Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Animation: Take Two!

Hey, all! As promised, here's another blog about the process of animating my trailer for Soulbound. Not much has changed since last time, except I am getting much faster, which is a relief. I'm understanding some of the shortcuts that I wish I had known in the past, and will blog about those next time.

I've also made a lot more progress on this trailer than I've made before on others. I've animated about a minute of key frames, and have only about 37 seconds of key frames left to do. The good thing is that the last section of frames will be a bunch of small scenes flashing in and out to create a sense of drama. The bad thing, however, is that the first minute or so had text (not a lot, mind you, only about 10 slides of text lasting a total of maybe 20 seconds), and the last 37 seconds has almost NO text at all. This means that there will be more animation in the second part than the first, which I think is good, personally. It will just take longer to finish.

Now, something came up while I was working on this, and I was thinking it through as I sketched out some key frames for a scene today. I thought, If I don't do this right, it will look too much like anime, and I will lose a lot of readers. For some reason (and I understand that reason--bad fanfiction, primarily), anime has gotten a bad rap. I'm really hoping that my trailer, while animated, will be far enough from the anime genre that it won't look like a bad fanfiction. 'Cause, you know, it's not.

Ignoring the fact that there's no shading, this is the style I've decided to go with (and this is a clip from one of the shorter scenes). I can see how this style might pose a problem, but again, I'm hoping that the shading and the style of the rest of the film will keep from losing interest. Soulbound is a hardcore Epic Fantasy, and to be honest, I don't see much of the anime genre in it. The problem is that my art skills emerged mainly during my obsession with Sailor Moon, Digimon, Pokemon, Gundam Wing, and other shows of the 90s and early 2000s. This means my style is heavily influenced by what I watched as a child, and what I practiced drawing most.

In the end, I suppose only time will tell what happens as far as the trailer goes. I want to prove that Soulbound can make it with the best of the Epic Fantasy genre, and I'm not willing to give up until I do.

Here's another example of some of my animation:

Keep in mind that this is the first stage--a lot of detail is missing, and I haven't added color yet. My "early" key frames are even worse, and I'm too embarrassed to show you what they look like. Just know that scribbly circles and some random, uneven lines are involved. Sometimes eyes and mouths make it in, if that's the focal point of the scene. Overall, though, I am making some great progress and cannot wait to show you more!

In addition to the animation, I'm planning to attend (or at least try) and host a table at the Denver Comic Con. My goal is to have copies of Soulbound, my Middle Grade novel, Frendyl Krune and the Blood of the Sun, two short comic books (that will likely be put into a single volume for printing reasons), the trailer, and 15-20 hand-painted limited edition Eti resin statues. For those who don't know, this is Eti:

He's an ekra, a species of necromancers that live alongside the amuli in the Soulbound world. He's pretty neat, and I think he'd make a bad-ass statue. Depending on interest, I might make more of him to sell online via special order, but the first 20 or so models (numbered, signed, and painted by yours truly) will only be available at the Denver Comic Con. I'll keep you updated about that project, too. In the meantime, write on!

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