Established Studio Embraces Real-Time Animation

By Mike January 9, 2017 January 9, 2017 Animation software, Artists Interviews, Great articles, News, Promote Yourself!

The Adobe blogs have an interesting story on Renegade Animation and my old bosses who are using a new Adobe application called Character Animator.

Renegade Animation started out 25 years ago as a boutique commercial house specializing in 2D animation. Its two founders, Ashley Postlewaite and Darrell Van Citters met while working at Warner Bros. in the Looney Tunes commercial unit. Renegade Animation was an early adopter of digital tools to reduce costs and improve efficiency, and that still holds true today. Using many of the apps in Adobe Creative Cloud, the company created a paperless animation pipeline to support the production of animated episodic television, feature films, interactive games, and web and mobile content.

Recently Co-founder and Executive Producer Postlewaite, along with Production Manager Scott Lowe, and Animator and Storyboard Artist Scott Klass tried out another new technology. The team accepted an offer from Adobe to create some demo assets for Adobe Character Animator, a real-time animation tool that transforms static artwork into dynamic puppets.

Read the entire interview HERE.

No comments

Nickelodeon Creates Original Movie In-House with Dell Workstations

By Mike January 3, 2017 January 3, 2017 Animation software, Hardware, Software, Technology

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82vRWa5rXi0

Did you spend as much time watching television over the holidays as I did? If so, then you might have caught Nickelodeonâ€™s first original animated TV movie, Albert. In the film, Bobby Moynihan (from â€œSaturday Night Liveâ€) is the voice of a little Douglas fir tree named Albert who wants to become the Empire City tree.

Albertâ€™s 3.1 million total viewers in Live+7 (which in TV ratings talk means the number of viewers within seven days of first showing) helped Nickelodeon finish 2016 as the number-one kidâ€™s network for the year, according to numbers released last week.

Even if you were one of those millions of viewers, I bet you likely missed the story about how Dell Precision 5810 workstations helped them bring their first 45-minute movie to life, though.

â€œUsing the Dell Precision with NVIDIA Quadro M6000 graphics cards has allowed us to stay competitive with overseas studios because we’re able to turn around results much faster and we’re able to keep a smaller team longer and be more efficient,â€ said Jason Meier, animation director at Nickelodeon, in the video below.

And if you missed it, or just want to hold on to that Christmas spirit and watch it again, the full Albert movie is available on Nick.com!

No comments

Animating with Mike Milo on Adobe Twitch Episode 8

By Mike October 2, 2016 October 2, 2016 Adobe Streaming, Animation software, Promote Yourself!, Software, Technology

If you missed our 8th broadcast it’s up now on Youtube… come on now you know you wanna listen to my Jersey accentÂ for 3 hours!

Or not.

Well, it’s there either way… Join us live from 12pm to 3pm PSTÂ every Saturday on http://www.twitch.tv/adobe where I broadcast and animate stuff live using Adobe’s Animate software.

No comments

Live on Twitch.tv/adobe this Saturday from 12-3pm PST

By Mike September 15, 2016 September 15, 2016 Adobe Streaming, Animation software, Artists Interviews

This Saturday I’ll be once again broadcasting LIVE on the Adobe Twitch stream at http://www.twitch.tv/adobe animating with Adobe Animate CC(formally Adobe Flash) where I’ll be animating nonsense like this gif… I may even fix it to be better! Join us and see! That’s 12-3 pm PST only on Twitch!

No comments

Adobe Animate CC 2015.2

By Mike July 30, 2016 July 30, 2016 Animation software, News, Software, Technology

Following Animateâ€™s rebirth just a few months ago, Adobe’sÂ latest update is actually attempting to include animators and artists, which a huge welcome change! The two biggest additions are allowing a layer to be transparent! I know that’s SO 1995 but at least they’re finally listening! Also a new inclusion is the Frame Picker which mimics Lipper and Keyframe Caddy but is now included in the Application itself. The one thing I’m hoping for in the next version is to have the Frame Picker set a keyframe when you select a drawing form it’s display. Also there is the new-ish Pattern Brushes, which is very similar to Illustrator’s brushes and while I personally have not found much use for them, they AREÂ an artists addition and you might find a need for them. Actually IÂ take it back, I made wallpaper on a background once using them.

Frame Picker

(graphic symbol thumbnails)

Visually preview and choose the first frame for a graphic symbol. In previous releases, you could not preview the frames without getting within the symbol. This feature enhances the user experience for animation workflows such as Lip Sync.

Layer Transparency

You can now skip manual workarounds and sketch on top of other layers right inside Animate. To set the visibility of the layer to transparent,Â Shift+Click on the eye column in the timeline.

Pattern Brushes

Paint a vector pattern along the path or stretch to its entire length. You can use the integrated global library within Animate to use Art and Pattern brushes. In addition to the default brush presets, you can import new Pattern BrushesÂ to your Animate document using the CC Libraries.Â See them in action here.

No comments

Sketchbook Pro custom brush sets

By Mike June 20, 2016 June 20, 2016 Animation software, Software, Spotlight

If you’re a fan of Sketchbook Pro like I am you know it’s an amazing program. I would argue it’s the easiest program to use digitally out of the box bar none. No other program is intelligently designed enough to allow a 5-year-old to use it yet create broadcast or print quality work as well. You can draw, paint, and even animate with itÂ and it is available on most platforms includingÂ OSX, Windows XP through Windows 10, and even your favorite Android tablet or iOs device as well! In short it’s an extremely versatile programÂ all for $185!Â Not bad! They even have subscription for $4.99 a monthÂ which allows you to get the latest builds as they upgrade the software.

In short, pretty damn amazing if you ask me!

PLUS, it has a small footprint, which means it will work on old tablet PCs like the Motion Computing LE 1700 which you can get for a songÂ these days on eBay and other places. Of course you can also use it with a Surface Pro or iPad Pro as well.

The latest version Sketchbook 8 has redesigned it’s brushes so you can really get some interesting details you can mix colors and blend them as well. Oil paint, watercolors, ink and chalk are some of the default choices but there are many others to choose from as well.Â Lately Sketchbook.com has been posting free custom brushes for download, and this week a buddy of mine was feature on the blog. Keith Cowan creates some truly amazing pieces of work and you owe it to yourself to check his work out.

Below is Keith‘s custom art brushes as well as otherÂ Sketchbook Brush download sets to get you started!