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!

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.

Basic Flash Things I Wish I Knew: Part One

Currently I am outlining the things I would like to cover in blogcasts/tutorials. Which might seem odd since I'm still learning my craft. However there are things that I've discovered that I've not found mentioned in books or other tutorials, at least not any of the ones I've found.

I'll touch on these things in the tutorials as well. Well, I guess I'll demonstrated these things in the tutorials. Right now I'm just going to start with one of the most basic things in flash....

SYMBOLS!

Symbols are the building blocks of flash, nearly everything that enters your project will be a symbol. There are three flavors. The two most fitting for animation, at least what I do. Are Graphic Symbols and Movie Clips, the third being Buttons.

You can also place symbols inside symbols, inside symbols. An awesome "feature" which can, and in my case did for sometime, lead to confusion. Organization is an important thing.

Graphic Symbols. Graphic Symbols, are the "least fancy" of the two. However, if you're simply doing frame-by-frame animation, and you don't need the object to do much else, Graphic Symbol is a good choice.

Graphic Symbols, unlike movie clips, have the advantage of playing any animation you do inside the symbol(examples to come) when you scrub or play the timeline. UNLESS! You've added animation to a Graphic Symbol inside that one, then you won't see that animation at all. Also you won't see the animation loop of a Movie Clip, but you will when you test your movie.

A SPECIAL NOTE ON GRAPHIC SYMBOLS

To see any animation inside a Graphic Symbol, you have to make sure your main timeline spans the same number of frames or more.

A SPECIAL NOTE ON SYMBOLS IN GENERAL

Any change you make to a symbol on the stage, will change it in your library, and any other symbol it is in. My book never told me that.

Movie Clips. Movie Clips are the symbol of choice when you need to do "fancy" things. Things such as, to loop continuously regardless of the number of frames in your timeline. The animation in a Movie clip loops independent of the main timeline. You can have one frame in your main timeline and 100 in your Movie Clip, it will still play. This is great for things that have persistent motion, such as a fire or a pulsing light.

Movie Clips, will not show animation when you scrub the timeline. So if you need to see how a symbol is animating in relation to the background or anything else in the scene, don't choose a Movie Clip.

Movie Clips do have the added benefit of being able to apply filter effects to a symbol. Such as glowing, blur, drop shadow. Depending on your needs filters can be a fun effect.

That's a good start for now. Next up will be tweens and comps. Stay Tuned!