It has been 2 years since surgery for cancer, and a recent checkup confirmed that I'm fit as a fiddle. So I'm working on my next Animan video. I realize I could probably make the videos faster if I was sloppier with the drawing, and didn't care about dialogue, etc. But if I did that, people would get tired of watching them again and again. Every animator's dream is to make a film that people will want to watch over and over again.
When I started making these Animan movies, I used a tried-and-true technique called the old classic "hand-drawn" or "frame-by-frame" style, meaning that the animator draws thousands of pictures by hand, to create the illusion of movement on film or video.
In the animation industry, ever since computers have been available, they have been using a different style, something which used to be called "Flash" animation, and is now also known as "Cutout puppet animation".
In essence, a character is broken down, and each of its movable parts are drawn onto separate layers. It is animated by using "keyframes" which tell the computer that this is a pose. Keyframes can be scattered along the timeline, and the computer moves the body parts from pose to pose. It can look mechanical, but there are tools to reduce that.
I found a short tutorial showing how this is done. I use software called "Harmony Premium", and the latest version allows for characters' arms and legs to bend like rubber hoses. The old Mickey Mouse cartoons from the 1930's had rubber-hose-animation, in an attempt to make the action look smoother. Personally, I don't like it--I'd rather have my characters bend at their joints.
So, I am now doing my videos with cutout puppet animation. I spend less time drawing, and more time tweaking the keyframes over and over, until it looks right. As you'll see in the tutorial below, that tweaking can be an endless process.
The animator featured is Turkish, and at times his English is a little difficult to follow. But he more than makes up for it with enthusiasm!
When I started making these Animan movies, I used a tried-and-true technique called the old classic "hand-drawn" or "frame-by-frame" style, meaning that the animator draws thousands of pictures by hand, to create the illusion of movement on film or video.
In the animation industry, ever since computers have been available, they have been using a different style, something which used to be called "Flash" animation, and is now also known as "Cutout puppet animation".
In essence, a character is broken down, and each of its movable parts are drawn onto separate layers. It is animated by using "keyframes" which tell the computer that this is a pose. Keyframes can be scattered along the timeline, and the computer moves the body parts from pose to pose. It can look mechanical, but there are tools to reduce that.
I found a short tutorial showing how this is done. I use software called "Harmony Premium", and the latest version allows for characters' arms and legs to bend like rubber hoses. The old Mickey Mouse cartoons from the 1930's had rubber-hose-animation, in an attempt to make the action look smoother. Personally, I don't like it--I'd rather have my characters bend at their joints.
So, I am now doing my videos with cutout puppet animation. I spend less time drawing, and more time tweaking the keyframes over and over, until it looks right. As you'll see in the tutorial below, that tweaking can be an endless process.
The animator featured is Turkish, and at times his English is a little difficult to follow. But he more than makes up for it with enthusiasm!
