how to fix a computer - short film

dandoproductions · Post by **dandoproductions** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 8:48 am

hi

A little short i made in about a week using anime studio

toontube

I've been doing animation for about a year but this is my first try at 2d

Any feedback welcome!

mars714 · Post by **mars714** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 1:49 pm

that is awesome! how do you do scene changes?

dandoproductions · Post by **dandoproductions** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 9:21 pm

mars714 wrote:that is awesome! how do you do scene changes?

Each scene was a separate movie file and then I used a video editor to stitch it together.

I used good old windows movie maker!

mars714 · Post by **mars714** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 11:34 pm

cool, but i use mac.

NetGenSuperstar · Post by **NetGenSuperstar** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 1:19 am

mars714 wrote:cool, but i use mac.

Your Mac should have come with iMovie, so you can substitute that instead.

Also, the Jahshaka project seems to be coming along nicely. I'd probably use that if I didn't already have Final Cut Express.

dandoproductions wrote:A little short i made in about a week using anime studio

...

Any feedback welcome!

I thought it was very good, but I have to nitpick. The end of the hammer was a little hard to see against the background. It looked like just a stick until I looked a bit harder. Not a huge deal, and it probably has more to do with YouTube's poor video quality than anything. Otherwise, I thought it was very funny, and the squiggling lines reminds me of the TV show Home Movies. I always liked Squigglevision. I don't know why.

dandoproductions · Post by **dandoproductions** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 6:36 pm

I'm also a fan of squigglevision it gives a more hand drawn feel to the animation.

NetGenSuperstar · Post by **NetGenSuperstar** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 2:40 am

Actually, if you don't mind, I want to divulge a bit of information about why Squigglevision was created in the first place, in case anyone here doesn't know. The idea was that they didn't have to draw as many frames of animation. Notice that smooth motion is rare in Squigglevision; it's mostly static images. The wiggling outlines would trick the brain into seeing more motion than there really was. This kept production costs down, and low cost was part of the reason why Dr. Katz lasted for six years.

Anyway, I agree that giving the Squigglevision look to your cartoon made it feel less like a Flash animation, and more like you drew it by hand. It gives it that look of imperfection that makes it stand out from other cartoons on the internet.

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 10:36 am

Didn't even know that word ("Squigglevision") existed, nor that someone patented it (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squigglevision). I know that style from Roobarb, which I saw as a child, and from numerous other films. In essence, the trick is the same as what Disney style animators call a "moving hold", where the otherwise non-moving pose is done with 3 or more drawings to keep the lines alive. (The wiki article about Roobarb calls this "boiling", but I've never have heard that term.) I just used it myself for a short (handdrawn) film.

NetGenSuperstar · Post by **NetGenSuperstar** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 7:35 pm

slowtiger wrote:In essence, the trick is the same as what Disney style animators call a "moving hold", where the otherwise non-moving pose is done with 3 or more drawings to keep the lines alive.

The Squigglevision patent document specifies five drawings, but three would work just as well. The patent document is on Google Patents if you're interested in learning more.