Degree Project Process

So, I've just finished animating my first teensy-weensy clip for my DP. It's only a couple of seconds long, but I've got more frames painted and waiting to be shot. I thought I'd put up some videos to show my process, since it's kind of convoluted.

First I take my puppets and take a video in front of a white wall, of whatever action they're doing in that scene. Mostly it's talking, in this case it's eating. Then I take that footage, bring it into final cut, make it a multiply layer, and throw it over a drawn background I scan in, so that it looks something like this:




Then I export that new video to Flash, where I draw in guides for pupils, arms, legs, and mouths:




Then I export that video as an image sequence, print them out, and paint over the characters:




That's it... it's a lot of work, but since my storyline doesn't call for a lot of action-packed sequences, I can get away with a lot of cycling.