#timtom

tim drake again

full drawing undercut

In light of Adobe screwing over a sizable chunk of their consumer base, an action that despite my disappointment unfortunately brings me no surprise, it's becoming more and more important to support open-source programs and their developers. Or if need be, take to the high seas.

Personally, I use Krita, granted I'm much more of an illustrator than an animator (though I am learning and adore it). I think it's an amazing program with so much to offer its users, and I would love to see the community grow. It can be intimidating for first time users, but I promise it's far simpler than it looks. If you've used photoshop before, Krita should be fairly intuitive, and there is a preset to set the shortcut keys to match Photoshop's. I have animated on Krita before though never large-scale projects, so while I've personally never had trouble with it, I'm more than willing to accept people's short comings with it.

Blender is another staple of open-source creative software. "Flow" the animated movie that won an Oscar for best animated feature was entirely animated on blender as far as I'm aware. Blender is amazing for 3D animation and modeling, and while it is definitely capable of 2D animation, it is not their main focus.

The reason I made this post, however, is because of an announcement TimTom made just a few hours ago as of writing this. If you don't know, TimTom is an animation youtuber that has been a part of the animation community for a long time and has over two million subscribers. He uploaded a video in which he revealed that he's been working on developing a new open-source free animation and compositing software called Sailbrush. Given the train wreck that is the current animation industry (and most of the world is in our late venture capitalist society), this has honestly given me a lot of hope, both for myself and others who wish to pursue a future as illustrators, animators, and generally creatives. The Kofi for the project is up, and I really want to see this take off. I hope it turns out wonderfully and provides the art community with a tool they can use and love.

TimTom Vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tjpdy1lBw4 Sailbrush Kofi: https://ko-fi.com/sailbrush

Tim's favorite book series as a child was Harry Potter. One year Jason decides to gift Tim the series from a strange secondhand shop he found. Bada Bing Bada Boom Tim wakes up in the Wizarding World. He quickly finds that it is not the canon timeline and set in the 40s. He settles into this strange, but familiar, world and becomes a Photography Intern for The Prophet. Eventually, he is researching artifacts that may help him return home and stumbles upon Borgin & Burkes. When the handsome boy at the counter introduces himself as Tom Riddle, Tim very carefully controls his reaction, but this is also the most interesting thing he's encountered since he came here. He was a Robin, then an independent vigilante, he can't help but seek out danger and play with fire. So he keeps coming back.

At first, Tom is only entertaining this boy because he said he works for a popular newspaper. . . . and he is just that bored. It's a good idea to keep the press and thus public opinion in your pocket. This boy could be useful in the future. But he also starts noticing other things about him. Like how intelligent he is, how careful with his words around him. He can easily keep up with purebloods but is incredibly down to earth.

Yes, I still watch YouTube Animators. Yes, I watched them after the whole blowup in 2017ish (I started watching them in 2021, mind you). Yes, it’s one of the only things I watch on a daily basis. But you have to understand, they motivate me to draw and animate everyday. They have shown TONS of growth over the years, and they should be appreciated more for than what it’s worth. Yes, we have AWESOME indie animation projects like Lackadaisy, The Amazing Digital Circus, Far-Fetched, etc, but we have them too, wether it be big or small. There are people my age who are willing to do the same thing and who are inspired by those people too. PLEASE, appreciate animators on YouTube because they deserve a LOT more love and support.

Thank you.

Not good enough! 😭😭