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Description
It's that time of year again! I'm still a part of CAB and so I got the honor of working on the intro for this year. As long as this event is still around, going strong, and (most importantly) raising money for a fantastic cause then I'll be around. There's so much to say, so I'll split it up into sections just to organize my thoughts better and make sure I don't miss anything.

What!? The Intro!?!

When we were first told we were working on the intro, it was very exciting! We will never be doing it again!* (Not true exactly, just saying that adapting to all the changes and new additions was a headache to be sure)

anime oh no

So, fun fact, an Anime bumper was one of the primary ideas for 2023's bumper. Back then I was DREADING that getting picked. Then we were told that this year's intro was gonna be 80s anime inspired, and I was scared. I am not an anime person. I have watched all of Kirby: Right Back at Ya, Seasons 1 & 2 plus some other episodes of Pokémon, and that's it. Not only that, but if you've seen my art then you can tell that my style is pretty far from Anime. Quick example: I don't use pressure sensitivity because I like all my lines to be uniform and consistent. Surely this won't cause problems later.

Designing the Chatty-a

I was tasked with animating Chatia's segment. She provided me with refs of Giovanna from Guilty Gear and Thundercats. Guilty Gear TERRIFIED me. It's a 3D game and I do not do 3D modelling, so either I learn to be amazing at it in a few months (no) or I animate nuanced 3D motion and camera work in 2D (also no). Therefore, Thundercats was my only option for animating, BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN I CAN'T USE GG! Chatia's outfit was based on a heavily simplified version of Giovanna's outfit combined with a bit of Chatia related emotes. I really like how it came out and it will probably be the design I use for her in the future. I was gonna give her a belt, but it didn't work with the untucked shirt.

Thundercats is going great!

I was intimidated, sure, but making the A-Roll (the basic non-animated pose shown in the top right) went very well! I found a ton of good references and Frankensteined them together into a chaotic giggling pose fitting of Chatia's personality. I finished the A-roll very quickly and had (what I believed to be) 2 months to power through a quick 30ish frame animation in the Thundercats style. I'm worried, sure, but as long as I put the work in, I should be able to make it work.

Thundercats is going horribly!

After weeks of flipping between "I can do this" and "I can't do this" I broke down crying at 1 am Yeah, I couldn't do it. Maybe if I knew I'd be working up through April then I could've pulled it off, but, at the time, my deadline was 1 1/2 months away. The issue was I was trying to put Chatia in the sword swinging section of the intro to the show. I had no clue how to replace the GIANT HULKING LION MAN with an average woman. Even with some blocking help I was lost. The ending was doable, but the first frames were near impossible for me. oh well.

Patience

After admitting defeat, the wonderful members of CAB supported me in pivoting to a new style and clip, but I had to wait a while for Chatia to provide me with new reference material. The panic wasn't nonexistent, but I was okayish. The main worry was how much time I'd have to animate the new clip. I was reassured throughout the process that I'd have all the support I needed, permission to ignore deadlines for the time being, and I could keep the A-Roll

Samurai Pizza Chats

I was a lot more picky with new references in order to finish on time and relatively stress free. When I saw the small cat blasting out of the gun house, I knew I could do that one! After a quick design reference (bottom right) I was ready to animate. That design ref is just a reference by the way. I put no thought into the pose and it's got no pressure sensitivity, so that's why I didn't replace the A-Roll with it. I animating using a process reminiscent of how animation used to be done. Every aspect was drawn individually in a standard art program and then dropped into an animation software to create the final product. I think that was the best way to go about it because it let me emulate the style better and I could do more elaborate stuff with the backgrounds. Hmm, I should start working on that.

The Pause
The Pause

Oh Heck Colo's Close

I got the last shot of the animation done before The Pause. When it was time to get back to work I had two "Backgrounds" to draw (quotes because they are the entire shot aside from some small aspects). The issue: I don't wanna be lazy. There were 3 ways I could've drawn the backgrounds: Line tool all the way (super easy, super lazy), Try to freehand the long, straight lines (countless frustrating round trips to undo city), or draw each line in tons of little strokes like a real pen and paper drawing (horrendously mind-numbing). I chose to numb my brain. For 2 weeks that was my process and it was agonizing, but very much doable and a nice thing to do with something else in the background. There were times when I honestly have to admit it was kinda fun. Designing the gun house was far more fun though.

Background on the Background

Lil' quick section to end this off. The design of the gun in the animation is based on crescent moon from Guilty Gear. I had to sneak in one final reference to show that I did my research. Also the lil face on top is based on the bestest boy, Arven. I guess on that topic, I can point out that the ThunderChat logo is based on Blue. Look, it's thunderCATs not thunderDOGs. It might not be the most fitting pet choice for Chatia, but it is for the source material. Good thing all that was scrapped so I didn't have to worry about that detail.

Mandated Resties

And with that I've hopefully said everything I wanted to say. I don't know why I really wanted to make a full retrospective on this year, but I did. Maybe because of the chaos, the amount of scrapped ideas and work, the process of adapting to a new and unfamiliar style, or just a way to stroke my ego. I can say definitively that I'm looking forward to next year. Last year I was dealing with something like Imposter Syndrome, but I don't worry about my place in CAB anymore. It's very nice

Also check this out twitter.com/SSM_Switch/status/… I don't do small animations and I wish I could find a way to get myself to.
and this (LINK PENDING) for another funny Chatia thingy.

Description
It's that time of year again! I'm still a part of CAB and so I got the honor of working on the intro for this year. As long as this event is still around, going strong, and (most importantly) raising money for a fantastic cause then I'll be around. There's so much to say, so I'll split it up into sections just to organize my thoughts better and make sure I don't miss anything.

What!? The Intro!?!

When we were first told we were working on the intro, it was very exciting! We will never be doing it again!* (Not true exactly, just saying that adapting to all the changes and new additions was a headache to be sure)

anime oh no

So, fun fact, an Anime bumper was one of the primary ideas for 2023's bumper. Back then I was DREADING that getting picked. Then we were told that this year's intro was gonna be 80s anime inspired, and I was scared. I am not an anime person. I have watched all of Kirby: Right Back at Ya, Seasons 1 & 2 plus some other episodes of Pokémon, and that's it. Not only that, but if you've seen my art then you can tell that my style is pretty far from Anime. Quick example: I don't use pressure sensitivity because I like all my lines to be uniform and consistent. Surely this won't cause problems later.

Designing the Chatty-a

I was tasked with animating Chatia's segment. She provided me with refs of Giovanna from Guilty Gear and Thundercats. Guilty Gear TERRIFIED me. It's a 3D game and I do not do 3D modelling, so either I learn to be amazing at it in a few months (no) or I animate nuanced 3D motion and camera work in 2D (also no). Therefore, Thundercats was my only option for animating, BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN I CAN'T USE GG! Chatia's outfit was based on a heavily simplified version of Giovanna's outfit combined with a bit of Chatia related emotes. I really like how it came out and it will probably be the design I use for her in the future. I was gonna give her a belt, but it didn't work with the untucked shirt.

Thundercats is going great!

I was intimidated, sure, but making the A-Roll (the basic non-animated pose shown in the top right) went very well! I found a ton of good references and Frankensteined them together into a chaotic giggling pose fitting of Chatia's personality. I finished the A-roll very quickly and had (what I believed to be) 2 months to power through a quick 30ish frame animation in the Thundercats style. I'm worried, sure, but as long as I put the work in, I should be able to make it work.

Thundercats is going horribly!

After weeks of flipping between "I can do this" and "I can't do this" I broke down crying at 1 am Yeah, I couldn't do it. Maybe if I knew I'd be working up through April then I could've pulled it off, but, at the time, my deadline was 1 1/2 months away. The issue was I was trying to put Chatia in the sword swinging section of the intro to the show. I had no clue how to replace the GIANT HULKING LION MAN with an average woman. Even with some blocking help I was lost. The ending was doable, but the first frames were near impossible for me. oh well.

Patience

After admitting defeat, the wonderful members of CAB supported me in pivoting to a new style and clip, but I had to wait a while for Chatia to provide me with new reference material. The panic wasn't nonexistent, but I was okayish. The main worry was how much time I'd have to animate the new clip. I was reassured throughout the process that I'd have all the support I needed, permission to ignore deadlines for the time being, and I could keep the A-Roll

Samurai Pizza Chats

I was a lot more picky with new references in order to finish on time and relatively stress free. When I saw the small cat blasting out of the gun house, I knew I could do that one! After a quick design reference (bottom right) I was ready to animate. That design ref is just a reference by the way. I put no thought into the pose and it's got no pressure sensitivity, so that's why I didn't replace the A-Roll with it. I animating using a process reminiscent of how animation used to be done. Every aspect was drawn individually in a standard art program and then dropped into an animation software to create the final product. I think that was the best way to go about it because it let me emulate the style better and I could do more elaborate stuff with the backgrounds. Hmm, I should start working on that.

The Pause
The Pause

Oh Heck Colo's Close

I got the last shot of the animation done before The Pause. When it was time to get back to work I had two "Backgrounds" to draw (quotes because they are the entire shot aside from some small aspects). The issue: I don't wanna be lazy. There were 3 ways I could've drawn the backgrounds: Line tool all the way (super easy, super lazy), Try to freehand the long, straight lines (countless frustrating round trips to undo city), or draw each line in tons of little strokes like a real pen and paper drawing (horrendously mind-numbing). I chose to numb my brain. For 2 weeks that was my process and it was agonizing, but very much doable and a nice thing to do with something else in the background. There were times when I honestly have to admit it was kinda fun. Designing the gun house was far more fun though.

Background on the Background

Lil' quick section to end this off. The design of the gun in the animation is based on crescent moon from Guilty Gear. I had to sneak in one final reference to show that I did my research. Also the lil face on top is based on the bestest boy, Arven. I guess on that topic, I can point out that the ThunderChat logo is based on Blue. Look, it's thunderCATs not thunderDOGs. It might not be the most fitting pet choice for Chatia, but it is for the source material. Good thing all that was scrapped so I didn't have to worry about that detail.

Mandated Resties

And with that I've hopefully said everything I wanted to say. I don't know why I really wanted to make a full retrospective on this year, but I did. Maybe because of the chaos, the amount of scrapped ideas and work, the process of adapting to a new and unfamiliar style, or just a way to stroke my ego. I can say definitively that I'm looking forward to next year. Last year I was dealing with something like Imposter Syndrome, but I don't worry about my place in CAB anymore. It's very nice

Also check this out twitter.com/SSM_Switch/status/… I don't do small animations and I wish I could find a way to get myself to.
and this (LINK PENDING) for another funny Chatia thingy.