Working on…A Cowboy Animation

Howdy = How+Do+You+Do

The purpose of this post (other than to reach the blog-post quota for my 2018 resolution) is to inform my followers on what the heck I’m up to. It will contain a project summary, some new techniques, and my thoughts on steady work philosophies.

This is a project I am, once again, both excited and nervous about, which I am starting to accept is a good thing. Please read on.

Premise

In this fifth installment, we follow Gildedguy as he attempts to carry out a simple chore in the streets of his local hometown (temporarily named “Aegis Town”) whilst being haunted by visions of a green-eyed cowboy. What seems like an innocent stroll turns into a series of increasingly dangerous hallucinations that attempt to possess our hero.

In short: “Will Gildedguy successfully bring home some flowers?”

Who knows! Find out next time on Gildedguy Stories!

Obviously, there are some themes I want to explore in this animation, the chief one (if the green-eyed thing didn’t tip you off) being envy . I’ve written a lot about jealousy and envy, and thought about why such a devious feeling exists. The topic greatly interests me:

• How do we deal with envy? Even when we are prosperous?
• Can it be good? Is there a healthy envy/jealousy?
• Does everyone feel this way? How often? Most of the time, half, or what?
• Why can we be secure in life, yet still feel “behind”?

Although the production of this animation will attempt to answer these questions, the final animation itself is not meant to push a particular solution. I haven’t settled 100% on the ending, as I am still mixing and weighing out the different ideas of the premise. But I hope the story itself will offer an accurate expression of envy and ambition, with a satisfying resolution to boot.

Development

I’ve been working on Story #5 since the release of Falcomaster3000 Episode 1, which was a video game project. So no more coding, illustration, directing, optimizing, or SCRIPT WRITING. Just pure animation. Just lines and colors. And boy does it feel good to be back.

Unlike that game’s development, I can clearly envision the animation’s creation. I’ve done this many times before, so I can see the “road-map”. It’s still a long road (it’s 2D animation, it’s gonna take awhile) but there are many routes. I’m just chugging along, avoiding pitfalls and taking shortcuts.

Fun Detours

I am taking my normal shortcuts (stuff like auto-tweening, asset reuse, and loose line-work), but I’m also taking some creative detours, for the sake of discovery and improvement.

Three-Tone Shading

Nearly all of my previous works used two tones for shading (base + highlight), but I’m slapping on a shadow tone to see how much better it looks. It doubles the shading workload, but if I stay mindful of the key-frame count, it shouldn’t be too bad.

Blender3D Backgrounds

Since this animation takes place in a city with multiple building and interior shots, I’m closing my eyes and diving into the third dimension. And frankly…it ain’t too bad. After a while, modelling forms in Blender becomes very intuitive. I’ve already learned all the basics needed for animating and zooming through a 3D scene. I’ve even learned how to dress up the 3D models with textures.

Extensive Hatching

In my continued effort to create something immersive and detailed, I’ve adopted a hatch-heavy line style. I’ve grown fond of the extra texture it gives off. It’s gritty (like wood grain), yet feels like a story-book. Played back, it looks like a moving illustration.

Steady Work

As I mentioned above, this project is sailing a lot smoother than the ones before.

Between the balance of easy and difficult work, I am erring on the side of easy and it’s resulting in steady progress. I’m finding out that a steady workflow fits my personality a lot better than say, an inspiration-based workflow.

You see, after grinding my butt off drawing my earlier animations, I developed a rather hearty, strong art habit. I was disciplined, and able to animate for long stretches of time consistently. Although this was productive, it felt slow and I wanted more flexibility in my life.

Go-With-Flow

So I transitioned toward a “work when I feel like it” attitude towards art. The idea was that if I listened to my intuition, and only worked when conditions felt right, the art session would be full of flow. As I’ve written before, flow is that blissful state when performing a perfectly challenging task. It usually results in art that is superb in quality and authenticity.

Hypothetically, this inspiration-based workflow would induce more flow states. More flow means more “enjoyment” and less “work”. And then, hypothetically, I’d become an eager flow-chasing beaver when it came to my daily art! Perfect!

That hypothesis did not turn out well. To this day, that mistake has severely damaged my motivation levels. I thought that I always “loved art”. No matter what would happen, I would find ample time to create.

But over time, my primary activity got prioritized by my ever-so-reliable “love”. Turns out, I “love” playing Fortnite, browsing Reddit, and planning art, more than actually creating art.

That core shift in attitude from “Do my work” to “Work when I feel like it” changed everything. What used to be a fulfilling vocation, reverted into a mere hobby to make me happy. But I was not happy, nor fulfilled. I just avoided working on the project, falling behind schedule. And as I procrastinated, I got increasingly anxious. I eventually put in the sweat to reach my goal, but after playing catch-up for months, it was hardly enjoyable.

Just-Go

It’s almost as if, for me, that happy, fun, “flow-y” work, is not what makes art fulfilling or enticing. These are supposed to be good things. “Art for art’s sake”. “Creating just for the fun of creating”. “Love the process”. But chasing these things enabled slothful and gluttonous habits to take over. It’s so bizarre.

Only the sobering catharsis of project completion set me free from that “bliss above all” attitude, something I still have to unlearn.

The new mantra of “keep showing up” suits me better. My duty is to do my work, not to have fun. It sounds myopic and dysfunctional, but it’s working for me.

When will the animation come out?

Current estimate: March June 2019.

I’m recruiting outside help for the inking process, so maybe we’ll get it done even sooner.

The animation is a little over a third done, and it’s looking purdy good.

I should probably put out a trailer or something :thinking:

Music

I’m using a new genre this time: American country music!

I listened to “Jesse James” by Clay Walker a couple years ago and I figured it’d be the perfect “I want ____” song for Gildedguy. Because Gildedguy is just a medieval knight persona, it would be suitably peculiar for him to appear as a glitz-ed up cowboy.

The song itself is also about dark desires, with the core choral line: “Sometimes I wanna be Jesse James”.

Thank You

This concludes my final blog-post for 2018. I look forward to writing even more for 2019.

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If you want more updates on how this project is faring and behind-the-scenes techniques, please take a look at my Patreon page.