i’ll spare you the pedagogy! here’s some girls getting cozy with a skinhead dude!

this was supposed to be a flyer for an oi punk show i got nagged by banshees from the bowels of hades to make; but in the end i was told it wasn’t tough enough…and “those kinds of skinheads [the bands playing] don’t like scooters.” i don’t like those kinds of skinheads!

i let this sit after it was spurned but i figured i’d give it some color and make the girl in the middle wear a crass t shirt. i was going to wait till i finished the background to put this up, but gee golly gosh, i’ll call it a process post!! floating characters ahoy!

i was looking at a dan decarlo book when i made this to fuel that punk rock archie vibe. after years of only drawing cartoony animals [outside of figure] i’m starting to dig this whole drawing people thing! i really like making loose references to my friends in these sorts of drawings too. there’s a couple in this one…

oh! speaking of friends and rock and roll ladies! i just added a link on the side to krysti pryde! scope out her ramblings! and those of chloe rice too while you’re at it!

here’s some post reading music from the aquabats while you wait:

so far i’ve talked about the stage and “drawing” area of this software package, as well as the stylus…but animation is a time based medium, how do you plan for things in advance? well that’s where the TIMELINE comes in!

the timeline is ever elusive. in most computer programs people, myself included, will act like they’re planning things out then just shift things around a billion times to eventually make it work. the beauty of this program’s timeline is it really makes you think about the timing of your animation before you even get too deep into your keys.

seeing as how you can actually make notes along the length of the column, you can plan things out and make arcs which you can reference later when you’re adding the drawings that fall in between your keyed out drawings.

here is what i animated based on column/character B of this x-sheet:

X-Sheet Test from smo on Vimeo.

this is a short clip [mostly because the project isn't getting done anymore] but i tried to stick to my pre-planning with it. from the key at fr. 61 to the key at fr. 89 which i just did this afternoon for kicks [the rest was done months ago], i didn’t chart things as thoroughly and i feel like they’re not as tight, though i did stick to the sheet for the placement of keys. also i noticed coming back from long periods of not animating, i try and draw crazy breakdowns, and apparently ignore tracking things like collars…

this was my second official time using x-sheets and charts for a project. my first was for a project i animated with the pink panther, but i wasn’t as thorough and did my inbetweens and breakdowns in a computer machine. this was always a sort of mysterious thing to me, which we touched on in college but i wasn’t able to wrap my head around yet.

page 290 in the illusion of life tipped me off about using arcs on the notes portion of the sheet to mark down a visual representation of “eases” and antics. i’d really like to do a bit more work with sheets to be able to get a grip on the process, but for me, being a scatterbrain, the x-sheet really helped tie down my drawings and give me a broader frame of reference. it seems like more work, but in reality it helped me plow through things, because when i was at the animation stage i didn’t have to think anymore…i did that all ready!

in the long run i’m happier with this timeline over those of many other programs i’ve tried. it really makes me think about things and get a feel for what’s happening in advance, instead of just shifting bits around. it’s refreshing and i can put a lot more into the action that i can on a machine. not to mention the control i have over the actual drawing elements!

i’m posting this months after i’d made these charts, and they’re rather scribbly at best, but if you’d like me to go into more detail about charts themselves and what i’ve learned by forcing myself to use them, let me know!

stripes are all the rage this season! let’s see what our models are wearing today shall we?

leatherface loves his slimming vertical stripes for strolling around town or a day in at the shop. freddy is sporting a finely woven long sweater in crimson and olive, sure to be on the minds of all the ladies this season. baby chucky is all about the springtime color combo, varying shades of bubblegum color under his designer overalls give him that vibrant springtime knifefight feel. while rowdy roddy has come here to chew bubblegum in his hand crafted plaid buttondown, let’s just hope he doesn’t run out!

you can see all these fantastic styles and get up to the minute news about what’s happening on screen and off over at bloody good horror! listen to their podcast! this image is owned and brought to you by them…oh and hey, it IS them! i drew it…but you knew that!

would you and your friends like to look as beautiful as these gents?! do you have money?! all your dreams and more can come true just email me at smo [at] smomotion.com for details!

dang, this new software seems like it has infinite possibilities! i was planning on writing about the stylus shortly after my earlier post but i kept finding different qualities and new nibs! it’s a tough one to nail! they call this stylus a “pencil” and you use it right on your desktop with the program’s “paper“!

but seriously, this stylus is amazing, you can even get a variety of different shapes, textures, smoothnesses, waxynesses, there’s so many qualities to consider! it’s like eating fine cheeses. so after eating some of these i did these weird stream of consciousness tests with some of the different varieties!

i hit a bunch of supply stores and collected various stylus nibs, but i wanted to make sure they were comparable based on some factor so i used only ones marked with the 6B and 4B distinctions. because this is already going to be retardedly in depth, i’m focusing on the 6B nibs.

so here’s some background you don’t need:

i used to always use prismacolor col-erase [usually blue] to animate. i thought they were the “animator pencils” and sure they’re great, but a friend slipped me these bob camp animation notes that had all these crazy bold lines on them and told me mr. camp will crush anything weaker than a 6B with his eyeball and that it makes a huge difference for quick sketching to use the softer grades. the colors are great for certain circumstances like signifying when there’s a partial hold, tracebacks or cleanups, something like that. but when you’re looking through a bunch of layers they don’t always hold up.

to compound that discovery i stumbled upon this interesting creature here.

so this blackwing was THE animator utensil of choice?! it was basically a 6B?! it used to be made in my neighborhood…and now it’s extinct?! MEGA BOGUS!!

They go for 30 bucks on ebay for a single one now!

that got me thinking, not every 6B is the same then IS IT?! NOPE! there are big differences! lead grades [6B vs 6B] tend to be similar but they vary company to company [so there's no solid standard for softness], and beyond that the lead itself can be smooth and waxy in one pencil and charcoally and brittle in another.

Now that i knew there was once the ultimate pencil and it had been defeated by capitalism and staples i needed to find a reasonable facsimile, so I endeavored myself in rigorous PENCIL TESTING! PUN!

here’s my incoherent musings:

i tested how they worked with different pressure, in a quick squiggle and how much they smudged. overall how they felt and “drew” too. there’s a lot of pencils here, so i’ll summarize a bit.

STAEDLER MARS LUMOGRAPH: before testing i was using mostly the stœdler mars lumograph, which actually racked up pretty high in the end! really smooth and easy to work with quick, puts down a solid line too. sometimes it feels a bit too waxy though and dulls fairly quickly. an all around good pencil, plus the proceeds for all those pencils go to some school in germany or something. you can find these everywhere. the graphite itself is a bit chubby which can be good or bad depending on what you’re doing.

GENERAL PENCIL CO. KIMBERLY: right after the tests my favorite was general’s kimberly pencil. but after numerous field tests at figure drawing and general drawing stuff this sucker doesn’t like pencil sharpeners. the lead quality is really nice though and they’re made from a sustainable cedar wood crop which is a rad aspect for them to boast. the 4B seems to sharpen a bit better than the 6.

TOMBOW MONO: the next i was skeptical of at first but i was swayed and then they were endorsed by this awesome dude simon ampel which only furthered their case. the tombow mono is a pretty slick pencil! it gets dark and draws pretty smoothly without being too waxy a real solid pick! i used the tombow mono homo-graph pencils from dick blick but apparently the mono 100 are badass and these use the exact same lead.

CALIFORNIA REPUBLIC PALOMINO: another being hailed as the potential replacement for the titan that was the blackwing is the smoothest ride in town; california republic’s palomino. i use this pencil a lot now, it’s become my general sketching pencil [though i do hop around a lot] and i’m animating with it too. it keeps it’s point and can get really dark despite claiming to be a 2B! this is definitely a pencil to check out! also comes recommended as far as modern pencils go, by this rad dude: robert ryan cory [in the comments of my paper post]

all of these are winners really it’s up to you to wrangle in what works the best for your purposes. for fast gesture and crazy doodling i use the mars a lot, sometimes the general’s [just not for figure] but the tombo and palomino are pretty well rounded and not too smudgy; good for just about anything!

another contender was the Lyra art and design pencil, but it’s dang expensive and not as good as the others so i opted against making it a finalist.

the turquoises aren’t so bad either but they have a hint of that charcoal feel that i don’t like, a bit of resistance irritates me when i’m doodling with a soft lead.

the general’s layout pencil actually boasts being used by animators on it’s website! but it’s a bit charcoally for me, definitely good at dark lines though and heck, good for layout if you’re more sure with your line than i.

that’s all i got, i have no idea if it makes sense but i’m clicking “post” before i think about it.

here’s some drawings that i did [there's a disembodied head in the upper left by mike carlo too] when i was testing these out that were more about how it felt when i was scribbling than what i was actually drawing so they won’t really help anything here at all!:

this post is a mess and i’ve had a lot of coffee.

:: EDIT :: – holy canolies! cartoon brew saw some sense in this and linked, totally rad, thanks guys! there’s a bit more discussion there too: http://www.cartoonbrew.com/tools/pencil-testing.html

whoa that blink tag worked?! i know what i’m using more of…

happy van halen-tine’s day 2010 everybody!!!

in celebration of one of the most important and broadly impactful holidays of the year; van halen-tine’s day i quickly rendered this van halen-tine. so as you’re shredding some sweet licks on your kramer be it made of wood or air, on this most blessed of holidays; please don’t forget to jump!

I JUST MADE A HILARIOUS INTERNETCOMIC!!! WATCH OUT JIM DAVIS!!!

more scribbles from dune!

paleontology is way sweet! kynes is the paleontologist on arrakis and he is a badass.

kynes is one of my favorite characters so far. though i got kind of confused and thought he was a fremen, one of the dudes native to the dune planet. i guess he’s just been there a while because he likes doing stuff the tough way. a wizard set me straight. but for this drawing pretend he’s a fremen or at least got their general vibe. i gave him dreads and a tiny pile of sand on his head. it’s sandy in the desert.

don’t let this picture fool you. i stamp tooled the heck out of the space around the drawing, my sketchbooks are clutter central.

hey! i’ve been out of the loop for a bit! i’ve been experimenting with this sweet new software i just got! it makes drawing so easy and if you plan stuff right you can make some totally sick stuff!

here, i took a screen cap:

i’ve been exploring some different features. i’ll split it up into two posts because there’s a bit to talk about!

first let’s talk about “paper.”

you can draw on this program’s “desk” with different kinds of “paper.” it’s really intuitive! i never really considered there being different qualities of paper in regards to animation, i just took computer paper punched it and scanned it. i generally do bulk scans using duane palyka’s scan fix program to align the pegs. but now that i don’t have a hole punch readily available, when i was animating the rochester, ny high falls laser lightshow and ran out of punched paper, i decided i’d take an opportunity to experiment. so i ordered the 10 field paper sampler pack from these guys: lightfoot ltd and thought i’d see how they stacked up against each other.

here’s what they send you in their sampler pack. “student bond,” “mohawk bond,” and “ingram bond” animation paper, all 20lb paper.

ok great. 3 kinds of paper. what does that even mean? well the student bond looks to be very similar to my standard computer paper i was used to. and i could notice that the ingram and the mohawk were slightly different colors. they’re varying in smoothness too. i’m used to drawing on the moleskine journal paper which is a smoother cream/off white colored paper. but it’s still thick enough to deal with my scribbles not newsprint or anything like that.

ok well great, they’re different colors? do i look like i care? how does this stuff work? why would i pay money when i can just go to the staples and buy half a rainforest in a box for 4 bucks and punch it at some local college or something?

well check this out…

when the lights go out, the magic happens.

here’s the rundown: top left: INGRAM top right: COMPUTER PAPER bottom left: MOHAWK bottom right: STUDENT BOND

and now that we know what we’re looking at let’s zoom the heck in

so here’s something that i’ve never thought about AT ALL. sure the feel and color of the paper are all something you think about when drawing but the makeup of the paper? let’s call it MURKYNESS! so check out how murky the two entrants on the right are? this “student bond” that came in the sampler and my 20lb hammermill computer paper. even with my crummy camera you can see they’re all sorts of murky. all the little fibers become crazy visible when they’re backlit, which is HUGE if you’re going to be animating. you want to be able to draw with reasonable pressure and still be able to see a couple drawings deep on your light table. but if the paper is too murky it will keep you from seeing between more than a couple sheets! that can be a real pain.

but scope out the mohawk and ingram paper! the mohawk is a lot more clear than either of the contenders on the right, but dang, the ingram? that’s just nuts! it looks like tracing paper! there’s definitely a reason this stuff has a pricetag. 34 bucks for 500 sheets? REALLY? but hey i could do that 70 times and still have spent less than i would on a cintiq! i tried looking into buying just straight sheets of this stuff and it looks like they don’t really make reams of it that a normal paper distro like xpedx or something similar would carry. it’s also rather difficult to find lighter weight computer paper like 16lb [though i'd imagine it wouldn't be much less murky if you did]

the ingram paper is also really smooth too [as is the mohawk don't get me wrong] check out how they stack up next to my moleskine sketchbook:

this time the ingram’s on the bottom, mohawk on top. they both stack up well against the texture of the moleskine journal, but the ingram is silky smooth compared to the murkyness of the book’s paper!

this blew my mind!

what you need to know?

INGRAM ANIMATION PAPER IS AWESOME!!!

if i continue in this odd experimental vein i might do tests to see how far visibility goes through a stack of paper and stuff like that…

next time i’ll talk about this program’s sweet drawing tool!

ARRAKIS! THE DESERT PLANET!

according to carl sagan in his cosmos series, “planet” is a term derived from the greek word planan meaning “wanderer”. on dune there’s a bunch of nomadic people. wanderers of a wanderer. yet there’s also this family that comes to rule over it and all it’s stuff. they’re not bad eggs, at least as far into it as i am…

see i’m endeavoring myself in this: dune book club!

they don’t wander so much…yet. they’re kind of stuck.

there’s allusions cast however that one character “lady jessica” had a boy when she could have birthed a girl? they can pick? LIKE REPTILES? maybe she kept the eggs warmer or something and popped out a boy. through this i deduced that the characters of dune very well may be akin to david icke’s reptilian humanoids and did a proper homage:

thufir hawat

lady jessica…ON THAT PATH LIES DANGER!

and paul, that little scamp!

two months ago, someone out there decided they should take the highway to the danger zone right into the danger zone.

in taking my most valued material possession and primary mode of transport from me [by cutting the bolts off the stop sign, hoisting it lock and all over top of the post and fleeing like a coward into the darkness. they did not win it fairly in a thunderdome match or a game of crossfire.] this stranger has incurred my wrath. oh and the wrath of a tiny sicilian/concentrated humanoid is boundless.

i have since ordered a new bike so that i may once again be mobile. and appropriately i have named it vengeance [the demon whip]. tempered from raw steel built beyond the 7 seas. with vengeance i shall ride to protect those who may fall victim to bike theft and to avenge those who have been wronged in such a manner. a trying charge indeed.

to aid me in this quest i had prepared this pendant to be mounted on it’s headtube.

HOWEVER recently it seems to have been vanquished to the nether-realms and i’m left without it’s aid! because everyone knows magical talisman are a primary source of such powers.

so to you i pose this offer:

if someone will purchase a replacement talisman/pendant currently available here [though please get in touch before taking me up on this]

i will return the favor by making for you an inked commission of your description!

if this is of interest to you please leave a comment or email me at smo [at] smomotion [dot] com and discussion shall be had!