how to animate the cartoon head rotating and moving as if it was a 3D object, and I wanted to do a bit of music syncing. The song I chose was OK Go's "Bright as Your Eyes."

I initially wanted to do the full body and do clean-up/color, but it was gonna take way more time than I thought. It doesn't help that I'm in limbo between school work and my dumb job.

Hope my next post won't be a month from now.


***It has come to my attention that I never posted the animation I did during January on the blog. I'll get on to that very soon!

Marilyn Norma Fawcett - Swimsuit Poster

In between all the school work and long work shifts, I'm still trying to do my own stuff in the free time I'm trying to squeeze in. I'm still working on Marilyn's updated model for the line-up, and during that process I got the idea to draw a picture of Marilyn based on Farrah Fawcett's famous swimsuit poster because Mary's last name is, well, Fawcett.

Her name's a combination of Marilyn Monroe's first name and Farrah's last name; heavy inspiration is also taken from the two to develop this character.

A friend of mine suggested that I ought to do one based off of Monroe's famous skirt photo, which sounds like a very good idea to pursue.

Robert Sketches and Doodles

Here's a couple of digital sketch pages I did of Robert!

For Robert and Marilyn, there isn't a lot of exploration since I already figured out these two characters already. Robert was pretty straight forward in this case.

Marilyn might take a bit more time because she has more outfits for her, and also she's my favorite one to draw. She's the last one I need to do before fully completing the task of updating the Class of 2422 line-up.

Going back on a point, I think that's probably why the reason it's taking more time than usual to revise this line-up: everyone here has more than one outfit. Unlike Propinquity where everyone has one outfit and one pose each, the Class of 2422 characters all have at least two outfits each, and I wanted to draw a different pose with each different look.

Of course, I could just draw one pose for each and just swap out their outfit instead, but where's the fun in that?

Class of 2422 Logo Redesign

Since all I need to redraw for the Class of 2422 character line-up are Robert and Marilyn, I decided to start the process of redesigning the logo for the series. I was really happy with how it came out when I first completed it about two years ago, but looking at it now I think it's time for an update.

This time around, I want to really capture the Googie/atomic age look for the project's logo; below is a digital sketch page of a bunch of different design ideas I threw out from looking at a ton of reference pictures:

I'm really digging the sketches I have here so far. Part of the battle is to figure out the typography, which was something I struggled with the first time around. I'm hoping I won't have a tough time with it this time, but we'll have to wait and see; as of now, I want to figure out the actual look I want for the logo before diving into the typography of it all.

Also, this upcoming week I'll be starting school again so this blog might go into another period of silence (it doesn't help that I also have a dumb job), but as usual I'll strive to post any updates on my projects.

Ted Sketches and Exploration

Hey! Sorry about that absence!

While I was gone from the blog, I finished up the redesigning process for Nevadri and started up the reworking process for Ted AND finished that too. Right now I started exploring with Robert's character.

For Ted's character, I made him wheelchair-bound during the exploration process and that made his character and arc way more interesting than how it was before. Because of that, that shifted his personality/world-view of things towards somewhere more interesting, I think.

Below are some sketch pages I've done of Ted during the process:

You'll notice that not only I put him in a wheelchair, but I also added colorblindness to the mix. Initially, Ted was a character that explored the idea of Transhumanism, or the idea of using technology to better the human body and surpass what natural evolution can bring to better the human condition. Ted never really had a real reason to undergo a transform other than "it's the future! We have the technology to do so!"

Somewhere in there, I knew it was a bland and boring motivation to put a character through such a transformation with a basic motivation. It wasn't until I gave him disabilities that made the motive (and his personality) to change for the better.

It's nice to see where Ted ended up as a character these past several years. He went through major changes and revisions over the years, but I think I finally him in a spot where he's interesting as a character.

Propinquity Logo Adjustments

While I've been figuring out Ted's design and personality, I've done a side project of redoing "Propinquity's" logo. Here's the previous design:

I wanted the logo to look more like my handwriting for the redesign. I mean how it was before was already done in my handwriting, but I wanted it to look more organic and more to how I really write with pencil and paper. Here's the updated design!

Looks way more natural-looking, eh? I might do some small little adjustments here and there after posting this, but overall I think I've captured a more looser, natural look to my handwriting rather than the previous one.

The previous one is actually based off of a font I created with my own handwriting, but I've been looking to redo the font for the same reasons why I redid the Propinquity logo.

Hello Again 2019!

It's already January 3rd, 2019 and I've managed to start off the year right by buying myself brand new Wacom Cintiq Pro 24! It is totally amazing! It is the biggest purchase I've ever made and it's worth it! Honestly, it feels like a dream!

The first thing I did with it was finish off that New Year 2019 drawing I posted a couple days ago to ring in the new year. Here it is in its completed state!

It's nice to see the Mr. Ridiculous project join alongside the Propinquity and Class of 2422 story projects! We'll definitely see more of Mr. Ridiculous and his crew this year! I hope that by next year, I'll show off other story projects that I've been working on behind the scene!

Nevadri Redesigning Process - Part 2

Here's more exploration pages for Nevadri!

Around this point is where I found a shape/design I was really enjoying. I liked the body shape that was resembling more of a bowling pin, or a penguin; it gives the character more of a friendly vibe in my opinion. After all, he comes in peace!

Even though the design is set at this point, I'm still trying to figure out his personality, end goals, and arc that he will contribute in the overall story in the series. I'm satisfied with the end result with Ned's design overall.

Time to move on to Ted!

Hello 2019!

Happy New Year everyone!!!

I was working on a piece for this day, but I ran out of 2018 to finish it so here it is in its rough, incompleted state:

I'll get back and finish this...some time this year.
I hope to actually get things done this year. Really gotta kick myself in high gear to do stuff.