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ParallaxMLP
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"{insert tagline here}"
# Statistics
Favourites: 0; Deviations: 44; Watchers: 5749
Watching: 37; Pageviews: 222402; Comments Made: 1885; Friends: 37
# Comments
Comments: 561
Happy New Year!
Tips? I'd certainly be willing to share, but I don't really have any, heheh. I'm not sure if I'm doing things differently to others in the drawing department, though I'm quite sure I'm taking a detour when it comes to animation, as most use Flash and I can't wrap my head around that flippin' software.
My only tips would be to take loads of screenshots from the show of the characters you'd wish to draw/animate. Try not to flat-out trace, but instead use them as references and keep your stuff 100% scratch-drawn. For animating things, it might help to take several shots of an animation cycle so you can see which body parts go where and in what order, blah blah.
What exactly would you be looking for when you say 'tips', haha?
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Well, in terms of programs what do you use? Right now I'm using Inkscape to draw and figuring out how to use Synfig Studio to animate.
I guess one of the tips I'm looking for is how best to draw ponies so they'll be easy to animate. I was also wondering how you do the ponies' outlines, since I've been creating duplicates of the original shapes and darkening/widening them, but I imagine there's an easier way.
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Yeah, you have some good tips. I'd say that was very helpful. I'm glad you mentioned strokes, since I hadn't realized that Inkscape has tapering strokes until now. Now I have to try everything you said. The only thing I'm not understanding is the duplicate stroke covering the rough parts of the shadow, but I suppose I'd have a better idea if I tried it (assuming it works the same way in Inkscape).
One more thing that I can think ofโhow do you transition between different angles, like a head turning?
Thanks for your help so far!
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No problem! Head turning? That's a pain - thus far I've been avoiding it in animations, but I'm working on one right now which demands a couple of examples of head turning (either complete side-to-side or slight motions like shaking the head). It's not as daunting as walk cycles, at least (don't ask me about those flippin' things, haha).
Urm (forgive the following, it's very late here and I'm barely awake right now), my current approach is to rely less on individual frames and more on the animation software. So, for a head turning from looking left to looking right, I might use the animation software to warp the artwork (i.e. squish the mouth/nose layer along the horizontal axis) to give the impression of perspective change until the point where it becomes unbelievable to the eye. At this point you need to produce more artwork (in our example, the nose is now pointing too close to the 'camera' to be warpable without looking two-dimensional. We must now replace it with a new piece drawn from the current perspective) and, if possible, continue using the tools available to manipulate that. We're really talking about perhaps half a dozen frames for the point where the head goes from slightly-left to slightly-right, before we can slow things down again for the final part of the turn.
For eyes, things are a bit more complex, but it might help to mask shifts between perspectives with a blink animation, which will obfuscate any difficult-to-do transitions.
To see what I mean, take frame-by-frame screenshots of such an animation in the show. You should be able to see how the layers are squished, moved, rotated and stretched to give the impression of a smooth rotation, and see how fresh artwork is substituted on the few frames where the old artwork wouldn't have been appropriate (ie when the head is fully facing the camera).
Haha, this post was probably way less helpful than the last 
Regarding the stroke layers and shadows/highlights, it's a way to quickly make, say, a shadow look like it lines up perfectly with the stroke without actually having to carefully curve the shadow layer to precisely follow the stroke (because, if you didn't line it up perfectly, the shadow wouldn't perfectly match the edge. You might have 'bright' gaps between the shadow and the stroke where it doesn't cover the brighter layer beneath. You might have an uneven-looking stroke because the shadow layer creeps over it by accident.) You avoid all these problems by putting an additional, duplicate stroke layer above the shadow layer so it covers the rough shadow edge (allowing you to really quickly drop shadows in). I dunno, it depends on how you work really - I find this quicker than making shadow layers conform to existing strokes but if you're a wizard with vectors it's probably not a timesaver, haha.
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Ah, okay. Well, I use Illustrator as much as possible, because I like the way it works. For animation, I've either resorted to Photoshop for frame-by-frame stuff, or After Effects for things like Derpy and her lamp. AE and Illustrator work great together - you can import Illustrator art as footage for use in After Effects, and kinda hop between the two if you need to make changes to the artwork without ruining all the time and effort spent animating what was already there.
For animating, I tend to compile one complete frame (background, character(s), etc) as if I were doing a static image. Then I identify the elements that need to be separate (ie which need to move/be in front of something which will be moving) and cut them out into separate files. The layers for these must be organised by body-part, pretty much. So all leg-related layers in front-left, rear-left, blah blah layers. Mouth and nose in its own layer. Head in another, hair in a front, rear and tail layer. You get it! This is because I can then manipulate all these in After Effects, which only treats the uppermost layers as discreet objects (so if you had two characters, and their content were in sublayers, you wouldn't be able to modify those - you'd just get the two parent layers ie "character 1" and "character 2" which is useless to us!
To do the outlines, I'd apply a Stroke to the outside of the path which makes the shape. It takes seconds, practically a one-click job, really, though I'd also taper the ends of the Stroke so it ends in a nice point and the stroke width doesn't look too static (this is very easy to do in Illustrator). Others like to manually draw out the outlines as actual shapes but this is a nightmare if you want to make adjustments later on (and for animating, you will!).
I don't like to just apply the Stroke to the shape (say, the mouth/chin area) though, because sometimes I like to add shadows and whatnot, and as they have to be above that layer to be visible, it means a lot of time wasted trying to carefully make the new layer follow the contours of the stroke underneath (so it doesn't overlap). It's much quicker to hash in the new layer roughly, then go back to the shape (say, mouth/chin area), duplicate it, disable the Fill but leave the Stroke, and place that layer above the shadow layer. The Stroke then covers any inaccuracies on the shadow layer! Muahaha.
Uh... does any of that help at all?
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Replied in the wrong place...Anyway, it seems like the tapering strokes in Inkscape don't actually work how I thought they would, but I might be able to find a way around it. I might have to try out Illustrator.
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Just realized that I forgot to do thank you for the llama! She's doing well and is getting along nicely with all the other llamafolk.
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Hello, there! Just took a look through your gallery. Awesome stuff! That Derpy Lava Lamp animation is really hypnotic.
+1 watcher
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Thanks for the badge. :3 what ever it does xD
Super Llamas on the way xD
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1 month, 14,000 pageviews.
You should be proud
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Hey Veggie55!
I am a little :3
But that's what, pretty much an average week for you, amirite?
Man, and my profile page is so boring. I need to do something about that but there's too much awesome artwork floating about this place (who knew?) and it's distracting
By the way, how do you crank out so much excellent stuff in so short a timeframe?! What's your secret... pausing time? Help a brony out, haha!
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Shucks, you're embarrassing me ;d
I was sick the last two weekends, guess I just had a lot of free time :3
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Thanks for the llama friend
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Such few but amazing stuff here!
I have high expectations from you!
Could you tell me wich programs do you use for your animations? I'm really curious since I'm a begginger in that domain.^^
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So am I! Most use Flash, but I can't wrap my head around it, so I use After Effects, which ties in nicely with Illustrator as I can hop between the two to create, edit and animate artwork. Working on a new animation right now, as it happens! It's taking forever, haha.
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Gosh, I thought I had replied to that! Sorry! xD
I'm trying to get along with Flash too but I just can't get my lines as good as with SAI. x\
Wish SAI had an animation feature xD)
So now I'm with Photoshop... xP
Thanks a lot for answering me!^^
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are u as immensely surprised as i am to see you ten times more popular than i am in just a matter of weeks when ive been here eight months?
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Oh, and if you weren't informed on it, you were featured on Equestria Daily, so that's where your advertizement came from. Thanks again!
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Love your art and screensaver to the N'th degree. It's so inspirational, that I think I'l go make a DJ PON3 screensaver to match my theme. 
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I have not yet +watched you...
Hm... This needs to be fixed-INSTANTLY
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Indeed. This shall be remedied here too!
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holy shit dude its so fuckin adorable you should make a screensaver with Applebloom or fluttershy
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I really like this idea. Got a sequence for a Fluttershy one in my head already!
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awesome bro keep me posted on it
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in fact i want to know the progression on the fluttershy
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its not every day you find someone who gets this popular in a matter of weeks, ive been on here for three years and i haven't gotten nearly as many watchers as you have and you can add one more to the list.
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Thank you! I've been more than a little taken aback by the attention my scribblings have been getting. Little bit overwhelming, actually, as I tend to think of myself as rather introverted. Now my profile says people are watching me... (eek) and I have lots of questions and comments to answer!
I'm not complaining though
I gotta get out there though. I mean, I look at people's work and profiles all the time, I'm just a bit too timid to comment and favourite and explore and whatnot; this is a very social place it seems.
Overcoming my anxieties, haha. Thank you for stopping by, and thanks for the watch!
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as long as you contnue to unload your buldging sac of goodness upon our awaiting faces, i will stay your loyal watcher
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That was hilarious. I don't know if I should say 'sure' or not, haha. (oh gawd I should be packing whycantIstayoffthiswebsiteformorethanafewhours)
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just put a sticky note on saying "NO COMPUTER UNTIL 8"
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A helpful suggestion! Unfortunately, the sticky was not big enough to block the rest of the screen.
I need a new plan. Maybe I'll flip the breakers!
Yes, packing in the dark will help massively. >.<
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hammer to the monitor always works for me, a monkey wrench would do too.
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I haven't changed my screen saver in almost six months. You have made me finally change it. I love the Derpy Lava Lamp, it just makes you so happy when she gets happy. Thanks for making it, and I can't await to see your future projects!
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Welcome to dA! It seems you became pretty pupular with the Derpy Flash, haha. โฅ
So how has dA being to you?
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It's being epic, thanks!
I'm still learning what on Earth everything is/does. Apparently you can give people llamas or something. I'm not sure of the significance yet, but it sounds awesome. Haha.
I wasn't expecting that big a response to Derpy and her lamp either (hey, it's technically a draft/incomplete snippet), so the last 24 hours have been an absolute treat
Lots of friendly people around here; it's nice to be a part of it.
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You should've seen how it was when the llamas got out, they even traded points for them! But you got a super llama already!
Originality overcomes everything really!
I can't wait to see more things from you, tell me, how did you discover this place? xD
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Super llama? Awesome!
I've known about DA for years and years, and I would often get referred to an artist's profile for some incredible piece of work or another as time went by, so I was familiar with the overall concept.
Still, it's only recently I convinced myself to get an account when I had some ideas that I wanted to make reality and share. I haven't a clue what I'm doing really, just learning as I go.
I have a big backlog of comics, animations and whatnot that I want to crank out now. I hope they're original (insofar as they can be, seeing as they're almost invariably based on the world of MLP FiM for now so I guess that's technically fanart) as I do try to put my own little spin on things. I think, if they could entertain someone who has no idea what FiM is, then that would be a success. But we'll see!
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I bet you'll get an albino pretty quick.
Huh, I guess back then you weren't fond of your artwork until now? Well, you are pretty good actually and can't wait to see more animations and comic strips!
It almost seems you were here from a lot of time, some people here have an eternity and didn't get as much fame, originality helps a lot!
Well, you also came in a good time, since everybody here is into Ponies, but seeing your characters and such would be interesting as well, fanart is lovely but is very nice to see what people make with their own ideas!
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Your Derpy flash is AWESOME
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I must now put you under my watch!
For a potential future commission!
Hehehe!
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Thank you very much
Blimey, you have uploaded a lot of deviations. Looks like I'll be browsing for a while, haha!
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Harr, harr...
There's a lot to see, and some that don't!
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Thank you so much for making the Derpy Lava Lamp animation. I love it so much, I can't put it into words.
It's left me grinning like an idiot. It's so adorable!!!!
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Thanks for looking
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