Walk Cycle Options - or Managing FPS Madness!

Thought I would give a brief tutorial on walk cycle animations.  Currently working on my Tarzan film and am trying to choose what frame rate to work in.

12 fps - Shooting in 2s

This is cartoony and a bit janky but is very time efficient and can look nice with a few 24fps (working on 1's) frames thrown in.

24fps - Shooting on 1s

This is the creme-dela-creme of animation and everything is lovely and smooth.  However maybe a bit to realistic in movement for very cartoony puppets that perhaps would look more natural on 2s.

See here the differences in this rough animation to see the same motion they display dispite having the same timing.  

15fps - Shooting on 2s

This has the nice effect of giving the animation a more sleek motion for a few extra frames of work per second.  Obviously you can throw in a few 30fps (working on 1's) frames for speeding elements if required.  Thinking I may work with this one for the film to be honest as I like the speed.  On 12fps it is too slow and 24fps is too much work so this feels like a nice goldielocks zone.

I see 15fps alot from Kevin Ulrich as he enjoys working at this frame rate as seen on his lego youtube shorts.

Krita Animation - Without Cintiq?

 Something I whipped up using just the mouse pad since my cintiq has gone died on me.

Trying to use vectors and splines here... maybe more to come...

2025 Update

 Hello everyone.

You may or may not be glad to hear I am still alive... for now.

Still living in London.  Still a little reclusive.

Working on some Animated Projects:

This Little Tarzan film I am working on is inspired by the works of Brad Bird as well as Sam Reimi's stuff on Spiderman.  

Many sets have been constructed.  All in Cardboard, keeping it simple.

Just painting now... lots and lots of painting.  Boy is it getting tedius.

Also...

Have been recovered from chest infection so that is a plus.

Also...

Making a little Cockroach animation, you know, for fun!  

Stay Tooned.

Blast from the Past

I remember when this came out.  The age of great Happy Meal toys.

Diner Woman Test

 

Just another test here - trying to do more dimensional designs.  Do you like my easy walk cycle?

Pub Puppet Test

 

This one was nice and quick.  I am trying to make very simple puppets and animations and this is I think as pared down as I can go.  The painted foam board with rods to puppeteer allow me to create detailed character designs and easy to perform.  This style would be great if I wanted to do longer form content and needed to smash out vast amounts of puppets and performances in a day.

Ideas...

Just playing around with head ideas for stop-motion.  

I enjoy being inspired by 2d animation as a starting point.  I draw reeeeaaaall slow so never a valid career path compared to animation.  I still think I might enjoy the look of the medium more than stop mo tho.  

I also like the amazing speed of promarkers but just wish I didn't get such banging headaches from the alcoholic fumes in them.  

Sigh.  Maybe just stick to gauche or acrylics.

Whazzup

It looks like I'm getting back into blogging.

Back in 2007 I remember I had just started college here in the uk. (uk college is late stage high school for Americans)  I had little to no idea on what my vocation was in life, but thought I would try out a bunch of courses in various artistic and non-artistic pursuits.  come to think of it, I still am not entirely sure on what my vocation will be and I'm now 32!  

I remember spending inordinate amounts of time looking at art blogs (spending way more time looking at stuff than drawing sadly.)  Blogs are great because, unlike Facebook, you have your own little island with all your stuff in one place and if you want to engage with anyone else you went to someone else's blog and commented on there stuff with only them in context.  On Facebook you get bombarded with endless posts from the 100 or so people you know.  Blogs were different. You had to remember the ones you liked.  It was like a village of private people who would open their doors wide if you only would knock.

I remember staring in awe at the animation artist blogs of Glen Keane and other animator blogs where you could see all their rough work and ideas.  Put my stuff to absolute shame but that dopamine hit after clicking next at the bottom of the page is still tangible.  

Back then I was just a GW lotr miniature head with a background in entertaining and carnivals.  Now I am an animation (maybe ex/animation) professional myself and can now see those early art bloggers of 2006-9 as peers.  Maybe my plan now is to post a little more up here and reflect the kind of casual here's-something-im-playing-around-with energy that I saw in the blogs of my artistic heroes growing up.  Stop motion is not terribly like 2d animation so maybe some of this will be of interest to another 16 year old who may stumble across it.  Many of my favourite blogs are abandoned (Many with last posts around 2016 interestingly).  I guess they are now in favour of Instagram.  

I'm sick of inta - give me a musty old blog any day.

 I'm Back?...

Hello there,

I am a stop motion sculptor, model maker and animator.  From May to September 2017, I worked as a Puppet Department Junior and Additional Animator on Chuck Steel Night of the Trampires in South Wales.  In June of 2018 I underwent a three week internship at Aardman Animations where I worked on developing several short animated segments.  In recent months, I have worked with the A+C Studio on a variety of projects.

I have experience in puppet fabrication utilizing Tin Cure and Platinum Cure Silicone, Urethane Resins, Latex, Plaster and Paper.  I also have skills working in puppet design to armature construction (silver soldering), casting, molding, painting and video editing in Premier Pro and After Effects.

Previous professional experience include; Sculpting, Model-Making, Animating, Miniature Sculpting, Acting and Children's Entertaining.

Website
LinkedIn.

2019 Demo Reel

GUS KEARNS - DEMO REEL 2019 from Gus Kearns on Vimeo.

Lego Set Design

Here are some clips from the Lego project which I had worked on earlier this year at A+C studios. I constructed the sets for the firework factory, Parisian skyline, frozen landscape and Frankenstein's laboratory. Great crew and cool to have so much creative freedom with the set design. 

Full version of the info bites can be found on the Lego Youtube page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5TIU07c4hU&t=520s

Lego YouTube Set Work from Gus Kearns on Vimeo.

A+C Studios Paper-Craft Work

British Airways - Gatwick South Terminal Check-in Guide. Paper-craft Stop-motion animation from A+C Studios on Vimeo.

I recently completed work on this Paper-Craft project for British Airways with the creative team at A+C Studios based in Margate. I worked mostly in Adobe Illustrator, adapting, designing and modelling various characters and elements. If your passing though Gatwick Airport’s South Terminal over Christmas, give it a watch on the big screen!

Click Here for a link to the Behind the Scenes...

A+C Studios Sculpting Work

I worked on this project over a week in August with the talented artists at A+C Studios.  For my part, I sculpted the band members, instruments and the masked burglar featured in this AXA XL insurance commercial.  It was an engaging project with a quick turnaround.  Coincidentally, I watched Spinal Tap for the first time just a few weeks earlier.

AXA XL Insurance from A+C Studios on Vimeo.

Internship at Yamination Studios

I helped develop this commercial for the Colorado Lottery whilst interning at Yamination Studios this July.  I spent a busy week fabricating trees and other scenic elements alongside the skilled model makers at the studio.


And here's the making of...
The Making of Colorado Lottery Campaign from Yamination Studios on Vimeo.

Chuck Steel Premiere

I have returned from the week long Annecy Animation Festival in France.  Here I attended the world premiere of Chuck Steel - Night of the Trampires and finally saw the film I worked on last year.  Fantastic to see how it all came together!!  (I am lurking in the back, fourth from the right.)

Aardman Internship

From May to June, 2018, I underwent an animation internship at Aardman Animations.  I worked under Lloyd Price and Grant Maisey, producing a series of short animated segments with a puppet fabricated by Aardman's in-house model makers.

During this period I also worked in collaboration with the Assistant Animators by producing replacement Plasticine mouths for feature characters.

Stuttgart Animation Festival - 48 Hour Challenge

Here is an animation completed by Giulia Marcolini and myself for the 48 hour "Crazy Horse" competition at the Stuttgart Animation Festival in Germany.  We arrived with two suitcases of equipment, puppets and sets and after two days of work and 3 hours of sleep, we submitted this film.  I produced the puppets, set and animation for the "horse with newspaper" segment of the film.

Chuck Steel Sculpting / Animating

Here is the trailer for the film that I worked on this year.  I have been busy sculpting heads, molding and animating with the skilled team down at the Animortal Studio in South Wales.  It is a privilege to have worked with a crew who are so respected in the field of stop motion and puppet making.

(None of the puppet/animation work in this teaser trailer is mine as I began work towards the end of production.  Once the film is released, I will post images detailing my involvement.)

An image of me at work in the puppet department at the Animortal Studio.

Western Stop-motion Film

Here is a small scale stop-motion film I produced during my 3rd semester at Staffordshire University. I produced all puppets, sets, props and animation for the film.  The puppets themselves stand 4 inches high from their feet to their head.

Bart's Revenge from Gus Kearns on Vimeo.