The next bit i had to tackle was up to when the camera cuts to a wide shot, I knew i wanted to have him scratching his chin (and not just so i didn't have to lip sync it) so heres the first attempt at up until he slams his fist. This was realy hard mainly because of how much both the arms change position and i had some trouble drawing the fist in his palm at first.

This is also the first time i had tried matching the sound.

I thought the audio went really well with the first few seconds but it's slightly out at the end, i wasn't too happy with the face scratch either so i changed the loop and went back to add more frames.

I noticed aswel that he doesn't look at Johnny for anywhere near long enough when he says his name, i went back and added a blink which also seemed to help with the anticipation.

Ha, it worked, was not expecting that. Have only lip synced the first part so far but it looked pretty good and it stays in time up until the camera cut. Now because it's getting closer to deadline the animation room is not as barren as it once was, this makes for not many line tests which is why i had to dive in with last few seconds however when it's synced with the audio properly it should look good. Am now adding more frames to the "Got Something!" line and lip syncing the rest.

Long Time No Blog

So i've been out of action for a while on the whole blog front, we have so much to catch up on! Is it okay if I go first?

A few days after i filmed the acting videos I actually sat down and tried to animate this little bastard, spent most of the first day sketching ideas for the key frames and getting used to drawing the characters on animation paper.

I filmed this quick 4 frame animatic just to make sure the setup looked okay and the exaggerated poses were working.

I was happy with these frames but was a hell of a long way off finishing and I was still not sure if I could actually link them together whilst keeping the volumes of the characters.

This next clip was another loose short one but would give me an idea of wether the characters were moving okay.

Well I absolutely hated the start, even though it was just key frames the rummaging around at the bottom of the screen looked awful, also there wasn't enough time before the sound kicks in to have too much activity. I did however really like how it looks so far when he pulls Johnny towards him.

Heres where I was trying to get the first third down to single frames and get the movement exactly how i wanted it.

I remember falling in love with his right hand when he sweeps it across, that was one of those moments where I realised it may not be a complete pile of arse as long as I kept at it.

There were a lot of mistakes in this bit though, the movement is so choppy when he rises and when his arm comes down over Johnny, also his eyes jumped all over the place. This was definitely a job for a few more frames.

Heres the updated version.

I remember being very excited by this one, it came to 3 seconds so I was pretty sure it was gunna fit with the first piece of dialogue and i was happy with the movement, especially the slight anticipation before he brings his arm down. Now all I had to do was the next 7 seconds, easy.