More character tests with Anime Studio

So after some Photoshop to work out what sort of look I wanted, I took the resulting image into Anime Studio and set about making it up as vector shapes. I spent the best part of a day building and rigging this character, I should also mention post processing in After effects.

Cat singing test and rigging from djwaterman on Vimeo.

I've used the same Blue Cheer track for the lip sync just because it was handy, it doesn't reflect the actual character who is female.

Auto Trace, convert line art to vectors in Anime Studio

I tested this function in Anime Studio to see if it will become part of my workflow. The answer...maybe.

Auto trace test in Anime Studio Pro from djwaterman on Vimeo.

Ultimately it's not the hand animated look I'm going for, but the whole thing took almost no time to set up so it has that going for it.

Using Anime Studio Pro in Production

As I mentioned in a previous post, I had the chance to make use of Anime Studio Pro in the production of some animated iconography for a client. The icons were already designed for print and just needed to be animated for video. Using ASP I could exactly duplicate the look and then introduce faux 3D and animated moves.

Quick workflow with Anime Studio used in production from djwaterman on Vimeo.

More VRay love from BLR

So funny. So nice. The score is well integrated into the story-line. The story-line is well integrated into our lives.

IDIOTS from BLR_VFX on Vimeo.

I've been added to a Vimeo channel

All my little character tests got added to a dedicated Anime Studio channel set up by "Distinct Sun" on Vimeo. I'd never seen this channel before and there's a lot of good stuff there that I'd also not seen.

 Just a side note, I'm doing an animated motion graphic job over the weekend and doing a component of it with Anime Studio Pro, so this marks the 2nd time I've made use of this program for production since buying it.

First raw footage from the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera

Via RedShark news, a promising review from some guys in Copenhagen who stayed up for 38 hours to test the RAW capabilities of the next camera on my wish list, the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera.

I Scream, you scream, we all scream for icecream.

This weird little film was featured on Vimeo, sporting a lolly color palate and wicked sense of humor.


Anytime is ice cream time from Steve Cutts on Vimeo.

It imeadiately reminded me of another earlier confectionary journey into hell by the legendary Kansas studio MK12.


MK12 | Follow the Sun | 2011 from MK12 on Vimeo.

Which brings me to the first thing I ever saw from MK12, because I was searching for a font and MK12 were giving away a free one that they had designed for this...



These will never get old.

Sang Hyun on Vimeo

My attention has been drawn to these videos by an Animator called Sang Hyun who works out of Korea, all these are movie versions of children books and seem to be produced by a group called the Culture Foundation. The are all quite, quite wonderful, mostly executed in After Effects and I have to assume visually based on the illustration style of the books.

Les poings sur les iles from Sang hyun on Vimeo.

Red Balloon from Sang hyun on Vimeo.

The Love of Toy Soldier from Sang hyun on Vimeo.

Check out the videos, there's more than these three.