Dokuroshima progress #17: The minute of pure animation

I have finally made enough material that will definately be used to fill over 60 seconds, not counting the preloader and the episode's title screen. There's even more made actually, but that material is questionable so chances are that either it's added to the project as well, or it's gonna be scrapped.

This number is quite important because the first part was about a minute long, which seems unreasonably short for the story-driven animation series. So I decided to make this one significantly longer than the last one. By the way, this installment's animation is more than half-done.

Also, I've called the installments "parts" instead of "episodes" for a reason because I thought it would make much more sense if an episode would comprise about five minutes each at least that's driven by a single story at a time.

That means that there will be a "Part 3" following this one to conclude the episode. And the reasons for that is because first of all, I want to release this in January 2015 instead of putting it into development hell or something. Second, as I've already mentioned, there's questionable material that might change the episode pacing too far too fast and it can't be used as proper transition.

So to put it short, you can expect the next installment to be released in January 2015.
(Hopefully, I can do future episodes without such fragmentation though...)

Channel introduction

Greetings everyone.

In case you don't know yet, it's almost 2015 now, and I decided to introduce my new and improved YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCo1n5X14cKggbuZWw3QZgjg

Yeah, the URL looks kinda odd. I've tried to find a way to customize it, but as far as I know, I cannot change it yet due to at least a few reasons, so for now this is all I get :/

Currenty, all the channel has to offer are the projects from Newgrounds that can now be watched through YouTube (in case NG cannot be used for some reason), plus some YouTube-exclusive content submitted alongside everything else. The main focus will still be on Newgrounds, which might explain possible delays in YouTube releases of projects that also may need to be transformed from Flash to video. You can't put games and interactive stuff on YT, making that Newgrounds-exclusive material, so I think it's fair for the channel to have some YouTube-only stuff as well.

So that's pretty much it for this message.

Beowulf progress #4: It's done.

You can watch it here:
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/650807?updated=1

And now that the lipsync test is done, I'll go back to working on Dokuroshima...

Oh, and BTW, Merry Christmas everyone lmao

Beowulf progress #3: The last one is left

I've finally finished the anime-esque part :D
Instead of a single scene, I've decided to make two, and then another one as a small ending for the part. I just thought the original idea for the anime-esque part wasn't dynamic enough.

Anyways, two styles in the test are finished, and there's only one left to make. And just in case, I'll hold the final style pretty much in secret until the test is submitted in Newgrounds...

Also, making more than two color shades on a single element actually seems to add visual depth. The shades are much better IMO.

Beowulf progress #2: One down, two to go

First scene of three is finally done. Of course, I'd have it done much sooner if it wasn't for someone wasting lots of my time (and it's not someone from across the Internet), but I guess it's better late than never.

So, here it is: Madness Combat style scene is completed. Oh, and please notice that it's supposed to be more of a voice/audio test, so I did not put much effort into backgrounds.

Beowulf progress #1

I've already mentioned another little test that may act as a "backup" thing in case Dokuroshima isn't done by the end of December, and this is it.
Audio has been downloaded and modified; preloader installed, and mouth in the first scene of the three has been animated. Additional animation isn't done though, so the first scene is still unfinished...
(No pics this time because I'm writing from a phone again for some reason)

Just testing YT's video sending function from the phone...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu2argLaYI8&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Dokuroshima progress #16: A note to self to make frame-by-frame animation easier

So simple, yet so simplifying. I honestly don't understand why didn't I thought of it sooner.

First, draw the object, or a part of it, flat-colored (no shade) using few colors (one if possible). Then, add shade, and only after that, separate parts with different colors (lines on the final results are optional xD). The original shade will tell where to put the new color, and where to put slightly darker color on the shaded parts.

Before, I used to do the shade as the last part when all the colors were already there but the shade was still absent. I drew a line that separated the main colors from their shade counterparts, and of course, I had to get it off, which sometimes took much more time than it should have.

Also, doing all of the above every frame seems kind of exhausting, so instead, I tried doing one step on all frames at a time (drew all frames, flat-colored all, etc.). Even if I'd have to run over the same set of frames several times, it seems easier than basically drawing an entire picture every frame. Technically, in the depicted scene, it's only the arm and another detail that are animated, but nontheless, it would still seem harder that it actually is if I did it the old way.

A new message to the readers.

Greetings, everyone.

As you may have known from my page on Newgrounds, the main reason I don't write so frequently nowadays is basically lack of material to write about. Other than that, I don't feel like throwing out too many spoilers about the projects or anything.

Speaking of projects, I did not stop working on Dokuroshima. In fact, I've also decided to make a minor lip-sync animation test as a side project in order to see how good I can do lip-sync in three different animation styles. Also, I'm doing that just in case I won't have anything to submit to NG this month. Actually, I've planned to finish and submit Dokuroshima Episode 1 Part 2 at the end of December, but if I will consider actually implementing voice, chances are that I might have to delay the release for some time.

In addition, I would like to mention that I am thinking about making a YouTube channel that would have animation from NG, as well as some YouTube-exclusive content. Not to worry, I did NOT decide to leave Newgrounds or anything, I'm just doing that to increase audience while still focusing on NG. Of course, there's nothing much done on the channel itself yet, but I'm pretty sure that it will be done soon enough, and the more presentable version will be introduced on my Newgrounds page on the news section, as well as the blog. Until then, there won't be a link yet since the channel is under construction.

As for now, I shall continue animating Dokuroshima, as well as trying to figure out easier ways to animate speech in styles other than anime-esque...

Dokuroshima progress #15: Easiest scene ever

"...And then West takes his medallion and throws in into the air. Then the medallion explodes into three medallionettes (is that even a word?). And the said medallionettes fly away a bit in order to transform into robots"

Yeah, sounds crazy, but that will also be in the episode

(It seems so easy that I might even try to upgrade it or something)

Dokuroshima progress #14: A few days of time extortion later...

Hey guys, the last few days were definetely not the most productive ones due to unforseen circumstances that are related to other people taking my time away for little to no reason. Fortunately, that's pretty much over and I'm back to doing this project once again.

As you can see, I am trying to make quite a bit of frame-by-frame animation there. That's supposed to be the head with lip movements. Although I don't know if I might implement actual voices or not, at least there would be lip movements that will look like they "say" their lines (as in giving every "sound" in the sentence a frame) unlike the last installment of "Dokuroshima", where it was just an open/closed mouth cycle. I do happen to have a microphone myself (and it's not one of those tiny webcam/headset things), so I might as well make a voice test at the very least.

(Also, on a barely related note, I never thought I would see animation much worse than my own that was aired on television until I saw MysteriousMrEnter's "Animated Atrocities" episode about My Little Pony Generation 3.5 (NOT the stuff we see nowadays!!). Holy fuck the animation of the show (not the review) and everything else was horrid. Kinda made me think about my own stuff. But most of all, the review itself kinda inspired me to do the "speech" stuff a bit more thoroughly. At least my drawing skills have improved a bit since I did Episode 1 Part 1 of this project, might as well upgrade a few other things as I make this episode...)