I haven't checked out my list of favourite animation links in awhile and when I shared a list of them with fellow animators at work recently I realised that there's a new podcast up at Splinedoctors that's been there since January 6! It's an
interview of Mark Walsh who currently directs and animates at Pixar. I love filling my ears with inspiring and informative animation related podcasts!
This past week
GDC rolled into town. I animate at a video game company in San Francisco so there is no way to completely escape the 5 day rapture of lectures, video games and parties. I heard about lots of cool lectures and game related news and products that friends and co-workers experienced. I'll have to wait to experience the
Oculus or the Ouya for myself. I met up with a friend from college (
Jay Edry!) who was in town for the conference. We talked shop and ended up at the
Destructoid (an independent video game focused blog based in San Francisco) party on Friday night at Sip Bar and Lounge. While there I met
Dom, a game designer who brought his new card came; Without Question that I had the chance to play.
I did get to borrow an Expo pass for an hour on Wednesday. I jogged off to GDC and beelined right for the Wacom booth to try out the new
13" Cintiq, available in early April. (Price $999.99) It felt great and I was pleased at how much information could compactly fit onto the smallish screen. So I tried that out... then I tried out the 22" Cintiq... then the 13" again. The I handed over my credit card and bought a 22" Cintiq. Which felt crazy and scary, but I figured that if I'm finally going to go ahead and get a Cintiq, I should just go for it. I don't want to have a smaller one at home and in a month regret not having just invested in the larger version. While the 13" Cintiq felt like a fantastic quality product, I don't want to feel claustrophobic while I animate and paint. I've felt such a pressure to "go digital" with my short film that it's directed my path of attack quite strongly of late. I really want to finish my film! And I think that doing a good chunk of the work digitally is going to help me get there faster.
So now I have a cintiq at home! I sure wish that the pressure sensitivity would work in
Toonboom though. I've not been able to get that sorted out. Hopefully Toonboom's support team helps me out soon enough.
No pressure sensitivity!? D: Whaaaa? That sucks! I hope you can figure that out otherwise you should just go back to paper! (But seriously, there HAS to be a way. Toon Boom Storyboard Pro is pressure sensitive on my Cintiq so there must be an option.)
ReplyDeleteAlso, in case you never used their storyboarding software, it's the best creative computer program I have EVER used. Seriously, it's a godsend. Next time you want to do a board, try out their trial version to see what I mean.
Wacom sent me an email back and I will have to use their advice when I get home! Fingers crossed. They seem pretty helpful which is great. Actually, I think I may just animate another scene or two on paper. You can't fully recreate that experience digitally no matter how many fancy tools you have :)
ReplyDeleteI believe you about Toonboom's storyboard software! I watched a demo on Toonboom Storyboard and my mind was blown. I don't have any boarding to do anytime soon but the next time I do I will be running over to Toonbooms website.