Xylus and Dexter in Space! "What's That?" Episode 2

Xylus and Dexter in Space! "What's That?" Episode 2 - Cartoon animation

Episode 2 -
of my animated cartoon series Xylus and Dexter in Space!

Here is another episode of my animated cartoon Xylus and Dexter in Space!

The original story I made for this cartoon was 17 pages long! I didn't want to work on just one big long cartoon, so I broke it up into 2-minute episodes.

I was on a Rocky & Bullwinkle kick at the time and I liked how they would tell a story over a series of episodes.

Plus, this way I could try out different things as I went along from part to part. Kind of like how the Rocky cartoons would look very different over the duration of the stories they did.

Concept

In this second cartoon episode, The boys have crash-landed on Mars in front of a creepy castle.

Artwork

I'm still drawing the characters and scanning them to my computer to animate them.

For speed, I had stopped using a brush for inking and changed to a Pigma Micron size 08 marker. It doesn't have the pressure sensitivity of the brush but gives a good solid black line.

Inked castle background

Inked Mars background

Animation

I was able to re-use a lot of the body elements I made for the previous episode. So all I needed to do was pose them in the animation software and add drawings for whatever new moving parts I needed for these new scenes.

Here is an example from the scene in this episode of Dexter being surprised by Xylus.

Dexter animation body elements

Xylus animation body elements

Scene layout with body elements colored and put in place

Audio

I was now adding more sound effects and ambiance as part of the animations, learning how this could enhance what was going on for movements. I started to get obsessed with collecting sound effects and was building up quite the library.

Next time: Watch episode 3 "Castle clause"

Check out the previous episode 1 "Fly Right" here

To Do: Multitasking My Business, Music, and Comics

Sometimes balancing my multiple projects can often feel like an overwhelming task. I sit and think out loud about the tasks I need to juggle this week from my vintage reselling business, my band, and my webcomic series. In this video vlog, I begin the week by prioritizing tasks and setting goals. I'm going to mark them as I go along. ✅ = Done ⏲ = Still waiting Vintage reselling business - The Pop Culture Roadshow With a vintage reselling business to run, the first order of business is to pack orders from weekend sales on platforms like eBay and Mercari. As I pack these items I need to record a 'What Sold' video for my Pop Culture roadshow YouTube channel , turning the task into video content. ✅ Pack orders ✅ List new items I got from estate sales (See my latest eBay store listings here ) ⛔ Create a new "What sold" video for my YouTube page (Recorded not edited - Laptop upgrade issues) Band - Lorenzo's Music I've also got a new song out this month so I nee...

Artwork for the original Candy Land game by Milton Bradley from 1955.

I have a vintage Candy Land game from 1955 by Milton Bradley and I was about to sell it so I thought I would add it to my personal art history course concept I've been doing . I'm going to try and see if I can find out how this game was created, designed and why? Here is what I found out about this game https://candy-land.fandom.com/wiki/Candy_Land_Wiki Candy Land is a board game about children exploring a world made out of candy and other sweets that originally came out in 1949. In every version of the game, there are a group of children that go through Candy Land. In the earliest versions of the game, it was a realistically drawn boy and girl. Drawing of the Candy Land kids I did on my phone ☝ https://board-games-galore.fandom.com/wiki/Candy_Land The game was designed in 1948 by Eleanor Abbott , while she was recovering from polio in San Diego, California. It's rumored that Eleanor also did the original artwork but I didn't find anything that...

How I use one Gmail address for multiple Soundcloud accounts

Do you know the Gmail "+" trick to use one email for multiple accounts on one service? Here's a little trick I use that works for any service. I talked about this on the podcast episode I did with artist Mortimur K . In this case, let's say I used up all the uploads I have for my free Soundcloud account . With this trick, I can open a new free account and use the same Gmail address. I don't want to create another Gmail account to sign up again. Using my one Gmail address for multiple accounts on the same service I don't remember when I learned this but you can alter the name on a Gmail address. Like, let's say mine is "tom@gmail.com". To be clear that is not my email. I wish it was, but this is just a short example. Start with the original Gmail address Add a "+" after the email name Where it says "tom" on the address I can put a "+" after that. Add a "+" after the email name After that "+" I ca...

Some history about artist Alex Toth

So recently I decided I was going to try and learn something about each item in my toy collection and the artwork behind it . Kind of like my own impromptu art history class. Then I'm going to sell it so I can start collecting more! :) Moltar One of the first things I put up for sale was this Space Ghost Coast to Coast Moltar Action Figure from back in 2000. By the way, I learned a valuable lesson when shipping this item to the person who bought it. Never let the people at the post office touch your collectibles! The Space Ghost Coast to Coast show actually used the original artwork from the Hanna Barbera Space Ghost cartoon from the 1960s. Those characters were designed by Alex Toth . I knew his name but didn't really know anything else about him. Here is a sketch I did of Moltar on my phone. So I decided for my first art history lesson I would do a little bit of research on Alex Toth . he died at his drawing table on May 27, 2006, from a heart attac...

Tom Ray

Search This Blog