Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Ormie the Pig


Excellent animation with a simple story:   Ormie the Pig

Sorry I haven't posted anything in a while!  Life got in the way.   But I promise to try harder!  I really want to learn how to make great animations like Ormie ... Well, maybe that's too much to expect.  But would, at least, like to make something cute and funny!  ;-)


Saturday, February 19, 2011

Introducing Anime Studio

Whether you're a digital enthusiast, a newcomer to animation, or if you want to create art for work or fun, Anime Studio provides what you need to create your own animations faster than anything else available!

Anime Studio Debut, the fun, quick and affordable 2D animation software solution, includes everything aspiring artists and hobbyists need to create and share quality cartoons, movies, anime and cut out animations from start to finish. Anime Studio simplifies the animation process, empowering artists to design their projects faster and easier than ever before.

Draw & Create:  Make your own characters and objects with intuitive vector drawing tools or use the pre-made vector-based toon characters.   Import your own illustrations or digital camera images, and turn your photographs into animated movies.

Animate & Publish: Just point-and-click to create a skeleton structure that is easily animated.  Often referred to as "bones", this unique feature eliminates re-drawing to create movement.   With Anime Studio Debut you can easily add sound and special effects to your 2D animation too.

The following video introduces the features of Anime Studio Debut.   We'll have some how-to tutorials for this program in future posts.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

How to Draw this Vector EggToon Bunny using Paint Shop Pro v.7


This tutorial was written for Paint Shop Pro version 7
Tutorial is offered here free of charge for personal use only!
Please read Terms of Use page
©ArizonaKate.com 2006-2011, All rights reserved

Note:  Users of PSP 8 and newer,
click here for updated Honey Bunny tutorial.

~ Honey Bunny ~
Beginner Level Tutorial
PSP 7

The EggToon tutorials are a series of Paint Shop Pro cartoon drawing tutorials written especially for those just beginning to learn about the vector tools but I hope more advanced users will enjoy the toons also. 

If you're not familiar with vector tools, please review the series of posts explaining the tools and how to make the "egg" Preset Shape before starting this EggToon character tutorial.

Color settings for this tut:

Select black for stroke color and any 'bunny' color of your choice for fill.
Pick a pastel, a bright color, a realistic color...doesn't matter...this is a cartoon!!
I'll be using color #F0C5A2.

Remember, in PSP 7, you must always use the Object Selector [OS] to select a vector object for editing.

Open new image 300x300 or 400x400. We'll use a large canvas, but don't make bunny so large it fills canvas!  We'll  need  plenty of working room

Create with a white background layer. Click the 'new layer' button on the layer dialog box and add a 'new vector layer'. All vector drawing will be done on this layer.

MAKE A SET OF SHAPES                                       

First thing we'll do is make all the Preset Shapes needed for Honey Bunny and then edit each one by one.

Select Preset Shapes tool and select the egg shape. ( (go here for step-by-step to create egg preset shape if you haven't created one already) )

Line width 1, style solid, retain style UNchecked, antialias CHECKED, vector CHECKED, colors as described above.

Draw an egg that is about 85x120 pixels in center of canvas.
Look in lower right section of PSP frame to see size of object being created or turn on rulers (View>Rulers)

Select ellipse shape and draw 3 ellipses, any size (same settings, same colors). Position them off to one side...anywhere on your canvas....they will become the ears, arms and legs later on.

Friday, January 14, 2011

How to Draw this Vector EggToon Bunny using Paint Shop Pro v.8 or newer

This tutorial was written for Paint Shop Photo Pro X2 (v.12)
but vector tools in versions PSP 8 and all other newer are very similar.
Tutorial is offered here free of charge for personal use only!
Please read Terms of Use (see menu)
©ArizonaKate.com 2006-2011, All rights reserved

~ Honey Bunny ~
Beginner Level Tutorial


Note:  Users of PSP 7 click here 
for another version of Honey Bunny tutorial

The EggToon tutorials are a series of Paint Shop Pro cartoon drawing tutorials written especially for those just beginning to learn about the vector tools but I hope more advanced users will enjoy the toons also. 

If you're not familiar with vector tools, please review the series of posts explaining the tools and how to make the "egg" Preset Shape before starting this EggToon character tutorial.

Color settings for this tut:

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Create this Animated Dancing Bear using Animation Shop


This tutorial was written for Animation Shop v.3
Tutorial is offered here free of charge for personal use only.
©Copyright ArizonaKate.com 1999-2011, All rights reserved.
You're welcome to link to this site or use a single image and brief description to link back to any post. 
Republishing posts in their entirety is prohibited without permission.... please read Terms of Use.

With this tutorial you'll learn a quick and easy way to animate some clip art to look like it's doing a little happy dance. This is about the easiest type of animation to make and a great place for beginners to start!   All you need is Animation Shop and clip art that is posed correctly to create the 'dance' effect.

Saturday, January 8, 2011

How Animations are Made; a Short Video


In this short film titled "Animando", we watch Brazilian artist Marcos Magalhães bring an animated figure to life on the drawing board.  Using different materials and techniques, he manipulates his character to walk, jump and interact with his surroundings. 

This whimsical film demonstrates a variety of animation techniques using the same character....some hand drawn, some not.    The first example is a frame-by-frame hand drawn animation.   This is the type of animation we'll be creating using Animation Shop.  First we'll create some vector-drawn toons (in PSP) and then we'll create the different frames (layers) needed to make this type of animation.

Friday, January 7, 2011

Easy EggToon Mouse, Vector Tutorial


This tutorial was written for Paint Shop Pro v.7
(update for newer versions coming soon!)
Tutorial is offered here free of charge for personal use only!
©ArizonaKate.com 2001-2011, All rights reserved

If you are new to using vectors and haven't reviewed the beginner basics, please do so now by clicking the Paint Shop Pro and Node Editing PAGES in the menu.   We'll be using an egg Preset Shape for all EggToon tutorials.   A tutorial is provided for creating Custom Preset Shapes in the event you do not have the egg shape.


This Easy Mouse tutorial was originally written in 2001 and is probably one of the easiest toons to draw with vector tools.   A great beginners project!   


Color settings for this tut: Select black for stroke color and any mouse color of your choice for fill. Pick a pastel, a bright color, a realistic color...doesn't matter...this is a cartoon!! I'll be using #BBA5AD, a lavender gray....for no particular reason! *G*    Both Texture boxes should be set to null.Ø


Remember, in Paint Shop Pro 7, to select any vector object for editing you must use the Object Selector.