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Blanco-Pantera — The Itsy Bitsy Spider...

Published: 2012-03-21 17:51:00 +0000 UTC; Views: 3071; Favourites: 80; Downloads: 26
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Description " The itsy bitsy spider crawled up the water spout.
Down came the rain, and washed the spider out.
Out came the sun, and dried up all the rain,
and the itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again."



If you don't know who the character is, he's is Spider Jerusalem, who comes from a comic named "Transmetropolitan." In a nutshell, the character is a journalist who is a bit nuts. However, in the futuristic world he lives in, crazy is the least of his worries, and he uses it in a positive to get his stories out to the public against a corrupted government. It's a pretty fun read, though be warned, it's extremely brash and crude as it was meant to be, but there is a heart to the story which makes the books a cocktail of stories all the more enjoyable.

As far as animating it goes, this one took much longer than I planned. Originally, it was just going to be him doing the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" hand motions as a play on the character's name. It's basically an infinite movement of hands, where the index finger and opposite hands thumbs are constantly rotating to meet each other, made up for children of young ages to motion when singing the song.

One would suspect this simple motion would be easy to animate, but let me tell you; for the uneducated simpleton, such as myself, it was hell. The mirrored hand motions can play tricks on the eyes(especially during the transition of detailing from blocking to detailed frames), and the devil in the details were about in record numbers. I felt like a complete idiot every time I'd spot an error, and wonder how I missed it. Either way, I somehow finished still slightly suspect of the end job, even now. When I finished the hand motions and animated it with the body, I found it short, and lifeless. I felt it only suited the character slightly.

So I decided to add another extension of animated frame, involving him and his favorite weapon of use: the Bowel Disruptor gun(yes, it does exactly what it's name implies). To be honest, I found blocking his body movements in these additional frames much more easier, despite it being the bigger canvas to work with, so to speak. Even in this, the small details overwhelmed me yet. You see, the character is nothing without his devious smile, and facial expressions are a bit difficult to capture for amateur animators without much artistic education, like myself.

Through the rocky path, I did my best with it. At the end of the day, I'm fairly content with it, though there are some little things that could be touched up. Some of you guys may find some errors, and I may fix them, but don't expect it too soon as I want to take a break from this thing.

Some of you may find me dabbling in the lands of art premade famous by other artists and creators a bit much, and I understand this. It's true for the most part. I don't mean to use existing art, or intellectual property to further gain particular somethings of my completely amateur art career; far from it. I honestly mean these pieces in the best of honest intentions, and influence. I know it's still strattling the line of honest creativity, and I do aim to give you guys more of my personal creations. Just know what circles through my head is extremely difficult bring animus, as I find it difficult to capture only a couple of frames of animation in some ideas that I have, that are able to explain them in full, without the user even knowing of any sense of backstory in which it came. How can a stranger even begin to understand the mind of his fellow man without knowing him? I suppose this is the route most artists, good or bad, must hurdle through. Either way, it's a common trope I also suffer and am working on.

As far as time goes, I'd say this took about a month or so to finish, and it's time to send it off to be ridiculed, laughed at, poked at, wondered at, and confused by the walker's by of the internet....the way Mr. Jerusalem would've wanted it to happen, my filthy assistants.



*side-note: I'm aware he has a cigarette that has no smoke coming off of it...It may be added on later, but for now, I'm having trouble translating smoke's appearance when dancing in the dark and it suddenly having it bask in the light. At least, I can't find a way of making it look decent in this piece....
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Comments: 10

phantomofmike [2019-08-19 10:52:55 +0000 UTC]

Down came the rain and HEIL HITLER!!!

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

Jafhar [2012-07-17 02:22:49 +0000 UTC]

The single most amazing pixel animation I've seen. Bravo!

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

wezenbeesje [2012-05-31 07:08:26 +0000 UTC]

your animations are so good! And just 43 faves? People are probably too lazy to click on the preview. Pfff.

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

strid3r [2012-04-21 14:02:36 +0000 UTC]

You've become so incredibly good at this, unbelievable. Level of detail, fluidity of the animation, lighting. Love it all.

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Juns94 [2012-03-24 00:04:48 +0000 UTC]

This is so sweet man, No idea why you get so little recognition.

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uglyblacksmith [2012-03-23 20:40:13 +0000 UTC]

I love the hands part and when he take out the gun. Smooth as ever!

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lucas-irineu [2012-03-21 20:45:47 +0000 UTC]

Oh lord, man, you're the best ever.

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

shabuegah [2012-03-21 20:10:40 +0000 UTC]

amazing stuff

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

dumboink [2012-03-21 18:26:54 +0000 UTC]

Just amazing work here!

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

esemese [2012-03-21 18:09:22 +0000 UTC]

that is a great work, awesome animation and pixel art!

👍: 0 ⏩: 0