a short animation I put together to take a break from my bigger project. when from concept to board in a day, and worked on developing a visual language that is easier to produce but still aesthetically appealing.

I started it mid-march and originally the intention was to finish the whole thing in a week, which quickly became “by the end of the month,” and so on.

got a bit sidetracked between moving, working on my new comic (will post here eventually, but the two currently finished pages are on my twitter), and was out of town for a week, alongside the standard procrastination/laziness. realistically speaking it was about a month of me actively working on it. not entirely sure if i should be happy about that pace or not considering all the shortcuts I took here but one minute of animation a month doesn’t seem a terrible pace, especially considering I’m not doing it as a full-time gig (well, I didn’t track the hours…)

the “wiggly” line effect was one of the more tedious elements just because of all the redrawing it required, though I do like the look of it. opted to use it since it could help make longer “static” shots look less dead then they are, though i’m not sure how much of a difference it makes.

if people enjoy this i might put together more shorts in this universe, i’ve got a vague concept for another installment, and i do really enjoy the freedom this more surreal style gives me.

what’s next?

well I’ve got a super cool collab project in the works, which should see a release next month or the month after at the latest. i have my “bigger project” (in reality it’s only about 2-3 minutes, but it’s a much more lavish production so the number of frames and complicated motions is infinitely more). only 12/40 shots are completed on the animation end, so it’ll probably be a couple months at least before that gets finished.

I’m sitting on a very short animation I started over a year ago. it’s about a minute and half. I animated the first 30 seconds, hit a road block, and haven’t touched it since (but the work I did is still plenty usable). considering this one’s a comedy and the style doesn’t need any coloring, I might come back to this first, or focus on this while do the odd shot for my bigger project since it’ll be a lot easier to finish up and has been sitting on the back burner for a lot longer but we’ll see.

funnily enough, which I suppose is due to my own sensibilities, this current release and both in the works projects feature silent or near-silent protagonists. I might try to write a couple comedic dialogue-driven shorts since the length is cheaper and I want practice with voice acting and voice direction.

working on music stuff here and there, but I’m terrible about finishing or releasing that stuff so I won’t make any promises. I do have one song composed that I am legitimately proud enough of to release without anxiety but I need to get around to getting everything recorded and mixed. if i do happen to finish something though doing an animated music video for it will be added to the pile.

the current end goal is get enough practice and get in a good enough habit of animating on the regular to confidently embark on producing a concept I have in mind for an animated musical series. in order to get it made I’m willing to pay out of pocket for help with producing it (though if i were to reach a level where crowdfunding was a possibility that would be incredible), but i want to ensure i’m at level where it’s clear my ideas and ability to execute those ideas is worth the investment.

another distant hope is simply to build more connections with other people in the animation scene. I’m pretty bad about reaching out but I’d love more friends to talk about animation with and get feedback from, and I tend to be better motivated when surrounded by people working towards a similar goal. gonna try to keep an eye out for any upcoming animation collab projects, I also wanna contribute to stuff that’s not just my own and that seems a good way to challenge myself and get to know the animation community.

this came out pretty long and rambly unstructured thoughts tend to, but i hope you enjoyed reading for the…one(?) person that made it this far. now i better get back to work