VFX Lessons List

If you wanted to learn how to do many of the VFX Animations & Motion Graphics I Did in my Recent Films (2018-2019) I will list them HERE.

I also use some 3rd Party Plugins & Scripts, Especially Red Giant/Trapcode & Video Copilot, and Cinema 4D here & there.... After Effects CC already comes with A LOT OF STUFF including: Cinema 4D, Raytrace, Particles, and 3D Extrude, as well as a variety of options for masking,  track-mats, and camera tracking goodness! I also love the multi-plane camera styles which uses 3D cameras and Layers as well as 3D lights, cast shadows, blurs, and motion blurs as well as blending options, and layer styles! ^_^

It took me a LONG time to wrap my head around "Precompositions" (Precomps) and "Nesting" since I often like to use particles & mats. 

Other things to focus on, if you have the patience are Curves animating (which I HATE but often need to use)  as well as F9 Easing in & out for Keyframing. 

Most teachers of After Effects have a limited area they understand of the software, which comes with biases n personal preferences such as VFX, Video Editing, Motion Graphics, Vectors, 3D, Videographer, VS a Traditional Animator, or Text animator. NOBODY EVER sees eye-to-eye, they all often act like they're an expert BUT ARE NOT, and they ALREADY expect that you understand everything LIKE THEY DO.

Like, DO YOU KNOW what a Precomp is? It took me 3 years to wrap my head around that. 
Did you know there's different ways to use masks, masking, and mats? 
Most people only use 1 or 2 ways, and have no idea about the others. 

Also, the updates n the software can change drastically in just a year or 2. Don't give up, and u can always ask people at Adobe's website. 

Also, on 1 hand you need to be open minded, and open to different things. On the OTHER HAND, if you HATE the way someone is doing it or teaching it, IT'S TOTALLY OK TO DO WHAT YOU LIKE. Give yourself permission to be ORIGINAL. 

AND, many teachers are from foreign countries, so dont; get frustrated if you can;t understand their English. I often have to rewind to be sure I understand too, and I'm good with langauges. 


Here's a list of the Tutorials, Demo, and Lessons I referenced my VFX Animation & Motion Graphics From:

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WIP Succor Forlorn Animation N Stuff

I would REALLY prefer it if LIVE would just function at a pace that works much better for me.

Unfortunately, this film, which I assumed would be done in just a few weeks, is taking much longer than I was expecting. I had a really bad bout of fatigue starting in March, and it didn't clear up until May, but THEN I got to contracts to shoot hockey games and that set me back quite a bit. I also found out that I ate too many plant based foods which is not good for you. So, I had to eat more products from animals. We also had several power-outs, internet went out several times in the past few months, and I had QUITE A LOT of job offers which ate up my time. (No, nothing went anywhere yet.)

Here is a compilation of the rough animation:

I actually had so many problems due to fatigue, which might have also been a mix of malnutrition and mono. It caused me to have several cognitive function impairment, and I couldn't even talk right, let alone think right. It was pretty embarrassing. I thought maybe I was getting old people brain diseases.... but I wasn't. I just needed to have bone broth, fish oil pills, and B vitamins.

So, I redid my animation multiple times. I was just VERY unsatisfied with it.

At some point, after dozens of animation re-dos. I just said that was enough.Otherwise I'd NEVER GET IT DONE.

I am STILL working on the cleanup, n I try to get about 10 frames per day, but ever since my kid had her birthday, things haven't always gone smoothly.
I've also been working opn the composite. So, here's a frame from that:

I was also producing 3 TV shows n contributing to my friend's. The scheduling was frustrating n annoying. Things git rushed, or screwed up. It wasn't all roses.

A lot of the stuff I was already working on for THIS film also got reworked n repurposed for a show I've been doing with my friend Roland. I crammed together some stuff for it within a limited abrupt time, so it wasn't perfect at all. I'm also THE ONLY PERSON in this entire region that knows how to use After Effects to do ANY of this stuff. So, there's no one to help or assist me at all. I'm all on my own. PLUS, the summer heat FINALLY HIT THE AREA. So, my video card won't work above 80F+ degrees for anything beyond a basic edit.... and the hotter it gets it might not even work at all.

Here's the show we rammed through:

The first Episode we threw together in a few days, and I'm shocked that the video graphics rendered out at all.

I re-worked the background graphics multiple times, and even tho we shot 3 MORE episodes, ONLY the first 2 have been edited, with one more that's not done yet. AND those have the old video graphics on them, but some of the new reworked graphics in the intro which we edited.

Not my most IDEAL version of how I wanted it to go.... but I DO have some NEW graphics for future video episodes.

BTW: We're NOT just going to be discussing Star Trek, but other content as well. We're STILL working out the kinks, and since I'm ONLY person who knows how to do most of this stuff, it takes time. Also, Ana is still learning to be a Control Room Director, so she's working on it.

As you can see, its a significant improvement... and, also a repurposed & reworked version of stuff from my film: Succor Forlorn


Something I'm been tossing around in my head, also, is this idea of making another brand of my own (another one), and calling it "Oppressed By Purple" ©2019 and/or "Oppressed By Violet" ©2019! So, I'm gonna copyright that right HERE! MINE!!!

Oppressed By Purple TM ©2019 Kandice Kathleen Zimbleman

Oppressed by Violet TM ©2019 Kandice Kathleen Zimbleman 

OK! BOTH are MINE now! Yay!

The OTHER stuff I also managed to squeeze to get done was THIS Final Edit:

(I STILL need to do the INTRO graphics FOR THIS, because I have enough content to make an episode or 2 for that. THAT show is called "A Spirit To Be Free".)


AND, THIS SHOW:

I'm GENERALLY happy with my intro graphics on THIS.... HOWEVER, on SHOOTING DAY several things went wrong. I had insomnia the night before, it poured all day, and getting students to show up for the painting class didn;t go smoothly.

ALSO, I was VERY unsatisfied with the footage, the shots, the angles, and people were often impatient with me. I also didn't know how to explain why it wasn't right, and how it OUGHT to look. So, that was MAJOR learning experience on ALL SIDES. 

ALSO, the head TV Station Producer BOTCHED the first half of the shoot SO BAD and we lost EVERYTHING! ALL OF IT! 

We did shoot the episode. and I DID have to edit EVERYTHING, and CROP like almost EVERY SHOT. People were not always great at taking direction either. I had to just LET IT GO, and just ALLOW it to go badly, because if I DIDN'T I'd blow a gasket... NOT WORTH GETTING UPSET OVER. Everyone needs to learn... so, once it was all shot, I had to explain WHY the shots were bad, ineffective, and didn't help to TEACH anyone. and NO ONE could FOLLOW and actually learn anything JUST because they were shot wrong.

I do HAVE that episode, and it DID actually air on TV, but after my assistant producer finally understood what was wrong with it, we've been trying to get arrangements to shoot at a different TV Station because we can shoot at THAT one at night and weekends.

I haven't uploaded THAT episode yet. Because I kind of HATE IT.

But, HEY! At least my Intro Graphics are BANGIN'! ;) 

Anyways, I wanna get through all my Cleanup animation stuff.

MAYBE I can get it done this month or next month. I try to reach a quota of 10 frames of cleanup animation PER DAY.

There's OVER 200+ and I'm already at 130 frames done. It's also SHOT ONE ONES at 24FPS.


I JUST signed a contract for another Hockey gig which is NEXT weekend. So, THAT will set me back. I might have 1-2 more, and I MIGHT have a job interview coming up in Boston for Animation/Motion Graphics. MAYBE....

I also try to do Life Drawings EVERY DAY at the Dog Park in South Field w the kid. AND, I just made a Bulbasaur/Ivysaur Sculpey planter. AND, the pool still didn't open, but MAYBE Monday... }:(

I also play Pokemon Go HARD CORE!

Animated Short Film WIP: Succor Forlorn

Concept Art Color Mock-Up

HOW THE HECK DID I GET HERE????

Well, THIS is HOW; It started LIKE THIS:

I'd already gone through all the trouble of blogging my goals out on my Main Art Blog when when my #ArtVsArtist/#ArtVArtist/AnimationVsAnimator

Meme videos were still charting on Twitter, plus the fact that Pokemon Go suddenly hit an all time HIGH in user-ship and my Pokemon Go Tweets were also charting still, so my friend Roland & I were discussing stuff, and I had been wanting to re-cut the stuff in my #AnimationVsAnimator meme video into an actual animation/artist/Filmmaker/Dirctor's Demo.

I never got to actually do my final After Effects VFX final edit because the program kept vetoing the clip no matter how compressed I made it, but had no problem importing other videos... this is an issue I often get with Adobe CC and Windows updates, the updates also screwed up my entire iTunes, and my audio/sound card in my computer which was already going bad. (I litterally just started to sort that out FINALLY since last night and all morning today, for the ba-jillienth time trying)

So, not only had I done things like spruce up my Vimeo, portfolios on ArtStation, but I felt this desire to work on JUST a Demo that was a Director's Demo but as a DP (Director of Photography for Cinema).

Here's the HD version from my Meme Clip:

So, I'd started going through my video clips & B-Roll I shot Spring, Summer, and Fall. I wanted it to be a "Video Portrait" but a "Self Portrait" style as a Director/Filmmaker but with just regular camera work and maybe a few VFX thrown in, or some fancy edits.

I found a number of clips I shot of myself, experimental stuff... and at the time, I hated all of it, but, I'd ALSO hated the stuff I actually ended up using in Self Portrait clip I used in my Meme video. So, I decided to try some VFX experiments with the video clips I had. It actually went incredibly well, and was much easier than I'd thought. I'd been so frustrated with After Effects for a week on my Animation/Artist/Filmmaker Demo that I had no expectations for anything to work....

But, THIS is what happened in the 1st one:

Then, I figured, what if I tried this with Trapcode? SO, I did. I did a number of experiments with my B-Roll using Trapcode form...

I had also been suddenly on a 90s/Y2K/2000s Techno kick, and kept finding all sorts of goodies there, with another uptick in my tweets & follows just for THAT stuff on Twitter.... So, I posted more....

Then, a few Techno/Eurodance oldies came up:

Anyways, those were just a FEW of the things that I'd dug up on YouTube, or in my own archives... I'd also even found out that there's a NEW Winamp, and even spent a about 1-2 days making my own Winamp Skins, which ALSO made me VERY interested in 90s & Y2K EVERYTHING all over again! I also got a Skin maker program. If you want some of the Skins I made you can pretty much download ALL of them HERE.

And, since I had been doing VFX Animation Experiments with my B-Roll, I kept stumbling into other things I'd originally wanted to try doing using After Effects CC so then THESE happened:

(BTW: These clips are Creative Commons if you want to rip them n use them for ur own projects)


We had also been hit with so many kinds of weather, and despite this Pokemon Go was going crazy with events, so I often wanted to participate in as many as I could even tho all the PokeStops & PokeGyms are a long walking distance in both directions from my home. Some days I went out, and other days I was stuck inside. Either too cold, too windy, too much snow up to my waste, floods, road construction, power outs, you name it. Not a fan of living in New England AND NEITHER IS MY BACK.

But, it just so happened that on a Thursday evening I was outside playing Pokemon Go trying to do these Pokemon Go event tasks and it was, really cold, I had all the music in my head.... and, I started to realize that maybe a Demo wasn't really the way to go with what I had just made...

I mean, LOOK at all of that stuff!

So, as I was walking around that night I started to have these concepts come into my mind, and it reminded me of some things I had done as a teenager... only more EMO. I didn't usually do EMO sad stuff.... except THIS: (-and maybe some other stuff I no longer have, which I don;t have this one either... )

Fathoming Oubliette

It's titled "Succor Forlorn"

I started to have this concept for a video art piece, the themes, and all of that... so, I sketched up a rough Concept Art which I am hoping to animate starting within the next day or 2:

Also on DeviantArt: Sketch & Color Mock-up

I also wrote a Poem of how I wanted the themes to go. I spent an evening writing it in my paper notebook, then reworked it the following day, and then I also typed and reworked it on another day for about half a day.

The Poem is called "Stargazed Yearning"

You can read the Poem texts HERE.


Then, I wanted to record the audio of myself reciting the poem, but also acting it out... it was a very frustrating endeavor because my spouse was on Spring Break from MASS ARTS Boston, and my daughter also kept having days off, or half days, and I can ONLY record it with NO ONE AT HOME.

I was REALLY feeling it when I 1st wrote it, but couldn't record it due to all the home/house noise. My friend also kept making & breaking his plans with me as well... so, I finally just gave up trying to re-record it after the 3rd day of trying because I just couldn't into the right groove again to connect with the FEELINGS I wanted... and I mean, I tried EVERYTHING like digging up old songs that used to make me cry after a teenaged break-up, dug up photos of ex-boyfriends, or dudes that rebuked me... but, I was just so fed up with wasting time, and since I had recorded at least 7 full long takes, and multiple spot takes of certain segments, I just spent 1-days just chopping & Frankenstein'ing everything until I fore-fit it to work... hopefully it sounds LESS like a hack TRYING to read word-for-word out-loud, and MORE like someone actually abandoned on a planet.

But, anyways, the feedback I got was pretty positive. 

I wanted it to be this kind of fantasy theme, because she mentions she's been stuck on a planet for "1000 orbital planetary years".... So, how long is a year on that planet's orbit? And, how long is 1000 of those years???? So, u start to get a sense that she's not "normal".... as far as Earth goes.
Is she a ghost? 
Is she an alien humanoid? 
Is she an immortal?

So, it's open to interpretation...

The Audio Version is called 
"Stargazed Yearnings" (plural)

This Final Audio Design version took me about a whole day and evening alone:

Also on NewGrounds for Free Download HERE

The short film will be called "Succor Forlorn".

There's a number of discrepancies about the pronunciation of the word "succor". When I was in high school we were taught this words as sounding similar to Olde French and Lantin original pronunciations like "soo-kor" however, online a number of dictionaries tend to list the pronunciation as sounding like "sucker" and is the origin of a baby's pacifier and lollypops & hard candies which were originally all called "suckers". The word originally means to soothe or comfort, but also can mean solace, safety, haven, help, aide, relief, respite, assistance, etc.

But, it's also a pun for "sucker" as in being gullible, mislead, or duped.

She keeps on hoping that when she was left on the planet by someone to save her that they would come back for her, so she keeps on calling out for him to return. 

Anyways, I want to start animating it, hopefully within the next few days. I'm really tired from working on the audio this week, so I didn't work on anything today.

Lively Unicorn Morph Animation Adobe After Effects Redux

I've reworked this to be closer to what I was actually, originally going for when I'd first produced it back in 2000-2001 in Adobe After Effects.

The original was hand-drawn by hand, and also the clean-up animation was hand-inked, then manually scanned & cleaned in Photoshop 5.0, 5.5, and 6.0 with my old, original, Canon scanner.

Old Version 2001/2005:

Reworked:

With Fog:

DeviantArt GIF

Older Version from Older versions of Adobe After Effects 2000-2005 & 3D Studio Max:

Spring n Summer Animation Tests: Lively 001

You know, last Semester (Spring Semester at UMASS Boston) I really did have quite a number of very nice animation concepts. Really I did. But, other people, and broken promises get in the way.

Here were some of the rough animation test I did, trying to learn some animation programs during the summer:

I had also cleaned up some old vintage pencil-test animation. Most of these were created at the U-ARTS Philadelphia from about 1996-1998. and the AIPH one was about 1999-2001(somewhere around there)

You know, it's just REALLY too bad that I couldn't really do what I actually wanted to do, and frequently had to compromise.

My original idea was a more stylized version of or own artistic interpretation for THIS clip form the 1980s:

I can actually DEFINITELY make that happen NOW. And, I probably will. I need to wrap up the "Maple Bacon" animated short I'm doing for my own animated independent film "Ying Qilin" with my daughter first, and I'm also a DP on another live action film "The Holy Maple Tree" in Brockton.

"Eyewitness" Concept Art: Not Quite Storyboards Yet

I totally thought I could have this either done, or mostly done by now, since I wanted to have this storyboarded for my animated short. But, a number of things popped up. First I realized I needed to have a working character design for the little wild fox character, which I still haven't nailed down yet, but it definitely reachable.

A BIG one is my confidence, since I'm so frustrated with my drawing skills. my anatomy, proportions, etc. are just NOT up to the level I want. SO, not big deal, just do the Life Drawing stuff, or Croquis Cafe... but, I'm almost out of paper.... so, I'm guessing that's a cause for anxiety in the back of my mind... I also got sick. My lungs are infected right now, but at least I can see now.

I guess I'm trying to be as honest as I can with myself. I actually WOULD like this short to be a short, showcase of WHAT I'm capable of... however, I still need to rebuild and regrow back what I lost, and then go from there.

Then, I when I sat down several times to try and do some rough thumbnails for storyboards, I realized my vision of Lively look in this wasn't actually set... I usually have her more sleek, or sporty, even tho' she can also be VERY whimsical, and fantasy.

When I sat down for the first rough thumbnail this was what came out:

Eyewitness Skin Tight Look Concept Art 001 by BlackUniGryphon on DeviantArt

So, there she is, entering the savanna, but she's in a more sporty sleek look, which does tend to be typical of her that's skin tight.  I haven't decided on the final look for her satchel/bag yet. 

But, I'm definitely keeping the Thigh High "Pretty Woman" early 1990s boots! They will be flat tho', and EARTHY BROWN.

But, as a I sat down to work on another sketch for the Seven Days of Artworks Challenge THIS came out:

Eyewitness Hedroll Look Concept Art 001 by BlackUniGryphon on DeviantArt

So, the old early 1990s poet blouse look kinda came back. This is what I called "the Hedroll look" since Lively originally used to be 2 girls in the early 90s.

I'm torn between the 2 looks... the Poet Blouse will actually be a LOT more work, even if kept simplified. It would require layers of animation. However, it WILL make it look & feel better....

So, I'm torn.

Story Board Ideas Hopefully Comming

I want to Storyboard this short story and all the scenes in sequence, hopefully in a decent quality of the story I came up with when I was in Middle School in the 90s.

This Charcoal Illustration was exhibited in Congress ("Eyewitness") when I was 15 years old, and it's my most beloved piece from that time period. It's weeks worth of work EVERY DAY.

The story is STILL very clear inside my mind, altho' even tho' I made this on pale cyan blue paper, I think I would probably go with a warmer tone.

I also have a whole sequence in mind for the little fox with Lively. The fox is freaking out from shock & awe of giant  flying creatures coming out of the sky, and cowering beneath Lively's legs.

Vintage Original Eyewitness Concept Art 1993 1994 by BlackUniGryphon on DeviantArt

Even tho' I'm so critical, and so frustrated with 3D animation, this is something I would LOVE to do a hybrid using 3D modeling but with semi rhodoscoping over top in traditional animation.

It would NOT be long at all. It would be a very short story.

I've been mulling it over in my mind, and I'm divided on whether I would like this with electronic music, or more of a symphony, or a hybrid of both. If i went with an orchestra score I would want it to be similar in style to the film score by Klaus Doldinger and Giorgio Moroder (which DOES actually have small bits of electronic synthesizer fusion in it) for "The Neverending Story" but I could just as easily see/hear something just as nice done electronically like Erasure's "I SAY I SAY I SAY" album or their self titled album following that one. I am also fond of the hybrid sound in the 2 albums by "Akara". 


THIS:

I just LOVE the energy in that! The strings and the horns!

I also like a bit of the old Dune soundtrack by TOTO but, probably NOT that.

Eyewitness Congressional 1995 by BlackUniGryphon on DeviantArt

I do feel it would be better off if I went as much as possible with a higher grade of quality in my storyboarding as suggested by experts like this:

I know most people whom I PERSONALLY know actually have a deep love for THIS ONE:

Eyewitness: Dragons 1999 by BlackUniGryphon on DeviantArt

I suppose I could stortyboard this one also, but I don't want it to be a total rip-off of the first one.


I'm hoping that once my semester is over by end of December, I can work on trying to come up with the roughs and thumbnails for the animated short. I do not know whether the short would, or could, actually EVER be produced, but it is my dream to do so hopefully before I die.

Frustrated Dragon

I've been tearing apart my home trying to find the original sketched of the ones I have the ugly inked versions of on my old portfolio model sheet.

I honestly HATE the inked versions. But, due to RULES that were supposedly animation industry standards at the time, we have to ink the work. I HATE HATE HATE my inked work.

Also, the instructors made me alter my inked work several times cutting out a lot of details.

Ironically, I still have a lot of model sheets from big companies back then that were rough, sketchy, or uninked work... and, by today's standards including Japan and even 3D or film effects anmiation they no longer have this idea that everything must be inked drawings.

I believe my instructors meant well... at the time, they believed in this ideas of a term they often used in the old Animation Magazines called either "anible" or "animable" depending on who was talking, and yes I sat through countless lectures and animation festivals... basically, it means "able to animate". The concept was that in order to animate something ( i.e. hand drawing traditional animation) that the artwork needed to be simplified. It makes total sense if you think about it, and gives you less work, so you can animate more. this was one of those Holy Grail ideas that people all echoed over & over... but, if you watched Don Bluth films, various Disney Films, and any number of untold independent shorts in any number of festivals, this rules was OFTEN BROKEN.

Yes, it takes a lot of work, and a lot more time, to do something by hand drawing if it has more details... I KNOW THAT. I UNDERSTAND THAT....

And, I "get it" that a potential employer would look at your portfolio and probably want a person whom can mass produce art that is simple, and not "waste time" on details.... but, at the same time, they ALSO want to see what your IDEAS ARE, HOW YOU THINK, and just HOW DETAILED AND SKILLED YOU CAN BE, or ACTUALLY ARE....

With all of the deadlines shoved onto me, and with so many restrictions, I felt I did rather well in meeting their demands... however, specific instructors whom had a visceral hate for women would just make up reasons to fail me.
When the other students had a portfolio done, it was common for other students to want a copy of it from the photo copier. Even my unfinished portfolios, and "failed" portfolios were SO sought after by my fellow students that they would ask me to copy it, in the classroom, even before the teacher even saw them, which might have pissed him off further.

And, whenever I gave a newer version copy to my favorite teacher, he would also make copies because everyone wanted a new copy of mine. And, in a stack of stapled copies of my 'failed" or "unfinished" portfolios would even get requests from other people, whom I didn't even know as either I was making copies, or that teacher.


However, in my opinion, all of the revisions to especially my BEST WORK actually made it less than good. I don;t like it at all.

I prefer my pencil work SO MUCH MORE.

I came to this realization even harder when I worked at Top Cow in 2005 (unpaid) because there were "pencilers", specifically 1 in particular at the time, whom refused to have his work inked, and drew his line work in such a way as to be ink-like. But, his work also had a nice feel to it. A common question was "Who did his inks? Does he do them himself?" because the work was so different looking... and the editor or producer would always strike up a conversation about how that artist refused inking or inkers and that the line work was entirely in pencil.

It was such a common conversation topic that I changed my mind on inking entirely. I was already working on "line quality"anyway... so, why bother with ink?

I also don't like digital inking tools. I HATE THEM.

Anyway, I don't know where some of my sketchbooks from 1999-2001 are because there's definitely many that are missing, and a number of portfolio folders with my punched "animation papers" in them.

I also lost my sculpture of Djehkäujaa.

1 thing I want to point out is that Djehkäujaa has segmented parts of her skin, such as her neck & tail.

My friend Silver Moon Nightwing (Kristen Buckner) often referred to my dragon as "mammalian" meaning "mammal-like". But, actually, I based a lot of her more on dinosaur anatomy/biology. 

I designed her to have tight yet very flexible skin, but also rough. The reason it's rough is because in flight it will cause micro turbulences, similar to how a golf ball works in flight, or the skin of a shark in water, that causes them to fly faster, in effect gliding better through the air. 

Her skeletal structure is also cartilage and her wings are firm, yet also have a good amount of flex to them.

If you understand the anatomy of bones and skulls, and you understand how lips work or function you can somewhat accurately determine how large lips would be on an animal. There's holes in the skulls specifically FOR the nerves to reach the lips through the skull. It works like this: the larger the hole for the nerves to pass through the skull, the larger the lips will be.

If you look at the skull of a horse, you can see they have a large hole for the nerves, and they also have big lips. If you look at a moose, which has HUGE lips, it has an even bigger hole in the skull where the nerves come out. Canines and felines also have significant lips to grab onto the meat they need to consume. 

I actually took a large interest in this because I sat through a lecture in the late 1990s describing how an Apatosaurus  actually have giant moose lips based on JUST the size of the hole in the skull for the nerves. I also noticed this on other dinosaur skulls as well, and even took a lot more notice of this on animals that were alive today.

That is why Djehkäujaa has large lips. 

In some ways she has some dog-like and horse-like anatomy.

Regarding her "detailed look" I actually disagree. From my perspective, for ME, I have kept her very sleek and simplified FOR ME. She doesn't have grand scales, or tons of horns, or spikes. Despite the grand size, she's agile & nimble.

Her skin also has special abilities to change color or bend light becoming almost invisible. She has vision like an eagle, and posable thumbs. She can read, write, talk, sing, hum, and do many things a human could.

So, when it comes to animating her... I've seen it done many times... there's this THING called ROUGH ANIMATION, and KEY FRAMES.... maybe you've heard of it....

Then, later on, you can do something called CLEAN UP and REFINING...

In fact, most rough animations and keyframes, often get redone ANYWAY....

JUST SAYING....

I do NOT have a problem with trying to animate my own character. FFS have you EVER seen Glen Keane's BEAST character in a film called Beauty & The Beast? He didn't draw it all in 1 day... and other animators also worked on it WITH HIM.

So, calm the hell down.... it's GONNA BE OK...


I know people think they're somehow well-meaning, or that their somehow helping me, or giving me good advice...

I also don't talk about everything regarding her... because it's very extensive, and INSIDE OF MY HEAD... so, you just don't KNOW, and don't SEE all the work and effort, and consideration in it...

Or, there's the people whom think I'm an arrogant uppity person.... just based on something I wrote, and DON'T EVEN KNOW ME.

I already KNOW I'm not the best at everything... and that's not the point.

There is no such thing as a "best artist" only ur own PERSONAL BEST.

I might not be that great today, and certainly not MY BEST today... but, tomorrow is another day...

Old Vintage Sketches of Lively 002

I've scanned many many sketches today... all old stuff....

Vintage Stuff from 1999:

Here's some old stuff from an old Storyboard scene project which I've written various versions of, or even did an animattic based on it:

1999 Lively StoryBoard Thumbnails Sketches 001 by BlackUniGryphon on DeviantArt

1999 Lively StoryBoard Thumbnails Sketches 002 by BlackUniGryphon on DeviantArt

1999 Lively StoryBoard Thumbnails Sketches 003 by BlackUniGryphon on DeviantArt

1999 Lively StoryBoard Thumbnails Sketches 004 by BlackUniGryphon on DeviantArt

1999 Lively StoryBoard Thumbnails Sketches 005 by BlackUniGryphon on DeviantArt

1999 Lively StoryBoard Thumbnails Sketches 006 by BlackUniGryphon on DeviantArt

Rough Pencil version


Rough Colored Version w/Music

That one is actually based on a dream I had when I was about 6 years old. This story I re-did for my Eyewitness project concept work... but, I actually was writing it, originally, for my dragon project...

It could fit to either one...

I've written a number of versions of the dream I had as a child, and published various short stories of it throughout the internet since the 1990s. I have no idea what happened to them since then, tho'...

Unicorns Character Sheet 1999 001 by BlackUniGryphon on DeviantArt

Lively 1999 Character Design 004 by BlackUniGryphon on DeviantArt

Lively 1999 Character Design 003 by BlackUniGryphon on DeviantArt

Lively Expressive Model Sheet by BlackUniGryphon on DeviantArt

Some old junk I no longer care for:

Lively 1999 Character Design 002 by BlackUniGryphon on DeviantArt

Lively 1999 Character Design 001 by BlackUniGryphon on DeviantArt