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ObsidianSerpent β Hawk vid
Published: 2013-07-06 14:07:38 +0000 UTC; Views: 1036; Favourites: 16; Downloads: 3
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Description
Made 23 seconds of Youtube animation here ... [link]And am now stuck as can't figure out how to animate a colour version of Arthur or Merlin...This may go on hold until I can save up for a graphics tablet...
MANY thanks to Amphigoury for help with getting the music into a useable file, and to MysticSteph for her Photoshop advice and excellent suggestions about moving the clouds etc!
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Comments: 20
Thank you. Β Maybe now I've got the tablet I'll be able to finish it........ Β (Though it may take a while.)
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That looks very cool. I made the comment about animating your lizard story and then see that you've been able to make an animation. So exciting. For a slight moment I thought it was Merlin in bird form when I saw the eye and then I thought it was like Trogdor and going to burninate all the peasants. Β (Because logically, magical hawks can burninate.)
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It was indeed going to be Merlin in bird form. Β I know what happens in the rest of the thing but I then found that drawing people frame by frame wasn't going to work. Β Just WAYYYYYY too much work for how much time I've got to spend on it. Β Maybe if I get to grips with this graphics tablet thing and it turns out to be okay, then I might come back and finish it off.
The Trogdor cartoon was funny. Β Maybe Merlin can burninate the peasants in part two... Β
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Really awesome so far! The flight of the bird is amazing.
The clouds moving does make it look even better. I'm sure you will find a solution for the characters.
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Aww cheers. I will get back to once I get a graphic tablet I think.
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Yeah, the tablet is pretty much the only solution.
Hopefully you'll get it soon
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The video is awesome!! I don't think I'd have the patience to piece all the different layers like that!
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Aww thank you. Though that's all the more reason why drawing M/A individually in colour at 10 frames per second is a no-no. There has to be a shortcut.
*looks longingly at graphics tablet on Amazon...hastily looks away again.*
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Thank you.
As I mentioned though, I've run into major technical problems trying to do a human character in roughly the same style.
As to how this much of it is done. I downloaded a free programme called Videopad Video editor. This lets you put a string of pictures into a sequence and then plays them back. It also lets you add music to it. (If you export the file as an .asf file then youtube can run it)
The bird flying in the sky was a scanned-in acrylic painted background of the sky. I then used the mouse in Paint Shop to draw a bird flying on top of that. One frame at a time. (I could only get away with it because the bird is in silhouette and is SO small, as I find it impossible to draw with a mouse, it's just too jerky)
The close up of the hawk flying was painted in acrylic, and I painted two extra heads. I scanned those in, and used the liquefy tool on Photoshop to move the feathers and the clouds to give the illusion of flying. And to gently push the shape of the head into the two new positions.
The Camelot landscape is a scanned-in watercolour painting with use of the liquefy tool to move the trees and pennants.
The bird's eye is painted in acrylic, and then I used the illumination tool in Paint Shop to make it glow brighter.
I know what happens in the rest of the animation, I just need to be able to MAKE the damn thing.
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I can imagine that would be harder, especially working with watercolours... O.o
It still sounds like a lot of work..
Definitely looks awesome though! Good luck with the rest, I'm sure you'll figure out a way. Maybe if you made multiple watercolors.. first sketch up the whole movement steps and then paint them? Though that will probably take a lot of time.
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I'm thinking of buying a drawing pad...but I wonder how much I would use it. Although it would be handy for this particular project, I don't know whether I actually want to get into digital art as a whole. I think digital art is wonderful, but I'm just not sure if it's where I want to go.
I thought of doing the animation with the multiple watercolours as you mentioned, but that's just SOOOOO much time...I don't think I want to devote that many hours to it.
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I just recently found out that we had one. I got all excited and wanted to try it ut just to realize it took more than a pad to get the hang of it. 
Yeah that's what I thought...
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And with the art that I do, I already tend to slip a bit towards photo-realistic, although I don't mean to.
I could imagine if I went into digital art it would just be people saying that I'd badly-manipped a photo. (Not that I'm that good, 'cause I'm really not. But if I DID do it well, then you wonder whether people would just think you were photoshopping something...)
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Haha well that's a good thing with traditional art, that just shows how good you are!
Digital art does have than tendency unless you work out your own cartoony style or something.
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Ach no, I didn't mean that I was good. I just meant that I already tend to slip towards copying photos FAR too much. And the possibilities involved in digital art would just exacerbate that.
Yeah, as you say, the immediate urge would just to try to be as "good" as possible and emulate the photo. But...if you do that...(and I TOTALLY admire the skill and artistry of artists who can do that)...for myself, I feel I don't know as though I've got enough going on in my head to take it beyond the photo and into a different area.
Though...having said that...realistic (sorta)...moving cartoons of Arthur and Merlin doing something they haven't yet done...a different scenario...would be a bit fun.....
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Ah ok... well you're still good at painting nevertheless..
Exactly!
Yeah that's what i like about it too.. like these two do:blackbirdrose.deviantart.com/ star-jem.deviantart.com/
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Yeah, those two are both really clever/good at what they do. Β I couldn't do cartoons, I just would never be clever/inventive enough to be able to think of ideas the way they do. Β (quite apart from the rather important fact that I'm also utterly rubbish at drawing cartoons. Β 
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They really are. 
Haha I know what you mean.. it does take some inventivness, especially if one doesn't want to repeat old jokes and stuff.
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