HarveyRothman

popeye reanimate scribbles

A layout and some doodles to figure out a look for Bluto. Everyone in the Discord's telling me I can't not include the shot of Popeye, but I can't really be arsed. Maybe I'll cut to him for like 8 frames.

misc western drawings

In keeping with the previous topic, doodles related to a dated genre I have no personal attachment to: the western! But the premise has gradually been saturated by things I do have an attachment to, so it all works out in the end. I have no idea of a plot for this, so no idea if this will ever become anything.

foxglove and the parander

Been reading my grandmother's bestiary book lately, and it drives me nuts how much more imaginative medieval fact was than modern day fantasy writing. Anyway as soon as I read about the deer-like creature from Ethiopia that, when frightened, can turn into a nearby plant or object to hide itself, that's a cartoon right there! Also there's some more related doodles.

It got me thinking about how we will reject something novel, if it doesn't fit modern logic and reason (or...

copyright unfree library

Spent a lot of yesterday and this morning chopping and saving micro-samples from things like Paul Whiteman, Sonoton records (mostly this one) and couple Newgrounds animations. And of course whenever I throw them all together in a project to see how well they work, it comes out a sloppy, noisy, Oizo-ish mess.

I find YTPMV very inspiring ...

keep it up 2022

My sister had a nice idea for a melody to this old tune (and a bunch of other old tunes) so we bashed out a bunch while she stayed over for a week. The mix still needs a little work, but yay glad to have this tune going somewhere.

moRE music

Here's a bunch of tunes stuck together since I don't want to spam. "Some are good, some are bad, some are just OK."

casio jungle tune

Early bits and pieces for a friend's cartoon bashed together.

daft deer joke

I have enough of these now that I should probably arrange them into some kind of story. Or maybe just animate whichever one I feel like first, and wrap things around that organically.

stupid beat

I wanted this to sound stupider, which I'm not sure if that means more effort or less.

gouache scanned, doodle and soldering iron

Scanned those first gouache experiments. I'm thinking of painting a same drawing over and over, so I can't get too attached to doing any one painting "justice"; I just want to get good at painting and mixing before trying anything that would be upsetting if it ends up a mess. No undo!!!

Then a random faux-layout drawing of a cowboy and his steed. Although I'm not as invested in the idea of a western cartoon now, I like the idea of swapping out horses for llamas; swapping out the feral h...

some doodles, some ink, some gouache

A bit of Sally Cruikshank madness, and some grimy high-contrast polish cartoons inspired some visual ideas (of course, no actual scenes or plots though). For little "shot panels" it's nice to go in with ink to really delineate the boundaries and negative space of the scene, rather than come back to a bunch of loose wavering pencil lines.

Also finally got out the gouaches I bought nearly a year ago. I'm always scared I'll just be wasting good paint, but you have to waste a lot of paint b...

out of tune

This one was bashed out in about an hour, and now I'd much rather work on this except I have no more ideas.

Also a visual style (although nothing crazy) came to me in a half-sleep state, so I'll have to try that out if Natron will cooperate (unlikely).

platypus plaza

EDIT 01/03/22: did that middle bit now, and couple other bits and bobs, so I'd like to call this 98.3% finished now. There'll always be a couple niggles towards putting things together in an album, but I'm just going to keep notes for now and take a break from this music making deluge.

26/02/22

Not quite finished; the middle completely peters out since I haven't really got a good idea for a breakdown just yet. Also the mix gets a little wonky at points.

Been working on this ...

space conga

A bunch of old experiments/recordings I don't know what to do with, so I bunched them together into a electro-housey mess.

Doing a lot of quick electronic stuff lately because I'm improving my DAW set up so I can get effects/sounds/windows up quicker, so I'm just doing really quick experimental jobbies to test out whether my tweaks have sped up music making.

impulse response'd x0xb0x

Very Mr. Oizo inspired.

Funnily enough the 303 clone does make a good "actual" bassline synth. Sticking it through a guitar cab simulation (with some other effects) sounds pretty heavy. Although it's been layered with other sounds so it kind of loses its bass guitariness.

(Now I'm really falling behind other work; need to stop mucking about with music for the time being)

da studio

Not sure if I've posted pictures of this particular incarnation of my workplace yet. This is about as tidy as it gets. The big rectangles are my sorry excuse for acoustic treatment (which is better than nothing) but I can't space them correctly from the walls or hang them from  the ceiling like they should be without drilling holes. The animation desk looks particularly clean due to neglect. I really ought to get animating on that thing again!

rhodes runner

Started another tune but had to stop for all the things I should've been doing (and also immediately after finishing another song I needed to give my ears a break).

baa boo haa hoo finished

At least 99% done; ears knackered after 2 days straight finishing this off. Think a couple spots certain frequencies stack up and get bit harsh or boxy, but the song is certainly done.

I feel this should compliment Kaleidoscopic Bubbly quite well. Maybe this and that should be the album's bookends.

This song was fairly easy to do 'cause I laid all the groundwork and recorded the main parts in a day. Then couple months later, with all the new ideas in my head, bash out the...

sound design experiments

I hate naming sound effects. It takes longer than the actual recording session, and I never know what meaningful names such abstract sounds could possibly suggest.

Was watching some Manga Sekai Mukashibanashi (or rather, "looking at" since no subtitles and mostly just skipping through for screenshotting bits) and I do really like those simple synthy bloops and bleeps they use for prods and blinks etc. For instance for a deer gracefully leaping, because the movement was so unnatural (she...

daft n farty

Another really quick rough tune. It's a test drive of a drum library I made out of a rediscovered 2009 recording of "oneshots" while I had a full kit (that's some foresight!). This was before I cared about clipping, acoustics, and fidelity in general; so of course now it sounds kind of cool and lo-fi because I wouldn't do such a thing now. The lesson is to archive even rubbish stuff 'cause you never know when you'll change your mind about something.

dick diss

Since I was involved a little with the last PRIMBO "exqs" album, I thought I'd have fun producing a beat, nicking the rap at the end of track 8 (no prizes for guessing who that track is about). 

https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/1078092

deer coloured in

Still not totally sure on these colours, 'cause I really like winter light but whenever I try to translate that into something cartoony, it comes across as drab. Not sure how to make fuzzy warm coloured characters look radiant yet cold. It's weird "finishing" doodles by colouring them "fully" since that can clash with the simplistic, flat, loose lines. 

Also by making a piece look finished, one may assume everything in the drawing is a conscious decision, rather than the stream of ...

llama coloured in

Another one of those doodles coloured in. Funnily enough I think I like the one without any detail colours more. Makes me think of a 1970's pamphlet or book cover.

coloured in wolf

This one doodle stood out to me, so I figured I'd colour it to get back into the swing of Clip Studio Paint-ing. New Year's resolution will be to get an album done, dabble in traditional art stuff more (bought a bunch of gouache last year, not touched them), and make a start on a cartoon AAAA.

Alt. version with Win 98/XP Paint inspired colours because it was leaning into that territory anyway. Couldn't bring myself to stick 100% to the eyesore default colours though.

xmas doodles 2021

I spent a lot of the time at my family's doodling. And also developing a vocoder and "chaotic" upwards compressor with Dad. Was nice seeing the dogs too, although bit noisy. I slept right through New Years not even knowing it was New Year's Eve, oops.

Between animating for work and absent-minded doodlings, I ought to find time to actively improve my draughtsmanship since I've been letting it stagnate over time. 'Cause I'm lucid enough to recognise the repetition between these drawings. ...

pendulum style drums

a decade after everyone got sick of them "just for the lols"

SQ80 into Dad's "Chaos Comp" (recently put in a 19" rack after a couple decades of being a pile of PCB and wires) for horrible bass and noises.

(Some doodles done during Xmas break coming shortly; just need to sort them out)

Baa boo baa hoo

Learning guitar by just mucking about with it as a good friend suggested months after I last gave up 'cause I was following books and getting frustrated. It's much more satisfying just making shapes with fingers and mucking about.

Little update: got laid off from Pencilmation after the YouTube algorithm kneecapped them, so it's kind of weird having "time" but now I haven't really got an idea on how to make the most of that. I really really want to finish this Foxglove storyboar...

return of the midi stack piano sound

I've been going through old projects where I come up with a nice sound and then making track templates out of them, so if I need a thumpy house beat, or bass, or weather channel piano sound stat before I forget an idea, now I can. Of course the danger with making your own presets is like with any other preset, and that is making the arrangement suit the sound, rather than the sound suit the arrangement, but I tend to muck about with a sound after recording something anyway.

I a...

kooky nuts 90% finished

I just want to do some panning/stereo stuff, and de-muddying the bass a tad, but beside that I'm happy with how this song wraps things up. Gawd, the last time I attempted Breakcore kicks and glitchy breaks was probably about 8 years ago or so. Listening to a bit of Ruby My Dear provoked that inappropriate diversion.

New stuff at 3:30 onwards.

sound effects 2020-21

Sorry about lack of stuff the past weeks.  It's just been a very busy time, and I'm well and truly burnt out.

Alternating between animation work, writing my own stuff, and music, my sound effects hobby has been the most neglected (hence why this is mostly whooshes and guitar boings). I suppose because I haven't animated much of my own things lately, I haven't felt the need to create sounds for those worlds. Much how I like animation that alternates in texture/quality, I like sound ...