Save the Internet PSA

I made up this old newsreel style PSA to help spread the word about the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act(COICA). It's down right sickening that something like this is even entertained. To jump right to the issue and petition check out Demand Progress.ORG

Now being an artist I'm well aware of protecting copyrights, but something like this isn't how it's done. And as we all know, despite what the entertainment industry claims, a vast majority of any copyrighted content being shared is generally junk. Especially the stuff on the likes of Youtube.

Also you can't really hurt a market that isn't there, and these companies could very easily make their content freely available on their own websites. Or even provide blanket licensing options for websites to cover their content that is shared. It would be very similar to the way TV, Radio, and assorted businesses pay blanket Public Performance licenses for music. They could even request a portion of ad revenue on the pages that their content appears on.

Spread the word, the internet black list must be stopped.

Public Domain: The Shocking Truth!

Having been some time since I've talked about the issue of music and cartoons. I've mentioned things quite a bit, but let's face it--music and cartoons go hand in hand.

So now having learned something I somewhat referenced in a past post about music. I vaguely touched on Public Domain music. Where I mentioned "the older the better".

Turns out, that's only a half truth. Why? Well let me tel you.

While an old song may be public domain, that really only covers the sheet music, any lyrics.

The catch here is, any recordings or productions made from that music are protected by copyright and belong to that particular creator. And that recording won't enter public domain until at least 75 years after the death of that creator.

So even though an old dusty piece of classical music is up for grabs, every individual musician or group are the rightful owners of their respective recordings. And therefore you cannot use that 150+ year old song unless you go about getting the proper permissions to use it.

Of course you could always time travel 100 years or so into the future, make your toon and then come back.

A fresh new Look!

I have just revamped Hoot'Nanny Productions website. I'm currently trying out Webstudio 5.0, so far so good. Aside from not being able to access my host through it's built-in FTP client it's a pretty nice program for drag-and-drop website design.

I'm a bit happier going for straight web hosting rather than making use of Go Daddy's Website Tonight hosting that I previously had. It was just too restrictive and it wasn't easy trying to mold the templates into what I wanted. It was convenient and google seemed to find my site easier that way, but I needed more flexibility. 

Now with my site anew, I'm gonna start practicing some web marketing things I've been reading up on to see how I can use it for site promotion. Internet marketing can be used for more than trying to make quick money online! Hopefully I'll do that too.

And now back to my storyboard and melting my brain with net learning!

Space Barbarian Opening

My Space Barbarian opening! It's been up over the Hoot'Nanny Youtube channel for a while. Decided to post it here as well. This would count as my first proper flash animation. Yes, those sound effects you hear are classic Hanna-Barbera sounds. Royalty free sound effects, at that! Well sorta. Boy I got plenty more legal mumbo jumbo knowledge while I was finding suitable sounds.

I can't tell you how many classic cartoon openings I watched while I was huting down proper music for the theme. The theme is also royalty free music. The drums for the title card is an original composition. Not much too it, but I think I did alright for someone without musical ability. 

Til next time, toonsters!

Dig That Funky Pattern

If you know of Cartoon Network's Chowder, then you know one of the show's trademarks are the funky animated patterns on the characters.

I'd been trying to think up how in the world they're able to pull that off. Actually lots of people are and it's been quite tricky trying to track down any sort of specific information.

One day after watching an episode of Chowder I got to thinking about how I might be able to pull off an animated pattern like in Chowder. Before you run to Flash, don't. Animating this is beyond Flash's capabilities. I had tried it a while back with masks but it just doesn't work.

I did throw the scene and "Soup" together in Flash and I made a "background" pattern with the Deco Tool. 

For Soup all I did was make sure the parts of his costume that was getting the pattern were a solid bright green. A color that in no way was going to end up in the scene. 

I then set about animating Soup's walk and him going back and forth. 

Once I had a decent enough loop animated in Flash, I then took the whole set up into Adobe After Effects. As that was one way I figured they could pull off those animated patterns.

So once I had everything imported into After Effects I simply set about applying a chroma/color keying effect. Also known as "green screen".

As you can see, it worked. However as far as my experience level goes, After Effects is only good for one pattern. Since you set the pattern on a layer below your animation.

If you've never worked with After Effects before it works with a layered timeline similar to Flash, but way more complex.

You could also likely pull this off with Adobe Premier, maybe. The results would be the same, good for one pattern.

So it seems that for now the secret behind those animated patterns in Chowder will remain a mystery. Unless of course there's some technique you can use to tying specific color key colors to specific patterns, in After Effects or Premier. There very well could be, but I've not stumbled across them yet.

Til next time, toonsters! 

Change is Nigh-ish

So I've been deciding how to go about better building a presence for Hoot'Nanny Productions. Though, I must say I have managed to generate a couple of bucks via ads between here and my website. So I'm still weighing the options of going the website/blog route.

I've been working on setting up Cartoon Syndicate It's far from finished but it's coming together and it's letting me see the potential I have for Hoot'Nanny Productions. As my site is right now I must always wrestle with the restrictions of my current hosting plan's templates. I would have a bit more design freedom with the website/blog combo with the price of getting used to Wordpress, but that is a bit of net design experience I can apply to other things in the future.

I'm also learning the ins and outs of web promotion/marketing to better my chances of generating passive income for additional funding and exsposure for my toons. As such in a bit of further unrelated news I've launched PanzerBanana.com. To have a general non-cartoon site/blog so my my official cartoon sites won't be cluttered with too many unrelated topics. Just follow the link for the full story.

Til next time, toonheads!

Toon Boom Studio "Review"

I was sitting around working on some things when I realized, I haven't really given any product reviews. And that's something aspiring cartoonists/animators that are just starting out wonder about. So I thought I would mention one that seemed really fancy when I first read of it.

If you're cartoon minded like me, you likely pick up Animation magazine whenever you can, and scour the net for all things related to the craft. If you do, you will have likely come across mention of Toon Boom Studio.

Toon Boom is a powerful program. It features bones and is capable of many different animation techniques. When I read of it Toon Boom sounded like the program I was looking for. Then I tried it out.

Before I continue I'd like to say it is really important to at least familiarize yourself with all of the basics of making a cartoon/animation happen. Since it's more than just drawing, you've got story boards, animatics, exposure sheets. there's a lot of things that go into keeping the entire project on track. Things that keep everyone on the same page

Now if you're a solo cartoonist, as many web cartoonists/animators are. Some of those things don't seem all that important . Until your ideas and planning get to the point where you realize you really do need to keep a more reliable record of your progress than your memory. It's very important to at least be aware of the basics. Especially you find like minded artists to collaborate with, because they don't have the convenience of knowing what you're thinking.

With all of that being said. Toon Boom Studio is, in a nutshell, the process of animation digitally reconstructed.

There is a time line and things some will find familiar if they've dabbled in Flash or anything else. That's where the similarities end. You cannot animate frame-by-frame with Toon Boom, not like with flash.

Toon Boom has and uses an Exposure Sheet like real animation. What an Exposure Sheet does is show you what animation assets and elements are in use for a particular scene. How many frames they're in, or length of a particular action lasts. You cannot do anything on the the time line of Toon Boom, unless you set everything up on the exposure sheet.

Toon Boom whether intentional or not, is geared towards paperless animation. They have a suite of products that are digital versions of aspects of animation, and ways of tying everything together so a studio can work digitally.

Which is all well and good if you happen to be a professional studio or students looking toward traditional animation, but want to be eco-friendly. And I think that's great.

However, for anyone just starting out Toon Boom is not the program for you. Unless you're specifically interested in being an animator. Then Toon Boom Coupled with the resource any and every cartoonist/animator should own The Animators Survival Kit Then you'll have a means of familiarizing yourself with things covered in the book.

Toon Boom is cheaper than Flash, but quite a meaty purchase unless you're really serious about being an animator. Definately try before you buy.

I'm Back! Now with phat lootz!

make custom gifts at Zazzle

I'm in the process of setting up a Zazzle shop to sell some prints. Hopefully, I'll move a few. So far I've been moved to make some parody movie posters. They just seemed to be a fun idea. So if you like cartoons and cartoon art and movies perhaps think of picking one up!

Anyone who has stumbled across my Flash tips, I do actually plan on finishing that up. But there's only so much time to practice arts and blog.

Til next time!