Martin has advised I make most of the process digital in order to expedite it. I've used Adobe After Effects to achieve this look. I may tweak it once I have finished my animation, in order to make it more unique. I quite liked the look of my watercolours, and may try to add back that look.
First Pass, rough animation. Had to shake off that rust, been a long time since I worked in 2D. In addition to learning TV Paint. How does this go again? Right, primary motion, volumes, action paths. 12 principles in mind now!
Next: secondary animation, follow-through. The ears and tail/scarf. Technically the sleeves as well, but I'm running out of time. I'll make them a little tighter and minimize that.
Next, I colour behind to achieve a fill. This proved more difficult then I'd assumed it'd be, as I'm not sure how to get TV Paint to fill a selection. It tended to fill in the line art when I used the paint bucket. I made a selection and coloured with an airbrush.
Next, I move into Illustrator and draw the background. This one is fairly simple. I just need grass and trees.
In After Effects, I create a composition and add paper texture underneath the Illustrator files, set to Alpha matte.
Next, I bring in the line art with the fill. I add a choker to the fill and put it into the negatives to make it larger and rounded, like a cut-out outline. I add a paper texture loop with some that I have scanned. I'll need to get heavier paper next time - it's not very textured here.
Then I add a drop shadow. As you can see, I'll need to watch those ears.
I bring them together, turn the layers 3D and add a spotlight.
Two looks here, with a black background and with a paper one.
Some scenes will have the back background, with an ink texture on loop in the back (I haven't had time to make ink textures, that will have to be added to the schedule).
I hope this takes less time once I've gotten used to the technique. This took two 1/2 days beginning to end. It was actually quicker to do it in stop-motion, although I suspect it would be more unpractical in other scenes. I may also draw elements of the background and scan them in, rather than using exclusively Illustrator files. If there is time, I'd like to add a step with watercolour texture.
For other scenes, two different fills will be used to give shadows and different texture loops within the animation, such as the mask scene. This will give depth with the layer, especially those light on the background (most scenes).
Still a few errors here - the ball doesn't fly away in perspective (whoops). I'll get to it in revisions.
Pictures of the set WIP. Pretty much done. I do need some siding for the corners. I used craft wood from Michael's for the window and door frames, as well as the boards inside the wall. The doorknob was interesting. I had a knob whose screw was too short. Thankfully Bill (swiftly becoming my power tools guru) was able to use an interesting drill bit to carefully thin the 1/4" wood until the screw reached. Forgot to take a picture while the knob was attached.
I used No More Nails as my glue. Faster drying than the the wood glue I initially purchased. Once again, thanks Bill. So much is owed to you.
