Cat
(Wait, who wrote that into my script?)
I’ve been saving Missing Halloween for this day.
It wouldn’t do to dissect a Halloween cartoon out of season.
Watch it here.
Hah.
Not much of a surprise, but I am creeped out.
It’s been at least two years, and this body isn’t decomposed.
That is disturbing.
.. Let me just flip through my monster manual
here.
We wouldn’t be dealing with a ghost, so it must be a zombie, an eternal corpse, or
a continuity error.
*shudders*
Right.
So, although Mike Inel hasn’t posted an animation breakdown for Missing Halloween,
its composition is much more simple than his recent animations, some of which involve motion
capture mapped onto 3D models.
The only scene in Missing Halloween that is likely to have a 3D element involved is the
woodland chase.
It’s the only place where the camera is moving deeper into the world, instead of panning
back and forth or zooming in and out.
If I play the video back one frame at a time we might be able to tell if it’s 3D by watching
the consistency of the blades of grass.
What we’re looking for is not the fact that the grass isn’t redrawn, but the accuracy
of the placement of every single object across each frame.
Yeah.
It’s too smooth to be a 2D setup.
Oh, dang, you can see it a lot better here (female cop).
Watch this area of the trees.
See?
3D model.
Way, way too complex of a spacing relationship to be a series of 2D layers on different z
coordinates.
This is a 2D layer background of mine for comparison.
Apart from the 3D last third of Missing Halloween, every shot is an easy set up.
Start with a background.
Shade it.
Use pattern or texture fills like black and white comics and manga do.
Make a rough animation of your characters.
Roughly draw final line art.
Color.
Animate lighting highlights.
Throw an animated filter on top of the whole cartoon.
The filter is a mood effect.
It helps make the cartoon feel more nuanced.
At this point makes me want to scream because it’s been buzzing in my face for the past
two hours and all I want to do is study the animation underneath.
A casual viewer won’t be bothered by it though.
They’re not flipping through each drawing one by one or watching the movie at twice
the normal speed.
Despite the simplicity of the characters and the style, the animation itself, the way the
characters move, is advanced.
Mike Inel is a superb anime animator.
If you’re in the mood for more creepy, watch Compiled Memories.
Maybe I’ll talk about his truly popular animations later, but for now I’ll leave
you to discover them on your own.
Until next time.