Studio Qassim

TL-magasinet #8/08

Posted by Andreas, on August 13, 2008 05:04pm.

Character design for the upcoming comic book "TL at the zoo" (working title) continues. The result of competition #2 was published in TL-magasinet #8/08.

The winning contribution, "the three humped Chippiwipp", was drawn by Sofia from Värmlanshult.

My humble interpretation of Sofia's drawing. I don't think I'm revealing too much if I say that Sofia's character will play a major role in the comic book...

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MORE FLASH

Posted by Andreas, on July 31, 2008 02:08am.

I fiddled around with some lip synching until late night. Tricky business.

Remember to leave your speakers on!

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FLASH!!!

Posted by Andreas, on July 27, 2008 07:34pm.

I have recently begun learning Flash, the animation program. Hopefully there's this gig later in the fall that requires me to be able to use this animation tool. Here's some of my early attempts:

One very basic animation skill is to make stuff bounce. I started with the classic bouncing ball drills and ended up with the head of Enur. Apparently he's at some sort of stage. Is he perhaps a stand-up comedian?

Another basic skill, wich is a lot harder to master, is to make good walk cycles. It takes some practise to get the desired flow in the movements. By the way, I drew all these clips directly in Flash. Perhaps that was the hardest thing for me, since I'm so accustomed to pen and paper.

The longer the characters and the closer you get to realistic anatomy, the more complicated it gets. Do you recognize this dude?

I'm taking a short cut to learning Flash through the tutorials at www.cartoonsmart.com. Not that I didn't know how to make walk cycles before, but now I'm learning what tools to use to make them in Flash. I can highly recommend these tutorials to anyone interested in learning animation. It's not that hard when everything comes around. Really.

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TL at the Zoo

Posted by Andreas, on June 23, 2008 07:33pm.

Studio Qassim has begun work on a brand new and exciting project called "TL på Zoo" (TL at the Zoo). It's an illustrations and comics assignment for a Swedish book club for girls called "TL-klubben" (www.tl-klubben.se). The idea is to make a comic book (from scratch!) for TL's members, its story taking place in a zoo. What's unique about the book is that its characters will be created by club members. A number of drawing contests will be held, and the winning submission from each one will be redesigned by me into "a real comic book character" as it will appear in the upcoming book. The winner of competition #1 was Abigail.

Her drawing as well as my redesigned version were published in TL-magasinet #6/08 (the magazine that comes with the monthly book package). Redesigning members' drawings is an interesting challenge that reminds me of Mega Man 4, where the game designers arranged competitions among fans to get new ideas for boss characters. I really like Abigail's drawing, and so I took great care not to "wreck" it. My job is not so much to make it better (Abigail's drawing is good as it is!), but to design this character and future characters in a coherent style that will be possible to draw (in different angles and expressions) in the upcoming comic book.

TL-magasinet #6 also feautures a quite lengthy interview with me, one of the better ones I've been involved with actually (except that they spelled my surname wrong, but I guess I can live with that). Except for the article, my (first and rightly spelled) name was on the cover (in good company with Håkan Hellström and Panic at the Disco - WHOA!), my picture in the table of contents, AND in the editorial I was presented as "one of the coolest cartoonists in the world"! Not bad indeed. It's great that TL wants to promote their comic artists. Unfortunately the article is not on TL-klubbens website, you have to be a member to read it.