Jason Driskill

I continue to build my model for Charlotte.   I’ve made a lot more progress this weekend, although barely noticable compared to what I posted earlier this week.  Most of the changes are subtle - resizing features, shading different areas, completing the hands.

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I’m learning TONS as I continue to work, solving problems about how to shade certain elements but not others, how to create limbs that can be easily foreshortened without having to redraw them over and over again…    Also I’m getting a little better (not faster but better) at “tweening” - the process of making sure each subsequent frame lines up with previous and following frames.   The more familiar I’ve become with Toon Boom Animate Pro, the more I love it.   Even though I still have lots to learn, I am more comfortable with how to use the software.

Here’s a screenshot of how it looks when I’m designing the character:

As you might notice, it’s set up a lot like Adobe Flash, except the method of rigging a character’s individual body parts together using pegs is (for me) more advanced, offers (me) more control over movement, and is more intuitive (to me).  I also like the way effects are added through the network screen, which visually demonstrates how all of my elements are connected to one another.  Here is what my character Charlotte’s network of elements looks like (as much as I could fit on the screen):

The green elements are pegs, holding different elements together.  The pegs will be responsible for the motion that I add to the character later when I animate her.  The dark blue bricks represent effects and composites (like filters and linked-layers in Photoshop).  Each of the blue bricks represents a drawing element.   One of them contains the torso shape, another contains the shape of the skirt, another one contains the lower part of a leg.   The trick to achieving a model that seems to convey the level of dimension that I’m working on (that still maintains a 2D style rather than the obnoxious 3D CGI bullshit that we see everywhere these days) is to sometimes create multiple drawing elements for different parts of the body.  So I have part of a shoe in one element that overlays the ankle element, and then the back part of the shoe behind that.   And for each frame (Charlotte has 38 frames - each representing a different angle) they shift accordingly.   So when Charlotte is facing away from us, the shoe element that once contained the drawing of the front part of the shoe, now shows the back part of the shoe, and the element that once contained the shoe-parts behind the ankle are empty because there’s nothing visible behind her ankle in that frame.

Blah blah blah - needless explanation - my point is that while the shape of my character remains simple-looking, there is a complex system of overlapping and intertwined elements that helps achieve the way Charlotte is shaded and hinged together for motion.  When I add her face, the number of elements and pegs in my network will easily double, because every facial feature gets it’s own drawing - the shape of each eye gets an element, as well as a pupil, and a special cutter element to keep the eyeball within the eye shape.  The eyes alone will involve at least seven pegs.  Not to mention that each eyeshape that I draw has to be redrawn when I want to make the eyes widen, or narrow, or close/blink FOR EACH FRAME THAT FEATURES AN EYE!!!  I’m hyperventilating.  Give me a moment to breathe into a paper bag.

Once Charlotte is complete, I have five more main characters to create.

And three or four minor characters, and a crowd of background people for the party/rave scene.

And then I have to draw the backgrounds for each scene.

And then I lip-sync the audio track to the characters.

And then the actual animation begins.

And then I can edit together each scene with Final Cut Pro.

And then I score the project with music that I have to create somehow, without being a musician…

I’m hyperventilating again.