As you can see, there’s a lot of trial and error. Sometimes it is easier to erase everything and start over. I hope you like it. I’ll post a more detailed one, once the final clip is judged over at CartoonSmart’s contest. Don’t be shy, leave a comment. Cheers!

Thank you guys, you did a superb job.

To celebrate their efforts, I activated the shiny new default Twenty Ten Theme in place of my usual Frugal Theme, and I intend to keep it that way until I make a few adjustments to how I run this little corner of the internet. Who knows, it might stay that way even after that. The header image is part of the first background I painted with Toon Boom products. Toon Boom Studio to be exact. I leave you with a video of the new features of WordPress. Cool stuff! Oh and it’s all open source. So, even cooler!

I’ll see you in a couple of days with new illustration things to share. Been working on some cool things besides that Pulp Fiction clip. Now go install WP in your own site.

CartoonSmart.com is holding an animation contest and the first prize is a full working copy of Animate Pro. All you have to do is recreate 15 seconds of your favorite non-animated movie with ToonBoom Animate and add it to this Vimeo group. (you can also use the Personal Learning Edition).

I am entering this contest and I’ve already chosen a clip from a movie I love. Here’s the animatic, although the final version might end up surprising you. Connect with me on Twitter for more updates.

Rough Animatic – CartoonSmart Animate Contest from Renato Vargas on Vimeo.

(Update: Of course that I need a better looking Jules Winnfield, and this is what I came up with. I hope you all like it).

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Hello everyone. I just wanted to show you this character design progression. A couple of weeks ago my back yard was glowing with fireflies. It was so inspirational. I thought to myself: “how would a firefly look if it were a cartoon character?”. This is what I came up with. By the way, ArtRage‘s reference pic feature is quite handy!

I inked it in ArtRage and learned a valuable lesson. Do rough pencils in colors different from black. Otherwise you can’t see where you have already inked. After that I did some base coloring. I liked the chocolate palette. I don’t know. It gave it that 20′s or 30′s Italian-American mood I was after.

I’ve been trying out this technique to add depth that I learned from a video posted by an awesome webcomic artist and illustrator. Well, in this case you don’t actually “add” depth; you substract it, if that makes any sense I haven’t been able to get it just right, but I hope I’m slowly getting there…

and finally some tones…

Love to read your thoughts. Cheers!!

I’m fine though, don’t worry. I hope you are doing great too. I just wanted to let you know that Sbass and Monica from The Inkwell Alley were kind enough to let me share some thoughts with their readers on Feature Friday. They are creating an awesome community of artists that want to make their creative dreams come true under the motto Is not who you are, it’s who you can become. A writer and an artist, these two great women have been very busy promoting their relatively new iniciative, that I know will be a great success. Make sure to check out their blog at http://inkwellalley.blogspot.com.

If you are coming from The Inkwell Alley, welcome to I’ll tell you a story…. In this blog I share the things I learn while trying to figure out how to make drawings come to life through 2D animation. Since blogs tend to be a bit difficult to navigate, I thought I’d show you around. You might enjoy these posts:

Creativity development

How I’m fighting the animator’s block

The Importance of Staying Creative

The production process

Building Character is not the Same as Character Development

From A Forgotten Piece Of Paper To Life

Illustration tips and tricks

Creating Stunning Backgrounds with TBS!!!

Animating Effects: The Best Form of Procrastination

Backgrounds: Getting your perspective right with Google Sketchup

Backgrounds: From Google SketchUp to Toon Boom Animate

I hope you enjoy this blog as much as I love writing it, but above all, I really want you to find it useful. Any thoughts? Make sure you let me know in the comments. Have a great day!