Somehow, I've managed to turn into a somewhat decent character animator.
I've been doing animation cycles and tests over the last week or two, and I just finished a 5 second shot which will serve as the initial appearance of Griff for the series. And it looks pretty good!
I haven't animated any characters doing action since about this time last year when I was putting the finishing touches on Bill the Warrior. I think the improvement has to do with all the posing work I've done since then. First on the Bruce Wayne/Joker fist fight test page that I did last summer, then on the Captoon America pages, and finally on the pinup calendar images. None of those got me any jobs or earned me any money, but they did give me a good lesson on posing, lighting, and placing the camera
Having almost finished the intro shot, which is roughly 10 seconds long once I add some more elements to it, I'm estimating there are all of 170 seconds to go in episode 1. We did aim for having each episode last 2 minutes (I originally wanted it to be 1 minute), but I think the stories are much to big to fit in such a short period of time. I guess it will all depend on how the action scenes are edited together. I don't want too many slow pans and static shots a la Samurai Jack, even though it is the inspiration for this. I hope to keep things punchy and fast paced, with a wee bit of breathing room when it's needed.
I'm still aiming to have 22 minutes of animation completed by October, so there is plenty to do. Hopefully I don't give up after the first 900 frames.
by
Elvis Deane!
