Xylus and Dexter in Space! "Laser tag" Episode 5

Xylus and Dexter in Space! "Laser tag" Episode 5 - Cartoon animation

Episode 5 -
of my animated cartoon series Xylus and Dexter in Space!

Here is episode 5 of my animated cartoon Xylus and Dexter in Space!

Concept

In this Episode: The boys search the castle and meet the "The Ghost".

Art

The "ghost" uses a giant ray gun in this episode. The gun is a drawing that was based on an old toy that I have from the Mars Attacks! movie. The toy gun is called the Martian Brain Disintegrator.

Mars Attacks! Martian Brain Disintegrator Ray Gun Toy

illustration of ray gun a ghost and two kids in a doorway

Ray gun artwork screenshot from this cartoon

I also started drawing the backgrounds in the animation software using a Wacom tablet instead of inking them on paper and scanning them.

I had not really captured the grit of drawn backgrounds yet doing this. I learned from this episode that I needed to work on how to translate the detail from the drawn backgrounds to computer-only drawings.

The characters themselves are still being drawn and scanned from ink on paper though.

Animation

There's a lot of walking and running in this episode without dialog then it occurred to me...

How was I going to know when the characters should be doing something without the dialog?

Here is what I decided to do.

I put the audio I recorded for the episode in a video editing program that I use called KDENLive. Then I took the storyboard scenes I penciled and imported them into the video editor.

From there I arranged those sketches in the editor, switching them around to work out the timing with the audio.

Here is one of the storyboards with the drawings of the running scenes

image of boxes and blue pencil drawings in them

Storyboard drawings

Then I took that video and added it to the animation software.

In the animation software, I used that video as a guide for the character drawings. When I was done I deleted the reference video from the animation software.

TV Commercial Joke

The episode was actually shorter than the usual 2 min episode I make so at the end I added a tribute to the old Flinstones TV commercials for Winston Cigarettes they used to play during the show when it was first on television.

And here is a screenshot of the commercial for whiskey and cigarettes I made for the end of this cartoon episode.

Illustration of tv and two boys sitting on a couch

Xylus and Dexter commercial spoof screenshot

Audio

As I said before, with all the running and walking in this cartoon, the audio in the episode was mostly foley sounds. So I spent a lot of time looking for sound effects to use.

When I was done animating I added a few more sound effects for random character reactions too when I saw that some of the parts needed it.

Next time: Watch Episode 6 "Mirror, mirror"

Check out the previous episode 4 "Finder's Creeper" here

https://www.tomrayswebsite.com/2021/11/xylus-and-dexter-in-space-finders.html

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

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

A quick peek behind-the-scenes of a new webcomic series. Coming soon!

I've recently paused my usual diary comic to dedicate my attention to an exciting new project—a fiction webcomic series featuring two characters that may be familiar to my long-time followers. These characters, Bobert and the Monster have made appearances on my website before , and now they're taking center stage. I'm working diligently with the hope of launching the series shortly. In the meantime, I'd like to share this behind-the-scenes video of the drawing process for one of the upcoming pages. Stay tuned for more updates as I bring this creative vision to life.

New song! Variation witch

Keeping up with my plan to release new music every month. This time around I venture into the punk blues realm. Sort of a mixture of The Black Keys and The Eels . This is a song called "Variation witch" by my band Lorenzo's Music . The cover art is actually an antique top that I have in my collection. What I liked about it was the striped disc kind of like something in a Tim Burton film.

Tom Ray

Search This Blog