Fun_TheFirstStarISee

A lot of Coverage Draft-related drawings lately...but we're building to it. Anyway, I kept imagining this scene when listening to "For Me This is Heaven" by Jimmy Eat World, upon discovering their older songs recently.

Actually, speaking of which, isn't this the more appropriate Jimmy Eat World song today? Yes, looking at the calendar, but as for the drawing, no. I love how "For Me" has a sort of senior-explaining-to-junior vibe, that's precisely how Fred and Vicky's relationship is...she has to sort of break stuff to him, explain stuff to him, watch out for him. But at the same time, she tries not to let him in too much; it's a bit of a one-way street. She's his boss, after all.

Anyway, I imagine Vicky and Fred both kinda go into an exhausted, utterly spent numb-state after an event ends, and they're sorta aimlessly sauntering home to the "real world" after determining every possible ounce of work has finished. Fred is just kinda bummed the action is over, but for Vicky, there's that mild-but-growing post-gig depression immediately creeping over her that she always has to scramble to mask.

Events ending just hits Vicky harder, but again, looking out for Fred (and ultimately/mostly herself insomuch as not to kindle his suspicion she's only human), she doesn't admit how hollowing it is for her to step away. Fred just assumes his workaholic boss is just feeling a little tired or maybe is similarly bummed another action-packed event has come to a close. She must have some last minute details to wrap, so he's loyally, patiently waiting for the final word.

So tonight, they're strolling along and prolonging the night, yet not really accomplishing anything in particular. Vicky still keeps from outriht dismissing him from duty, not out of fondness for him per se, but just so she doesn't have to deal with the finality of calling it a day--of having to face the inactivity of missionlessness, the silence of solitude. There's nothing for her outside of work.

Not normal,

Reuxben

Fun_IfOnlyYouCouldSee

I made a GIF, like those emoriffic opening/ending themes from my childhood animus. The song I was thinking of for this was Jimmy Eat World's "Drugs or Me (Styrofoam Remix)," which is just emo enough to feel accurate to the mood, and just techno-y enough to feel animutastic.

It's supposed to look like an ending theme credits screen at first glance, but upon closer inspection, it's mainly nonsense on the cusp of meaning, to feel like those wacked-out dictionary vomits you see sometimes in JP stuff. They think English looks cool the same way we think kanji look cool, so like us, they just plop rando text wherever.

I was transferring over some art to prep for Tokyo Comic-Con, when I came across this Shinjuku study sketch (which I just found out is near where I always used to play FNM!) and thought it'd look cool animating the lights. Then I came across this figure and thought it would be neat if I foregrounded her and made it all look like an ending theme.

This took 34 frames with the PS animation tool, each of which I made by arranging the elements and CTRL+Shift+ALT+E merging all visible layers per "cel." I started by wiggling the background hand-camera style, as I wanted that to be the main focus, and used that as my animation base. I then recreated each of those frames with the added "dressing" elements on top--traffic lights, credits, and figure work--and merged those into my then invisibled base frames. A little tedious and more ball-jugglingly than technically difficult, but still a satisfying experience.

This left layer panel above shows some of what's in the right panel's "cels" group, including notes on when to cue certain effects as I went on my second pass incorporating the dress elements. Again, it was a lot of juggling to keep track of, but nothing actually difficult. Not pictured, but I also used the color-coding option on the layers to tell me when to change the lights. All these little notes were essential to keeping it mainly a matter of tedium than difficulty. Limited animation like this makes me feel excited to try something a little more complex, which just means more juggling, but once you have the elements you want to use and knowledge of the effect you want to create, it's just lots of clicking and arrow-button pushing.

Not normal,

Reuxben