By nature, most artists aren’t built to be pack animals. They tend to prefer seclusion and autonomy over team-building activities with peers. Most artists are purists and want work to come solely from themselves instead of a group effort. Part of that is built around ego while another part comes from the need to create […]
Benefits of running in a pack Read More »
For February, I decided to do something a little new and donate to a device instead of software. Why not? Anything that makes me a productive artist is welcome in my book. A couple weeks ago, I discovered the Animation Dock. Created by Tammy Gray Smith and her husband Corey Smith, the Animation Dock turns
Adobe Offsetting: February 2014 Read More »
Waking up this Christmas morning, I have one task—a monthly donation as part of my monthly anti-Adobe commitment. With the emergence of the Creative Cloud, it’s more important than ever for artists to support alternatives to subscription-based software. So for this month, my software of choice is Tupi. Open source is free, right? The biggest
Adobe Offsetting: December 2013 Read More »
Did you ever do something stupid like drive your car for two weeks with the emergency brake on without realizing it, resulting in a damaged car and emotional psyche? A similar thing happened to me with Synfig this week but the only problem was that the emergency brake was not in clear sight and it
A significant Synfig setback Read More »
This is the first of my monthly donations to open-source initiatives and software in lieu of a monthly payment for to Adobe. I’m sorry if I come off as someone who’s bashing Adobe. I use their software on a regular basis and certain programs, like Photoshop, I truly love but I can’t get behind their
Adobe Offsetting: November 2013 Read More »
Some may say it’s the sign of the times, but there seems to be a conscience effort to create truly original characters in the animated universe. The new trend of breaking cookie cutter character stereotypes seems to be getting a positive response with their audience and fans. Whiplashed awakening One Saturday I had the Hub
New gender roles in cartoons Read More »
Synfig now has the capability of creating switch layers. If you’ve never heard of switch layers before, it’s great for cut-out characters. The gist is simple. What you can do is have a folder of mouths or hands that you can easily change out during while timing the animation. Free-for-all To do my part and
Misty available for switch layers Read More »
Today I made some headway and was able to finish Misty’s hand positions for her front view. I think that I’ll be able to reuse the hands for other views of Misty. Make the different hands actually didn’t take very long. While I was working on Misty’s hands, I also took a crack at redoing
New feet and hands for Misty Read More »
In between working on Misty’s new feet and poses over the past weekend. I started trying out different clothing options for Misty. The cover up I’ve been working on Misty as a character for some time now. When I work in public spaces like Starbucks, I feel kind of like a perv. It’s sad that
Clothing Ideas for Misty Read More »
It’s been a while since writing an entry or working in Synfig, and now I’m back doing both. I missed using Synfig over the past few months. For this first post back, I wanted to explain something that I figured out that’s obvious to me now, but for a long time has escaped me. I
Understanding Z Depth in Synfig Read More »
