April 28th Walk This Way...

Howdy friends. Today I give you three more characters strutting their stuff. We have Mort Felinestien, Hank Tembo, and Mrs. Topeka. I trimmed the sections that you have already seen, so that it doesn't get monotonous. As I have stated in previous posts the first section contains the rough pencil animation I have used as the basis for all the other walk cycles. When I drop these characters into scenes in the final animation I'll stagger their walk cycles. In English that means they won't all walk in unison in the final. ; )

As you can see to the left here, Mrs. Topeka doesn't have much up and down in her walk cycle. I tried to match the suggestion of girth/weight (no offense Mrs. Topeka!) that I had in Mr. Topeka's walk a few weeks back. I have a feeling that as they approach you on the sidewalk you can feel these two characters before you see them. The concrete would tremble.

Speaking of trembling concrete, Hank Tembo (Swahili for elephant, according to Google) is sporting a stylish plaid Irish cap (which can be purchased in the gift shop on your way out). His toy/gift bag originally had the name Finnegan's on it, but it was too hard to read so I took that out.

And then of course there is Mort Felinestien looking oh so sharp in a grey suit which matches his bowler, the band of which matches his tie and socks! Mort is carrying a rolled up newspaper, which he plans to attack and shred once he gets back to the office.

One again that's the Marine Corps belting out "Up In The Morning". It seems very fitting with all the exercising going on around here. It's also one of my favorite cadences, and one I loved to run and ride to back in the day.

Next time I will try and drop a city sidewalk scene scrolling by in the background for next time. Something that loops, like the old Flintstone's backgrounds did. Something simple though. I want it to be interesting, but I don't want it to detract from the main purpose which is just showing off the walk cycles.

Walking Characters from ryanloghry on Vimeo.

As I have stated before my work flow is pretty basic. I draw the characters in my sketchbook. I scan the drawings and "cut them out" in PhotoShop so I can move the pieces. Then I pose them on each frame of the walk cycle (still in PhotoShop). Then I render it out as a Quicktime movie. I use After Effects and Premiere to composite everything together. As always I hope you have enjoyed my drawings and this animation. Thank you for stopping by, God bless, and have a great day.

Walk walk walk...

Good morning everyone! Today I'm am sharing some work in progress. All year long I will be adding to the Christmas animation I posted in December. I will be adding more animated characters walking, and interacting in every scene.

In this animation I am showing on the left side the walk cycle I drew (thank you Preston Blair for your amazing work). In the middle of the frame is the black and white pencil drawn character I created, and matched pose for pose to my template. And then finally the full color character walking on the right, which I will drop into one of my scenes. My goal is to make last years animation look fuller, more lived in. I try to produce a card and animation each year, but since I usually start in August or September that only leaves me about 3 months to produce everything needed, which for a one man show is not very long. Last year I hit on this idea of creating an animation, and then filling it in, and improving it all year long. Please click "Play" on the video below to watch the animation.

If you would like to view the animation on my Vimeo page then please go here.

I sure love to draw, and I love to make those drawings move. I again thank my wife Angela for getting me Adobe CS6 three years ago, it is an amazing tool that allows me to fulfill my dreams, and to work at a level higher than I've ever been able to achieve before.

A full list of the tools I used for this: Pentel .7mm mechanical pencil; a Pentalic hardbound sketchbook with 70 lbs. paper; an Epson 3200 scanner (thank you David Schrotzberger for giving me yours when my old one died unexpectedly); Adobe Photoshope for edge clean up and colorization of the pencil drawings, as well as creating the frame by frame animation; Adobe Premiere for comping each animation together.

As always I hope you have enjoyed watching this animation and learning how I work. Thank you for stopping by, and I'll keep posting updates as I finish more characters. Have a terrific day, and God bless! -- Ryan

December 14, 2007 Animation

Philneus Blarbin walks and thinks. And thinks and walks. Thinking of inventions to make the world a better place for the humons. He likes to help the humons.

I noodled up this animation yesterday, an off day for me. I have a bazillion things I should have been working on, but did this for fun instead. I hope to do more of this animation, but I've had to take another day job, and doubt I'll have the time for it. As always thank you for stopping by, and be sure to visit my website at ryanloghry.com, and my retail site at ookybizniz.com.