Episode 7 -
of my animated cartoon series Xylus and Dexter in Space!
Here is episode 7 of my animated cartoon Xylus and Dexter in Space!
Concept
In this Episode: Xylus and Dexter had eliminated what they thought was the ghost of Phineas Handala... Or did they?
(Related post: Xylus and Dexter in Space! "Mirror, Mirror" Episode 6 - Cartoon animation)
Cartoon Art
I had been watching a lot of Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons and it inspired me to take a different direction with the backgrounds and character drawings that I had been doing up until now.
I started out trying charcoal and sponge-styled backgrounds, like this one of the outside of the castle door.
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| Castle exterior in Photoshop with sponge and charcoal textures |
But when I was animating the cartoons importing these image files as the backgrounds it made the file sizes huge!
So I took the art I had already made in this style and redrew them in the animation software.
Then I vectorized one of the sponge brushes I was using for highlights on the background art.
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| Animation artwork - outside the castle |
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| Xylus and Dexter inside the castle |
Cartoon Animation
I was still just drawing the storyboards directly on the computer, quickly and with little detail.
I use them for layouts and animatic audio cuts in my video editing software. I import that video into my animation software to animate on top of the storyboards.
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| Cartoon animation storyboard page 3 |
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| Cartoon animation storyboard page 5 |
Cartoon Audio
I had to do some more searching for sound effects for this episode.
I needed a drilling noise, a poking noise for the pin, and a radio sound for tuning in the transmitter.
I also had to alter the sound of my voice as the person who contacted them on the radio to sound all static and distorted.
I did that in the audio software I use called Ardour that I use to record songs for my band Lorenzo's Music. The audio software has a distortion pedal plugin for the guitar. So that's how I did that.
Next time: In episode 8 can they escape Phineas Handala?
Check out the previous episode of Xylus and Dexter in Space! where they read a letter from an online critic - https://www.tomrayswebsite.com/2022/05/xylus-and-dexter-in-space-special.html