otaking77077

Art Poll - Summer

The heat is oppressive and my flesh begins to sizzle - this means it's time for a new poll!

How about some retro 2D fighting goodness this time around? Something I've never drawn, no less.

3D vs 2D in Anime

Hello!

Here's a rare public video so people can see what kind of things they're missing here on the Patreon! It's a short analysis and I hope supporters here enjoy this topic as much as I do!

Anyway, old folks like me who grew up with late 80s and 90s anime are probably fans of the technique known as "background animation." It's certainly a favourite of mine, and there are quite a few examples in the above Youtube video, but here are some more.

Hand drawn background anima...

AI Animation - 2 experiments!

Hello there!

I was browsing the official OtaKing discord™®© yesterday and noticed some AI conversation, so I recorded a video to try to see- in real time, no less - is AI capable to help with inbetweening or is my career safe?
Here's the discord link: https://discordapp.com/channels/495039441753341952/495039441753341955/1392683916074160270

Anywa...

Parallax Scrolling Process.

That 360 degree rotating shot I mentioned a couple of posts ago is taking a little longer than expected, so please enjoy this little process video on parallax scrolling that I put together for you all in the meantime!

I hope you enjoy ~

-Paul

↑ I used to see a lot of games being shown off for the first time at my local Dixons. There was always a bit of a crowd around the games ...

Setting up a 360 shot.

Hello!

I'm progressing on that Dalek animation trailer, and I decided to go a bit crazy and try a rotating 360 degree shot. I love doing background animation and seeing insane background animation casually pop up in an anime I'm watching is always a sight to behold:

(Black Magic M-66, 1987)

So I've tried to do a shot with the camera rotating around the characters and the Daleks, which...

Mecha Research III

Hello there!

We’re deep in the story development phase of our big mech project, and got some exciting shifts to share with you!

Originally, we planned for an ensemble story: four mechs, four pilots, all navigating a war zone while unpacking drama, trauma, and the heavy toll of battle. But as we began fleshing it out, we realized trying to do justice to all four characters, with all the twists and depth we imagined, would be overwhelming to tackle without a bigger team first.&nbs...

2 minutes of Death to the Daleks animation.

Here's 2 mins of that little Dalek trailer I mentioned a couple of posts back. The animation is about halfway through now, I'd say.
It still has no music and only limited sound effects, but should get the general idea and look across. I still need to fix up some bits here and there, but I like the way the Daleks turned out. I kind of let Cinema 4D put in the really basic two tone shading for them, then I go in and hand shade the rest of the tones and airbrushing, add details, etc.

Hi-Res Wallpaper Pack 2

As with the last background pack, since Patreon doesn't like showing people full sized images for some bizarre reason, I'll be uploading som

As with the last background pack, since Patreon doesn't like showing people full sized images for some bizarre reason, I'll be uploading some batches.

The full sized files are attached separately at the very bottom of this post, after these previews. Feel free to use them!

Previews:2025-05-29 16:48:09 +0000 UTC View Post

Prints shipped + update!

Hello, hello!

The Predator prints should be on their way to everyone in the Elite tier now, so please look forward to that!

Meanwhile, I have been slaving away on my little Dalek trailer from a few posts back. Here are some behind the scenes shots from my TVPaint setup. The Daleks and their crashed ship are taking shape nicely, as you can see!

-Paul

2025-05-21 07:38:58 +0000 UTC View Post

Spring '25 print- Predator!

Hello, everyone!

Well, here's the Predator print. This one was a bit of a nightmare, I must admit. Sketching out the individual characters was OK, but I couldn't get a decent composition, I didn't like the poses, I didn't like the way the Predator looked, etc etc. Maki helped an absolute ton and came up with a pleasing kind of triangular composition that leads the eye in a natural way, and adjusted some of the shading so that it wasn't as confusing to look at, adding to Blaine's face, a...

One minute of Death to the Daleks animation.

The Predator print is being inked now!
Meanwhile, here's 50 seconds of that little Dalek trailer I mentioned a couple of posts back. It has no music yet and only limited sound effects, but should get the general idea and look across. I still need to tighten up some of the lip synching, but I like the way the Dalek flying saucer turned out!

Anyway, back to this Predator image now!

-Paul

Mecha Pilot's Guide pg. 4-9

Get in the robot!

Here's some more pages that I worked out for the basic mecha operations. Moving, aiming etc. It obviously owes a lot to Steel Battalion for inspiration! There are still quite a few spare screens in that cockpit that I can fill with stuff as well! Maybe we should have MTV on one of the screens and a future Twitch on another. Bloody future zoomer pilots can't concentrate on one thing at a time.

I wanted to get some kind of manual walking control in there, kind of l...

Mecha Pilot's Guide pg. 1-3

AKA Mech Research III- Anyway, thought it would be helpful to ask Otaking to show what the operational experience could be like for a pilot. This is also to gain an understanding of the realistic vs fantasy elements.

There's more pages coming, but in the meantime I'll let Otaking explain his approach!
-Producer Maki

Hello! Paul here. So, I've been modelling and designing the cockpit and figuring out how it all works. Even if we don't see the characters using every s...

Predator - Poll Win & Thoughts

Predator won the poll, so I'm drawing up a nice print which will, as always, ship out to everyone in the Elite tier! I'm thinking of a very stylised Masami Obari-style image this time, with lots of black shadow. Something along the lines of how he drew Transformers:

 I first saw Predator when I was browsing my local video rental store in my hometown of Lincoln around 1988. I spent hours in there...

2025 Animation Roster

Hello all!

Here's an update of the projects we're focused on! For those that missed the announcement- The TIE Fighter animation is, as you can see above, all done visually and the music and SFX are now being worked on by the erstwhile Randy of Scary Good Studio (who did the music and sound for Alien: MONDAY).

The mech film has been our main priority, and is in the writing, scripting & concept design stage. Maki has been doing a ton of writing as story telling is pretty new to ...

Art Poll - Spring

The flowers are blooming, and so we emerge with a new poll! I hope you enjoy these eclectic choices, but as always feel free to throw suggestions for future votes in the comments below.

Mech Research II

Hello!

We're currently nailing down more preproduction details for the mech project. One consideration is making it 3 or 5 acts so we gathered some idea locations that would have battles and/or glimpses of yesteryear memories (an abandoned arcade, video rental store, a rundown 7/11 - roller dogs are a staple on a roadtrip, are they not??) to rest at. Plus it would be nice to show how the mechs are used in different climates as they go through their journey.

Roughly we have an id...

How to use 3D to draw massive ships.

Good day and hello!

It is I, Paul Johnson! And today I'd like to share the process I use to draw large spaceships! Or even small spaceships.

Obviously, the TIE Fighter animation required a lot of Star Destroyers and capital ships. And since the game team had kindly shared with me how to rip the 3D models from the game, I had access to all of the ships, space stations etc in 3D format. So I used those to set up my scenes!
The 3D models themselves are rather low-poly, which was f...

Shiny pilot effect.

Hello there everyone!

Here's an exclusive little behind the scenes video for you all, explaining how I animated some dynamic lighting effects.
If there are any particular shots or sequences from this or Monday or anything that you'd like to know more about, let me know and I can narrate a BTS video like this one.

Stay warm and comfy, wherever you are! It's getting pretty cold over here...

-Paul

Mech Project planning!

Hello there!

TIE Fighter has gone off for music and SFX, so that's out of my hands for a while. So now it's on to the mech project!

Some of you might not have been around when we first announced it, so I'll post up the mech designs again for those who missed them.

2025-02-15 16:33:21 +0000 UTC View Post

BTS - Emperor's Face

Hello, all!
The shot of the Emperor talking at the start of the recent TIE Fighter animation was one of the trickiest shots in the whole thing!
Here's a behind the scenes (BTS) look when I started off with some reference shots from Return of the Jedi:

 After several hours, the best I could do was the following.
2025-02-08 16:25:30 +0000 UTC View Post

TFTC Finished - Sneakpeek!

And I believe that's all of the animation completed for Star Wars Tie Fighter Total Conversion (not directly related to my original Tie Fighter animation, but same source material!). The full video is 7 minutes long now and going off for music and sound effects today to game lead Angel and his team. The current sounds are placeholders and subject to change. Big thanks to Angel and the team! Also here's the trailer, which explains more about TFTC for those who never played 1994's TIE Fighter o...

Title Sequence Animation

I do enjoy animating impact frames, and a title screen is always a good opportunity to put a bunch of them in there.
Maki and I are going to watch the whole TIE Fighter opening today, and check it for any bits that need retiming or any polish..! Exciting times! It's just encoding now and will take 3 and a half hours(!) so after the wait we'll have a look and take notes.

Either way, the end is near!

-Paul

F in Chat for X and A-Wing

Hello again!

 The next focus is the final shot/the title screen, so we're almost there! Saying that, though, I will of course go back and polish some previous scenes up and make sure all the timing is fine etc after finishing the "final" shot, so there's still a little left to do. And then I'm happy to hand it over for the SFX and music. This music will likely be much closer to the original film score than the metal theme in my original short, so that will be interesting to compare...

MACROSS shipment

Well well! I hope you're all having a very nice new year so far!

I'm back from my Christmas trip back to the family home. It's nice to have my PC again and I'm already back to the crunch! The Macross prints are shipping out to everyone in the Elite Pilot tier, so as always please check that you have your correct address details in Patreon so that it actually gets to you.

Everything is covered in snow here! Or it was, as it's starting to melt. Stay warm and comfy like office cat Ob...

TIE Fighter zoom out

Hello!!

Today's my birthday! But also, here's another shot from the TIE Fighter intro cinematic.
The original TIE Fighter short I did all those years ago had some nice shots of the camera rotating around pilots inside their TIEs, so I had to do at least a few in this one too! It's quite a quick shot, but it looks nice in sequence with the shots before and after. It should be hopefully a kinetic and exciting battle scene!

I hope you're all enjoying the new year so far. Here's to...

Fighter chase and camera trickery!

Well well well!

A very Merry Christmas to you all!! I hope you're having a great time. It's my favourite time of year and I'm here watching my festive UK TV and drinking snowballs.

Here's a quick shot from near the end of the TIE Fighter opening cinematic. We're very close now...! There's quite a bit of parallax going on with the background which adds a nice bit of depth. To do that, I set up a bunch of paintings of the destroyed Rebel space station on transparent backgrounds and ...

Winter '24 print- MACROSS!

After some trial and error, here's the finished Macross image!

As always, layout by me and Maki, colour fixups and colour grading by Maki, final illustration by me. This print will be flying out to all of you in the Elite tier soon, so please make sure your addresses are correct so that yours doesn't go space folding off into the middle of a battlefield full of space vampires.

Working on this made me realise just how numerous and varied the designs for the Valkyries have been ove...

Christmas Poll Winner

Well, Macross won the poll! I am in the process of illustrating a nice space montage of the Macross and assorted Valkyries and obscene amounts of detail.
To help in the composition of the image, I modelled this quick low poly Macross so I could pose it and get a nice imposing reference shot of it. The left arm is a bit broken as you can see!
One thing I suspsected but confirmed on this one is that the Macross is actually pretty small! We seem to imagine that's it's enormous because it h...

Christmas poll!

Well well!

The time is upon us! The time of great festivity!
Here's some options we gathered from previous comments, so choose which you'd like the next art print to be and we'll get right on it.

I hope you've all got your Christmas shopping done, or are planning on it at least.

-Paul