[ANIMATION] HNT_02

Ho ho. Back at it with another bug. I'm in my bug era. I'm thinking about changing my dusty old goblin avatar to a slick new cockroach. You guys feeling Horney?? Get it? Because that's sort of how her name is spelled.

Sorry sorry, I know I have other things I've promised to do, namely that other Frankie view, which I'll be finishing next. Pinky promise. But, I just wanted to test something. The first Hornet animation I did, I was able to do in a handful of days. Krita tells me that it took 17 hours total. But, that's editorial hours, meaning strictly stylus to screen. I don't think it counts all the time spent just staring at it and looking for faults. Still though, that's pretty damn short. For reference, Nemona last week (I think it was last week) took forty hours, editorially. So, what gives? Why bug take less time? I wanted to see if it was some weird manic fluke, so I did this. Sure enough, it took less time. Fucking fourteen hours. This is the shortest time it's taken me to animate one of these cursed things, beating that old Shy Gal animation by an hour (Took me fifteen to do that one). But why? Okay, I have some theories. Let's list them out, like good scientists.

1. Neither of these clowns have faces, and I get tripped up on faces.

2. Neither of these clowns have hair, and I get tripped up on that too.

3. No hands, either.

4. In general, they are far more abstract, and that frees me up mentally.

If we look at that old Shy Gal, and I'd really rather not but let's do it anyways:

God, so old. And stiff. Maybe I'll redo her. But, behold! She fits the same bill. No face, not really. Super simple hair. Super simple hands. And, in general, way more abstract. 

So... what all does this mean? It means, I could, if I find a simple character, like all these bozos, I could make an animation in a handful of days. Which has led me to come up with an idea: Emergency Rapid Animations. Or, ERA, since I'm in my bug era now. Something I've really wanted to do, and something I've been told by a lot of people, is to make one of these fuckers a week. But life happens, and lineart happens, and finishing these in a timely manner has just been kind of really not something I've been able to do. Until now.

Here's my plan: I will go forward with working on the big ol' honker animations, like Nemona of last week, and Frankie of whenever I last did her, and just get as much done as possible. However, if it looks like I won't be able to finish before the week is over, I'll pump the brakes and make one of these little animations. The characters will probably be stylized, simplified, abstract, et cetera et cetera, but at least it will be something. So, y'all get some content, I don't feel guilty about taking forever, there's less pressure, so on and so forth. And I can finally be one of those sexy "once a week" fuckers. Like TwistedGrim. I think he's weekly. Ooh, TwistedGrim, please unblock me. I promise I won't send you more pictures of my feet.

Anyways, we'll see how that works out for me. I think a system like that will really make me feel better about things. I feel pretty awful when it takes me ages to get one of these done. Testing is complete, and we can now return to our regularly scheduled programming. Next up for Hornet, is her getting pregnant and laying eggs in the Knight, just like real wasps. Nah, I'm kidding. I don't really want to do her again. Though, I might stitch the two together, do something like that. At some point. Frankie next.

- KYDE