The Fish Who Wanted The Moon

 Once upon a time, I roughed out (but never fully scripted) a children's book about a fish that wanted to visit the moon. I just ran across the pencil art I drafted for the project, so here's a little taste of it. In the end, it looks like all I was doing was making my own Tooter Turtle cartoon...

Crissy Carrots aborted animation tests

  For those who might be interested in the creative process... This was my first stab at doing an animation test. It didn't get very far, but it produced some nice expression shots. I wanted a finished look, so I actually inked this first set. About half way through the test I realized I really had no reason to ink these sheets. True animation inks are done on transparencies. I was just inking on my paper, and thus rendering it useless for animation anyway!

   Following this I did my first actual animation pencil test, the "wind" scene I posted first. That gave me more confidence, so I set out to draw a more elaborate scene. The next few frames are from that experiment...

   In the process of this particular test, I discovered an area I was really weak in was animating a realistic walk. To get a better handle on the body mechanics of such movement, I did the following walking cycle. I seem to've chosen a particularly casual stride for my character. I made her barefoot because I figured the dynamics of that motion would be better for early study, since I could adapt the same footfalls to a male character. If you look closely at a couple of frames, you might be able to make out some indentations from my earlier test. I tried to repurpose the sheets that didn't work, though erasing all of the art that was already there was difficult since I was using a 6B pencil. After a couple sheets, I figured out I should be using the backs.

   After that, I felt ready to try another full test. I only got two frames in before I figured a better scene should start with Crissy in a seated position and move into a walk. That was the most recent test I posted, and the toll on my paper supply had me ending the test before I really got into the walking section of the scene!

   At any rate, that's how I approached my first dabbling with animation. Using what materials I had at hand, I used the same typing paper I use for cartooning. While not a professional effort, I think it did go a long way in teaching me some of the basics of animation. This will give me a head start once I'm actually sitting at a real animator's desk and using regulation paper!

Crissy Carrots animation pencil test

   My first real (very crude) attempt at animation is this short pencil test, mostly to test the waters and see if animation is something I want to get into. This was done without any of the professional tools. No number sheet, no metronome, drawn on the wrong kind of paper, etc. Like I said, it's only a first test. My conclusion? Animation could indeed be a fun direction. I feel for in-betweeners, though! Now, if one of my more tech savvy friends could please put these sheets into a GIF cycle at 24 frames per second, I could see if I'm even in the ballpark here....