Web Site Up (Pg 3) / Simple Characters

[Super_Wu-Man]

Samoht- thanks for the tip, i understand what you mean. it will be more difficult however. but i do think your right it will pay off in the end. it will be more difficult because for the first walk on the first page i just was able to use emptys to move the feet and arms, because the body didnt move all the parts didnt have to be connected. however to have the feet move along with the body and the arms i have to work out a armature for all the body parts. and basically i have never really rigged anything before. but i have learned lots from tutorials and help here so i wil go ahead an use rigged models with armatures for the rest of my .gif animations. for reasons like the ones here.

so here is a small test, i didnt really spend any time on the rig i will have to go back and work it out better for smoother body movements and walk and animation cycles. i tried to be lazy and keep it simple, but in the end i agree the animations will be greatly improved by haveing a fully rigged model with good walk and animation cycles, instead of a stable model with just moveing parts from using empties.

[Samoht]

What about keeping the feet still? The body and feet would be a single piece and the arms and head would be seperate movable parts. Would greatly simplify the rig–not that it isn’t really simple already ;). Though the feet could together be one piece that could facilitate a bend as if at the waste, but more of a bow.

Either way keep up the good work and when are we going to get those voices you threat…promised in the last thread?

[JD-multi]

Hahahahah LMAO awesome job, really funny. You try to make something like a southpark video? If I was you I should make a short one, it looks soo freaking funny. Sometimes simple messy things and textures can be really funny if you do it the right way. And you did.

[theApe]

Bloody brilliant

[Super_Wu-Man]

Thanks for the Great Posts

Samoht- i tested out a few ideas, but in the end a full rig was the best option for the walk cycle (the new one is in my last post, I call it drunk farmer). i think i can do some good voices, and a good friend of mine often leaves vulgar messages on my answering machine so i know he’s good for a few. i have a little animation experiance but it is really hard to get motivated to do all that work. when i got the right sound byte that i know is right then the animation will fall in place. so i’m threatening a new one soon,

JD-multi- thanks man, i think i can do something like south park, but a little more open to all ages, instead of more adult. i’m also interested in comics, illistrated books, animations, .gifs, and things like that too, so i will just keep at them all and find which fits best.

Bellorum- wow, thanks a lot man!

so got a few new characters, and i have been thinking about a few new ideas for animation, or story books for kids.
i also got a design for a web site for these little guys, but i’m currently helping a friend redo his site, and if he allows me to get a link from his site to mine, then this could become very popular very fast, or very unpopular very fast, haha, so i will have to finish his site first then work on my own.
also a big influence on my art as a kid was a guy named John Pound, he created the “Garbage Pail Kids” series. which most of you in your 20’s know about, it was the sick little trading card sereis that kids like me loved. well about a year and a half ago i found his site and have been lucky enough to some responces from him about my art, he is a very cool guy. and he left some nice words about these little dudes that are very much influenced by the garbage pail kid art i saw as a kid

John Pound- I really liked seeing your 3D gpk influenced figures!
Interesting mix of the scratchy drawing and the 3D forms.

If you love garbage pail kids too you got to check his site out.
www.PoundArt.com lots of his other art, and orginal garbage pail kid art for sale. this guy is one of my favorite artists of all time!

Thanks for posting thanks for checking out my stuff, and for keeping my motivated to work and explore different areas to expand these little characters.

[Rhysy_2]

I love the style of these, they’re great !
For some reason I’d really like to see one of them hitting another with a mallet. Just some weird idea that’s stuck in my head…
Would love to see an animated short even more though !

[pnoland]

I love the Metallica guy…mainly because I’m going to their concert in Chicago in a couple hours! W00t!! The texturing style kind of reminds me of the short ‘Pump Action’ done with Cinema 4d a while back. Just kind of drawn like pencil or marker in that animation’s case. Very cool.

pnoland

[theApe]

wow, thanks a lot man!

You’re welcome. Sometimes it’s harder to achieve something good in a simplistic style like yours than using alot of detail… or something(it’s early around here) This is a skill I lack:)

[Ic3Cold]

I really like them. One question. Could you tell me how you saved the anims as .gifs. I’m still a newbie

[Dsaber]

i thought he used psp animation shop?

[thoro]

Hehe, these are cool characters - sick, but very cool :D. The walk cycle of the guy on page2 looks funny. Did you try to do it the other way, keeping the feet more on the ground wobbling the upper part of the body?

Many people are looking for a unique style - and you found it. I’m looking forward to see more of these freaky creatures…

[Super_Wu-Man]

:o thanks for all the posts :o

Rhysy 2- thanks for the nice post, strangly enough i know exactly what you are talking about, because i thought the same thing, wouldnt it be funny if two of these guys were hitting each other over and over, haha

pnoland- yes metallica rocks, enjoy the concert (which is proably over now). i posted these on cg talk a long time ago, and someone said the same about the pump action film. i have to check it out.

Bellorum - thanks again, i do know what you mean, someone commented on that awhile ago, and i feel it is true, though i think i may try improve detail, mabey ears and different hair, i’m just trying to stay away from too much complicated parts because i loose paitence and intrest very fast.

Ic3Cold- for the past three months i have searched and downloaded many many .gif animtors with no luck. untill i saw a .gif Modron made and i asked how he did it. and he told me about the Jasc Animation Shop, this thing is perfect, of the 15 .gif animators i downloaded this is the best by far. all you have to do is save your animation as a avi jpeg (blender alone does not make .gif animtions). then you can open up your jasc animtion shop and open that .avi and save it as a .gif, easy as that. jasc has a web site www.jasc.com that you can download the Animation shop for free for 30 days, then it is $40, but it is totally well worth it, i dont think there is any program more simple or more easy to use, check it out dude!!

Dsaber- yep used the animtion shop, best program i have found yet

thoro- thanks, my old lady will agree with you about being sick/scarry she dont like em, haha, i will work on walk cycles and post more to see what looks right, lots of good crits on the walking, and thanks for the unique style comment thats very nice, i didnt even know i had a style untill i started to texture these, i dont normally draw 2d cartoon characters, especially like this, but it just seemed right the first few times, and i just stay with that basic design (round eyes, wacky teeth, red nose, squigilly eye brows, and a line for the chin)

thanks to all who posted and made this thread popular, i dont normally break 1000 veiws, and almost never get to a third page.
i finished my friends site, now just have to wait till he reveiws it, so i had time to build my own, it is about 50% finished and i will post a link shortly.

now for more silliness

[pnoland]

What?!? I can’t hear! Heh heh, anyway the show was flippin’ awesome but at any rate… Yeah, Pump Action is worth checking out. It’s an older one but still really well done. I love your style…kind of like an old PBS kids show style only the characters have access to booze.

[Knightmare]

Your charaters remind me of South Park.I like them all.You should make a cartoon or a game with them.I use jasc Painshop Pro with the animtion shop also to make gif out of avi’s,I would also recomend Gif Movie gear.

[theApe]

just trying to stay away from too much complicated parts because i loose paitence and intrest very fast.

I hear ya:) I probably scrap a couple of projects a week, and start something new, because I loose interest so quickly:/

[Super_Wu-Man]

thanks for the posts

pnoland- old pbs kids show, cool man, i’m a huge fan of jim henson (fraggle rock, seasame street) so that is a great compliment, acess to booze thats funny

Knightmare- thanks, just working on the characters and getting down how to rig and texture, then i will try to go onto somthing bigger like an animation. yeah man jasc is a really great company, i will definatly be using there product, thanks

Bellorum - yes it is strange how that works, but i really dont feel that with these guys, i think i could just keep going on and on

thanks for all the great motivating posts.
sorry no new characters to add, i have been putting in a lot of work trying to get a web site up for this stuff. here is what i plan to have on it so far

*character page- i was thinking of trying to make these like a trading card style thing, were each month or so i could put out a new series (each series would have 8 new characters and 4 .gif animations)
*artists page- i was thinking i could have a page with bio one me, and a section for my influences, and a section for my other artist friends (mostly 2d painters)
*forum - mostly to build on my already growing ego, wait what? also because when i visit web sites of other artists i always felt i would like to say somthing to them but didnt really have a way to, but with this people could if they wanted too. i found a great free fourm that i could set up with the site. and have things were people could suggest characters and animations, and to get comments on the current characters and aniamtions, and web site.
*other- a page were i could post things that had to do with the direction of these things. i could post book ideas, animation short ideas, or whatever.

so i have been putting lots of time trying to build the site wich i will try to have finshed and out by the middle to end of next week. hopfully people will check it out.
again thanks for all the great posts it has been a great few weeks, also i will be on vacation till the weekend, so if anyone posts i will get back to you then, thanks!!!

[BgDM]

I think this is my first reply in this thread, (without going back through the whole thing to confirm ).

These guys are great. Simple, but very effective characters.

Good work Wu.

BgDM

[Super_Wu-Man]

BgDM- thanks for the nice post, yes it is your first post on this thread, thanks

ok couldnt resist making one more before i went on vacation. still working on that walk cycle, still a little off.

[Super_Wu-Man]

finally got most of the web site finished, still only about 60% finished.
but i figured it would be cool to have people check it out as it is.

*i got of very hansome photo of my self, also this page i will put a bio and some other links up
*all the simple characters (i set them up so that they will be like trading card characters, in series. right now i have 3 series, eight characters in a series, and four .gif animations for each series)
*and most exciting of all i got up a forum too, if anyone wants to post comments on the site, or characters, or to ask questions, or suggest a character or animation

anyway check it out and i hope you can dig it!!!

The site is open
SimpleToons Web Site Here

[dhanielc]

I saw your site…
The characters are very fun…I like your job
The UV mapping is the secret…

Very good!