The Gang's All Here!

[Anim8tor Cathy]

Wow - it must be about a year since I was visiting the old Mirage forum and met all you fine folks.
Glad to see you've found a new home over here!
Paul - I stopped by the Tulip site and watched the animations - BRILLIANT work. Please say Hello to Sandra too.
Hi to Sierra Rose, Slow Tiger, Klaus, good to see you all!

I finally published my children's book ( founded my own publishing company to do it) and am still working on animating my line drawings ( experiments without much success ) too many lines for video I think.

I never did buy the *other* software - but who knows? I may buy this one! Either way, I am happy to be in the company of great artists and animators.

Take Care,
Cathy

[Klaus Hoefs]

Hi Cathy, would you like to show some more of your children's book ?
Maybe a link ?

[Paul Fierlinger]

Paul - I stopped by the Tulip site and watched the animations - BRILLIANT work.
I never did buy the *other* software - but who knows? I may buy this one! Either way, I am happy to be in the company of great artists and animators.

Hello Cathy,
I have just 10 minutes to draw on Tulip, which means it'll be about this time next year in theaters -- funny how distribution works.
BTW, the "other" software is this software -- funny how development works.

[Anim8tor Cathy]

Hi Cathy, would you like to show some more of your children's book ?
Maybe a link ?

Yes Klaus, I am working on that right now. I should have a page up soon and will post the link here. For now - here is the cover illustration.



Thanks for asking!
Cathy

[idragosani]

Wow - it must be about a year since I was visiting the old Mirage forum and met all you fine folks.
Glad to see you've found a new home over here!
Paul - I stopped by the Tulip site and watched the animations - BRILLIANT work. Please say Hello to Sandra too.
Hi to Sierra Rose, Slow Tiger, Klaus, good to see you all!

I finally published my children's book ( founded my own publishing company to do it) and am still working on animating my line drawings ( experiments without much success ) too many lines for video I think.

I never did buy the *other* software - but who knows? I may buy this one! Either way, I am happy to be in the company of great artists and animators.

Hi there and welcome back! Yeah, there was some "drama" last week with Bauhaus, but we're all here now. I've just upgraded to TVPPro, it's great stuff (there's no question that Mirage was geting a little crusty with some things), so now I am motivated to do more work so I can justify the expense! The new Creation Pack looks quite tasty also, and I think I will be using TVP even more than I use Photoshop for general digital art (on top of using it for hand-drawn animation and stop-motion/compositing).

-- Brett

[idragosani]

Yes Klaus, I am working on that right now. I should have a page up soon and will post the link here. For now - here is the cover illustration.

The intricate detail on that cup is outstanding!

[Sierra Rose]

I love this sweet illustration! Great to hear from you. What is the name of your book?

I am finding TVPaint great to work with.

[spacecat]

what a beautiful illustration Cathy I love your mouse in the tea cup

Paul thats great !!! You have accomplished so much on your film

[ZigOtto]

I love this sweet illustration! Great to hear from you. What is the name of your book?

isn't it "Willow Mouse" ?

... I am finding TVPaint great to work with.

cool !

[Sierra Rose]

Oh yes, I see the title in your avatar. Duh.

[Anim8tor Cathy]

The intricate detail on that cup is outstanding!

Thanks for the kudo!
Yes - unfortunately my style as an illustrator is precisely my problem as an animator. All those tiny little lines turn into creepy-crawly swimming lines when there is movement of any kind applied to the image. So I need to start working on a new style of drawing - something loser and more open - if I am ever to hope of becoming an animator.

[Anim8tor Cathy]

I love this sweet illustration! Great to hear from you. What is the name of your book?

I am finding TVPaint great to work with.

Thanks Sierra! Good to see you too!
As mentioned, the name of the book is WillowMouse and it's for ages 3 - 8. My distributor got the description wrong at Amazon and now I'm having a devil of a time correcting things. As usual - I should have just gone and done the distribution deal myself, but then hindsight is always 20/20!

I hope you all will be posting some work here - I'd love to see what you're up to! I've been browsing the gallery and there are some amazing animations!

-Cathy

[Paul Fierlinger]

So I need to start working on a new style of drawing - something loser and more open - if I am ever to hope of becoming an animator.

If you are serious about this design your characters in motion; perhaps with some missing inbetweens but never just a single drawing. This way you will not be illustrating but designing for animation.

I suggest simple movements such as getting up from a chair and making a half turn. It makes you aware of weight, balancing the figure, seeing what happens to certain superfluous elements such as decorations, "funny" hair, too many buttons, too many details in the dress, period. If you keep drawing the character into a longer piece of action than getting up from a chair, all unnecessary parts will atrophy and get out of the way. It's dynamic designing.

[Anim8tor Cathy]

Yes that is exactly it, Paul!
I need to start seeing my drawings in motion as opposed to static, cross hatched images nailed down to one moment in time.
Simplify! Simplify! Simplify! and Move! Move! Move! This must be my new mantra!
But - boy it is hard giving-up the old ways. I've been working in fine-line pen and ink for so long my hand and eye just naturally go there.
Like the old saying goes - Practice is bitter but its fruits are sweet.
-Cathy

[Sierra Rose]

I have discovered that what Paul says is true. My characters have lost buttons, intricate hair styles, complicated shoes etc as I have gone along.

I want to post some stuff in the gallery but unfortunately my brand new computer got a glitch and is back in the hospital with all my work on it. I am trying to be very patient as I work on my internet computer meantime (one monitor).

It has really come home to me that illustration is not animation. Sometimes I am tempted to cross over to illustration because I want to add so much more to the characters. Then I watch the motion and fall in love with that all over again and the idea of illustration fades again for me.

But I do so admire more intricate drawing. It is like nourishment to look at it. I get lots of children's books from the library for my little 3 year old granddaughter and some of the drawings are just beautiful. Yours is right up there with the best I've seen, I think.