Desert Scavenger, Ma-Rey Sue, CrazyTalk Animator 3, G3 Character

Desert Scavenger, Ma-Rey Sue, CrazyTalk Animator 3, G3 Character - WIP

Since I hadn't talked about my upcoming CrazyTalk Animator 3, G3, Desert Scavenger Character, in any great detail (and because finishing her is taking longer than anticipated) I thought you may be interested to look at the project in a little more detail.

The Beginning

Back in March of 2016 I had this idea to create a Star Wars, The Force Awakens, parody animated short. Seeing the little ball droid, BB-8 roll around at speed through the desert reminded me so much of the old WB Road Runner cartoons.

Since everyone was out looking for BB-8 and Rey was doing her best to make sure he didn't get caught, I thought that could be done in a humorous, Road Runner style parody.

Character Design

With that thought in mind I gathered together a few images of Rey and set to work creating a character that kind of looked like her but getting an actual likeness wasn't critical. I just wanted to create an original looking character that would suit the humor I was going for.

Character development sketches.

It didn't actually take me all that long to come up with a design I was happy with. The next day I fired up iClone to make a 3D background to put my final character design into. My plan was to do all the backgrounds using iClone so I wouldn't have to draw and color them myself - saving time.

Final character design with iClone, 3D background.

The Script

Storyboard panel.

I've mentioned previously in this blog that I did write a script for my animated short. It's not a complete script, more like just the first sequence. If you think of a Road Runner cartoon, this would be the character introduction, freeze frames, followed by Coyote's first failed attempt.

That much has been storyboarded, completely.

Stuck on the Shelf, Toon Boom

At that point life got in the way and the project was shelved.

Toward the end of 2016 I collaborated with the creators of Toon Boom Harmony to write a review on learning their software. As part of that process I took my concept image of Ma-Rey and turned it into a short animation.

Unfortunately I couldn't go any further with this as I only had a limited license period and I had no intention of taking out a subscription - Harmony is just too fully featured for my modest needs.

Reallusion Releases CrazyTalk Animator 3

Earlier this year Reallusion released CrazyTalk Animator 3, a significant upgrade from 2 with a whole new way of creating characters quickly. Known as G3 characters, their major features include, easy to implement bone system, mesh warping, and raster based sprites.

Importantly these new, single angle characters are quick to implement - if you're dedicated enough you can create a moderately complex character in about 24 hours over 2 days.

I figured the time was right to revisit Ma-Rey Sue, and develop her as a G3 character. Unfortunately it had to wait until I'd finished developing my Color Monkey characters (who'd been shelved and revisited numerous times more over several years) but now I'm back on track, and the character is nearing completion.

A New Look

Since G3 characters are raster based it means shading and other fine detail is easier to include in the design. Also, I'm only creating a 315 degree view of the character (for now) so I needed to redesign her head and feet/legs to suit that configuration (so she can walk from side to side and still look at the camera).

Below you can see a comparison of the character to her Toon Boom Harmony design. The updated version is being created in Clip Studio Paint EX.

Design Comparison.

I'm still hoping to finish the character some time this month. I have been working on her for about an hour, each weekday, so she is progressing. Once done she'll be available from my Reallusion Marketplace store.

Comments

Inochi2D - Free Open Source 2D VTuber Avatar Rigging and Puppeteering Software (Part 1)

Inochi2D Creator - Free Open Source VTuber Software. If you've been looking for a way to live perform as a 2D cartoon avatar on camera, whether it be for a live stream or for pre-recorded content like educational videos, then VTuber software is a low cost (or even no cost) option worth looking into. In my previous post, How to Become a VTuber - 2D and 3D Software for Creating and Controlling Your Avatar , I took a brief look at the relatively new but completely free and open source Inochi2D which I thought showed great potential for my own needs of creating a live performance character rig for my own TET Avatar that I use for all my promotional materials. While it is possible to live perform my character using Cartoon Animator itself, Reallusion's MotionLive2D capture system isn't great - with lip sync in particular. More importantly though, I can't exactly teach people how to use Cartoon Animator if I'm using Cartoon Animator to control my Avatar. What is Inochi2D

Learn Reallusion's Cartoon Animator 5 Fast by Creating Fun, 2D, Animated Christmas Holiday Messages - Free Course by The Lazy Animator

H ave you ever wanted to send your friends and family fun, 2D animated, holiday messages, or just create 2D animated characters that you can make move and talk without learning difficult to master animation skills or spending hours drawing frame by frame? Reallusion's Cartoon Animator 5 is a professional quality, 2D animation studio software that is also very easy to produce impressive results with, even if you've never animated before, or can't draw. Don't Have Cartoon Animator 5 Download a free, 30 day trial . Easy Beginner Course I've created a completely free beginners course that teaches you my fast, easy way to rig and animate your first 2D custom character in Cartoon Animator 5 without complicated templates or any drawing skills at all. My online video course includes everything you need, including eight AI generated character sprite graphics, and four AI generated Human voice samples, so you can start learning right away. Eight AI generated character image

Glif (Alpha) - Make Your Own Tiny AI Powered Niche Image Generator Apps

I first heard about Glif through a YouTube video that mentioned you could get access to Flux Pro (the latest 'game changer AI' generative image model) through the site for free. While I had a vague notion from the video of what Glif was, I wasn't expecting it to be so easy to get started with, and so good with my very first results. Glif is an easy to use, low-code platform for creating tiny AI-powered generators called Glifs. While that may not sound inspiring, what Glifs allow you to do is create a tiny app that niches down to a specific type of AI generation that the user modifies with their own inputs. The best way to really understand is with an example. My First Glif I've recently been using VivaGo's AI platform (free and unlimited at the time of writing) to consistently generate full body characters in a front facing T-Pose that I can rig as front facing characters in Cartoon Animator. Unfortunately it can be a bit hit or miss maintaining the T-Pose part

The Ultimate Independent Animator's App and Resource List - Animation and Video Life

Image created with Cartoon Animator 4. Being an independent animator is not like a studio animation job. There's so much more to do that is indirectly related to the actual task of animating. Over the years I've sought out many apps, tools, and services that can help me achieve that one single task, expressing myself through animation. Below is my Ultimate Independent Animator's Resource List for 2024 (last updated Oct 2024). It started out as a list of free or low cost apps that could help you in every stage of producing either 2D or 3D animation, and then just kind of grew from there. You may not have been looking for a Time Management App as much as you needed something to get you started in 3D animation but when those commissioned projects start coming in you'll have a head start on maximizing your time. All the apps and services on this list had to meet two main criteria: They had to be useful and relevant to an Indy Animator/artist. The base app/se

Krita AI Diffusion - Generative Image AI For Krita is Seriously Useful, Powerful and Free (If You Can Install it Locally)

Generative AI sequence of a woman in a business suit. From sketch to refined image using Krita AI Diffusion - by TET G enerative image AI, where you describe an image with a text prompt to an Artificial Intelligence model and it produces a new image based on your prompt, is gaining a strong hold as a tool for many artists. Krita AI Diffusion brings generative AI image tools right into your favourite free and opensource, graphics editor, Krita. Not only that, if you have a computer with decent specs (and at least 10GB of hard drive space), Krita AI Diffusion is completely free. What If I Don't Have a Powerful Computer? If you're in my situation, with a computer that was around before anyone in the mainstream had even heard of generative AI, you can still access Krita AI Diffusion for free, using a cloud based AI server, Interstice and 300 tokens, to get you started. Once your initial tokens run out, purchase 5000 more for 10€ (approx US$11.00). Tokens never expire. I would

Wonder Unit Storyboarder - Free Storyboarding Software for People Who Can (or Can't) Draw

Wonder Unit Storyboarder. As an independent and solo animator I'm always tempted to try and skip storyboarding my animated shorts because they're usually only single scene sketch comedy type jokes. As a result I have many unfinished projects that kind of petered out due to having no clear finishing line. Storyboarding your productions, no matter how small, gives you a step by step guide of every shot that needs to be completed (no planning shots as you animate). It also allows you to create an animatic that gives you a rough preview of the finished production. In short, you shouldn't skip storyboards as they, generally, increase the chance of the project being completed. Disclaimer - I'm Not a Fan of Storyboarder Upfront, Wonder Unit's Storyboarder is not my preferred storyboarding software. However it's completely free, has a number of very compelling featu

Using Avatar Maker with Cartoon Animator - Free Vector Cartoon Avatar Creator with Four Art Styles

I'm always on the lookout for cartoon avatar makers of any kind, whether it be ones that 'cartoonify' your photo, or ones that let you build a cartoon likeness from a library of individual features. Free Avatar Maker falls into the latter category and can be used for making head and shoulder cartoon avatars. While it doesn't have an extensive library of character features (you may struggle to get a good likeness), uniquely it will make your avatar in four different art styles concurrently, allowing you to save the one you like most, or even all four. I wasn't overly impressed how my TET avatar looked in the first two styles, but style three is quite possibly the coolest looking version of my avatar I've ever seen in a third party avatar creator. It's a very contemporary style. Style four, line art, is also not too bad. Avatar Maker's User Interface. Switch between the four different art styles shown across the top at any time. I particularly like the

Animation and Video Life

Search This Blog