axrucks

Basic Info on the Piece

Program & Device: Pixel Studio Mobile phone.

Frames: 16

FPS: 0.15

Layers: 18(there were no folders to organize then either ;O;)

Canvas Size: 128×128

Time: Started at approximately 10:50 AM and finished at 5:21 PM, took one short brake, so I'll guess around 4-6 hours? The app doesnt record time taken.

Stages & Process

I made around 6-10 different attempts at drawing the rig, I didnt think to save most of them, but with the first 2 I used them as a base to build on and make a new and bigger one, so I saved those two! They will be very tiny though cause I didnt save them as full-size images.

I may or may not have forgotten to animate the water in the back- but I kinda like it that way.

I miss having a blur tool like I have on Ibispaint ;v;

Honestly, within the actual animating process, the water was the most difficult thing to animate, I initially was gonna draw unique waves for every frame, but that looked bad so I made a layer of waves that looked decent and used the manipulation tool and added/removed lines to and from the waves

First attempt on a 32×32 canvas

Kinda looks like a turret gun-

Was too small to work with, was basically scrapped since I only expanded/used the legs.

Second attempt on a 64×64 canvas

I made it too thin and too tall, didn't have room to expand the width, but used it as a reference to build the final product, the left(<-) side was kept almost the same and is on the final product with many improvements.

Unanimated finished piece

I almost left it unanimated- but Im glad I did animate it, still love it in a still version though!

Baira D without the animation, background, and effects, 128×128

Its a bit ugly when nude like this lol

I was able to eyeball it for most of the colours and got all the colours I wanted just from looking at a ref

I can see many flaws on it, such as the body being a bit short, the helipad looks a bit weird, and the off tilt of the crane, but they were things I couldnt fix without pulling the whole thing apart, and since they arent extremely apparent and dont make it look bad, I didn't bother to try and fix it more.

The parts Im proudest of flare stack, the actual animated version, the layering of colours, and the underig, which I think looks really good! I kinda love the lights in the animated version and the fog too.

You guys are free to use these and the finished piece as a asset in your own art, profiles, etc. So long as you credit me and don't use it commercially!

Also! If you use anything of mine please feel free to @ or pm me! Id love to see what you used it for!

Scrapped Ideas

• Was going to make the flame have a sudden burst, but didnt know how to make it look good without t looking weird

• Helicopter flying away, scrapped due to not being good for a looping gif, thought of doing it with it returning, but it would've been too tiny, plus the helicopter blades would be a pain.

• Individually glowing windows/lights, thought it after I already finished animating the lighting, so I left it, plus it'd take forever to change every individual light in each frame.

• The shape glow or creeping up, scrapped due to difficulty, I might try and make an alt version with this idea though! I also kinda want to make a version with the rig falling apart but I have no full-rig refs.

• Audio with ambient swtd sound effects or music. Didnt do because Im not paying for the pro version of the app and I wanted it to be a gif not an mp4.

• Movement of loose rig parts, crane, etc. Too complex for my first time animating this big.

• Waving and/or active drill. I have no idea how to do this, plus the same reason as the previous idea.

• Mini coloured rig. Was going to make it on a 16×16 canvas for a cute lil animation. Well... look at the finished piece and you know why that was scrapped. Also, couldn't find a coloured rig picture even though I sware I had one-

• Brighter flare stack. I have no idea how to make it look brighter so I gave up-

• More layers and detail. Nuh uh, I was going to make it more details and have more distinguised features, but that's would've taken (more)hours. ;v;

• More environnental effects such as weather, more water details, etc. I liked it how it was so I stopped adding more.

•Further from the rig. The rig ended up much bigger then I intended, and took the whole canvas, Im glad it did though, the water would've been so painful to animate.

References

Rig reference

Had this up during the whole process! I got it from the SWTD official website(I think-)

The angle definitely made things a little awkward, but it worked out! I also used it to reference what colours to use.

First animation I ever did! Has two versions! stormy and calm.