New Cartoon Finally in Progress

Well, it's been over 2 years since I completed Life, my last animated short, so I figured it's time to get back into again. I recently read Crafting a Cartoon by Joe Murray, creator of Rocko's Modern Life and Camp Lazlo and it's really inspired me to get back into cartooning. I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about cartoons, voice acting, TV networks or anyone who's just a fan of the shows.

I'm thinking this time if I'm going to invest my free time into making another cartoon I would like to do it right. Full backgrounds with texture, NTSC color pallete for future DVD transfer, special effects in After Effects and all done in thousands of keyframes. Might take me a couple years to complete, but that's fine I'm not doing this to make money or enter film festivals, it's purely a labor of love.

Right now the title I have the files saved under is "Vacation" but that's more than likely going to change especially since there's a famous and hilarious movie by the same title. Here's the first rough sketch I've done so far of the main character, who will probably change as well:



I'll keep posting updates on here as things progress.

Wacom Cintiq 12wx

Today I'm going to review the Wacom Cintiq 12wx graphic tablet I use to do photo editing and Flash illustrations. This tablet is my third Wacom tablet I've owned. I started my Wacom adventures with the Graphire, which is now called the Bamboo that I had purchased in 2005. Being a left-handed designer, drawing with a tablet instead of a mouse was a dramatic advantage, but the Graphire was too small and the drawing surface was too slick. This was the tablet I used to create After College: Episode 1. Then I upgraded to the Wacom Intuos 6x11, which I bought off of eBay. The drawing surface is much more natural and the size increase was a huge help. This was the tablet I used to create cartoons just as America 2027 and Life. In early 2008, I saw an ad for the Wacom 12wx and quickly ordered one because I always wanted a Cintiq, but couldn't afford the larger models that were only availabe at the time.

Drawing directly on the screen of the Cintiq is probably the second most natural feeling besides drawing on a piece of paper. The response is instantaneous, pen is comfortable and the on-screen colors are vibrant. And with just about all Wacom tablets, there are programmable buttons on the tablet itself and on the pen, which allow unlimited customization for each piece of software that you use. Pressure sensitivity is most helpful in photo-editing software such as Photoshop, but Adobe/Macromedia Flash actually has a special brush tool option that appears just for Wacom tablets, which utilizes the pressure sensitive options. The only drawback to the Cinitiq 12wx is the price tag, while although cheaper ($1000 USD) than its bigger brother ($2000 USD), is still a lot for the average enthusiast to shell out.

Overall, I would say if you're serious about graphic design, computer animation, 3D modeling, or photo editing and aren't ready to shell out $2000 for the 21" Cintiq 12UX, I would defintely recommend giving the 12wx a try. You'll be happy you did.


Created with the 12wx: