Homestuck Anime?!

[Arsenicum]

It's a good thing you asked about being a musician, as they aren't really going to have auditions. As a matter of fact, it'll be more like an interview. You tell us that you want to be a part of it, we'll ask you a couple of questions, you answer, we decide. We'll tell people when we're ready for that.

As for the Concept Artists...There was a mix-up in that. I'd like to not really go into details, but we're opening up auditions again!
So, there's that.

Storyboarders are done (I think), though. They will will probably be updated today.

Also, I speak Japanese if you guys ever need help with that ^.^

Maybe

[EnigmaticTart]

It's a good thing you asked about being a musician... You tell us that you want to be a part of it...

I want to be part of it

[Arsenicum]

I'll get back to you on that.

[Petite.Kleptomania]

Do you guys have the list of concept artists and storyboarders? Because neither of them are listed in the OP
Is it because there arent any people in the CA team..? o__o;;

Honestly we haven't gotten ANY concept artist auditions in the email, otherwise Arlar would have looked over them by now and approved or disapproved them.

We're still trying to put the storyboard team together because we didn't exactly get a truckload of auditions for that, either, so...

If you still have story boarding or concept artist auditions, please send them our way. It would be really great.

[dotHacker]

Oh. I was reading over the OP again, and I realized that I can probably help with Concept Art, and being an Artist and an Animator. (Just thought I'd throw that out there.)

EDIT: Also, for all three categories, do you want hard cell shading or soft cell shading?

[Arsenicum]

Hard cell shading works better for anime.

[dotHacker]

Alright, sounds good.
Also, do you have a PesterChum or Skype? So I don't have to spam this thread with questions if I have any.

[Arsenicum]

Whitechapelgaming is my Skype.

[Petite.Kleptomania]

Alright, everyone. Just a heads up. On Monday we are opening Animation auditions! Obviously these aren't going to be closed immediately afterward, because we are aware that these are not going to be as easy as some of the other auditions.

The criteria we will be looking for this time are... A walk cycle! That's it. Give us a lovely little walk cycle. Everything else about said animation is up to you!

Don't steal someone else's walk cycle, make sure it's all your own work, etc.

This time, however, it would be lovely if you could notify us in advance if you're going to try out. Shoot us an email or a Tumblr ask if you're planning on auditioning so we have a good basis on how many people are interested.

[Arsenicum]

Animation auditions are officially open.

Only a couple more auditions to go before we can start full development!

[Thedude3445]

Yay! I can't wait to get to do stuff :0

[axkmint]

Yo. Apparently you don't have one yet so I'm auditioning for concept artist, I think.
Here's something I whipped up (it's messy, but I think the main idea's down):

show spoiler

hide spoiler

Its more or less my first time coming up with concept designs, so sorry if its horrible.

*Edited: stuffed ridiculously large image into a spoiler tag as requested.

[trulyElse]

Yo. Apparently you don't have one yet so I'm auditioning for concept artist, I think.
Here's something I whipped up (it's messy, but I think the main idea's down):

show spoiler

hide spoiler

Its more or less my first time coming up with concept designs, so sorry if its horrible.

For a picture that large, it's common decency to put it in a spoiler.

Good job with it, though. I like it.

I kinda have a problem with the trolls having blood-colored eyes, though. Namely, Karkat.

[Thedude3445]

haha I love the touch with Dave and his shirt being permanently slightly up.

[Arsenicum]

Overall, those are some pretty cool designs. It needs a bit of angling work, but then again, being a designer isn't about being able to draw perfectly, it's about coming up with concepts to use, and drawing the direction that we take in art for our project as a whole.

I think these have the right anime/cartoon balance, in that regard.

[frozenMeatpopsicle]

Hi. This is NOT an application for animation, nor a statement of interest(I've got enough on my plate with my own project as it is). I don't know if any of the project leads have experience in animation, so I'll give some advice for anyone listening(I'm assuming you want a good to high-ish level of quality here, not janky Flash animation. Ignore otherwise):

- For starters, I think something a bit more than a walk cycle should be the requirements for auditions. Yes a walk cycle can be pretty vague and lots can be done with it, but may I suggest something more action oriented? Maybe add a little lip syncing into the mix. Give a set scene, no more than a 5 second clip or so, having a Homestuck character act to a spoken line(grab it from anywhere, Homestuck related or otherwise) and/or perform something actiony; like an attack or something. It'll be a far better judge of the skill of an animator. Some of my Homestrife stuff or even this could be used as examples(but don't make them animate something that is already animated. People can cheat via rotoscoping). It doesn't even need to be fully inked and colored; relatively rough pencils can more than get the feel across.
- For the animation itself, If you really want an anime feel you'll have to create the animation at 24fps using 3's as a base for animation. That's how the japanese animate and is a significant part of what makes anime feel like anime. It has absolutely nothing to do with the art style. It's ALL in the animation itself.
- If an animator applies that doesn't understand what singles, doubles/2's, 3's, easing, keys/keyframes/extremes or breakdowns are, don't accept them to begin with(unless they are a prodigy that understands and makes great animation without being taught terms and such).
- You don't need a team of ONLY good/great animators. Good animators can be lead animators that put down keys/keyframes/extremes and breakdowns, then have a collection of weaker animators to do the inbetweens. Then of course you can get a separate group of people to do the inking, and even another to do the coloring.
- There's an animation guide I made a while ago here. Just the 3 links near the bottom. It's incomplete, but it still might be useful to some people. I can finish it off if you guys want to use it, it just has one section left.

Anyway, I think that's all the advice I can think of right now. Feel free to ignore me completely if you want, I won't take offense. I'm just putting some advice out there. This is an ambitious project after all, and I imagine you want it to go relatively well.

[Arsenicum]

Cool, man. Thanks for the advice. A lot of the points you highlighted in this note were things I already planned on doing, and a lot of the points were also things that made me reconsider what I planned on doing (most notably the audition).

You are pretty much spot-on in the fact that a walk cycle might not be the best audition to see an animator's talent, style, and detail, but our options at the current moment are limited by other factors. We'll have to think of a way to get around these limitations if we want to try something different (which I'm sure we can do, it's not terribly difficult). The most important thing we are looking for in an animation is timing (another way to say it would be a good distribution of frames and movement), which is another subject of your post. It's not explicitly the fact that we want 24 FPS, 3 base, hard cell shading, etc. in our project, but the timing is pretty important. The walk cycle audition can show if a person has what we are looking for, in it's most basic form.

The way we're breaking up the animators is also pretty much exactly what you described. We don't expect everyone's auditions to be perfect, but we do expect ambition, determination, and a willingness to learn (at least, that's what we want).

I actually made a flowchart of how everyone is going to work together. The process, the management, the design, and all of the little things. I'll probably post that in this thread if anyone is interested enough.

But, again, your advice was extremely helpful. It did provide a great sense of clarity. Which is seriously something I personally needed to have if I want this project to hold strong.

A good grip.
A good flow.
And a sound collaboration effort.

That's pretty much all it will take to have this project succeed.
It'll just take a lot of it.

[frozenMeatpopsicle]

Yea, that's cool. I know you never explicitly stated you'll be using those specs, I was just making some assumptions going by the name and goal of the project. I was just putting it out there that if you want more of the anime feel, 24fps on mostly 3s is a big part of capturing that. The other big part is the motion and timing itself, which is actually kinda hard to capture if you don't study it carefully or are trained in it. Either way, it sounds like you have a solid plan and at least some experience in animation, so that all sounds good.

Apart from that previous advice, I can at least offer my services as a consultant if you would like. If not, I wish you luck with the project regardless.

[Arsenicum]

Thanks for the help, for sure. I'm glad to see a lot of people want this project to succeed.

[OrangeAipom]

What do non-anime cartoons use?

[frozenMeatpopsicle]

Western animators are trained to animate at 24/25fps on 2s, ie. around 12 different drawings for 1 second of animation. Japanese animators are trained on 3s, ie. around 8 drawings for 1 second of animation. The reason is all about cutting costs. They're all about the shortcuts. Other tricks they use is using a lot of long holds/pauses, and not doing true lipsyncing(they actually animate first and add the voices later, hence the flapping mouth loops). That's why they produce so much content in so little time

I say "around" that amount of drawings per second because both sides will use longer holds for pauses, or drop down to as little as 1s for specific motions. Fast ones. Like a run, or a particularly fast punch for instance. 2s and 3s are just what each respective side uses by default. ie. unless they need otherwise.

[OrangeAipom]

So why isn't it called 12 fps or 8 fps?

[frozenMeatpopsicle]

Because film and TV run at 24/25fps. Running on 2s/3s halves/thirds the work needed and it gives animators the wiggle room to do single frames if they need to, in order to make things looks smoother/faster.

You also need to take into account things like panning backgrounds and camera movements, which would look awful at 12/8fps.

[dotHacker]

Alright, everyone. Just a heads up. On Monday we are opening Animation auditions! Obviously these aren't going to be closed immediately afterward, because we are aware that these are not going to be as easy as some of the other auditions.

The criteria we will be looking for this time are... A walk cycle! That's it. Give us a lovely little walk cycle. Everything else about said animation is up to you!

Don't steal someone else's walk cycle, make sure it's all your own work, etc.

This time, however, it would be lovely if you could notify us in advance if you're going to try out. Shoot us an email or a Tumblr ask if you're planning on auditioning so we have a good basis on how many people are interested.

So, I'm very very sad to say, (and pretty damn pissed too) that I was GOING to submit an animation audition, but my tablet broke. ;n;
So, I can't. Fuuuuck.

[Arsenicum]

That's unfortunate. And right after the auditions started, too...

I can imagine you aren't pleased, but I wish you luck in getting a new tablet, eventually.