Playing around learning to make GIFs in Photoshop. First try was quick and messy, but I quite liked the result! Looking forward to doing more. 

And of course it would be a shiba inu. I'm mildly obsessed with those dogs XD

I was very excited to be contacted by Aaron Bartlett (Creative Concept) to do another animated sequence for "Bruni & Vergier Against the World"!

This time I was doing the animation alone, as Tom Paxton (who I collaborated with last time) had other commitments. However, I wasn't too daunted - using the experience from last time, I felt confident I could get it done in the 3 weeks given. 

After receiving the brief, I started as I usually do: dedicating a good chunk of time to gathering as much resource material as possible. This includes the riders, their specific kit, logos and poses. For the latter, I usually coerce my boyfriend to act out the poses for me to photograph, especially if I'm drawing guys. It's also a lot quicker than trying to trawl through photo stock for the right pose. Watching anime also helped (but I would do that anyway ...) 

The brief was nice and clear, so storyboards were done pretty quickly. I also didn't feel the need to take them further than the rough thumbnail stage (which of course I would have were I passing them forward to someone else to do the animating!) 

The character designs changed slightly since 2015, I believe for the better! The three riders look a bit more mature and detailed than in the first season intro. Still, the existing character designs were a useful starting point and saved me a lot of time. 

Slightly different to last time, there was a lot more emphasis on the kit and sponsors - 661 kneepads, Rock Shox suspension forks and the Specialized bike getting particular focus with each rider's segment. I had to make sure the different logos were added, and in some cases took a bit of artistic liberty in the placement to make sure they were visible (such as the "S-Works" logo on the bike)

Last year we did the animation using Adobe Photoshop, because it was the only program Tom and I both had already. This time around I was free to use Toon Boom, which I had recently upgraded to Harmony. It was easily a much faster and smoother experience than PS, which isn't really designed for animating in anyway. Like last time, I composited it in Adobe After Effects. I was able to re-use the backgrounds from season 1, which saved me a bit of time (as simple as they are). 

I haven't really gone into my process in great detail before, so I hopefully it was at least somewhat coherent and not too much of a ramble!