Animating on 2s

So for my next animated video, I'm stepping up my process on how I create animations. One of these changes is animating on 24 frames per second. Of course, drawing 24 frames is labor-intensive, so that's when I decided to animate with 2s.
Animating on two's is basically drawing 12 frames in a 24fps setting; each drawing is repeated twice.

I used Flipnote Studio 3D to play around with going on 2s just to see how the result will turn out. First, I created a basic little line work for a character I'll be animating:

Then I went over each frame and drew a cleaner version of the animation. In this case, I used Danielle for the animation.

When I created this animation, I went on 9fps, which in terms of Flipnote Studio 3D it goes pretty fast. It contains 22 frames, so I drew 11 drawings overall.
Here's how it came out:

I really really really love how it came out! Obviously, it may vary when I actually go animate on 2s with 24fps in a Flash environment, but I'm sure it'll come out just as fine as how it came on here.

And on that note, I have a new video in the works!

I WAS A FAMOUS ANIMATOR YOU KNOW

I'm pretty sure I've talked about this several times.

Before May of 2013, I was part of this small online community called "Flipnote Hatena," where users could create short, amusing animations with a Nintendo DSi application called "Flipnote Studio." I joined this service back in 2009 where over the period between 2009 and 2013, I was a regular posting user that slowly gained a pretty decent following; by the end of the service, I reached about over 13,000 followers and was one of top 100 ranked users in the community.

I moved on after the service ended, but every now and then I like to search myself up on Google and see if my traces on the service is around somewhere online. Here's some screenshots of my mentioning around around:

(Note: I used to go by the name of "Limelight" in the community)

(The first two results are my old animations re-uploaded by others on YouTube)

And of course, here's the link to an interview I did when I was chosen to be "Hatena's Featured Artist," which I did when I was about 13 years old, so forgive me and my crappy answers, heh heh.

It wouldn't be a proper end-of-the-service party without some kind words from some the amazing fans I had:

I had a good run, but that's behind me now.

Here I am, back as a nobody. I never really saw myself as one of the "popular creators" on the service, but after the community ended, I realized that I really did have an audience that truly loved my cartoons and humor and whatnot, and all those years I spent on the service helped me grow to who I am today. My experience on that service taught me how to become a better animator and made me realized that I wanted to pursue a career in animation.

Well, that's enough blasts from the past for now.

Murabito

I was messing around with Flipnote Studio 3D and decided to take a picture of my Villager amiibo. The Japanese text reads "murabito," which is Villager's name in Japanese.

Hatena Featured Artist

Back when Flipnote Hatena was around, I was known as "Limelight" in the community. I've had my fair share of rising up in the ranks, like a few other creators have. I was digging around the Internet searching for any trace of my existence on Flipnote Hatena since I thought it'd be a great little "Internet time capsule" to keep around.

Surprisingly, I found that someone copied and pasted the entire article in which I was the Hatena Featured Artist for the week! It seems like this guy copied and pasted a ton of articles and weekly updates that the site admin posted throughout Hatena's run, but since we're talking about me here, let's focus on me (God, I sounded so conceded.)

Here's the link to that interview when I was a Hatena Featured Artist which can be found...

...riiiiiiiight.....aaaaaboooooout...



...here!

The Return of Flipnote Studio 3D

After two years of what seems to be endless amount of waiting, Nintendo has finally announced that Flipnote Studio is finally arriving to the 3DS in February!

The news arrived along side the announcement of the closing of Club Nintendo, a loyalty rewards program. They've mentioned that every Club Nintendo member will receive a download code within the month of February to download the animating application.

I'm totally stoked to see the return of Flipnote Studio!

Fan Art Remaster

As no one may know, I used to post Flipnotes on a regular basis on a site called Flipnote Hatena. I never really had a main sight for what kind of an audience I wanted to aim for, but I naturally attracted a ton of kids because, well, who else owned a Nintendo DSi?

I was one of those "popular creators" when the site was still on, but not popular enough to the point where I would usually have a ton of fan art of my characters. Now, I could of really cared less if I didn't get any fan art or anything, but once in a blue moon I will, and it's kind of flattering.

So recently, I've been randomly chatting with a fan of mine from Flipnote Hatena, and it turns out, he drew up a frame from one of my Flipnotes in full color, which I really loved. There was something about it that gave me favor for it.

(Keep in mind that when I was creating these small animations, I didn't have the drawing style I have now, so you'll see the crudeness of it all)

Here's the original frame:

And here's the fan art:

As you can see, they really got it spot on. I was totally impressed by how precise the details are.

It's times like this that I'm reminded that, even though the site has ended, the fans and the memories really do remain.

It Ended Today

Today is the day Flipnote Hatena ends.

This online service was dedicated to displaying the works of Flipnote animators around the world. I just so happen to be one of those animators.
If you've ever seen the works created on Flipnote Studio, you probably would've never believed it was created on a Nintendo DSi.

When I signed up to be a part of the service back in 2009, I had no idea that it would change my life. It pushed me into improvement and honestly, I really have no idea if I would be drawing this great today if I hadn't signed up. It gave me a great idea on how many people really enjoyed the work I've created over the years.
I guess you can say that it was my first "big break." With over 13,800 fans, including international users and over three million views, you can see what I've built up to over the years I've been active.
Although I have drifted away from the site when I start high school, I never completely abandoned it.
What I loved about Flipnote Hatena is, right away, you can tell we have some sort of culture that we're all apart of. We have our own fads that come and go, and of course, we have our popular creators. I don't mean to brag, but I've been fortunate enough to be one of the "popular creators."
Though my favorite part about it all was that I've made some ridiculously awesome friends on the site! They're all a bunch of cool cats. Heh heh.

Overall, I think the experience I've had on the site was really a life changer for me, since it paved the rest of my life for me. Thanks to this simple little app, I now pursue a career in animation. It's hard to believe some dinky little application on a Nintendo DSi could have such an impact on one person's life.

Funny that I received a Nintendo DSi on my 13th birthday. I didn't ask for a DSi; I wanted a Wii. Funny how that works out.

Production (Might) Pick Up Again

Remember that one time I mentioned that there's a delay on an animated YouTube video that I planned on working on?

Okay, things might pick up now. Things happened and now, I might finally get on starting the video sooon. Maybe, just maybe.

Also in unrelated news, I've started posting again on a little site called "Flipnote Hatena." This month's the month that the service will finally end after three years of running.

Boy, it sucks to see the stepping stone of my pursuit in being in animation to shut down in about a few weeks.

Ah, oh well.

Next time, when I have more work done on it, I'd like to talk about this superhero thing I'm working on. Luckily, the name hasn't been taken (Google's my anti-copyright infringement agent); just today, I went bach back on working on it and it's coming out pretty good at a slow pace.

But enough of that, I'll get into more detail the next time I bring it up.

Flipnotin' for the Last Time

Recently, I've been working on a few things with Flipnote Studio.
Regarding the YouTube video, it's been delayed so many times. I really really really really hate delaying these things, but since I can't work on it now, Flipnote Studio has been takin' my unresting urge to animate instead.
And I've got to say, it feels good to be back animating on the little app. I feel like that's all I've been talking about these last fews posts, so I'll try to move on to something else...but that'll be for the next post.

Flipnote Studio 3D

About a year ago, Nintendo announced "Flipnote Memo," which is the 3D counterpart for "Flipnote Studio."
One year later, Nintendo finally shed some light on the app. Now called "Flipnote Studio 3D," the animation application returns and is coming soon to the Nintendo 3DS this summer.
How this is relevant is 1) I got my start in animating on Flipnote Studio and 2) I own a 3DS, have been waiting for this announcement for, like, ever. I guess you can say...I'll be a 3D animator.

Any who, I bring this up because I was a frequent user of its online community, Flipnote Hatena. I've been posting for about three years, gained a little popularity, and slowly stopped posting. With the new 3D app, a new online community will launch, but sadly, Flipnote Hatena will shut down on May 31st. The Flipnote Studio app will still be around, of course, but its online community will close.
Even though everything here might sound irrelevant to this blog, I had my first start with an audience with Hatena. It's like kind of my first everything involving animation.

It's sad knowing Flipnote Hatena has a due date.

On to Youtube!

As none of you know, I got my start in animation on a little app on the Nintendo DSi known as "Flipnote Studio." Let me tell ya, after spending over three years on a dinky little thing like that, it tends to bore you down.
So I've stopped animating for awhile since school gets in the way of everything.
Recently, however, I've been learning Flash and a few other animation applications on the computer, so I created another Youtube account (first account is another story), and this weekend, I'm planning to start a full-on, voiced, sound, and more detailed animated video. Let's hope I won't lose motivation on this on.

What's a Limelight?

As a good number of people know, I used to go by the name "Limelight."
Well, as we all know now, I go by "Doji Pocket."
Why?
I thought Limelight was a good name, despite everything being called Limelight(if you Google the word) That name was held dear to me because as a little kid, I've wanted to open a studio called "Limelight Studios" (Now it's "Limelight Animation Studios" because then, I didn't animate)
But just last year, I typed "Limelight Animation," in the Google search bar and even before I finished typing the whole thing out, turns out, it already existed.
After that, I was down for two days. Limelight was my thing for several years, and in just seconds, it was done.
After I realized that Limelight was a stupid unoriginal name, I started coming up with something better! After all, my content is original, so my "name" should be the same.
That one fateful day, during the High School Exit Exam, I was finished early, so I had nothing to do, when out of nowhere, the name "Doji Pocket" occurred to me.
A few days pass by, and now, it's mah new thing! So here we are today with Doji Pocket.
Be on the lookout for "Doji Pocket Animation Studio" one day.

The reason I posted this was because I finally released the URL of this blog to Flipnote Hatena, a site where I used to be active, posting my animations. My username was Limelight.
Search me up the site if you've never seen my work!
Just don't see anything before 2013. That stuff's OLD.

Animation

Boy oh boy, it's been forever since I animated.
Besides the fact I'm currently in an animation class, I haven't animated anything in my free time at all.
Now that Flash is finally installed, I can go back to animating. Before, it would all take place on this little app on the Nintendo DSi called 'Flipnote Studio." It was an easy-to-use kind of app that I got the hang of really, really quickly. I've on the app for about three years(three years of animation under the belt right there), but I've been wanting to animate traditionally or on a computer. With Flash recently installed, I can finally animate in my free time again!
Maybe I can actually post something on Youtube now.