xdexesx

[xdexesx]

"Martin sank to his knees next to the fallen phone. Fingers entangled with his hair and he started to pull. The strands were healthy and wouldn't tear, so he tugged harder and harder and harder. It came off with a yank, now two large tufts laid trapped in his fists. What an utterly disgusting shade of blond. He should get rid of it entirely.

If given the choice, he might have torn himself bald."

Haha, next chapter of Pretentious Magnanimity goes hard Have my boy sufffffffffer < 3

[xdexesx]

Guess who survived their semester??

Martin Rig goes brrrr I have to rework the eyes again, something about them doesn't feel right (Though I am not sure yet what that is, perhaps I know once I rig the eyelids) Anyyyyyhow, on the right side of the screen you can see the beautiful note view of Martin's head. Gosh, I wish it would stay this simple but once we add all the animation pegs (the thingies that allow the picture to move), this will become nightmare realm. Man, I love rigging

Btw, this how the entire node view looks like right now Enjoy the nice layout while it lasts

[xdexesx]

Today is the last day of my Semester !! We finally got to show the film my team and me have been working on off yesterday and a lot of people enjoyed it a lot!

Anyhow, I have some doctor appointments to catch up on, but once that is over I will officially start with the video essay!

All right, people. Let's start from the beginning one last time-

A while ago I made this-

https://www.tumblr.com/xdexesx/773053963524276224/as-a-5th-semester-animation-student-i-am?source=share

post talking a little about the animation technique used in the Wild Kratts and hinted towards my desire to talk more about it, perhaps with a little real-life demonstration.

I didn't think much of it, but the post blew up a tiny bit inside this fandom and a lot of people showed interest, which made me debate if I should really do this or not, now that attention was on it.

Ultimately, I have now decided that yes, an Animation Deep Dive will happen.

I have decided to do it in terms of a YouTube Video Essay, with video footage playing and a voice-over explaining things and giving examples.

As one might think, this is a HUGE project, and it isn't helping that I have never done something like this before. Therefor, for obvious reasons, this project will take a while until it sees the light of day. I will sprinkle updates here whenever I have something, but all in all, don't expect this to come out anytime soon.

I am very much in pre-production, thinking about WHAT even to talk about and how deep I want to go. I haven't wrote a single line of script and probably won't for a while.

Annnyhow,

To give a smal sneak into things, I have actually started setup to re-build one of the rigs from the show, mainly for practice but also to use in the video essay.

Let me explain

After searching for a good reference for FOREVER (Trust me, getting a good neutral front 3/4 pose of any character was a nightmare) I got this one of our fav blue boy. I imported it into the program and started splitting the design up into the main parts. This was done by shape-blocking over the reference and deciding which body parts have to move separately from one another, as well as which parts might have different moving behavior (More to that when the essay is out I guess??)

From there, a drawing layer for each. single. bodypart. is made. These body parts then need to be drawn out on their respective layer, something I haven't done yet but here is a screenshot of the layer-view. The highlighted part are all the body parts (and maybe I missed some idk, there is always something like extra shoulders that might randomly appear later)

Lastly, for the setting up stage, I made myself a color palette with all colors I will need working on this man. Here is where my first doubts and regrets about this project came in.

Also the reason I am making this post, by announcing this to the world I can no longer back out of this project, haha *cries*

I understand waiting is a pain, and I would like to dive head first into production of this as well, but I will need and take my time with this because I really want to make a high quality video and not just throw words at a screen. I will probably also not be working on this at all for the coming week, as I have my finals on Wednesday and Thursday and I am so beyond ready to be done with this Semester

[xdexesx]

All right, people. Let's start from the beginning one last time-

A while ago I made this-

https://www.tumblr.com/xdexesx/773053963524276224/as-a-5th-semester-animation-student-i-am?source=share

post talking a little about the animation technique used in the Wild Kratts and hinted towards my desire to talk more about it, perhaps with a little real-life demonstration.

I didn't think much of it, but the post blew up a tiny bit inside this fandom and a lot of people showed interest, which made me debate if I should really do this or not, now that attention was on it.

Ultimately, I have now decided that yes, an Animation Deep Dive will happen.

I have decided to do it in terms of a YouTube Video Essay, with video footage playing and a voice-over explaining things and giving examples.

As one might think, this is a HUGE project, and it isn't helping that I have never done something like this before. Therefor, for obvious reasons, this project will take a while until it sees the light of day. I will sprinkle updates here whenever I have something, but all in all, don't expect this to come out anytime soon.

I am very much in pre-production, thinking about WHAT even to talk about and how deep I want to go. I haven't wrote a single line of script and probably won't for a while.

Annnyhow,

To give a smal sneak into things, I have actually started setup to re-build one of the rigs from the show, mainly for practice but also to use in the video essay.

Let me explain

After searching for a good reference for FOREVER (Trust me, getting a good neutral front 3/4 pose of any character was a nightmare) I got this one of our fav blue boy. I imported it into the program and started splitting the design up into the main parts. This was done by shape-blocking over the reference and deciding which body parts have to move separately from one another, as well as which parts might have different moving behavior (More to that when the essay is out I guess??)

From there, a drawing layer for each. single. bodypart. is made. These body parts then need to be drawn out on their respective layer, something I haven't done yet but here is a screenshot of the layer-view. The highlighted part are all the body parts (and maybe I missed some idk, there is always something like extra shoulders that might randomly appear later)

Lastly, for the setting up stage, I made myself a color palette with all colors I will need working on this man. Here is where my first doubts and regrets about this project came in.

Also the reason I am making this post, by announcing this to the world I can no longer back out of this project, haha *cries*

I understand waiting is a pain, and I would like to dive head first into production of this as well, but I will need and take my time with this because I really want to make a high quality video and not just throw words at a screen. I will probably also not be working on this at all for the coming week, as I have my finals on Wednesday and Thursday and I am so beyond ready to be done with this Semester

[xdexesx]

All right, people. Let's start from the beginning one last time-

A while ago I made this-

https://www.tumblr.com/xdexesx/773053963524276224/as-a-5th-semester-animation-student-i-am?source=share

post talking a little about the animation technique used in the Wild Kratts and hinted towards my desire to talk more about it, perhaps with a little real-life demonstration.

I didn't think much of it, but the post blew up a tiny bit inside this fandom and a lot of people showed interest, which made me debate if I should really do this or not, now that attention was on it.

Ultimately, I have now decided that yes, an Animation Deep Dive will happen.

I have decided to do it in terms of a YouTube Video Essay, with video footage playing and a voice-over explaining things and giving examples.

As one might think, this is a HUGE project, and it isn't helping that I have never done something like this before. Therefor, for obvious reasons, this project will take a while until it sees the light of day. I will sprinkle updates here whenever I have something, but all in all, don't expect this to come out anytime soon.

I am very much in pre-production, thinking about WHAT even to talk about and how deep I want to go. I haven't wrote a single line of script and probably won't for a while.

Annnyhow,

To give a smal sneak into things, I have actually started setup to re-build one of the rigs from the show, mainly for practice but also to use in the video essay.

Let me explain

After searching for a good reference for FOREVER (Trust me, getting a good neutral front 3/4 pose of any character was a nightmare) I got this one of our fav blue boy. I imported it into the program and started splitting the design up into the main parts. This was done by shape-blocking over the reference and deciding which body parts have to move separately from one another, as well as which parts might have different moving behavior (More to that when the essay is out I guess??)

From there, a drawing layer for each. single. bodypart. is made. These body parts then need to be drawn out on their respective layer, something I haven't done yet but here is a screenshot of the layer-view. The highlighted part are all the body parts (and maybe I missed some idk, there is always something like extra shoulders that might randomly appear later)

Lastly, for the setting up stage, I made myself a color palette with all colors I will need working on this man. Here is where my first doubts and regrets about this project came in.

Also the reason I am making this post, by announcing this to the world I can no longer back out of this project, haha *cries*

I understand waiting is a pain, and I would like to dive head first into production of this as well, but I will need and take my time with this because I really want to make a high quality video and not just throw words at a screen. I will probably also not be working on this at all for the coming week, as I have my finals on Wednesday and Thursday and I am so beyond ready to be done with this Semester

[xdexesx]

Anyone up to chat about Wild Kratts? I am in a deep need for more content.

Please tell me all about your guys's made up scenarios for this show, the more angst/whump the better. Hit me with all your AUs.

[xdexesx]

Thinking of re-building Martin's Character Model for practice and educational purposes >.<

I am in a love-hate relationship with that "About Wild Kratts Animation" post I made that kinda blew up because now I REALLY wanna make a video essay deep dive on this but at the same time my university and part time job allow me no chill and I need to get my priorities straight Dunno if I end up making a full turnaround rig because these are WORK and I don't have Martin's Design Sheet for the builder, so I would have to make myself one which is even more WORK. (Not to mention that these are not low-detailed rigs, they will kill me just trying to figure out where to set my cutters) (The lineless part will be the easiest I swear) Listen, I am a certified Workaholic with an excessive amount of Dopamine in my brain - (Wish I could say that as a joke but my brain is actually producing too much of it, I am physically unable to be sad, HELP) (Neurodivergence goes brrr) - but even I know when I see a project that is going to end my already fragile sleep schedule. Oh, the things I do for animation

(Only two and a half more weeks, then my semester is over and I can actually plan my life again, yay)

[xdexesx]

!! Not my art !!

!! All rights belong to the original Artist, Simon Paquette !!

Reading through some WK Storyboards to ease myself off the exam stress and also prepare for the animation analysis that I will definitely do one day (:

Wild Kratts has some pretty neat Storyboards up online that are free to look at (Posted by the Artists as Portfolio pieces rather than the Studio starring them for the masses) and I am eating them up, they are so nice to look at and definitely don't need to be this detailed. Like, my university had a character designer of the Owl House over one day and she showed us snippets of Amphibia storyboard which where much lower quality (for very funny reasons). But yeah, reading storyboards is just a very nice way to practice staging and camera direction without actually doing it-

I love how how dramatically Chris rolls into the scene just to say a sentence and then run off again. Koki literally being like >:0

And look at Martin, he is adorable in the bat eared fox suit. Gosh do I wish I could watch the animatics of the show

[xdexesx]

So, I made a post the other day hinting towards my love for the Wild Kratts animation, not really thinking anything would come of it- So imagine my surprise when I woke up the next morning and seeing that I was, in fact, very wrong. While terrified of failing expectations, I will definitely make a in depth analysis about it now that I know that there are some that would actually care for it.

I am currently debating what would be more interesting, a VERY long Tumblr post or if I should go full "Video-Essay" mode and make a video about it and maybe show some insight of the program and how rigged 2D animation is made?? Personally, I would be more interested in the second, but that would be a HUGE project.

However, I have to ask you to be patient. I am an university student with a part-time job and volunteer as a social worker on the side, so I really don't have much time on my hands (Not to mention my own dang webshow that has been in production for 7 years that I really need to work on AHHHH) Anyhow, give me some time to actually come up with stuff pls :,) If you have any episode recommendations you can hit me with those and I can look into them ??

[xdexesx]

As a 5th-Semester Animation Student, I am surprised at how little I actually yell about the animation of this Show.

You guys-

You guys have no idea the actual genius of 9 Story Entertainment and BrownBag Films (The Production and Animation Studio for the Wild Kratts Episodes)

First of all. This is not traditional 2D animation.

This is Cut-Out Animation, also known as 2D Rigged Animation or Puppet Animation. Other shows you might be familiar with that use this technique are Bluey, Hilda, Rick and Morty, or the Big Hero 6 TV Show. There are more but these came to my mind first.

Cut Out Animation can be very limiting, because you work with 2D sprites in a 3D environment almost. The Tech Artists, sometimes called Character Builders, are the ones that take the design of the characters and creatures and build a 2D skeleton of sorts, putting bones inside of the png drawing and allowing it to move. It might sound easy, but trust me when I say it is a tiring process and the node-view is horrifying, haha.

I don't know if people would care for an actual deep-dive into the animation of the show, because believe me, I can talk a lot about it, as someone who is familiar with the animation technique, the technical/character building aspects of it, as well as someone who has actually access to the Software the Animation Studio is using to make these episodes (I kid you not when I say that I am in possession off all the tools to make my own Wild Kratts episode, minus the backgrounds because I hate doing those)

For those that care, THIS is what the animator sees before the episode gets finished, lol

Say hi to "Chad", he was part of the Shortfilm I made with some others in my third Semester at uni.

The purple plots are controllers with which you move the character around.

The green lines and dots are deformers which make the character able to bend and stretch.

Also, the thing in the right window is the beloved node view, or at least a small aspect of it. All these small squares have meaning and I won't even try to explain

While Cut Out Animation isn't my strong suit (Traditional 2D and 3D animation is) I would still be down to talk more about it if anyone cares to listen, lol. Even beyond the software capabilities, the show is actually very interesting to look at from a production standpoint and I would love to just talk more about the animation in general because let me tell you, it is much better than people give it credit for!

[xdexesx]

Counting down the days until the end of my semester and until I can finally go back to writing Fanfiction again.

To keep myself from going insane I made a funny little thingy about the (In my personal opinion) hilarious parallel between Pretentious Magnanimity and @martincrushcameback 's story "Glass Houses" (Love that one btw)

Bad Fathers. Bad Fathers everywhere.

Totally not going to have a flashback scene or mention to Martin accompanying his father to a high-end gala as a kid and seeing Zach there with his father and they both just stare at one another like "You too, huh?"

[xdexesx]

Thought maybe ppl care about me updating my angsty silly Martin-centered fanfic.

Why are there so few stories out there with Martin as the main receiver of whump and angst? Give my son some trauma, plsss

[xdexesx]

I am sorry, but I just watched the seahorse episode and it left me with QUESTIONS.

This is not the first time one of the villains directly call the Tortuga gang on their creature pods. How do they have their number? Why would they just- pick up without thinking that there might be evil intentions???

Why did Donita only call Martin- Listen, I have seen the ship, I hear you guys, but maaaaan, that had me balling on the floor with laughter.

Also, also, also, can we pllllls talk about Chris's reaction to Martin's attempts of lying? Like, baby, please, just hang up, you are embarrassing yourself.

Chris here truly regretting his life decisions.

Guys I just can't with these two

GOD, I love them

[xdexesx]

Hello, hi, I got a fun little question for you all: What is your favorite part of each WK character? Like, a fun little fact or attribute that makes them endearing to you.

I am just looking for conversation buddies.

This fandom is smol but from what I see everyone here has a great vibe and I wanna harness some of that >:3

Here have two screenshots I saved since I cannot stop gushing about them-

Chris getting scared and his immediate first reaction is to run and hide behind his big brother is owning my ass. Look at them. I love them.

[xdexesx]

Martin has that... "habit" of always taking chocolate + vanilla as his ice cream flavors and IMMEDIATELY regretting his choice because he originally wanted to try out something new instead. Chris is so tired of constantly having his cone stolen, or as Martin would call it, "traded".

I will send you a cookie if you can correctly guess which animal I took inspiration from for Chris's jacket

[xdexesx]

[xdexesx]

I am so bad at writing short chapters Literally two things happen in this chapter, the bros save the Tortuga gang from a potential kidnapping (and murder) and Martin gets stabbed. This is not suppose to be this long, or angst-y. The bad stuff happens in the chapters after-!