Seeing as how Adobe dominates the animation industry, and you can no longer purchase Adobe software outright, I figure this might be of use to some of you out there. Right now until June 3rd you can get 40% off a subscription to the Adobe Cloud. Click here for more info.
You’re welcome! 😉
If you haven’t seen anything about this yet, Grease Pencil is a plugin within the free 3d program Blender that started as a tool to allow animators to give notes on scenes and strengthen poses by using 2d drawings as a guide. A 3d animator named Daniel M. Lara has been posting short bits of animation showing off what the plugin will do for 2d animators and I have to say it’s incredible. This could really revitalize the 2d animation community. The best part of all of this? Blender is FREE! Granted, it’s not an easy tool to understand or use but they seem to be getting better and better at making the interface easier to use. Really looking forward to this tool coming out of beta.
Adobe Animate brings new features but some challenges when installing extensions. The old way of adding features was to use the Adobe Extensions Manager and install extensions that way, but with Adobe Creative Cloud they’ve done away with that and the Extensions Manager no longer exists. This creates a bit of a problem for classic Flash users because the new Adobe Store unfortunately does not have all the useful tools Flash developers have created over the years and so when you find an great extension you’re unable to install it unless you find it in the Adobe Add Ons store. Well, the developers at Adobe that work on Animate have your back in the form of a stand alone application to allow you install those older extensions. Enter the Manage Extensions Utility which allows you to manually install extensions not in the Add On Store. Simply double click the program, navigate to the Install An Extension button, find the extension you wish to install and double click it. The program will install the extension. You can also set it to install a whole folder full of extensions at one time. Easy Peasy!
Yesterday we posted the second episode of Boltron Ultimate and readers were asking how it was made, so we asked Chris Burns from Exit 73 to show us a bit more.
Unlike our typical projects (script, boards, layout, animation, post), we set this up as an authentic game production, I.E. creating assets (tons and tons of assets) and generating the story around the flow of the fight, to tell the story in one shot. We figured it would give it a more genuine feel, rather than just a pixelated animation. The idea was/is that if some interest comes down the pike, to make an actual game out of Boltron, we would simply submit the assets, and have the programmers take it from there, rather than generate new moves at the correct pixel ratio.  Figuring out the correct pixel ratio was a challenge as well, since we decided to use flash to create the art, so every frame, of every character is done one tiny square at a time. I’ve always welcomed challenges though when we started the studio, and this was one of those ideas, that needed a lot of trial and error before we could move forward. So the attachments are stills of what the files in flash looked like, before putting it together.
So when you say you drew this in Flash one pixel at a time are you saying you used the rectangle tool to draw rectangles over and over block by block to draw this stuff or did you use the pixel plugin I’ve seen? Did you draw it first in say Photoshop and then import? It seems kinda hard to get a nice design like you did by drawing originally with Flash.Â
We would sketch it out with the brush tool first, relatively rough usually… Then we found the best way to achieve the sprite look was to blow up the flash canvas to 2200X2200 Click on the show grid and the snap to grid tabs, and then use the rectangle tool accordingly to build the image,  we would use the grid ratio of 10 pixels by 10 pixels and then shrink the final image to 25% of its original form. We would still use symbols embedded like head symbols and puppeting elements too.  but all the original artwork was made one square at a time. We tied using some plugins to achieve the pixel look, but it was super buggy and never felt quite right. Also Boltron used a lot of robots, and getting symmetry with pixels was a lot easier actually counting out the squares than eyeballing it.
The sprite sheets/model sheets … so those are actually graphic Clips of animation nested inside or are they actually a sprite sheet where every motion is broken out as separate files?
Yes, we made them all loops, for the most part, so we treated the character animation almost like we would use mouth shapes for lipsync, rather than an “o” mouth we would say looks like its time for an “uppercut” or “cyber kick”.
How were those beautiful backgrounds done? Same way in Flash?
Backgrounds went through the same treatment, we would build out elements and build it almost like legos. The beauty of referencing a game universe, is that we could reuse a lot of the elements and it not feel like a shortcut, since we have all seen how old school video games levels comprised. I never felt cheated playing Super Mario Brothers, even though I know that the pipe on left is an exact duplicate of the one on the right. So we applied the same theory here.
So when you built the film did assemble it entirely in Flash pans and all or did you do it with alphas and After Effects scene by scene and then export to Premiere or Final Cut.
We did all the animation strictly in Flash, embedding the scenes in one symbol and moving the camera accordingly. It’s easier to see the playback instantly rather than hope it works out after a full render.  we would export the final animation as a PNG sequence and bring it into aftereffects to get it ready for youtube though.
The film really lends itself to the old console games, so much so I’d love to see a game made out of it. If someone chose to make a game out of this, what type do you see this as becoming? iOS/Android or console?
If I had my choice I would like to see it on Steam, That way the audience can judge it and take it from there on which way to push it. I’m a firm believer in how the “free market” should dictate what gets made. Steam has a nice way of getting an honest opinion on what’s seen without the bitter comments as seen on something like Youtube or Twitter.
How many more episodes will we see of Boltron Ultimate?
There will be 4 parts, that tell the whole story, each part though showcases a different type of game, so it doesn’t feel so repetitive.
What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Everett Peck. I’m an artist.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I worked primarily as an Illustrator and painter for 25 Â years before earning my living primarily in animation.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I’ve most enjoyed working on the animated projects I  created, Duckman and Squirrelboy. I also enjoyed working with some great people on projects at Klasky Csupo Studios and Sony Animation such as Ghost Busters and Jumanji.
How did you become interested in animation?
Ever since I can remember as a kid I was interested in animation. My biggest influence then was Disney and W.B. But I also liked anything the Fleisher studio did and the U.P.A stuff. I was also quite taken with other artists who who were not necessarily animators but were illustrators who occasionally lent their style to animated projects. People like Heinrich Kley, Virgil Partch, and Ronald Searle. I was also knocked out by Mad magazine, especially guys like Jack Davis, Mort Drucker, and Don Martin. Also loved Ed Roth and Basil Wolverton. All of these influences led me to a career in Illustration and in turn, to Animation.
Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I’m from a beach town about 35 miles north of San Diego, Oceanside, CA. As an Illustrator, I would occasionally design for animation. It was when I entered into partnership with Klasky/Csupo studio to do Duckman that I switched emphasis from illustration to animation.
What’s a typical day like for you with regards to your job?
It depends on what I’m doing. If I have a show in production, I’m usually at the Continue reading
Episode 2 of Spindo’s Boltron Ultimate created and animated by Chris Burns and Bob Fox is up and I really love the character designs on this as well as the stylized animation. We posted the first episode of Boltron Ultimate a few weeks ago if you’d like to catch up on the story and did a mini interview about the process with Chris and Bob as well. I have to say, watching these always makes me feel super nostalgic so it just might be time to get out my old Sonic the Hedgehog games! I think they need to make this an actual game! Incidentally,we interviewed Chris last July.
