Purplest of Nurples

WOOOOO! YES! Totally worth the wait, the characters are looking great! especially Josie she looked very awesome! The Animation was very consistent throughout the whole episode. Quite amazing. Brings back memories of seeing "soup would be good" and thinking how much of an improvement the new angles were. I was surprised to see sparky start a rumble though...exciting ending can't wait to see what happens next. haha i just scrolled up and i saw the replay screen again. love it, action shot! But the characters look amazing and the lip syncing was a big improvement, very well done. Matt

You're pretty good at this. It's like you've done it before. (I love the fly-away heart in the intro.)

Will. That was brutal. You should have seen the look of horror on my girl's face as Meat's nipple was removed from his body! Everything was awesome, man. Timing was on, facial expressions etc. And the three angle split screen during the fight scene was bad ass. I was looking forward to that bit in particular & you certainly didn't disapoint! Keep em comin!

That episode was amazing! The colour has really added depth to the animation, the split screen action was a nice touch, and the nipple being ripped off was brutal! Excellent dude, rock on!

Rock on Will!! This was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. I loved the nuances you applied with freezes and slow mo and more. So cool!!

Thanks guys! I'm really happy with it, and happy to have finished my longest Toon Boom animation thus far.

when you first created the characters for this web comic, was this how you pictured them acting? when you first created sparky was he going to be so easy to get into fights? was he going to be the good guy yet still assault someone?

I definitely had some specific ideas about how I wanted him to turn out. While I knew that he was going to be the main character, I didn't want him to be good all the time. I wasn't after a lovable loser, that's been done a million times. To me, it's far more entertaining if he stands up to the bully and actually has the ability to talk to girls (kind of the other side of the coin: things I wish I could do instead of things I do).

Um, that is really mean of you. I think I should have been drawn with much bigger mus-kulls.

Brutal cartoon. I didn't expect that. Well done. The eyes are different in your Toon Boom produced animations. I don't know if it's the color or the line quality but the eyes seem less alive. Did you give up on The TAB? I've evaluated Studio and Solo and while both have features I dig I can't get my head around the workflow. Anyway, great work!

Ian's comment made me watch again and I wonder about the eyes, too. It looks like a heavy dose of eye-liner for all involved. Is that an artistic choice or a platform driven choice?

I noticed something about the eyes as well, I thought it was just heavier/darker outlines, but after watching a few back episodes, it looks like the line thickness is the same. I think the difference is really in the size of the eyeball & amount of white. In previous episodes, the characters' eyes typically just consist of the black pupil with a highlight, occasionally changing with facial expressions, but making more use of the eyebrow to show open vs. squinty eyes. This episode they have comlpete eyeballs, with much more white area than before. It is definitely a different look, but personally I like it as it adds to what can be done with the eyes. With the new look there is a much more noticable difference between a wide-eyed friendly gaze & an angry scowl. I think it can only add to the characters' emotions/expressions.

While I'm sure Will has already tired of the eye discussion, I think the difference is this: in Ep. 9, the eyes and the bodies were both outlined in black. In 10, the bodies now have outlines that complement the body color (i.e., usually a slightly darker shade), but the eyes are still lined in bold black. It really focuses my eye on the eyes, I guess. I wonder what it would look like in the body color, or with no out line at all.

Lots of great comments, thank you to all. Yes, lots of work went into the eyes and face. I just finished a quick article talking about eye improvements.

Ian, yes, I have indeed given up on the Tab. It was crashing every day, with a major crash every week. I had to manually save the entire directory every 10 minutes. What little support there was for the Tab said that there would be a new version in Spring of 2006. When Fall came and went I started looking for more options.

I do agree that the workflow is more difficult for Toon Boom, and there are some items that are not as intuitive as they should be. However, the support is impeccable, and once you start to get the hang of it it flows pretty well.

That being said, if you aren't having problems with the Tab, it likely isn't worth it to you to switch.

Loved it. And being in India, hearing Kishore's accent at the end killed me. I haven't laughed that hard in a few days.