A quick test done with Anime Studio Pro 9
Tag Archive: bo
Yesterday I was playing around with the bone dynamics options in Anime Studio. I applied it to a walk cycle I created with Abigail and here it is:
I started on my series back in December or January of this year (2013). I had the characters made, so my task at that time was to start on the story line.
It was difficult since I did not have a lot of time; I had to go to school and work, and studying took a lot of free time. I tried my best to squeeze in time to work on my project. It is a long process since I am working on it by myself mostly. I asked people around me for advice and suggestion, but that was about it. Having others insights, I now see, it is every important. I always had my little book of notes that I carried around, so I could write my ideas down anytime.
I organized my finalized ideas into a binder by category.
I hope I will keep filling it up until it is full. It has been 3 years since I started on this project and 5 months since I started on the animation of my series. I was focused, yet super giddy, or frustrated at times.
I spent long hours working to produce about 3 mins of work. This might seem little accomplishment for such a long span of time, but I do not look at it that way. I have had a tendency of starting projects and abandoning them a while after. 
This time, it did not happen. I have not finished the series, but I know I will keep going with this. When I was watching my creation for the first time, I was so elated. It was not the feeling of my usual happiness, it was so much more. I had a smile plastered on my face for the whole day. I play the video over and over, excited every time I watch.
I want to continue experiencing the feeling, so I will continue on my project. I can only get better from here, I surely hope I will be able to capture the attention of a larger audience. Compared to my earlier animations, I definitely put more effort into this project. I can see how I have improved over the years, and I hope my progress will stay at an upward trend. Animation is something I found and would like to keep doing for years to come.
As you should know, I recently posted the first part of the pilot of my series, Bo the Creature. I started the show by creating the main character Bo, the little alien creature, about three years ago.
At the time, I had only a vague idea of what I was going to do as always.I knew that the alien had to be cute, but I did not have a concrete story line to accompany it.
I soon decided to create a supporting character, Abigail. Still I had no concrete story line, but having another character narrowed my options. Even after I created the final main character, Farnham, I had not developed my story. I only figured out what I wanted to do after I created Abigail’s mother.
I was hesitant to start a series since it is going to take more work then a movie, but I am now willing to try.
I have not been able to find a clear step by step article or tutorial of what the animation process is. Since some people have asked me how it is done, I have decided to post at least one post a day about it. The title will be Stage_ and I will try to explain as clear as possible each stage of the process. Of course there are many ways to achieve something, but if you have no idea what to do, you can start here. Stay updated and subscribe if you haven’t done so yet!
The long awaited video. At last it is here. After 5 months of work, it is complete. It might seem like a little, for such a long span of time, but I have been busy, and this was a side project. Enjoy!
This is the first background I finished for the start of my cartoon series:
I created it using Anime Studio Pro and Photoshop 🙂
Ok, not completely new but definitely improved. Gave him more…shape I guess.
Turnaround
A room in Farnham’s movie:
I edited Farnham a little to give him a better shape overall. Here it is:
Farnham
A video of Bo!
Planning, Planning. Making a cartoon requires A LOT of it. Here’s some of my notes (excuse for the messiness it is only my first draft – no edits):
Scene 1
Farnham is looking through dumpster of movie producing company. Finds better hat. Bo crashes gets scared off by some cats. He runs and crashes into wall or something. and gets momentarily knocked out Farnham spots Bo (same alley) pretends to be the nice guy. Pretends he can help bo but real intention is to report him to the city to get recognized and get money. But then when he gets home and looks around he realizes that he can use Bo in his movies and make a bigger fortune.
Takes him home makes him comfy, makes him believe that he is going to help. Doesn’t get along with granny’s
dog so granny didn’t like bo and told him to stop playing with toys and get a life. after getting bo on his side, he tricks bo into making movies.
Then Bo gets separated from the guy
(Abigail’s mom tells abby to say thank you) Bo meets Abigails as she chases her balloon (with icecream) and he runs away to find his spaceship. They collide. At first she stares at him and he stares back
I finally made a complete 360 turnaround of a character. And it is Abigail’s mom! Here’s the result:
Contest entry
WARNING DO NOT WATCH ENDING IF YOU HAVE PHOTOSENSITIVE EPILEPSY.
My 2nd full animation!!!
Special thanks to Chad from LilredheadComics!
Farnham
Abigail
Playlist of some of Bo’s videos!
Opinions and suggestions are welcome 🙂
Just the sides put together in motion:
I am finished with all the sides for Farnham. Next will be the hands probably. Here it is:
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- Front
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- 3/4
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- Side
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- Back
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- Other Side
Title is self explanatory. Here’s Farnham:
Here’s the completed version of Farnham overall. I made the legs longer. Luckily I didn’t rig both sides first. I might add some details or textures later but right now here’s what I have:
I created the right side of the body for Farnham. I did one side first and once I am done rigging and adjusting points I will just duplicate the arm and leg layers for the other side. I am not quite satisfied with it yet so I will probably change it around. The difficult part is the upper part of the arm because the points have to be in certain places for the arm to move correctly when the bone is rotated. If only I could just copy arms from other characters. That would change things sadly though.
Half body
Unlike with Abigail, I made the emotions before I made the body. However I will start with the body before I do the head turns. Here are some samples of Farnham’s emotions:
I started working on a new character. I’m not going to write to much about him mainly because I haven’t figured out what I am going to do for sure with him. His name is Farnham. Here’s what I have so far:
A real quick head turn of Abigail. I just have to check the front head turn and I will be done with Abigail!
It’s been a while since I posted. I added some actions to Abigail like running, jumping, skiping. In addition I made different hand positions. The only thing to do is check that everything works together well. I will post some samples asap.
Done with body turns, added more head turns to Abigail. Now I need to do walk cycle and other body actions. I will post pictures soon. Hope to be done this month and move to the next character.
I finished creating the different head views for Abigail. This is not final since I still need to add details and move some points around. I didn’t include the Back View because I didn’t like it very much =p Here it is:
If you click on the images fast enough, it looks like a head turn!
I decided to make the pants longer because of how the leg looked before. I also added gradient to the skin and eyes. I added a bow as well. Here it is:
Here is how it looked before when you bent the leg:
And now:
I will add gradient to make it look better. I have been having problems with gradients in AS. I had to bind every body part to a bone using the Bind Layer tool. I will keep searching for another way to do it though.
I started working on Abigail in AS8 two days ago I believe. I have finished drawing her as a whole. The colors are not final, I will add gradient to it. I already added bones and made all the layers. I still need to do the following:
- Add gradient
- Head turns
- Body turns
- Lip positions
- Expressions
- Walking, jumping, etc actions
- Hand poses
- And probably something else I can’t remember right now.
I made two noses because at first I didn’t like the first one. What do you think I shoud pick?
Abigail
I have finally started making Abigail in Anime Studio. I didn’t start earlier because I was testing some things out with my character Amy which you can see here. I will just use her to model Abigail. You can see it all under the category Abigail under Characters. I plan to post my progress here so please visit often.
If you read my previous posts you know that I decided to make a movie with Bo. However I changed my mind and decided to make a series instead. I drew sketches of the new characters but I’m not gonna post it because it will not look that good (and you may know that if you’ve see sketch of Abigail). I’m actually debating still if I should start working before or after Anime Studio 8 is realeased, I’m not sure yet. I’m still experiencing with Anime Studio 7 with the time I have (not a lot hehe). I hope I get something done by the end of summer though. I guess we’ll have to see. Bye! Come back again!
I have finished drawing Abigail (digitally) and here’s the result:
I don’t have a lot of experience painting so it’s the best I could do. When I start making her in Anime Studio it will probably not look like that but similar at least.
This little girl is Bo’s biggest fan. I just drew a sketch of her and will start “buiding” her soon. Any suggestions are welcome.
Abigail
A longer animation of Bo:
Walking test
Bo was out playing with his childhood friend (name) jumping from astroid to astroid. Everything was going great, but then creature slipped because he was trying to show off. When he fell he was pulled by earth’s gravitational pull but somehow (how) survived the fall. He ends up on a deserted street. He wonders around a bit looking around. Then as he turns a corner he sees some angry cats. They start chasing him, so he starts running. But he turned on a not a through street and was trapped. Luckily a girl (name) was walking at that time back from school. (she usually doesn’t go this way but wanted to get home early and it was a shorter way). At first she thought what a strange looking toy and wanted to continue but then creature looked so scared as the cats started closing in on him that she knew he was alive. At that moment all she wanted to do was to save him. She scared the cats away looked at the creature thinking “What is this thing? Is it a rabbit? But rabbits are not blue.” She took it home anyway hiding it from her family. Creature starts really liking the girl. He always wants to spend time with her. But one day he started looking at pictures of space and started to get home sick. He thought about his childhood friend and his parents. He started crying a bit. Then he did different things to try to go back home. It sually involved him running away. Girl always found him except one time when his parents (who are like the king and queen) found him first and took him away. Creature was happy but a bit sad to leave. He was going to miss the girl and all the food. One day on his home planet, he heard his mom and dad talk about destroying planet earth because creature was exposed. Creature didn’t want that. He had to warn the girl. So he took a spaceship and rode to earth. Girl was happy to see him but creature was panicing. Since he didn’t know how to talk, he had to assemble different items to show what he meant. Girl understood and said what can we do? Creature thought of a plan and called his childhood friend. And then I don’t know what should happen so you tell me!
P.S help fill in the blanks. Even one would be great help!
