Worm

Inching along

And now for something not about the election:

We’re inching along.

With frame animation you never really know what you have until you’re done (for better or worse). I thought the color version was going to be SO cool but I actually prefer the graphite version.

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How did I make this? I’m glad you asked.

First I made some worm shapes in Illustrator.

I brought those worm shapes into Photoshop. I make most of my animations with the “Create Frame Animation” feature.

I lined the shapes up so the worm slowly moves across the screen. I exported those animation frames as PNGs and printed them out.

Then I was able to trace over each frame on a separate piece of paper. For the color version I chose to use 10 different drawing materials. The animation was 40 frames so I knew I would use each material 4 times (this sort of math isn’t necessary, but it soothes my soul). The version without color is just a pencil.

I scanned the drawings and brought the worms back into Photoshop to be animated once again. This is a tedious process that involves moving each frame into the right spot over and over again (40 times to be exact).

So to recap: digital worms, animated, exported, printed, traced, scanned, and reanimated. After all that press play and hope for the best.

It’s almost always worth it.

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“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” “What are you thinking?” “I’m thinking we should go to Jimmy John’s.”

ALSO

• The Look of 'Over the Garden Wall' is a nice visual breakdown of one of my favorite shows. Over the Garden Wall is a great fall show if you watch things seasonally.

• Anna Brones on art as rebellion.

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👋 M, C, K & O

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