Animation and Video Life

My second entry into this years Reallusion, Animation@Work competition came about because I wanted to animate a dragon.  Dragon's are my go to, notepaper 'doodle', since I was a child, that I'll draw whenever I'm stuck in a boring classroom lecture or long meeting and want to keep my mind busy. I find them interesting because, while most dragons have features in common, you can come up with so many different variations, and combinations of features, and still know that what you're looking at is a dragon. So that's where my Red Dragon for my animated short (and competition entry), George the Knight in Run Away! , started out, as a completely new designed character for Cartoon Animator. Standardized Templates Top: CA4 Dummy Cat Template. Bottom: My initial Dragon design. Notice how it closely follows the physique of the cat template.  Cartoon Animator has three standardized character bone templates for quadrupeds; Dogs, Cats, and Horses. All have the same basi...

Plot - the fastest way to create and share Storyboards. Storyboard applications are very underserved for creators who have no use for 'pretty' storyboards. Which is not to say you can't make highly finished storyboards with Plot but, if you're like me, and you prefer to hand draw quick thumbnail sketches, and want to have the ability to quickly cut and paste elements between frames, then Plot could well be for you. After making animations for seven years Adrian Thompson, the founder of Plot, was frustrated with how tedious it was to edit a basic storyboard template. He believed storyboarding should be quick and easy, enabling you to focus on what's important, the story. So he set out to create a better application. Plot is an online, browser based, storyboarding application, that is ideal for lone creators and teams. Its surprising simple user interface and shallow learning curve means you'll be working on your storyboards sooner, without the...