Up to 9,000 views!

For this Watchcat Wednesday, I am pleased to announce that we have reached 9,000 all time views on this blog. We are definitely coming to the end of production on Watchcat episode 2 with only 3 scenes to finish and a few scenes to tweak.

I want to thank everyone who clicked on the ads to help send a donation to our local animal shelter. Please continue this everytime you read a new Watchcat files post and I'll let you know when we reach over $100; right now $23.96 has been raised so far.

The only thing I can show is this reference footage of me acting out a scene to show in my animation class. Animators need to be able to act or imitate a character they are animating with a pencil or a computer. Please enjoy my brilliant acting performance, ha right.

Old Coffee reference footage from Toondini on Vimeo.

Watchcat has been the longest personal project I have ever worked on and have stayed with to completion. I am really close to finishing and thanks to all 9,000 and more people for viewing this blog over the last few years. I am hoping to finish this up and show you the final results on the next posting.

Thanks,
Jim

Watchcat Donation plan

I have mentioned in past posts, if you like this blog, you can click on the ads to help support what you see. I setup an Adsense account about a year ago and to date I have only collected about $19 bucks in ad clicks. Google will only pay out when the amount goes over $100.00. At the rate of ad clicks I'm getting so far, I might not see that Google check until a few years or more from now.

To speed up this process, I am willing to donate the Google money I receive to a local animal shelter when everyone clicks on the ads from now on! I've volunteered at our local animal shelter in the past and we even fostered kittens for a bit. I've even thought about making a Watchcat Public Service Announcement to help them promote any upcoming special events.

Sound like a good plan to you? If so, let me know what you think about it? And start clicking on those ads to help out dogs or cats.

And speaking of Watchcat, I'm still working on it...  

Borrow from the Best

During the production of Watchcat Episode 2, we wanted to show how the bad guys get taken out by Watchcat. Originally, Watchcat was revealed as a monster/demon cat after he attacks the Big Thug, but after studying the animatic a few more times, we came up with a better solution.

The following sequence was taken from a famous Bruce Lee scene from "Chinese Connection". In fact, here is the live action scene that we used as a reference in our big ending fight scene.

Chen vs Susuki - Chinese Connection Scene study from Toondini on Vimeo.

When our big thug watches the little guy getting scratched by Watchcat, he looks scared. Next, we see a close shot of our cartoon Watchcat, licking the blood off his paws as he  stares back at the big thug. The cat then spits to the side and continues to stare at his opponent. We cut back to the big thug becoming angry and then he runs at the cat. 

Watchcat quickly recoils and leaps into the air. Both characters coming towards each other as the cat goes up into a flying kick pose. The kick hits the big thug, sending him crashing into the background. The cat yowls in victory. 

We went through a lot of variations on this sequence and we wanted the cat to leap up in slow motion. In animation, slow motion means more drawings, which means more time spent on this scene.

These are a few of the scenes I am currently finishing up. I would love to get your feedback on this. Please send me your thoughts in the comment section below. Several kind readers have been clicking on the ads and maybe one day we will see a check from Google. But for now, its timing to get back to the cat. 

Back to the Cat Part 2

Classes have begun again. I find myself teaching 3 animation, 36 Freshmen and 13 Sophomore students. The future of animation is alive and well, but I'm having less time to animate on Watchcat. Luckily, I don't have a lot of scenes to do to finish. I have even considered the idea of having some of my students take a scene or two, but I don't know if this is our school's policy or not. 

One thing I have learned which I will now drill into my students is, its a lot easier to finish a :30 second story than a 3 minute one. After Episode 2 is finally completed and if there is a good response to it, we will focus on :30 to :45 second tales at the most, more like this...

Appreciate the comments and if there are any interested student out there, wanting to learn traditional animation and improve their skills. Please let me know.

Thanks,

Jim

8600 Views!

This week, our blog reached its 8600 all time viewing milestone. We also got some comments letting us know you are out there patiently waiting to see the next episode of Watchcat.
  
Scene are getting finished and I'm down to 9 scenes to go. I thought I would share with you some other animated projects I have worked on recently, while I've been working on Watchcat...

This next spot I didn't work on, but would have loved to. It does have the same actor from the commercial I worked on (above). I kinda feel bad for this guy being tormented by all these CG creatures lately, he must have a good agent.

 

Hope you've enjoyed seeing what else I have been working on lately. If you did, let me know by leaving a comment above or click on the ads to give me a penny for your thoughts.

Thanks,

Jim 

In the City

August is here and Summer is almost over. I am currently in the process of finishing up the   last scenes for WatchCat Episode 2. I've been working on the beginning and ending scenes, where we see the city scenes at night. I'm using After Effects and importing flat artwork of buildings, putting them together and flying a camera thru the cityscape. Here's an example of what it looks like...

Intro "Work in Progress" from Toondini on Vimeo.

Now, I'm working on the ending and soon, I'll only have 12 scenes to go! I feel like one of those bikers in the Olympics, riding uphill with nobody cheering them on, so please let me know what you think about this scene. Any comments are helpful.

Вы реальные люди или роботы ? 

We really would like to hear what you think about this post, please take a moment and 
leave us a comment below. Thank you!

Back to the Cat!

For the "Drawing Mindy" post, I let you know the results of the NOIR Indiegogo campaign, included a work in progress of SC 07 and a quickdraw video of our Mindy character. As usual, your comments and suggestions were greatly welcomed. And as promised, there will be only discussion from now on about the making of this animation short from here on out.

Here is the final shot from scene 07.

WC02_SC07_Final Shot_ from Toondini on Vimeo.

 If I were do this again, I would tell a shorter story like :30 to :90 seconds with a production schedule of 1 to 2 months at the most. I would also make at least 3 finished films first, before downloading them to our Youtube channel. That way, while I would be working on the next 3 chapters, the first 3 episodes would be released, 1 episode every 2 or 4 weeks.

In the meantime, August is just around the corner and this blog has just passed its 8,000 all time views!

I now have 14 scenes to go and I can't wait to get them all done. Thanks for reading this blog and any comments or feedback are always helpful and keeps me going to the finish line. Here's the first episode of Watchcat.