Part 2 of my animation cel experiment

After 12 hours of painstaking painting cels front and back, and mixing different colors and lack of color ink (only brown ink), I finally managed to finish my experiment of a cel of my characters from the Questo's World webcomic. I had to paint the outline of Ms. Amor's hair and Candy's stripes on her sweater, as well as Candy's tail outline being black instead of pink, as there was no purple, pink and yellow ink.

Front:

Back:

Now, as I said in my previous post, I wanted to compare the look of the characters from cel to digital.

Now there's obviously always a differences between the look from cel and digital ink-and-paint. The colors are less vibrant and the outlines are thicker. I've been undecided of the size of the outlines of Questo's World, wanting to make thick and thin to give it an old cartoon look.

As I've said, if it's possible, I would want Questo's World to be cel-animated.

Doing my own animation cel

I finally got much of items I needed to do what I've been desired for quite a while; making my own animation cel. I've been thinking for a while: how would my characters look like in cel animation, as well as other animated shows that were initially digitally animated. 

I still wish this technique was still in use today, getting to nice feeling of that the animation done by human hands rather than technology, especially with the rise of A.I. supposedly taking over. 

Did the pencil sketch of the Questo's World characters; Questo, Mickey Houndfair, Ms. Amor and Candy Cottontail.

Partially finished inking of the characters

This is my first time doing something like this. It's, of course, very difficult when compared to digital ink-and-paint.

Obviously, the inking is pretty rough, but it'll be cleaned up once I do the painting.

Got me some:

*Speedball Ink Pen 

*Different color ink 

*Acrylic paint 

*Blank stencil sheets 

Next post will include the finalization of the cel, and likely compare the colors and overall look to digital ink-and-paint.

The ideal Looney Tunes shirt!

Was out the other day and saw this amazing shirt with, not only the Looney Tunes characters, but some of the LT characters in their designs that look like something out of the classic shorts rather than the more streamlined look that's commonly seen in a good deal of the merchandise for many years. 

The Bugs, Daffy and Tweety in this shirt definitely look like they came straight out of a Bob Clampett model sheet, and especially that Sylvester, while that Taz is faithfully drawn like how his creator, the unappreciated Robert McKimson, designed him. Merchandise like these only come once in a blue moon, folks.

Bugs Bunny Tex Avery model sheet of 1940's A Wild Hare

Daffy Duck Bob Clampett model sheet

Robert McKimson Taz model sheet

Screenshot of Sylvester from 1946's Kitty Korned by Bob Clampett

Screenshot of Tweety from 1944's Birdy and The Beast by Bob Clampett

Bob Clampett Tweety model sheet

Now compared that to their more modern, simpler appearances:

For any fan of the original Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons or just animation in general, this is shirt that I would highly recommend. It feels like it was done by someone who truly understood what fans wanted and took the time to look around the Warner Bros. department or whatever to find the sheets of the original directors. It feels like for how famous the Looney Tunes are, that the directors from Chuck Jones to Friz Freleng, never get as much acknowledgement as the characters they helped created, and so I'm glad that, when seeing this shirt, I can see that someone probably must've either looked at the original cartoons or just dug out the original model sheets. Maybe I'm just being too obsessives over just a shirt with cartoon characters on it, but things have to be worth SOMETHING at the very least, is my general philosophy.

If anyone from WB is reading this, please note that THIS is what WE as fans want. 

Mickey Houndfair Jr. makes a milkshake

 

Mickey Houndfair Jr. at work, making milkshakes the old-fashioned way. 

This animation I did a year ago and posted on vimeo.com/miketheanimator. Follow for more animation

"Quackology"

 https://vimeo.com/514354708

Directed By: Mike Lewis

Written By: Mike Lewis

Animated By: Mike Lewis

Release date: February 19th, 2021

My second short film/project with some more experimental art style and characteristics of an idea of I have for a full-length series. This one took almost a whole year to complete unlike the previous one I released, which took a whole month.

This film "Quackology", features one of my other original creations I had around for quite along time. The Quackston Brothers, a dysfunctional pair of duck brothers sharing a house together, living on their own and are each neurotic and unhappy in their own way, but Lucky, the peacemaker, try to do everything he can to keep his family together. They seems to have more complex characterization in comparison to my other main character, though, in spite of the slightly dark and sadder story of this one particular short, much of the brothers' conflicting personalities can be comedic as well as sad.

Part of the concept I've had for a series I can't wait to make in the future, "
Quackology" follows the psychologically-driven concept of my original show idea.

Anyways, meet The Quackston Brothers, the youngest Lucky (blue), the middle child Plucky (gray/blue) and the eldest bro, Tuffy (green).

Junior's Inquistive Questo

 

My official short film and character presentation I've been doing for 6 weeks, based on my oldest and first ever creation. Junior B. Shorthair (now named Questo), who I’ve created at age 12. When you watch this film, you will be able to see and understand my show (Animalistic) style of satire and Junior’s character. Most of what happens in the film comes from my own experience as a naive but somewhat observant and hopelessly curious youth surrounded in a world of stuck-up, self-righteous, cynical, shallow, close-minded, slow-witted and hypocritical adults. The short you’re seeing are abstract resembles on how we get different answers in return, in an artistic and satirical way, and also emphasizes on critical thinking and intellectual curiosity. As I grew older, I became interested in having animation and cartoons being viewed and reminded as an art form, and for people to treat them as such. This short I also created as a satirical social commentary, and a visual social satire, lampooning the “close-minded, shallow, opinionated prescriptive of the society and the adult world” and how children are being raised under the system of education, society, technology and consumerism, but through it’s satire carries a moral, which is something I want to do with most episodes focusing on Junior. Inspiration for the short’s style comes from Alex Lovy’s Norman Normal, Chuck Jones’s Now Hear This, Pixar short films and UPA. There’s no sound for the cartoon yet and I hope to get film festival and/or network executives attention. I have more pilots on the way. This is my first time animating with the Toon Boom Harmony Advanced that I’ve been getting use to for the past 4 months, though I couldn’t figure out how to zoom the camera in the way I wanted to. Also, unfortunately, the quality of the short isn’t the way it is so there might be some distortion. There we’re some deleted scenes in the short where one of the question mark doors contains a computer and another one containing a barrel toxic waste. Anyway, hope you enjoy.