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Computer Animation
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Currently this
page features the development of a single animation project. In 1998 I
was hospitalized for Gaul Bladder surgery. After it was removed I came up I
came up with this story. The story is called, "Amy: My science project." It
is a story of a teen age girl that puts off an assigned science project
until the very last minute. The story is in three sections that form a
single story.
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I have gone through a lot of evolution in the graphical
parts. I started out using Flash, then Flash MX an now I am using Toon Boom
5. I have also evolved the graphic art. The following shows some of the
evolutionary steps that I have gone through.
Animation Backgrounds
Go here to get the latest Flash Player.
Character Development
I
have gone through several changes in the general look of my characters, The
first was more cartoony and believe the character looks like the real
character that the character is drawn from.
This character fit the requirements for
my lead character. The inspiration was a teaching student I knew at the
time. She was a model student that I want my character to reflect. I changed
the hair from blond to orange. I also dressed the character in a perky sort
of way.
This was an upgrade of the previous version. I
made her bond and a bit more preppy.
This time I decided that that she should be a bit
more work type. She hangs out at the scrap yards and surplus stores looking for
parts for her inventions. She is the only girl in hers school with a complete
set of mechanical tools. Since she was quite small she had an interest in making
gadgets. Even with this background she still puts off making her science
project.
Next I did story
boards for the story. I really felt comfortable with the way things were
developing. Several things happened then. First I had to go back to the hospital
for a liver sits removal and something else. This was in 2003.
A miracle
happens. I April of 2009 I was involuntary terminated form General Motors. I
never felt really bad. In fact I have been detoxifying for some of the
contaminates that I was being exposed to. I also under quit a bit of stress that
was unique to my group. In the months since then I had not thought of my
animation project. I got out my pencil and began drawing. Every day I am doing
more and more. I have done most of the character development and am now working
on background artwork.
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Backgrounds
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I
really like backgrounds. In the world of animation it seams to be the
character artist and the art it self that gets all of the attention. I have
lots of books on character development and I can not think of a single book
on drawing backgrounds. Recently (about a year ago) I bought some
commercially made animation backgrounds, but never seamed what I needed. I
tried using photographic, but once again I did not feel right with them. I
just purchased Photoshop Elements 7 and decide to take a crack an my own
hand drawn backgrounds. I began by looking at what the big time animators
have done. Forget using Disney. Their backgrounds are way too complex to
imitate. I looked at the Clyde Carshcup cartoons and they are far too
simple. I looked at some of the Charlie Brown. This had promise. The
following drawing was inspirited by, "Its Magic Charlie Brown." I found a
place where Charlie was feeding Snoopy and walked out the back door with a
dog food dish. I will not put the picture here because it is copyrighted.
This is my impression of that scene and has all the elements I needed.
The
following two drawings show my classroom for my animation. The first is the
front of the room with the black board. Note the chalk on the board. The next is
a side view of a couple desk. Once again I was inspired by the Charlie Brown
animations.
