4500 Blog viewers can't be wrong!

What a way to end 2015 as this blog has just hit 4500 views! 

Did this really happen? Are all these views merely generated by silent robots that collect information about our WatchCat project? Hopefully, the humans who like this blog will leave a comment or two as proof there are lifeforms reading this blog after all. If too shy to type, perhaps clicking on the ad to the right will give us a little support now and then.

Here's a recorded Blogcast which was much later in 2016...

 Again, we really appreciate your views and will finally finish this second episode sometime in the new year. Happy 2016 to all!

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Live Streaming to WatchCat audience!

A live streaming Broadcast from WatchCat Labs to briefly say hello and happy new year!
 Live Streaming Thursday, Dec 31st at 3pm PST
https://youtu.be/OqYocDlFTWU

Check out our WatchCat Films youtube channel to see it live or watch for updates here...

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Happy Holidays from WatchCat

Hello Humankind,

Hope you are having a Happy and Safe Holiday season and will enjoy our official animated Holiday Greeting card. If you like it, send it to a friend or two hundred and be sure to check out the Watchcatfiles blog, featuring the making of this and other episodes of WatchCat.
 

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Be sure to leave Feedback, comments, deep thoughts, suggestions, to let us know what you thought about this. Its the thought that counts and its the time of giving, so please leave us a comment below.

Happy Holidays,

from your neighborhood, WatchCat 

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Making of the "WatchCat Holiday Card"

Last Christmas, I had an idea for an animated holiday card featuring WatchCat, but I couldn't do it in time. And so, I started it again this year and thought I would document the process of making this project. Each day, I added more to the blog, please let me know if you can't view the animation below. What do you think so far?

Xmas_002 from Toondini on Vimeo.

The above was started on December 11th and shows the rough timing of the beginning and the man exiting the scene.

December 12: Roughed in more animation of the cat sitting up and taking off after the man with the scarf.

Xmas_003 from Toondini on Vimeo.

December 13: Currently looking for sound effects for when the cat attacks the man off screen. I will be combining a lot of sounds which I hope will achieve this effect. Also need to work on the animation of the man entering the scene. I will use the same animation for the exit, however remove the scarf and flip the drawings in the right directions.

December 14: During the second day of production, my Animate Pro suddenly decided it didn't want to save the drawings I started to draw on my Cintiq. I tried everything I could think of to fix the problem without losing the work so far. So, I did a lot of copying, pasting and repositioning the animation of the exit to reuse for the entrance. I also did the same thing with the cat returning to the snowman.
 

Xmas_004 from Toondini on Vimeo.

December 15: I need to establish the timing for the off screen cat attack and built the sound effect with a bunch of different noises and moved them around until I got something that sounds like a man being attacked by a cat. It may be a little over the top, but it made me laugh, hopefully you will like it too...

Xmas_Sound01 from Toondini on Vimeo.

This might be all I will be able to do if I can't figure out how to draw on a different layer. Usually this process works fine, but Animate Pro is fighting with me and has no Christmas spirit. The animation waters are getting rough and I'm worried I won't be able to find a solution. If anyone out there can help out, please do so asap!

I make a layer in Animate Pro, I begin to draw, once I lift my pen, I cannot continue to draw and after a pause, then I can. Looking at the timeframe, I can see there is no drawing block, and so, when I click forward, the drawing I have just drawn is gone. Animate Pro laughs its wicked laugh and I try to find its weak spot... 

I reopened a new project in Animate Pro, thinking I can animated the other scenes and import them in during composition. Its not the direct route that I wanted, but I have no options. I tried drawing in a new project and got the same results. Now my Cintiq begins to chuckle, joining in on the joke.

Why are my animation tools against me now? I re-calibrate my Cintiq just to piss it off more. I try again, the same problem. I can select items using the mouse, copy and paste parts together, even attempt to draw with my brick of a mouse and it all works, but drawing with my Cintiq is not happening today.

I drew everything several days ago with the Cintiq, looking forward to animating on it again, but have no idea why things have changed. If anyone can help, please send it soon...

December 16th: I'm still not sure if my problem is with the software or with my Cintiq or a combined effort. My only solution is to draw the way the cavemen use to, by using a mouse and my laptop. I'm starting to color some of the elements and get use to drawing with a mouse which is like drawing with a brick, but hopefully nobody will know the difference but me.
Here's today's daily animation, work in progress...

December 17th: Finished the animation by carefully drawing on my laptop's touchpad with my finger. I'm in process of adding the color and this version does have sound. I created the "Cat Attack" using Audicity and a bunch of sound effects I got from Freesound.com.

And after a week of work, here is the final Holiday Greeting Card for all to see and share with friends and family. I would appreciate any comments or feedback you have. 

WatchCat 2015 Xmas Card from WatchCat Films on Vimeo.

Happy Holidays!

Jim and Greg

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Pre-Thanksgiving Special!

Being a cat alone on a street during a holiday can be a pretty sad sight to be. 

But this can apply to humans as well. You might even be alone for the first time this holiday, just like this little guy pictured above.

And so, for all those cats and kittens out there who may be in a similar situation this holiday season, we offer up this little dish below which we hope will put a smile on your face...

The Moment When Jerry Tricks Tom
Posted by THUG LIFE on Sunday, November 1, 2015

Happy Thanksgiving! 

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Paper Dragon

This week I did a little stop motion test using DragonFrame software, a sheet of paper and some free time.

Check out the animation below...

Paper Dragon from Toondini on Vimeo.

What if a future WatchCat episode was in stop motion?

Pencil Tests

Its November again and last year at this time I was finishing up the first webisode of WatchCat. Here are a few scenes cut together from Episode 2 in pencil test form. 

WC02_SC25-SC28 from Toondini on Vimeo.

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Rough Animation Begins

Last week, was a good week...

The 24 Hours Animation Contest happens this time every year and while the student teams were busy making their films, I was busy working on mine. I roughly animated a few scenes for pencil testing and then made rough Scene layouts for all the other scenes. 
Here's one of them...

WC02_SC18Test from Toondini on Vimeo.

 After the storyboards are finally figured out, its time to break down each storyboard into Scene layouts, each scene has its own Scene Folder. Here are all 40 of them for WatchCat episode 2, which now weighs about 6 lbs altogether.
  .

I tell my students they should create Scene Folders like these, in order to keep track of all the animation scenes they will be generating along the way. Each Scene Folder has a form on the front describing what is in the folder as well as what work has been done already. Here is a copy of the Scene Folder form I use...

The Weighting game...

If you think about it, your idea starts off weightless and in 2D, the layout drawings are based off the final storyboard panels. As I mentioned before right now those layout drawings weigh about 6 pounds. As we move into rough animation, the weight of each folder will increase because more drawings will be created. This is the process of 2D animation, not only does it take time to produce, but as more drawings are made, the heavier the folders become.

And so, as you are waiting to read future postings; Can you make a guess below, how much the final episode will weigh when completed? 

Once the rough animation is finally completed in 2019 (ha,ha), I will let you know the final weight.

Revised Storyboards

 

A writer will write up a first draft of a story and put it away for a little while, in order to see the material later with fresh eyes. As a storyboard artist, I am doing the same thing visually. I noticed that our bad guys see the cat too soon, which doesn't build any tension during the story. We also only want to see only glimpses of the cat in action at first, until revealing its the cat closer to the end of the episode. 

This weekend, I went back over the storyboards and revised a bunch of scenes. I also made a rough animatic, to see how the new material cut together. I think the story is finally working now and I have been preparing scene layouts and adding them to scene folders. I've counted 41 or so scenes in this episode and below are a few of the new storyboards...

 The Cat's shadow zips by...

That's a Flashlight that falls to the ground.

Trying not to give away too much of the story by only showing some of the storyboards. Do you understand what's going on? Is it making sense? Should I keep going? Send me a comment.

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Meet the Patels!

Meet the Patels is on Netflix now! Check out the animation and enjoy this interview...

 

Before WatchCat, I worked on this film...

 

"Meet the Patels" is a great, entertaining documentary that I worked on creating the animated characters of the live action family in the film. The film took 6 years to complete and now is playing in theaters across the US!

Below is the official Trailer where, you can see the first shots of animation, so don't blink.

Here's a recent review from the LA Times.

Time Magazine!

Here's an interview from WGN in Chicago! 

And here is some rough animation which never made it in the final film...

Rough_Meet the Patels animation from Toondini on Vimeo.

If you have seen this film already, please let a comment below. WatchCat Approved!

Happy Birthday Bugs Bunny!

Today, July 27, 2015 is Bugs Bunny's 75th Anniversary: "A Wild Hare" premiered on July 27, 1940. Directed by Tex Avery, story by Rich Hogan, music by Carl Stalling, editing & sound effects by Treg Brown, character designs by Robert Givens, BG designs by John Didrik Johnsen, animation by Virgil Ross, Charles McKimson, Robert McKimson, Rob Scribner, and voices by Mel Blanc and Arthur Q. Bryan. The great rabbit of the Golden Age of Animation is born!

Merrie Melodies - A Wild Hare (1940) by Cartoonzof2006

And here's something that was made only about 25 years ago...

 

Something New for July!

Its hot in the garage studio today and so here's something hot off the animation disc which answers that age old question, how the first selfie was invented?

First Selfie from Toondini on Vimeo.

Got comments?

Animation Garage Band

 
I've also been busy cleaning out my garage and set up my animation drawing table to get back to work on the next episode of WatchCat. There will be a lot more action scenes and I want to animate it on paper, scan in the drawings and clean up them up digitally. It might take me more time to finish, but I think the different animation styles will work better.

OLD SCHOOL

 The Animation work bench; impressed?

  My trusty Animation disc and table

NEW SCHOOL

I also do work in this century as well, my Cintiq now sits next to its Animation table cousin plugged into my laptop and ready to roll.

  

BACK TO OLD SCHOOL...

Real Animators do it with pegboard...

Here's my set up for shooting pencil tests using monkeyjam software and a small webcam.

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After I have the animation drawings, I can plug the webcam into my laptop and shoot a test to get an idea of the timing and motion. Here's a very rough test using this set up, see what you think...

Test Scene 21 WC02 from Toondini on Vimeo. 

All I need to do now is to install an air conditioner or a really big fan and I'll be animating in cool comfort during the hot summer. I have a feeling, I will be animating in the evening when its cooler. Either way, I hope to post more work in progress soon.    

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New Episode, New Blogsite

WHOA!!!! Listen up everyone, we are moving this blog to another locale! So carefully stay together and click on click on this highlighted link to insure a safe transition to our new Blog. And be sure to leave a comment there and say hello!  

Weeks later... 
We have discovered that we haven't gotten many people to fellow us to the new blogsite and we're not sure why? All we can figure out is that our cat misspelled our website address below, which should read: iamwatchcat.weebly.com. He can really jump, but is a bad speller.

So if you want to follow this blog, please let us know. Your feedback helps us know that you like us or really like us. Send us your feedback! Should we stay here instead? What do you think? Can you help us? 

Jim and Greg
heyjimr@gmail.com 

9 Lives and Counting Down

I've been trying to support my friends project called Noir, by pushing their IndieGoGo Campaign on this blog. They only have 8 days left and counting to raise as much money as they can to make their film a reality. They have the cameras, lights, even a sound stage along with a great cast of very talented Actors, but they need your financial support, anything to help off set production costs down the road.

NOIR - Femme Fatale Promo from Lee Anthony Smith on Vimeo.

If you supported Noir or would like to, please click on the link above. Thank you in advance!

---------------------------------------

Ok, so back to our blog. 

We are planning to move this blog to our new WatchCat website where we hope to keep everything in one place. This new blog will continue to document the making of the second part of our first episode. And before we start asking for your financial support, we want to make sure we can deliver the second episode and continue to build an audience, just like you! And as always, your feedback is very important to us, even if its a few words. So don't be shy...

And so, here are some more rough storyboards continued from our last post. As you can see, this next episode will have a lot more action. Enjoy!

 Next time, we will welcome you to our new blog location! See you then...

  

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NOIR needs your help!

Before I go any further, be sure to check out Greg's Noir the Film IndieGoGo Campaign.
They put up a new video explaining the film and asking for your support. If you love mysteries, monsters and movies, you will want to help these two guys. Here's the video and a link to the campaign!

NOIR Indiegogo Pitch from Lee Anthony Smith on Vimeo.

While cleaning up my garage, I came across some free time inside a box full of styrofoam peanuts. I used this extra time to work on the storyboards for the next WatchCat episode. Here are several scenes showing our bad guys tell their side of the story to police and what happens to them while they inside the house.

These are some of the rough storyboards which I will go back and refine before I make an animatic. If you have any suggestions or comments, please let me know because I value your feedback. It let's me know if the story is being understood or if I need to go back and fix something. 

I will be posting the rest of the storyboards if I get a few comments on this batch. Thanks for your support!

Jimr 

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Stay in the Light!

Lots of gears are in motion right now as both Greg and I are busy doing other things. For one, Greg's Indie Go Go campaign for "NOIR" is up and running. Here's a link to this independent feature film that needs your help asap.

As for myself, I'm still working on a freelance project that I have been documenting the process on  Animateducated blog.

We are happy to welcome two fine artists who are tag teaming to help us produce the next WatchCat episode. Introducing Rachel Morels and Anika Fisch! They are both currently attending Woodbury University, taking tons art and animation classes, eating, sleeping, breathing animation and helping us with background artwork. 

The background below was created from my rough layout drawing by Rachel Morales. Here's a link to her website!

Here's a rough motion test...

At the end of the scene, the camera moves towards the Police station and will dissolve into an interrogation room where we will see one of the bad guys.

Here is a rough layout drawing of the interrogation room.

 

The final background was created by Anika Fisch. Here's a link to her website!

And for all you animation geeks out there, we can reuse this background in a later scene by simply flipping the image.

So there you go, please visit the Noir Indiegogo campaign and stay in the light!