latest superhero cartoon

[anthillmob007]

Hi everyone...my mosquito Ghost cartoon series has had a name change and is now called The Mancunian....the first Mancunian cartoon is now up on you tube and ive had some big help with it from neeters_guy and jeff Holland ..the cartoon will go live in about ten minutes
https://youtu.be/b8r1fp95WKA

[neeters_guy]

It's great to see this finally done. Congrats to everyone involved.



For those interested, here's a thread discussion about the last episode
(almost a year ago! ): My New Superhero cartoon!



It was fun being part of this project and I learned a lot (like what a
Manc is ).

[anthillmob007]

Thanks again Neeters....Impact has never looked better (Neeters revamped her look and made all of her rigs!! ) Im having a week or two off before I start my next cartoon.

[lwaxana]

Congrats to you and the team on another great episode! Very impressed that you have made two relatively long episodes so quickly. I love the character designs and the banter between the characters. One thing that could help the audience get into the story more is to use more scene specific facial expressions. Maybe add some point animation on the eyes/mouth to really sell the character's mood/thoughts. Can't wait to see the next episode!

[anthillmob007]

Hi Lwaxana, thanks...and I agree about having more facial expressions, Im not that great at getting those in there but I will try harder with my next one ...
I think with each episode I learn something to make the next one better ..if you look at our first cartoon, the Werewolf episode, I cringe at how amateurish it looks now...ive even taken it down a couple of times because I feel embarrassed by it...
the biggest thing Ive learned is that you tube viewers bore very quicky...so if youve noticed there is now no intro scene showing just music, titles and the characters.....we just get on with the cartoon.
Of course Neeters help on this latest episode cant be exaggerated enough.
The next cartoon will be the first in my Cyborg gerbils series.....and then the cartoon after that will bring the return of The Mancunian and Impact.
...and in my SPARE TIME im learning Blender....lol.
Im having a couple of weeks free time before I start pre production on the Cyborg Gerbils....phew....

[strider2000]

Thanks for sharing this. I love the Marvelesk intro It's a fun story to watch. I personally appreciate the family friendly content. I'm looking forward to the next episode.

In terms of ideas to consider for next time, you might want to increase character movement speed so movements are a little snappier. Victor mentioned that in one of his webinars.

I can see a lot of the head turn actions. That's something that I'm personally interested in in my characters. Like me, I'm sure you realize the challenges ... so much time to set up and then off axis movement is a challenge. I may just create smaller head turns for subtle movement and then use switch layers when switching to different views. Still deciding, but it seems like you're thinking through the same things I am. That could relate to the question of movement. Snappier movement supports the switch layer approach better of course. Impact's head turns are really nice. (Great job on Impact, Neeters ) I did notice popping of the Mancunian's ears (I guess they're called ears ) and the shipmate as his head turns.

I definitely enjoy your stories and appreciate the work of you and your team. Lot's of fun!

[anthillmob007]

Thanks....I feel that neeters should be answering half the mail here as I feel a bit of a fraud thanking people for their comments when he was such a big part of this....
neeters also re-rigged the mancunian and the created the character and rigs of the gruff shipmate in dungarees.
The one scene that neeters animated is also very obvious ...as its the best one! ..the early scene, where impact is in her bedroom on the bed talking to her boyfriend on her mobile.
This really was a team effort Jeff Holland helped with the captains head turn and the scene where the monster burns a hole through the roof and drops through.
Jeremy jones sea animation shows up a number of times...thanks Jeremy.
the Voice actors were good enough to come back and I spent many hours bouncing ideas off my writer friend Brian before we settled on a script...you should see the amount of scripts hes done for our projects that may never get filmed.
For the next cartoon (cyborg gerbils) I think im back on my own animating.. unless the odd volunteer shows up...lol
The next Mancunian cartoon pits him against the artwork of painter l.s.lowery.

[anthillmob007]

ooh..as for more snappy movement and improving my turns etc ..I take it all on board....I suppose ill be spending more time in pre production with those pesky rigs.
I have taken down the werewolf cartoon....as it no longer fits in with the rest of the series.
Thanks for liking our Marvelesque intro ..but how many of you noticed the hanna barbera style title page? ...or that the Mancunian is in the Bruce timm style?

[strider2000]

how many of you noticed the hanna barbera style title page?

I noticed the title page and liked it, but didn't make the Hanna Barbera connection. That's just my lack of thinking, but I should have caught it, since I liked Space Ghost as a kid

[anthillmob007]

I love putting those things in ....the marvel intro had me laughing out loud as I was creating it...little fun things make me smile..
originally I had this idea to do a Gerry Anderson, captain scarlet end titles thing where the mancunian and impact are in ten painted images of them in different kinds of peril...But finding ten pro comic artists to do one each was impossible everyone I contacted was too busy for the commission..
i was lucky enough to have comic artists john Royle (danger girl ) and Steve yeowell (2000 ad ) as very good friends....so I opted for one page from each of them.. telling them to do what they liked with them and used the pencils/inks/colours to end the cartoon,

[strider2000]

so I opted for one page from each of them

Those pages are definitely beautiful artwork.

[anthillmob007]

we used a colourist even jim lee likes....jeremiah skipper....check out what hes done with a quick search of his name ...I got both pieces done within a week of asking him...reasonably priced too.
oops forgot to credit him in the toon!
the inker on johns art was jagdish kumar among other things ive seen his name on witchblade....forgot to credit him too...

[anthillmob007]

I do have a problem with the next Mancunian cartoon...hes facing the artwork of painter L S Lowry as ive already mentioned..but this involves Lowry's characters leaving their paining as walking menacingly from different views ( it wouldn't jpg characters...they would be created totally in anime studio) ...these characters are paper thin..and this is going to be a horror story...so far im at a bit of a loss how to make it look good....im thinking these characters will become his big nemesis ( bit like doctor who had his daleks)..if anyone has any ideas how to rig and walk cycle one of them ..im open to help....if not, doesn't matter Im really enjoying working on the series.

[lwaxana]

Sounds cool! This VFS short film might give some ideas for treatment of paper-like character design.

[anthillmob007]

ooh...I love the way his fingers curl...that's something that adds to the horror idea I had...brilliant! Thanks.