Curse

Ravenhawk · Feb 11, 2011, 05:35 AM // 05:35

Wow, those are really neat! Drelias' mesmer turned out really great. I love the fact that her shoulder moves too and the sparkly necklace. I cant see the spots that you were talking about though. It looks perfectly fine with me

Whoa, You're planning to make one of Ran? I am excited XD

omens · Feb 11, 2011, 06:17 AM // 06:17

I agree with raven, i think its a case of "you are always your own harshest critic"

Charlie Dayman · Feb 11, 2011, 07:34 AM // 07:34

Nice work with the animations, Thistle. Yeah, .gifs always have the tendency to cause quality loss on images with lots of color. As far as I know, Illustrator would be a good program to create .gifs like yours since it's a vector based program.

Eastern Magik · Feb 11, 2011, 06:05 PM // 18:05

awwwwwwww, that chibi is super cute :33333333

Aeronwen · Feb 11, 2011, 07:48 PM // 19:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thistle Xandra

I'll probably make one of Cassia and Ran next (seperate!) unless either of you (Pery and Raven) mind

Yeah they mind! - pick someone else instead *nudge*

hehe

I love the Drelias one - not sure why you are doubtful about it, the shoulder tilt is just perfect.

Thistle Xandra · Feb 11, 2011, 09:59 PM // 21:59

Thanks Raven, Omen, Charlie, Magik, Aero

!

Charlie, thanks for the tip! I checked illustrator out on the adobe page (holy crap they got a lot of stuff... I thought they only had Photoshop CS and Elements, but there were like 20 different versions on the page D: ), but it's too pricy for me T_T Maybe one day on a splurge ...

Hmm... that's so weird about Drelias' mesmer :/ When I was playing the GIF file in windows directly, there are spots that show up around the eyes, but I don't see them at all now D: I have to go check the file again later to see if I was just opening the wrong one or something :O

OK... so this is one that I made of Ran that ended up being a HUGE pain in the butt to do D:<

I posted the rant on its dA description, but basically, drawing and making the frames was a piece of cake... trying to animate it without weird artifacts and image quality loss was another story

AND this time I'm certain there were weird lines and dots appearing on the gif since I opened it up like a bazillion times trying different ways to get rid of it! XD

This will probably be one of the last ones I do for a while, because I got so frustrated with it in the end, but Aero, if you want one I'll be happy to make you one when I get the next urge to make one :P BTW, are you Aero on GW2? Thanks for the comment on my guardian if that's you, too!

frostkisses · Feb 11, 2011, 11:03 PM // 23:03

Defiantely my fave one so far!
So cute Thistle <3
I think you should open a gif commission!

Ravenhawk · Feb 12, 2011, 01:42 AM // 01:42

I love this Thistle. Thanks so much! haha yeah, I can imagine him being like that while waiting for Mina. XD So cute! At first I was wondering how you're gonna animate him and I didn't even think of this. This is awesome. <3<3<3

Thistle Xandra · Feb 12, 2011, 07:32 AM // 07:32

Thanks Frost

Lol, I totally can't see myself just doing GIF commissions, considering how I'm constantly moving to new things like an ADHD puppy loaded up on caffeine XD

Lol Raven! I'm glad you like it! I decided on this animation, because of that comment you made that Ran wouldn't be the kind of guy wanting so much attention! So I figure that he disproves of the animation and let's it be known!

Oh, and I'm totally bummed, because I just realized that the artifacts that are in my latest 2 GIFS that I thought I fixed are only in my window partition (Windows 7) but not on my macOS (Snow Leopard). Does anyone else see the dots around Drelias' mesmer's eyes or the lines going vertically on Ran?

Charlie Dayman · Feb 12, 2011, 07:41 PM // 19:41

Yeah, Adobe programs cost a pretty penny. Though I'd say they're worth it if you know what program would best suit what you're doing.

If you're starting to get into doing animations, maybe look into Macromedia Flash 8. It's easier to do animations in that in comparison to making dozens of files in PS and exporting them as a .gif.

Not sure if it's freeware though.

Thistle Xandra · Feb 13, 2011, 04:13 AM // 04:13

Thanks for the advice, Charlie

I checked it out, but it looks like it's about as expensive as the other Adobe programs D: I hadn't considered Flash before though. Isn't that what you used for your Iron animation? Is it easy to learn?

This will probably be the last animated GIF I do for a while

I think I got the animation bug out of my system for now XD Now I need to think LANDSCAPES!

Aeronwen · Feb 13, 2011, 10:35 AM // 10:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thistle Xandra

but Aero, if you want one I'll be happy to make you one when I get the next urge to make one :P BTW, are you Aero on GW2? Thanks for the comment on my guardian if that's you, too!

Awesome, and yes I am.

I am having trouble making the time to keep up with both forums, and I am too new to DA to work out how to use that too. With all the art you guys make I find it hard to believe you get time to sleep!

I love the Ran one, really made me smile

Perynne · Feb 14, 2011, 06:06 AM // 06:06

Wow, your animations are so cute! At first I thought they were done in Flash, but then I looked more carefully and saw that it didn't look too much like vector animation. Very, very nice, Ran is looking like his usual cute self and Vader looks rather... less intimidating than he usually does. But in a good way!

Flash is easy for basic animation, but if you want to branch out and make something more intricate it can take a little longer to learn everything. For example, interactive animation with Flash requires that you learn to program with Action Script (although the program makes it easier for you with an extensive command library). Also, using Movie Clips and tweens might be strange if you haven't done any animation outside of frame-by-frame with Photoshop but learning their use doesn't take too long.
It's definitely a good program to learn if you want to do more animation.

I use it for work, so I can help out with some things if you decide to try it out.

Charlie Dayman · Feb 14, 2011, 06:09 AM // 06:09

Eagh, I didn't know Macro costed that much... I used Flash for the Halloween picture, but used Adobe After Effects for the animated Iron piece. AE is fairly advanced since it's intended more for special effects and video editing.

I'd recommend Flash since you're doing short frame by frame animations rather than full-blown effects.

Ravenhawk · Feb 14, 2011, 01:21 PM // 13:21

Love the vader one. lol my guildmate sent me this last night and I think that animated chibi of yours goes well with it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6L8b1...1&feature=fvwp

Thistle Xandra · Feb 14, 2011, 04:44 PM // 16:44

Thanks, Aero, and I know what you mean! There's so much stuff I want to do in my free time so I end up rotating so I can get some sleep

That's why I do a bunch of sudden art pieces in one go and then nothing for a bit. Same thing with GW, gardening, writing, shopping (always trouble), photography, house rearranging (this always throws hubby off), and reading XD

Thanks Pery and Charlie for the added tip on Flash! I probably won't do anything more advanced than the basic animations I'm doing now, so I'll hold off on buying anything until I'm ready to do more advanced stuff like this kitten creator http://fav.me/d2ot0p6 that I thought was too cute!

I've got some animation ideas for Cassia and Aerowen that I think you'll (Pery/Aero) both like

I promised my hubby a yoda one to go along with vader XD so I'll probably revisit animation once I finish up some anatomy pieces for Raven's workshop

rofl, Raven, that link is awesome... The 'you shouldn't have gotten sliced in half part' in yoda speak made my hubby's morning :P

Drelias Melaku · Feb 15, 2011, 11:58 PM // 23:58

Aww! I was looking at the first few thinking, "they're so cute! I want to snuggle Kirara~"
Andandand... THANK YOU. SO MUCH.
I know I'm slow to reply lately (busy in RL + wireless constantly screwing up, sorry. D: ), but it doesn't mean I'm any less grateful. I looove it. It fits Drelias rather well.

She's definitely cocky. xD
Thank you. <3

EDIT: I got so excited about Drelias' gif that I didn't realize there was another page. Vader gif is awesome. xD

Thistle Xandra · Feb 16, 2011, 05:00 AM // 05:00

lol, drelias <3 glad you like it! no worries, i figured you were busy IRL :P Besides, I have a bad habit anyway of not PMing people when I'm done D: I think Omens' B/W was the only one I did

Hmmm, now I'm thinking I should have kept Ran a surprise and shouldn't have told Pery and Aero I'm planning on making them one XD This is why I fail at keeping secrets D:

Drelias Melaku · Feb 22, 2011, 09:38 PM // 21:38

Yeah, trying to get a house, and helping my parents' get their house emptied out before they move is very time consuming. ^^;
Aww, but it adds anticipation! I love your avatar, by the way.

Thistle Xandra · Feb 23, 2011, 04:26 AM // 04:26

Ooh, you are busy! I thought you got a house last year for some reason. Maybe that's when you started looking? It took us 6 months of us looking for a house until we finally found the one we liked. At first we were super excited when we started looking, but at the end it was like... 'just find a house already'!! And boy, moving out is never fun D: Good luck!

Thanks about the avatar

I think I finally found one that I like! I also just realized I never posted my final version of Rika on here D: I gave her a different haircut

Now I'm torn between doing an Akan or Nix revamp next (and actually finish writing the story).