Most weekends I stream my current projects on Twitch. In December 2016 I conducted a couple of Q&A Toon Boom Harmony demonstrations, aimed at those Flash animators who wanted/tried to learn Toon Boom but never quite clicked. This stream covered almost all the basics, but there are still many features to see. One thing I ►►
My latest project is the Brackenwood Wildlife Documentary Series where I introduce Brackenwood wildlife in short documentary-style episodes with voice over narration. The first episode was Fatsack, the second episode under construction is Prowlies. Update Dec 11, 2018: The completed scene, now with creature animation and finishing touches. All the animation and FX are animated ►►
Here’s the first test scene for the next Brackenwood wildlife doc featuring prowlies. The animation was done entirely in Toon Boom Harmony. The top half is a background still from my UE4 river environment. The lower half is all hand-drawn 2D, including water FX, shadows, reflections and creature animation. Surface movement and underwater refraction was done ►►
Due to a severe clash of personalities and wildly divergent goals and priorities for Brackenwood, the working relationship deteriorated beyond repair and I made the decision to end the Dashkin project on Oct 24, 2018. At its heart, Brackenwood is the story of the last of his kind; a lone dashkin exploring an empty world. ►►
As you may know, Brackenwood is a 2D animated series created in vector animation software. I started making early Brackenwood in Flash (Adobe Animate) and now in Toon Boom Harmony. Like most cartoon-style 2D, characters are generally outlines filled with colour. The result is often called ‘cel-shaded’ effect. I’ve been super excited about the prospect of dynamic ►►
If you’re a member of the FX course or an otherwise regular castle visitor, you may have noticed some things have changed in the past few days. An ex-colleague has kindly taken some time aside from his work to help me move the site. As anyone knows, when you roll a huge old castle to a ►►
The Brackenwood Patreon continues to grow and real progress is being made on the Last of the Dashkin sequel. Here are two of the physical rewards I’ve been working on for the Brackenwood patrons. The video below is a short time lapse of the card ink process. I’m using metal Hunt nibs and black Parker Quink.
If you follow me on Newgrounds and social media, you might have seen that Brackenwood is making a return this year. After the cancellation of the Dashkin game and me being promoted at work, Bitey seemed to have no future. In years past, he was so real in my head that I could even have ►►
2009 In December 2009, I released The Last of the Dashkin and promised fans that it wouldn’t be another 3 years before the next Brackenwood story. 2010 In November 2010, I messaged Sean McGee to ask if he was interested in working with me on a Brackenwood game. My plan was that the ►►
I recently received an email from a young fella who said he was feeling out of sorts for a direction in life and he asked me about how I got to where I am today. In fact over the years in emails, conversations and interviews, I’ve answered this many times in different ways so I thought ►►
My book “Animate to Harmony” will teach you three Toon Boom programs in one book: Animate, Animate Pro and Harmony.
My Super Saiyan gif goes viral for the second time, declared by Josh Levin of Slate mag as “The greatest gif in the history of gifs”. Also, my book, coming in Sept 2014.
Whether you use Animate, Animate Pro or Harmony, my upcoming Toon Boom book will get you started. It’s called “Animate to Harmony: The Independent Animator’s Guide to Toon Boom”.
The release of Toon Boom Harmony 10.3 brings amazing new blur and turbulent noise effects.
Dashkin, Bob’s Burgers and Clear Vision 2
I did lots of things in 2012 and the 2013 schedule is crammed with new stuff. Here’s the last gasp before the apocalypse!
Ever get that thing where your finances don’t reflect how busy you are? Like somehow the money doesn’t seem to justify working your eyes to the bone? Yeah me too. Story of the independent professional in the 21st Century huh? It’s a good thing I love what I’m doing, for the most part. Here’s ►►
Dashkin was in “development hell” for almost a year. My own excitement and confidence in the game were dissipating. Sean couldn’t even look at it without feeling sick because it had grown larger and messier, far beyond what it was originally designed for, with many new features tacked on. The .fla was unstable, slow and ►►