I made a quick animation using a drawing I made yesterday with Photoshop. The animation is done in Toon Boom Studio. Photoshop was just acting strange so I went with TBS then it was acting stupid, so I restarted it, a few times, and it eventually worked. The result is below, with no audio added yet. When I'm ready to make a few kitty sound effects, I'll try to add them. I've not tried that in TBS yet, so it's a good opportunity to familiarize myself with those tools; Photoshop requires audio to be produced elsewhere, then imported, which is a pain in the butt for a simple project like this.
Let me know if you like my kitty drawing too. It took about 4 hours to complete the whole drawing with Photoshop and a Wacom tablet, but it turned out exactly as I pictured it in my head for a change, including the slightly dramatic lighting.
Ok...now I don't like how YouTube replaces my video at the end with a bunch of thumbnails...so I slowed it down so you can be sure to see the final speech bubble. Sorry for confusion, but YouTube doesn't have a quick way to replace a video once it's uploaded.
Tuesday 30 December 2014
Saturday 27 December 2014
How to attach Floaty orange foam to back door of GoPro
Two things confused me when I opened the package.
1) Why are there two different plastic doors provided? I found the answer on the GoPro.com website, after finding no instructions on the package. One is for the dive housing, and one is for the standard housing that comes with the camera.
2) How to you peel off the backing so you can stick the foam on? I tried tugging at the orange tape, but it looked several times like I'd ruin the dense grey foam underneath. I didn't want to tear the grey foam. However, that whole orange backing has to be parted from the slim grey foam, so that the orange foam block can then be firmly pressed on (centre first so you don't get air bubbles) with some give provided by the grey stick foam which is very sticky when that orange peeling is removed. I got the sticky grey foam exposed, hovered the orange block over the standard housing (I don't have a dive housing) and pressed down evenly and hard. I should've pressed in the centre first to squeeze out air, but still it seems very firmly affixed now.
Then, I needed to learn how to switch doors from the standard see-through to my new Floaty orange back door. It turns out it's very easy. The manual (downloadable from GoPro.com) shows exactly how to do it, and basically you open the housing all the way, and pull straight down so the door unseats itself from the bottom of the plastic hinge. I wonder how the plastic will hold up to frequent use, changing between the standard, open-back, and Floaty back doors. Let's hope it's really sturdy plastic, as it seems to be.
1) Why are there two different plastic doors provided? I found the answer on the GoPro.com website, after finding no instructions on the package. One is for the dive housing, and one is for the standard housing that comes with the camera.
2) How to you peel off the backing so you can stick the foam on? I tried tugging at the orange tape, but it looked several times like I'd ruin the dense grey foam underneath. I didn't want to tear the grey foam. However, that whole orange backing has to be parted from the slim grey foam, so that the orange foam block can then be firmly pressed on (centre first so you don't get air bubbles) with some give provided by the grey stick foam which is very sticky when that orange peeling is removed. I got the sticky grey foam exposed, hovered the orange block over the standard housing (I don't have a dive housing) and pressed down evenly and hard. I should've pressed in the centre first to squeeze out air, but still it seems very firmly affixed now.
Then, I needed to learn how to switch doors from the standard see-through to my new Floaty orange back door. It turns out it's very easy. The manual (downloadable from GoPro.com) shows exactly how to do it, and basically you open the housing all the way, and pull straight down so the door unseats itself from the bottom of the plastic hinge. I wonder how the plastic will hold up to frequent use, changing between the standard, open-back, and Floaty back doors. Let's hope it's really sturdy plastic, as it seems to be.
What I've been working on lately
There's so much to tell. I've been away from my blog and just want to tell you why -
I've been trying out Hype 2 software for HTML animation, studying fantasy drawing and cartoon drawing, celebrating Christmas and busyness in the stores, baking, decorating my apartment, and doing gigs on Fiverr.com, and other on-demand sites.
I ordered a few mugs and a tote bag on society6.com. I'm very pleased with the finish and quality. I wish the tote bag was more rugged, and I'd be willing to pay for that, but the quality is good and the price is right, meanwhile. My drawings looked excellent on those products, which I gave for gifts at Christmas.
As always, I'm trying out pastel and charcoal drawing techniques. It's a lot of sketching, that isn't really worth showing. Just for practice. My goal right now is to finish a cat drawing I just made specifically for a comic panel. So this one will be different from others I've shared on society6 products and Fineartamerica, and everywhere else, because it'll serve as a sample of my style to be shared on cartoon forums such as penciljack.com.
During this week between Christmas and New Year's, I hope to settle on fewer, more focused forums and social media for sharing my ideas, art, and services. Fiverr.com is a definite yes; my newly recreated Facebook page is too. I will likely drop instagram and even twitter, in favour of routinely participating on Fineartamerica.com, deviantart.org, penciljack.com, cgsociety.org, and maybe even flicker.com because they offer opportunities for showing work, getting critiques, and getting hired!
Watch for news in the new year.
Happy holidays,
Heidi
I've been trying out Hype 2 software for HTML animation, studying fantasy drawing and cartoon drawing, celebrating Christmas and busyness in the stores, baking, decorating my apartment, and doing gigs on Fiverr.com, and other on-demand sites.
I ordered a few mugs and a tote bag on society6.com. I'm very pleased with the finish and quality. I wish the tote bag was more rugged, and I'd be willing to pay for that, but the quality is good and the price is right, meanwhile. My drawings looked excellent on those products, which I gave for gifts at Christmas.
As always, I'm trying out pastel and charcoal drawing techniques. It's a lot of sketching, that isn't really worth showing. Just for practice. My goal right now is to finish a cat drawing I just made specifically for a comic panel. So this one will be different from others I've shared on society6 products and Fineartamerica, and everywhere else, because it'll serve as a sample of my style to be shared on cartoon forums such as penciljack.com.
During this week between Christmas and New Year's, I hope to settle on fewer, more focused forums and social media for sharing my ideas, art, and services. Fiverr.com is a definite yes; my newly recreated Facebook page is too. I will likely drop instagram and even twitter, in favour of routinely participating on Fineartamerica.com, deviantart.org, penciljack.com, cgsociety.org, and maybe even flicker.com because they offer opportunities for showing work, getting critiques, and getting hired!
Watch for news in the new year.
Happy holidays,
Heidi
Monday 8 December 2014
Productivity with book Draw Out the Story
Did a short promotional comment on YouTube today for this book on making comic books. It's at my local library or at Bolen's. Covers the basics to get started, and it's easy to follow till you get the hang of following through with a story you want to write.
Sunday 7 December 2014
My first HTML5 animation was a success, now visible on Youtube and my website
After some experimenting with the capabilities of Hype 2 on the Mac, I came up with a short animation about Christmas and cats that I have shared on Youtube at http://youtu.be/ITsWH0Rzigc and on my website www.patiostudioproductions.biz. Full audio is only included in the website version, because exporting to video doesn't seem to include audio.
Let me know what you think, there or here in the comments.
Here's the YouTube version, but it's better to see the website version because it utilizes the audio files and original HTML and graphics files.
Now that I know Hype 2 works well, and is very easy to use, I am excited to come up with more compelling stories. I can justify putting time into complete cartoon or line art illustrations, with suitable components to be animated with HTML5 and Javascript. For my samples, I am planning to make a few educational and entertainment pieces. My college and university studies offer lots of enjoyable subjects to choose from, that I'll try to show in a funny or unique (but compelling) way. For entertainment, I have a few cartoon characters that I draw frequently and would love to portray in animated stories. Not to mention promotional animations for my own and others' websites.
It's exciting, especially after I decided Madefire's online animated comic book creation tool seemed to have an unnecessarily dark and mysterious learning curve. My project there failed three times, and I say that's the end of that!
Madefire out...Hype 2 in. Plus, Hype 2 creates HTML5 assets ready for FTP upload. I've never used an FTP client before, but on short notice, and strong desire to show off my Christmas cat and tree animation, I figured it out (using FileZilla) and it worked perfectly. The first and only thing you'll see on my 'practice' website space (www.patiostudioproductions.biz) is that cat and tree animation!
Let me know what you think, there or here in the comments.
Here's the YouTube version, but it's better to see the website version because it utilizes the audio files and original HTML and graphics files.
Now that I know Hype 2 works well, and is very easy to use, I am excited to come up with more compelling stories. I can justify putting time into complete cartoon or line art illustrations, with suitable components to be animated with HTML5 and Javascript. For my samples, I am planning to make a few educational and entertainment pieces. My college and university studies offer lots of enjoyable subjects to choose from, that I'll try to show in a funny or unique (but compelling) way. For entertainment, I have a few cartoon characters that I draw frequently and would love to portray in animated stories. Not to mention promotional animations for my own and others' websites.
It's exciting, especially after I decided Madefire's online animated comic book creation tool seemed to have an unnecessarily dark and mysterious learning curve. My project there failed three times, and I say that's the end of that!
Madefire out...Hype 2 in. Plus, Hype 2 creates HTML5 assets ready for FTP upload. I've never used an FTP client before, but on short notice, and strong desire to show off my Christmas cat and tree animation, I figured it out (using FileZilla) and it worked perfectly. The first and only thing you'll see on my 'practice' website space (www.patiostudioproductions.biz) is that cat and tree animation!
I can't believe Society6 favourited one of my tweets!
I suggested something on Twitter, and they noticed. Click on the photo to see it bigger.
Follow me on Twitter @frisky650 to enjoy my other stunning comments.
Follow me on Twitter @frisky650 to enjoy my other stunning comments.
Facebook page updated today.
Check out out my new facebook page. I'm going to share my news there, just like I do on the blog, to catch attention from people who are regularly on there.
I don't seem to get comments on the blog, but I do get a lot of views. Facebook seems easy to start conversations, of course. But the blog allows me to share longer posts. I probably ought to just keep both in my radar for keeping in touch and sharing my own news.
So you can follow my Facebook page, like it, and leave comments just like you do on any other Facebook profile you like. I'll follow your news too.
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