Monday, December 21, 2009

SO, SO, SO Close

I am one step away from calling the Panda animation DONE. I started this piece a year and a half ago after being inspired by Jon J Muth's work. I've tirelessly chipped away at painting each frame level by level until this week, when I finish the final section and exported the movie with a bit of sound added to make it feel complete. The only additional task is to add some movement to the foreground branches. I wanted to add them in this time, just to show the overall composition.

Almost Complete ZEN PANDA from bj crawford on Vimeo.



The very first test I did of the project looked like THIS:



It's come along way since May 2008. I enjoyed combining animation and watercolor but I can't say that I'd do it again. It's very time consuming and only a fraction of the time was devoted to the character animation.

Again, thanks to the inspiring work of Jon J Muth and since this is more or less a holiday post here's the cover art from his lastest book "The Christmas Magic":

21 comments:

Sarah Satrun said...

looks great! nice work as usual! ;)

Catherine Satrun said...

Wow, that's really beautiful BJ!!

Chris O'Hara said...

This looks great,its cool to see the finished result and such a nice render!

Tom Sanders said...

thats amazing mate! well done. you animation is flawless, big inspiration

Lavalle Lee said...

excellent! looks great!

Daniel said...

I just finished working with watercolor for the first time. I can't imagine the patience you must have had for this. The animation is brilliant as usual BJ. Very inspiring, thanks for sharing. :)

David said...

Beautiful . A very charming piece.

That's amazing that you were able to paint the animation frame-by-frame like that in Photoshop. That must have been very time-consuming.

Not to be too much of a software app "evangelist" (which can be annoying I know ...) , but let me once again recommend that you try my fave animation app TVP Animation. It has some great watercolor brushes and generally speaking I think this kind of hand-painted look is easier to achieve in TVP.

Cassie said...

I loved this when you showed it in D4A2 and it's even more beautiful and inspiring in color!

JR said...

Absolutely beautiful. I really like the addition of the branches, too. The sound really adds to it as well.

mattanimation said...

Turned out really good, when does the movie come out? ;P

jriggity said...

love the whole timing of the piece!!

great stuff.

jriggity

Josh Taback said...

You are my hero!

gtka3 said...

Love it! a wonderfull work! love the soft movement of the panda in the roof :) like a ballet dancer in the wind! Merry Christmas!

Unknown said...

that's cute

Mike B said...

Beautiful animation. The timing is great and the drawings are really sweet. Can I ask what you're using for final clean up? Digicel Flipbook or some other software?

stakrw said...

This is v v v v v beautiful.. Congrats, all appreciations.

The Pirate's Bride said...

WOW, beautiful animation. I've been studying animation for 3 months only so it's really inspiring to see real professionals. Thanks for sharing this!

Nat

Armando said...

So good. That's some silky smooth animation!

Moxi said...

great work... i just keep looking at this for inspiration from time to time. Thanks for sharing it!

"TORI CAT" said...

HI BJ,
Hope you are well?
Sorry i haven't been in touch recently, been a busy year. Not much time for bloggin'!!
Its brilliant to see your panda nearly finished!!
It looks awesome!! You should be really happy.
I love the attention to detail and the volume, especially with the umbrella.... its stunning!!
Take care and speak to you soon,
All the best, love Tori.xx

mohan Udgiri said...

I think you have participated in 11second club.Its rely inspired me After watching your March 2009s entry in 11 Sec club. Thats y I also tried once.Your timing & acting sense is too good !