This particular sample is of a cartoon I had the pleasure making for AIMS Educational Foundation. This goes with an educational video regarding Archimedes’ Principle. This video aims to help explain what Archimedes’ Principle is in layman’s terms. So, Archimedes sets to chiseling out the technical words in favor of words that make more sense to the average student… like me.
I used Adobe After Effects to create this and didn’t use any bells or whistles. I did it the old fashioned way…. I drew each frame out and synched them using pencil and paper on a light board. I know, so techie, right? I’ve found for cartooning there is nothing like the tried and true. It turns out more fluid and the artist ends up having much more control over the animation and spends less time fighting the interface of your animation program.
Here is a section of the walk cycle in sketch form. I put all of these (approximately 40 cells) into After Effects and tweaked in Photoshop to make it as smooth as possible.
I then scanned the drawings into Adobe Illustrator to ink and color the frames.
I also created the sound effects using Garageband and Adobe Audition. The chisel sound was the only toughie. I ended up using two variations of a clave sample and effects loop of a chisel breaking ice; blended them together in Audition and came out with a satisfactory chisel sound.
Here is the cartoon sample.
I believe this project took me around a month to complete while slipping it in between other projects. I’m not entirely sure, but the process is so fun and involved that I don’t even think about the time being spent. The overall end result is all that matters.
I love doing this sort of stuff and always invite the opportunity to do some animating. I hope you enjoyed watching as much as I enjoyed making.
Till next time…
David (Cali Dingo)