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For People Crazy About 2D Animation!

Acme Punched! is for people crazy about 2D animation. It may be enjoyed by beginners and others, but it is aimed at animators who know already something about the process of animation and the basics of character animation. In large part, it will attempt to provide a deep look into the problem solving that goes on in my head as I work out a scene, often in step-by-step posts that I will sometimes enter in "real time", without knowing in advance what the outcome will be. Mistakes and false starts will not only be included but emphasized, so that the creative process of animation will be portrayed realistically. And, while my own bias is for 2D drawn animation, many of the effects and principles discussed here can apply to CGI 3D animation as well. I hope the blog will prove useful and instructive for all.

-Jim Bradrick

Friday, April 26, 2019

No. 186: That Steamer Trunk Gag

Size and Weight

Here is a drawing you will feel but not see: a single frame of
the trunk on impact, showing its squashed form.

Back in posts no. 142 and 144, I discussed this scene in detail.  It shows how even a large, strong man has trouble lifting and moving the Old Man's ponderous trunk. It is key to the whole film because you will keep wondering how that old man is going to move the trunk at all, let alone get it onto the airplane.

We come back to it now because I have chosen it as the first scene I intend to finish in ink and paint and with a background.

Let's look at the scene again, in a new pencil test done with my stop motion app.



The drawings have now been tightened up so that there is detail in the renderings of the trunk and in a few details on the man lifting it (i.e., some drag and follow through on his pants leg.)

Next will be scanning the drawings as bitmaps, then importing them into Animate Pro as vector drawings, and then re-drawing them on a new layer. (Laborious, yes, but tell me something about animation that I don't know?) I will be establishing my inking style at this point and also adding color.  Stay tuned!

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