akgraphica
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Updates and Commission info
6 min read
I now got some new tools and equipment that helps me cut the labor time of my work by more then half. Detailed animations that took me weeks to make now can only takes me days to render. So to help me out and pay for everything, I'm going on another commission run. What I will offering is character illustrations and animation as well as animation assistance for others who are animators, low cost animated scenes, and because I need to make a small campaign out of this I will be doing a thing I call Commission for Commissions where I give appreciation for referrals.
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AK Character Commissions with Dynamic Posing, Excellent Prospective, Foreshortened and figure Anatomy. Professional Grade frame by frame 2d animation with smooth and stabilized transitions, High Detail & Quality for low and affordable prices with fast delivery.
Character Illustration Commissions
The standard price for full body, full color, cel shaded Character illustrations is $25 usd, completion time are 2 - 5+ hour depending on details and request, ETA 1+ weeks.
If you just want line art or a sketch, - $10 usd
Line art with cel shading - $15
Drawing and adding detailed backgrounds - $8 to $15+ usd
Animatic Commissions
Most of the prices listed are rough estimates and can be lower or higher depending on details of the animation request like simple eye blinking and hand waving vs complex posing like dancing and ninjas battles. It would just be best to ask me for a quote for whatever you want to hire me for.
But here are some examples to get an idea.
Draft Animation Scenes
Up to 2 characters,15 sec, line art only with lined background in 16:9 widescreen. - $50 usd
ETA is 2 - 4+ weeks depending on details and request.
Full Color Character short Animations loops
$35 - 60+ usd, ETA 1 -2 weeks.
Animation assistance
Animation assistance for animator and animation projects like animated draft figures, walk cycles, combat fight moves, etc. I do these for cheap starting at $5 usd and up.
Processing
Doing the process of the commission work I will be sending rough samples and previews of the work before completion. Half the payment is needed before the work can be started, payments will be process through paypal.
Commission for Commissions
This is a referral thing where if I get a commission client that was sent to me by another, after the job is completed I will share a cut of the commission payment with the person that help me get the much needed work. I will usually ask how a potential client how they find me and I would like to give appreciation for the help that I can get.
To get and idea of appreciation pay
$1 for $5 jobs
$2 for $10 jobs
$5 for $25
$20 for $100 etc
Contact
For info, request, or quotes send me a note or email me at akgraphica@aol.com
--------
AK Character Commissions with Dynamic Posing, Excellent Prospective, Foreshortened and figure Anatomy. Professional Grade frame by frame 2d animation with smooth and stabilized transitions, High Detail & Quality for low and affordable prices with fast delivery.
Character Illustration Commissions
The standard price for full body, full color, cel shaded Character illustrations is $25 usd, completion time are 2 - 5+ hour depending on details and request, ETA 1+ weeks.
If you just want line art or a sketch, - $10 usd
Line art with cel shading - $15
Drawing and adding detailed backgrounds - $8 to $15+ usd
Animatic Commissions
Most of the prices listed are rough estimates and can be lower or higher depending on details of the animation request like simple eye blinking and hand waving vs complex posing like dancing and ninjas battles. It would just be best to ask me for a quote for whatever you want to hire me for.
But here are some examples to get an idea.
Draft Animation Scenes
Up to 2 characters,15 sec, line art only with lined background in 16:9 widescreen. - $50 usd
ETA is 2 - 4+ weeks depending on details and request.
Full Color Character short Animations loops
$35 - 60+ usd, ETA 1 -2 weeks.
Animation assistance
Animation assistance for animator and animation projects like animated draft figures, walk cycles, combat fight moves, etc. I do these for cheap starting at $5 usd and up.
Processing
Doing the process of the commission work I will be sending rough samples and previews of the work before completion. Half the payment is needed before the work can be started, payments will be process through paypal.
Commission for Commissions
This is a referral thing where if I get a commission client that was sent to me by another, after the job is completed I will share a cut of the commission payment with the person that help me get the much needed work. I will usually ask how a potential client how they find me and I would like to give appreciation for the help that I can get.
To get and idea of appreciation pay
$1 for $5 jobs
$2 for $10 jobs
$5 for $25
$20 for $100 etc
Contact
For info, request, or quotes send me a note or email me at akgraphica@aol.com
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The Labor and Cost of Animating
5 min read
I just wanted to write about the process or my recent processing of animation. And how my work has lately been keeping me lockup in my house in front of my computer for long periods of time, seeing very little sunlight. Back in 2003 -04 when I went from simple flip books to animating on a computer, I notice how long it was taking me to make full color animations that was on like 5sec long. And how complicated it was to make some of the simplest animations. To many time in the past I have an idea of animating something and thought, "bla, that will only take me a week to animate." When in reality it ends up taking me 3 weeks to a month to animate. It seems so simple in mind but reality it's much more complicated then it should seem, as many of us think. And sometime I find that I still haven't learned my lesson and need to over estimate my working time schedules.
To give people a better understanding I wrote a list of steps that I take when I work on animatic projects. I want to give some rough timelines but it is very hard to put because there are so many factors like the details of characters, the no. of characters in the animation, the film length, etc. The more time you spend working the better the quality, the less time that is spent then it can turn out to be crappy.
So I will base this on a 2min frame by frame animation. Pro grade with 5 characters, mid to high lvl detailing on character and background drawings, and full color.
1. Planing - Looking at all ideas and writing down notes. 1hr - > 7+ days (depending on how good you want your cinematic to be, it's good to spend a lot of time on what you want your animation to be about,etc.)
2. Screenplay/Script - Writing out everything out is the most important part, with out this I find my self completely lost. > around 4 -7 day or more.
3. Designing - Character designs, scenery, the style and of the animation. Around > 7 - 14 days
4. Storyboard - placing of the characters and scene, view angles. For me this is just as important as the script. > 4 - 7+ days
5. Voice Acting - if there's any this needs to be made before animation starts because of lip syncing. > Around 3 days.
6. Rough Daft Animation - drafting the animation of all character, vehicle, and prop. > Eh... 3+ weeks?
7. Animation checking - checking the animation to make sure everything looks right, sometimes I watch 5sec loop 50+ times over. > 6 -16hr
8. Character drawing and final inking - High contrast inking of each character, vehicle, and prop frame . > Days???
9. Background drawings - Drawing all the Backgrounds needed for the film. > Days???
10. More checking and Clean ups - Finding and cleaning up any mistakes. > I don't know, I lost track.
11. Keyframe tuning - Key timing for the animations frame on the animation timeline, this simple like task can sometimes take days to get right, and can be very annoying.
12. More Animation Checking
13. Lip sync - Matching the characters lip movement with the voice audio, this is a huge task by it self and can take a long time to get right unless you don't mind flapping mouths like in anime.
14. Audio syncing - timing of the sound effects.
15. Audio Playback Checking
16. Coloring/Painting - All the characters, Backgrounds, etc need to be colored in. > A lot of time.
17. Full Playback Checking - Playback check of the whole film, best to watch multiple times.
These are most of the things I can think of right now and looking at this list it's pretty long, longer then I realized. I recently had to say no to a would be client who wanted a 10min animation for $500 in a short time, to make 10 min of colored animation means I would had to work for days straight for 6 months on just $500 ($250 because I only take half until completion.) I wouldn't be able to afford to pay bills and eat, even for a side project that's to low. I wanted to offer animation, pro grade animation for a low rate to everyone who my need my services, But with all that needs to be done I don't think I will be animating big projects for a low price rates anymore unless the price is right then maybe I will conceded it. For now I will keep everything small and reasonable until I get somethings figured out...
~Where am I going?
To give people a better understanding I wrote a list of steps that I take when I work on animatic projects. I want to give some rough timelines but it is very hard to put because there are so many factors like the details of characters, the no. of characters in the animation, the film length, etc. The more time you spend working the better the quality, the less time that is spent then it can turn out to be crappy.
So I will base this on a 2min frame by frame animation. Pro grade with 5 characters, mid to high lvl detailing on character and background drawings, and full color.
1. Planing - Looking at all ideas and writing down notes. 1hr - > 7+ days (depending on how good you want your cinematic to be, it's good to spend a lot of time on what you want your animation to be about,etc.)
2. Screenplay/Script - Writing out everything out is the most important part, with out this I find my self completely lost. > around 4 -7 day or more.
3. Designing - Character designs, scenery, the style and of the animation. Around > 7 - 14 days
4. Storyboard - placing of the characters and scene, view angles. For me this is just as important as the script. > 4 - 7+ days
5. Voice Acting - if there's any this needs to be made before animation starts because of lip syncing. > Around 3 days.
6. Rough Daft Animation - drafting the animation of all character, vehicle, and prop. > Eh... 3+ weeks?
7. Animation checking - checking the animation to make sure everything looks right, sometimes I watch 5sec loop 50+ times over. > 6 -16hr
8. Character drawing and final inking - High contrast inking of each character, vehicle, and prop frame . > Days???
9. Background drawings - Drawing all the Backgrounds needed for the film. > Days???
10. More checking and Clean ups - Finding and cleaning up any mistakes. > I don't know, I lost track.
11. Keyframe tuning - Key timing for the animations frame on the animation timeline, this simple like task can sometimes take days to get right, and can be very annoying.
12. More Animation Checking
13. Lip sync - Matching the characters lip movement with the voice audio, this is a huge task by it self and can take a long time to get right unless you don't mind flapping mouths like in anime.
14. Audio syncing - timing of the sound effects.
15. Audio Playback Checking
16. Coloring/Painting - All the characters, Backgrounds, etc need to be colored in. > A lot of time.
17. Full Playback Checking - Playback check of the whole film, best to watch multiple times.
These are most of the things I can think of right now and looking at this list it's pretty long, longer then I realized. I recently had to say no to a would be client who wanted a 10min animation for $500 in a short time, to make 10 min of colored animation means I would had to work for days straight for 6 months on just $500 ($250 because I only take half until completion.) I wouldn't be able to afford to pay bills and eat, even for a side project that's to low. I wanted to offer animation, pro grade animation for a low rate to everyone who my need my services, But with all that needs to be done I don't think I will be animating big projects for a low price rates anymore unless the price is right then maybe I will conceded it. For now I will keep everything small and reasonable until I get somethings figured out...
~Where am I going?
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I'm now far pass the stages of experimenting with tools, software, and different techniques for creating high quality stills and animations. At the current skill lvl I can create high quality animations in good time once the animated base draft models are worked out.
Using the "Black Cat Run from Jun 29, 2012" as a example for time and labor rough estimate..
Animating the base draft model for the animated character - 4 to 5 hours of work
Final high contrast line art - 30 to 45 mins per frame (7 frames total for the "Black Cat Run from Jun 29, 2012")
cel shading - 30 to 45 mins per frame
Coloring - 15 to 30 mins per frame
The complete clip would total around 3 to 4 days of work for me to make that 7 framed run cycle. But most of these labor times can be cut by more then half if I had some better graphics tools to work with.
My current tools & equipment
A couple of months ago I purchase a Wacom Intuos5 (Small) usb Tablet in hopes that it would help me to render cels faster then the old tablet that I was using. Unfortunately this $245 upgrade was mostly in vain, the Wacom Intuos5 is a very nice tablet, the best tablet I had. But it's dose not allow me to be no faster then the last tablet it replaces. Using a basic tablet is to distant as I'm drawing on my computer with a remote control pen & pad, it's holding me back. For comparison and I timed it, it took me 9 to 10 min to draw one of my original characters on paper fully completed lined vs 30 to 45+min on the computer using the Intuos5 tablet using the same base draft figure model. Also the line art wasn't as good as the one on paper vs the all digital rendering, the one I did on paper had more flare and style to it. I could do all my cel work on paper to save time but that would mean spending time scanning all my drawings and burning a lot of paper in the process. Also I wouldn't have some of the digital photoshop feature to help me make each cel with ease.
So there are some give and takes when it comes to making animation cels on paper vs all digital on the computer using a remote tablet. So there's a solution for me and it's the Wacom Cintiq, a draw on screen tablet that suppose to simulate drawing on paper. It comes in size models 12ux, 21ux, and the new 24HD the was recently released. For me to have such a tool like that in my hands would allow me to produce drawing, digital cels and animation at much faster speeds. That means it could take me 10 to 15 min per final lining and around the same time for per cel shading. And I know all this for fact because I did a test with hp all-in-one touchscreen computers at one my local best buy store, drawing with my finger using ms paint. Even that allowed me to draw faster then my Inturos5, Unfortunately the all-in-one touchscreen don't come with a pressure pen and don't seem to be upgradable. And the Wacom Cintiq can range $1,000 to $2,600 in price, I don't have that kind of money right now.
Needs
So right now I need to take care of bills & expenses, and then maybe upgrade to a Wacom Cintiq for better work quality and time & labor efficiency. So to try to make some extra pay, I'm opening for commission work.
Commissions info & rough rates and project Hiring.
To be honest I never meant to use my animating for Commissions or to get a job in the field to make money. It started out as a hobby and it was all about having fun making characters come to life on screen. So I plan to do this thing temporarily to take care of bills & expenses, once I make what I need I will close for commissions and then I will go back to just having fun animating my movie.
keep in mine that these are rough rates and are negotiable.
3300×2550 High res still characters full body line art $15 to $20 usd
$8 - $10 extra for cel shading.
$8 - $10 extra for color.
Average rendering labor time around 9+ hours
Character Animations
This is very tricky to put because request can be very simple like eye blinking or hand waving, but can be very complex like character dancing or combat fight moves. There's also the amount of detail and labor that goes into drawing multiple cel frames of character(s). As said prices are negotiable can be higher or lower then the rates listed. Here goes....
Super HD full body Character Animations line art cels starts at $7 - $10 per cel frame. Around $15 per with cel shading and color.
latest examples
"Cyclops Optic blast 7-18-2012"
14 cel frame of forward then reverse playback, full color & cel shading, around 72 hour of labor. 14 cels x $15 is a lot but I would of done that piece for $80 - $100 if someone requested it.
This all seems very expensive but keep in mind that I have to draw detailed character cel multiple times to achieve character movement. If it seems like I'm charging to much then read some info on the cost animation.
> blog.milowerx.com/?p=594
> www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news…
To state, the "NG animation draft Aug 5, 2012" piece has 93 hand drawn cel frames.
Basically If you want to place an animated order then just note me your request details and I tell you the charge.
Things I don't like to draw or animate, porn, hentai, yaoi, dangly parts, and furries. So please do not ask me to abuse my talent.
And if anyone would like to hire me for a film project then my rates would probably be around $700 to $1,000 per min starting price.
(man, I be lucky if I can get any clients, lol!)
Like I said I do not plan to be doing Commissions for long as I have my own movie projects to get off the ground. And animating for me is a joy and to have fun, not to pay my bills.
Now I have to get back to cleaning my computer, I have a worm that refuses to be deleted..
-kj
Using the "Black Cat Run from Jun 29, 2012" as a example for time and labor rough estimate..
Animating the base draft model for the animated character - 4 to 5 hours of work
Final high contrast line art - 30 to 45 mins per frame (7 frames total for the "Black Cat Run from Jun 29, 2012")
cel shading - 30 to 45 mins per frame
Coloring - 15 to 30 mins per frame
The complete clip would total around 3 to 4 days of work for me to make that 7 framed run cycle. But most of these labor times can be cut by more then half if I had some better graphics tools to work with.
My current tools & equipment
A couple of months ago I purchase a Wacom Intuos5 (Small) usb Tablet in hopes that it would help me to render cels faster then the old tablet that I was using. Unfortunately this $245 upgrade was mostly in vain, the Wacom Intuos5 is a very nice tablet, the best tablet I had. But it's dose not allow me to be no faster then the last tablet it replaces. Using a basic tablet is to distant as I'm drawing on my computer with a remote control pen & pad, it's holding me back. For comparison and I timed it, it took me 9 to 10 min to draw one of my original characters on paper fully completed lined vs 30 to 45+min on the computer using the Intuos5 tablet using the same base draft figure model. Also the line art wasn't as good as the one on paper vs the all digital rendering, the one I did on paper had more flare and style to it. I could do all my cel work on paper to save time but that would mean spending time scanning all my drawings and burning a lot of paper in the process. Also I wouldn't have some of the digital photoshop feature to help me make each cel with ease.
So there are some give and takes when it comes to making animation cels on paper vs all digital on the computer using a remote tablet. So there's a solution for me and it's the Wacom Cintiq, a draw on screen tablet that suppose to simulate drawing on paper. It comes in size models 12ux, 21ux, and the new 24HD the was recently released. For me to have such a tool like that in my hands would allow me to produce drawing, digital cels and animation at much faster speeds. That means it could take me 10 to 15 min per final lining and around the same time for per cel shading. And I know all this for fact because I did a test with hp all-in-one touchscreen computers at one my local best buy store, drawing with my finger using ms paint. Even that allowed me to draw faster then my Inturos5, Unfortunately the all-in-one touchscreen don't come with a pressure pen and don't seem to be upgradable. And the Wacom Cintiq can range $1,000 to $2,600 in price, I don't have that kind of money right now.
Needs
So right now I need to take care of bills & expenses, and then maybe upgrade to a Wacom Cintiq for better work quality and time & labor efficiency. So to try to make some extra pay, I'm opening for commission work.
Commissions info & rough rates and project Hiring.
To be honest I never meant to use my animating for Commissions or to get a job in the field to make money. It started out as a hobby and it was all about having fun making characters come to life on screen. So I plan to do this thing temporarily to take care of bills & expenses, once I make what I need I will close for commissions and then I will go back to just having fun animating my movie.
keep in mine that these are rough rates and are negotiable.
3300×2550 High res still characters full body line art $15 to $20 usd
$8 - $10 extra for cel shading.
$8 - $10 extra for color.
Average rendering labor time around 9+ hours
Character Animations
This is very tricky to put because request can be very simple like eye blinking or hand waving, but can be very complex like character dancing or combat fight moves. There's also the amount of detail and labor that goes into drawing multiple cel frames of character(s). As said prices are negotiable can be higher or lower then the rates listed. Here goes....
Super HD full body Character Animations line art cels starts at $7 - $10 per cel frame. Around $15 per with cel shading and color.
latest examples
"Cyclops Optic blast 7-18-2012"
14 cel frame of forward then reverse playback, full color & cel shading, around 72 hour of labor. 14 cels x $15 is a lot but I would of done that piece for $80 - $100 if someone requested it.
This all seems very expensive but keep in mind that I have to draw detailed character cel multiple times to achieve character movement. If it seems like I'm charging to much then read some info on the cost animation.
> blog.milowerx.com/?p=594
> www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news…
To state, the "NG animation draft Aug 5, 2012" piece has 93 hand drawn cel frames.
Basically If you want to place an animated order then just note me your request details and I tell you the charge.
Things I don't like to draw or animate, porn, hentai, yaoi, dangly parts, and furries. So please do not ask me to abuse my talent.
And if anyone would like to hire me for a film project then my rates would probably be around $700 to $1,000 per min starting price.
(man, I be lucky if I can get any clients, lol!)
Like I said I do not plan to be doing Commissions for long as I have my own movie projects to get off the ground. And animating for me is a joy and to have fun, not to pay my bills.
Now I have to get back to cleaning my computer, I have a worm that refuses to be deleted..
-kj
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Why am I here?
2 min read
I'm an aspiring artist, animator, and movie maker. I been drawing since I was 6 and I started animating and making flip books in the 3rd, 4th grade after watching one of my classmate make one. Making traditional 2d frame by frame animations became one of my hobbies as I continued drawing and animating flip books threw out my school years. In 2003 I wanted to take my art and animation skills to a digital lvl and got me a good computer a started using Macromedia Flash 5, I then had a wide range of tools flexibility beyond that of an pen and a mini book to bring my animations to life.
In late 03 I discovered Newgrounds.com and started working on an flash movie to display my art. I started out strong but for some reason never got around to completing a movie or any movie for that matter for the past 8+ years. Just getting back to illustrating and animating as it's been a on & off thing since 2003, illustrating, making short animated films, and making old school styled video game and video game spites has always been the dream. I now looking to be a full time Animator and graphics designer but I still consider myself a novice an a amateur and I have a lot of learning and I catching up to do...
-kj
In late 03 I discovered Newgrounds.com and started working on an flash movie to display my art. I started out strong but for some reason never got around to completing a movie or any movie for that matter for the past 8+ years. Just getting back to illustrating and animating as it's been a on & off thing since 2003, illustrating, making short animated films, and making old school styled video game and video game spites has always been the dream. I now looking to be a full time Animator and graphics designer but I still consider myself a novice an a amateur and I have a lot of learning and I catching up to do...
-kj
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Upgraded to Adobe Flash CS3
1 min read
Just started using Adobe Flash CS3 after upgrading from Macromedia Flash MX 2004. The PSD importing feature work great with Adobe Photoshop CS3, this will help my work go a little faster and a lot easier for me. I will probably be up all night animating, very happy with my new software. 
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