Fan Art, Glad Rags, and The Superb Owl
I’d like to make a proposal.
See this owl?
This is the superb owl. Whenever someone mentions the #superbowl in their feed, I’d like you all to link back to this Tweet (or later images we release when it gets more polish on it). #superbowl is a very popular tag on all social media (we all love owls), but it needs a mascot, a hero to rally around.
I volunteer our very own superb owl from the Lackadaisy film, designed to perfection by Tracy Butler.
50 years from now, I want college students researching internet film history to peer at a dusty Wiki page on Lackadaisy to see that the character name for this owl is listed as “superb owl.” This is the the dumb joke that I want to be my legacy. This is the hill I will die on.
I hope you all will continue to celebrate our very superb owl with me. Thank you. We may now begin the devlog proper.
. . .
Welcome, friends!
Today I bring you a little behind-the-scenes animation magic. For those of you who don’t know the artistic process (or haven’t watched Eizouken), animation requires a lot more than just drawing lines. A lot of research can and will go into animating movements such as dancing.
One may think an animator just watches a video, pauses the video, sketches some legs, and calls it a day. I guarantee you that the amount of tabs open while researching this sheet must have been immeasurable. What was once beautiful dancing at the beginning of the day would, by the end, probably feel more like this:
Similarly, the research for our character art can answer some burning, deep questions. Like what does a young anthropomorphic prohibition-era cat wear when she goes dancing? Where does she dance? Luckily, we have Ivy here to model her flapper outfit for us to answer the first question.
And for the second question, some beautiful art of the bartender’s perspective
Much like dancing, animation can also be physically demanding. Animators actually have to use their entire bodies, much like an actor, to get the right expressions and poses. Here is an example using one of Mitzi’s scenes.
To demonstrate, the wonderful and talented Katie Winchester sent us the reference video she made to help her animate Mitzi.
That’s all for what development progress for now, but we also have a special treat today. You may remember our last fan art feature back in August? Well, we’ve been getting a lot more lately and we thought we’d feature a few in our update today.
To those who submitted, thanks a million! Keep ‘em coming, friends!
Again, thank you for all the incredible art! And don’t forget about that good, good owl!
Abyssinia! :3