Zlogspot - animationandvideo

Artem™ GoAnimator Artem™  is the August winner of my GoAnimate, Get Featured in TET's Blog contest . Artem™ has had his account with GoAnimate since April of 2013 and in that time has amassed 126 followers and published 11 animations. Artem™ chose to feature his contest entry, ~Evil Awakenings~, saying... "I chose this animation because it was a challenge that I beat. I was having a lot of trouble with this animation. It was a theme that I never used before and a short amount of time." This is the first time someone has chosen their winning video to feature so I thought I'd add in my comments as to why this animation was selected to win... "Attention to detail and great editing, along with a strong script set this apart from the rest. Use of audio to add background noise and to suggest actions occurring off screen was impressive. Then showing a fight scene by not actually showing a fight scene but by using creative editing to imply actions that are occurring w...

Balacafa GoAnimator  Balacafa is the July winner of my GoAnimate,  Get Featured in TET's Blog contest . Balacafa has had his account with GoAnimate since October of 2012 and in that time has amassed 627 followers and published 20 animations. Balacafa chose to feature his animation, Super Kent - THE ROBOT, saying... I chose this animation because I actually spent time getting the effects in exactly the right places instead of just putting them at the start of the scene, I made sure they were at exactly the right times. Super Kent is actually one of my own characters from my early days on GoAnimate. You can view my own three episodes at Super Kent , Super Kent Returns and Super Kent - Man of Steel . Watch Balacafa's animation below and then read about his inspiration and challenges in creating the video. Super Kent - THE ROBOT by balacafa on GoAnimate Inspiration... Well, when I was in the forums I stumbled across a forum by Gipsy and I was curious about what it...

Synfig Studio There is the Rolls Royce of digital animation tools that any professional animator would probably aspire to but if you're just starting out, animating for a hobby, or just not in any position to get the top level gear then I've put together a few options below to get you started. Many of the tools I've written about before so I'll provide links to those articles if you want more information. You'll also notice that your software studio can potentially consist of entirely free software. Hardware. I'm going to assume you already have a computer. One with real processing power is ideal but even most low budget laptops have enough power to get some pretty decent results. Beyond that you'll need either a graphics tablet or scanner to get your drawings into the digital realm. Bosto Tablet Graphics Tablet A graphics tablet is not absolutely essential but it will make your life a whole lot easier. You'll get more out of many animation programs whic...

TET Bitstrips Avatar. I recently discovered Bitstrips , a social comic creation, Facebook application that enables you to create gag cartoons and comic strips staring yourself and your Facebook friends - even if you can't draw. Whilst Bitstrips doesn't have much to do with video or animation the parallels with GoAnimate's animation studio - that everyone can use, even without drawing ability - is obvious. Bitstrips actually has more flexibility than GoAnimate when it comes to creating poses for characters. Almost any pose, expression and emotion is possible even though the characters are all 2D. It would be a dream come true if Bitstrips partnered with GoAnimate to turn their content into 'Bitanimations' as well as 'Bitstrips'. They pretty much have all the artwork. They just need the underlying animation application to support it. The Bitstrips Facebook application seems to only allow single panel, gag cartoons and provides a number of ready made jokes whic...

Cartoon Network released their first full trailer for the new CG animated series Beware the Batman and, although I'm a long time Batman fan - particularly animated and on film - it just didn't get me excited for the show. It's not that I think the trailer is bad or that the show looks like it's missed the mark on what makes Batman great it just that it's all CG animated and, for some reason, I find that disappointing. Which is really odd because this show is following in the footsteps of the Green Lantern CG animated series . Although I didn't watch much of Green Lantern, the episodes I happened to catch were really great, and I did like the design of the show. So much so that I have considered buying the series on Blu-ray or DVD - and I'm not that much of a Green Lantern fan. My problem is I can't get excited for CG animation anymore. Which is a shame because at one time CG animation was something I really wanted to do myself. Still do, in fact, but ba...

Denom GoAnimator Denom  is the June winner of my GoAnimate, Get Featured in TET's Blog contest . Denom has had his account with GoAnimate since April of 2011 and in that time has amassed 2528 followers and published 239 animations. Denom chose to feature Episode 13 from his series, Miquiliztli Yahochihua, saying... I chose this animation because it's one of my best animations and identifies me. Fighting animations are my thing. I tried to make something that has never been done before on GoAnimate. Not just with the animation, also with the voices. Miquiliztli yahochihua episode 13 by Denom on GoAnimate Inspiration... The inspiration came from a Dragon ball Z movie in which the strongest characters of the series fight each other, and the background music I chose. Main Challenge... I tried to make an exaggerated fight using very short scenes and several custom effects. The custom effects I used were the back view of one character, hit effects, power of different colors and a ...

Ideas for the Animated Short: Finding and Building Stories  by Karen Sullivan, Gary Schumer and Kate Alexander is a book I was looking forward to reading but had my expectations take a beating right from chapter one. From then on it became a chore to read. Despite that, I persevered and breathed a big sigh of relief when I finally reached the last page. Which was disappointing because I took a long time in choosing what animation book to buy on Amazon as part of a two book purchase that included The Animator's Survival Kit by Richard Williams (a book that is considered an essential in any animator's library). What I was looking for was a lively book on idea development with interesting insights and examples from the various professional animators interviewed. Something that would show a real passion for short story telling, how different creatives approach finding inspiration and how they develop their ideas into a story for short film. What I got in Chapter 1 was a history le...