Traffk Pencil animations

Here are some of the first pencil animations of the characters for Traffk. They don't make a lot of sense out of the context of the film, and need some improving for the final, but I thought I'd show them here, especially considering how long they took to scan this weekend. These are going to be traced in flash (some of it already has been) then given some sort of green glow effect in photoshop when I slap them on top of the film files, although I'll figure that lot out when I get to it. I think from here I'll just do the key frames on paper, then draw the in betweens in flash to save time, seeing as I don't have much of that to get it done, along with the Afro Lady storyboard stuff =E

Tea N Crumpets Update

Seeing as Traffik's going to be some time before it's ready, I've updated the website with the 4 short animation's I've done this year so far: The Audio Show, Squirrel, MXTT and MouseTrapp. I've also stuck some 3D rubbish I did in the Junk area, and changed the front intro page into a flash title (Click on 'Alright?' to enter the site). It was actually the first piece I made for the website back when I was first starting to design it, but for some reason I ended up not using it for the final site, until now that is. So there we go.

MouseTrap Animation

(Click the above image to go to DevaintArt Link)

Check out this animation I just finished a little while ago. It was for an exercise at Uni yesterday which was simply to animate a mouse trap gag. I'm quite pleased with the final result, as it possibly one of the first proper animations I've done in which you can see the character going through a thought process. Which is nice. Now I've gotten that out of the way...back to working on Traffik!

Afro Lady Concepts

Here's a bunch of concept arts I've done recently for my 'make-up-a-animation-to-pitch' project at Uni, AKA the finally-get-all-my-ideas-for-Afro-Lady project. Making these has defiantly confirmed that my drawing skills are no where near good enough to pull an animation like this off for real, but it's a start. These took a little while to get up, as I'm scanning from A3 pages with a A4 scanner. Go figure. Click 'em to full view.

First proper Afro Lady character designing. Yes, I'm aware my sense of anatomy is terrible.

I'm not sure if I've ever mencioned this before, but A.L's Afro is not there to look good, it's a top-secret weapon with unlimited capabilities. Invented by her father, only two were ever built, and one of them has been stolen. Above is some sketches of the Afro's monitor abilities. This is mainly for gag puposes, but will also be handy in visually alerting Afro Lady, and also tunes into programmes that represent her current emotions, because she can't say what's on her mind, she's mute.
Above is some more things her Afro can do. You name it, it's hidden within it. Bombs, missiles, spikes, guns, cannons, lasers, even human limbs, just about anything to get a gag across. Oh, and when her afro grows large, that's it getting ready to do something big. It can even eat people if it so wants to.

Another crazy gadget at her fingertips is her high heeled boots. With these two buttons on her belt, the soles of the boots can extend to great heights, letting her reach high places, and also a source for some great gags ;p
Afro Lady at 8 years old, playing a Neo Geo Pocket, because she's a hardcore gamer, oh yes. There will be flashbacks to her childhood, as it has some very important plot elements within it, but I won't go into those here.

Here's 8-Year Old Afro Lady with her father, the world's most re-nowned weapons inventor. Obversely a man with such a title is going to have people out there who want him dead, including...
Disco Death. A real mysterious character who manages to kill him and steal the 2nd Afro weapon, and the boss of a global syndicate causing terror and trying to stop Afro Lady, who is now hell-bent on revenge. Yeah, it's all coming together now.

Finally, remember this guy from 'Over Under Sideways Down'? I've bought him back for a role in Afro Lady, as the man that hires Disco Deaths henchmen and generally does all the dirty work. I've given him the name Rocky Bill, a sort of reference to the genre of music the Yardbirds music from that animation is. Anyway, hope you enjoyed these and watch out for more coming soon.

'Daily' Doodles 2006 So far

Well, if I'm going to be daily doodles here from now on, I ought to actually make them 'daily'. That or I could just ditch that part of the title. Anyway, here's a recap of some recent ones. I missed one out that was terrible. Click em to full view.

Afro Samurai (darn)

Looks like someone's beaten me to a Afro lead character/titled animated series. Afro Samurai will be airing on the American channel SpikeTV, and it's getting the full works, with video game and merchandise licensing too, so it's going to get well known. If I ever do eventually animate Afro Lady, it might end up looking like a rip off. Oh well, this series looks rather ace, with stunning artwork that luckily doesn't seep into the much overdone anime-style, and has more in common with samurai manga epics like Lone Cub and Wolf. Oh, and Samuel L. Jackson is voice acting, which is nice.

On another note, Traffik is now about 50% complete. All that's needed now is...gulp..the character animation. Oh, by the way, I'll be posting daily Doodles here from now on. Blogs with artwork are always more fun as it is. Also expect a Tea N Crumpets update this weekend. Hopefully.