Fionna and Cake Fan Animation

[lwaxana]

[Edit - 11-22-2014 Replaced video with final version]
Hi all! Here is a Fionna and Cake (Adventure Time) fan animation I'm making.

I'm experimenting with a new workflow where all the pose based character animation is done in Anime Studio and then for more extreme actions (Marshall Lee changing angles as he flies) I'm working frame by frame in Toon Boom Animate and exporting pngs to Anime Studio in a switch layer. It seems reasonably efficient so far. Let me know if you have any comments or suggestions. Thanks!

[Danimal]

It looks good, and it's the simple things that make me smile - the guy's hands actually move with each chord change. Fantastic!

[Greenlaw]

That's fun. Nice work and thanks for sharing it.

I've been thinking about expanding our animation pipeline too. When we made Scareplane, I needed to incorporate frame by frame animation in a few scenes but ASP sure didn't make it easy--I wound up drawing far fewer frames than I originally wanted for those bits because we ran out of time. On that production, I wanted to keep as much of the 2D work in ASP as possible because we were learning the software, but I might have to consider taking your approach on our next one.

G.

[voozel]

It spretty cool more details in the background and straighter lines and its like the real AT

[lwaxana]

[edit: removed image]
Thanks for your comments! Voozel, what you said about the line work and background got me thinking that I want to step up the visual design, at least for the most important shots. This is the plan for the thumbnail I use for the video, so it's probably the most important shot. Changes I already have planned are to add the guitar strap, fix the lines (when I bring it into AS), and make the stars in the background more distinct. I'm also considering making Marshall Lee's line of action/spine line more curved/dramatic. Does anyone have other suggestions to improve it?

[lwaxana]

[Edit: image removed]
Here's the latest version. Just realized I forgot the guitar strap again. doh!

[lwaxana]

[Edit: Removed video]
Hi everyone! I started up again on my Fionna and Cake fan animation. But completely reworked the story and am collaborating with the musician on sound.

Previously I had mentioned doing the frame by frame animation in Toonboom and then importing the images into a switch layer in Anime Studio. For these scenes I used the same programs but combined them differently. For the more difficult sequences, I did the rough animation frame by frame in toonboom as simple construction lines and imported the images into AS and made the vector characters follow the rough animation using point animation and some bones. I really liked this workflow for things like the ears and toilet paper flapping in the wind. These are things I've never been able to get quite right, but I think animating the simple line makes it a lot easier to see how it should be moving.

Let me know if you have any suggestions!

[EHEBrandon]

Very nice! In my opinion I would have thought the animators of Adventure Time have animated this! Also this is the exact workflow I do.. I either use paper or Photoshop, or Toon Boom for rough sketches/concepts, then I do key frames basically just outlines and I import then in Anime Studio Pro trace exactly do basic rig for simple movements and do the point animation to match each drawing perfectly giving it a very smooth and nice realistic look to it. Also I'm currently making a anime series.. So like the fighting scenes there are some complex movements and turns like jumping and such my advice if you ever reach that keep the same workflow but instead of point draw each new vector on a separate group/bone and once you draw all of them put them in a switch layer and use switch layers to manipulate the movements. Because point animation could get ugly.. But either way it looks the same as long as you put enough in betweens that's my advice at least. I still do all my animations and final drawing/coloring in AS using bones for basic, points, and switch.

[jahnocli]

Lovely visuals -- I struggle to make things this simple. It's more difficult than it looks.

[lwaxana]

Jahnocli--I wish I could take credit for the designs, but they are from Adventure Time!

EHEBrandon--Thanks! And thanks for the work flow ideas. Finding just the right workflow can be so challenging, there are so many possibilities. For complex turns where you can only use each set of vectors for one or two frames, I'd probably do it in photoshop/toonboom and import the image sequence. I guess it depends on how fast you can ink cleanly and how fast you can vector trace. Inking is such a pain!!!

[lwaxana]

Making some slow progress. Posted the latest version in the opening post.
Oh, also I took out the strumming animation because the final music might be slightly different.

[EHEBrandon]

Excellent! I love seeing the progress on this.

[Greenlaw]

Same here. Looking forward to seeing further updates.

[lwaxana]

Thanks, Brandon and Greenlaw! I just posted the latest with all of the song blocked in. It still needs adjustments and backgrounds. There are also additional scenes after this, so a lot of work left to do!

[Pinesal]

Wow, you guys put a lot of effort into your animations. I definitely don't have the patients to go beyond my simple puppet manipulation style.