Attached Link: http://www.jabberdoggy.com/Tutorials/Tutorials.html

Congrats all around! Well done!

Special Note: There's a differece between information and disinformation.

You can say it with a mouthful of cheddar cheese, no problem. Coincidence?

Wow. Great job, great look. Nice use of various camera positions.

The Anim8or website had a fairly active forum, last time I looked, so it may just be a case of people "going to the source".

Very cool dog!

COVET!!!!!!!

Coolness. I think you've got something there. How did you get the line art effect, anyhow?

Wow! That's really terrific looking. Tell your wife to be glad that you are holding your hand up to the screen; you could be doing something really weird like pretending you have eyestalks growing out of your head and trying to figure out how those move. Like someone, um, I know. (Apparently, it's actually pretty common for animators and illustrators to act out stuff. We, um, I mean, You, are not alone.)

Yay! I got to see it! And you know what? I think you're candle dude has quite a bit of character already. You've got a good handle on the gestures and postures. And I love the line art look. Very cool. In fact, the only thing I noticed was being distracted by the "staticness" of the base of the candle. The base of the candle seems kind of nailed on. Not just that the bottom is firmly attached to the surface, but that the bottom part of the candle is glued on to the "page". I've noticed this sort of thing in my own animation attempts. You know that look cheaply made American cartoons from the 70s have when they saved on animation costs using still shots of the head, and animating the eyes and mouth over them? Sometimes my 3D stuff has that sort of look. I think its because a 3D object that doesn't move renders exactly the same every frame, and that can result in distracting "stiffness" in parts of the image. I haven't really come up with one good way to deal with that. Lots of little tricks, though -- anything that will add some variance between one frame and the next will loosen up the static piece, and make it as dynamic as the rest. Please understand: I'm NOT saying that your animation looks like a cheap 70's cartoon; that's just the best way I know how to illustrate the static problem. And in your animation, it's actually pretty minor. I really like your style of animation, and look forward to seeing more of your stuff (now that I finally got Quicktime to work!).

Heck! I'm still trying to get Quicktime to work. Not that having no idea of what I'm talking about has ever stopped me before (as the folks on this forum know all to well). It's just that I've been thinking a lot about how much expression/information you can pack using minimal lines, and so I've actually been thinking about stick figures a lot, too. Thinking about things tends to make me ramble a lot on web forums.

Attached Link: http://www.clubi.ie/lestat/graphics/machine.jpg

All may not be lost! First of all, take what I say with a grain of salt, as I have not seen the animation (can't get Quick Time to work on my computer). That said-- I think it is possible to get a good character without going the Disney route. You can get a lot of character just by using body posture. One of my favorite examples of "inanimate" characters is the moon machine in Nick Park's "A Grand Day Out". Most of that character's expression is done through the positioning of the arms and hands, with a little from the position of the main body. Watching the film, you have a really good idea of what is going on with this character, even though he has no dialogue and not even a face! So... stick figures, I think, can be dynamic, but it takes some thought. Think of details and gestures. Heck, even experiment with shoulder placement Details.. how about dripping wax for interest? Perhaps the candle can even splatter wax around at times (extreme agitation?). Or maybe if he stands around too long, the wax pools at his feet and he has to tear himself away. The flame: Is it just there, is it like hair, is it his head, is it his hat? And so on. Does he have a reason for cutting up the orange? Or is he a homicidal maniac? The answers to these questions may reveal what sort of stances and postures this character will make. Hmmm... this suggestions an interesting challenge. Can one express mood using a simple primitive?

Perhaps you could upload the file?