Tex Avery Goodies

I'm a huge fan of Tex Avery's MGM shorts. My favorite cartoon is "The Shooting of Dan Magoo." I thought I'd share some model sheets and layouts. Just give 'em a click for larger pics.

Scene Test (revised 3/30)

I've finised animating some more of this scene. I've still gotta finish that walk cycle. It's kinda boring without color so I'm going to really try and finish up and start inking and "painting" all of this. I threw in the music and sound FX to give me a better idea of how the scene will play. I'm pretty happy with the little parts that are fully animated, the end when Goob zips off the screen is nice and stretchy. As always any comments/critiques are appreciated. If anyone wants more Tex Avery layouts let me know and I'll scan some more from some books I have.

Scene Test

New Pencil Test Goodness (now with music)

I went back and corrected a couple of things. The arm speed was bothering me so I took out an inbetween and started the arm lifting a little later than in the original test. I used Photoshop to edit the files I already had scanned and just separated the arms from the original drawings and dropped them on later frames. It seems better to me. This time the test is a Flash file even though I'm not using Flash. I just imported the avi and published it in order to cut down on the file size. Just give the file second or two to load in it's entirety, I need to find a good free file hosting service. If your wondering, that wonderful music in that background is the beginning to a Yma Sumac song Taki Rari. Yma probably has the most incredible vocal range the world has ever seen, and the music backing her is great. Any critques would be welcome.

Pencil Test 2

Short Pencil Test

Here's a quick pencil test. I've noticed some things I'll change already, the arm movement seems a little slow to me and the wings won't be stationary. I'll post the finished version soon.

pencil test

Scrub Me Mamma

Once in a while I'm going to post some pics from different cartoons I like. Some of the best and funniest drawings in cartoons only last a frame or so. I'm gonna start by posting some screen grabs from a favorite cartoon of mine, Walter Lantz' Scrub Me Mamma With A Boogie Beat released in 1941. The song is great and the dancing in this cartoon is so well done. Unfortunately, the only copy I have is from one of those dollar DVDs but it's better than nothing. It's a shame cartoons like this get swept under the rug because of the racial stereotypes depicted in them. So many are so well done, like Goldilocks and the Three Jivin' Bears or Tin Pan Alley Cats. Bob Clampett's Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs, besides being a masterpiece, it also featured a black cast which was unheard of at the time. So before anyone gets offended at the images remember it's just a cartoon that should also be looked upon in the context of the time it was created.

Some Layouts

Just a couple of Goober layouts and unrelated sketches.

Angry Man

Here's a couple of shots from a quick scene. The scene itself is only a second long and the only thing animated is the man's mouth so it's not terribly exciting. I'm importing my drawings into Flipbook and from there I can sync up the dialouge. I find it to be an easy program to work with so far. I could use it to paint everything but I'll probably use Photoshop for that. Eventually I'll export each scene and then put it all together using Adobe Premiere.

Title Card Rough

Here's a rough of the title card. I'm going to attempt to paint this, that should be a learning experience.

Welcome to mediocrity!!

Welcome to my Blog! I'm hoping to document the production of what may end up being a very crappy amateur cartoon. This will be my first cartoon, but I'm hoping to use this blog as tool to keep me focused on finishing it. It's inpsired by a great cartoonist Nick Cross who's "Plog" has been documenting his lastest short film. With so many blogs out there I wasn't going to bother since I don't have the skills anywhere near some of the artists I've seen, but I thought maybe the fact that I'm an amateur would make it a little interesting. Or at the very least people would have someone they could tell "You suck." Hopefully, I'll get a lot of feedback that will help me to improve my drawing and animating skills (if I have any.)
I started working on this cartoon last summer. I haven't had much time too work on it in a while but I'm trying to get more motivated to get some more done. I've completed the storyboard and what I call an animatic. My stepson and I recorded the dialouge, and next I would like to try and move on to layout. I guess I should mention what the poor cartoon will be about. The main character is a kid named Goober Sleave (I don't know, I just like it) who is on his way to the comic book store and runs into a little trouble with some flowers and bees along the way. Hopefully there's a gag or too that will make people laugh. I'll start posting some of the storyboard soon. Thanks for looking!