Trying Out a New Animation Program (P.1)

Since people gave me positive feedback about my post  describing plans for my future animated short film. I thought I'd tell you more about the animations I am working on, and how it is has been going. I am trying a new program (Adobe Animate) for animation. The animation program I was using before (SketchBook) wasn't working for me (if it works for you that's awesome). 

Since I am trying out the new program, I have had to play around with it, so here is what I did: 

                                          Step 1- Getting it to work/Trying it out  

I decided as a test to do a simple animation technique, the bouncing ball.  From here on, these are my notes that I captured as I was animating: 

Given that I don't fully know how the program works, I thought I should start with something simple and move on from there. I figured out that Adobe Animate can in fact be used for 2D hand-drawn animation, and not just puppet animation, by doing this simple test. Though I did run into things that were bother-some.

This was very annoying to deal with

 Adobe Animate makes it difficult to add a frame for some reason, and I had to draw and then press delete in order for the program to understand that it was a new frame. This made it very tedious over time: to press add frame and then delete over and over. 

Why is it selecting this? 

When I first started using the program, it would just highlight what I was drawing but it didn't do that when I moved to advanced mode instead. These are just some annoying starting points, which is  what happens with every software when you do it for the first time. 

                               

                                                 Step 2- Making a coherent animation 

Now that I know how it works I decided to make a short bouncing ball animation (which is also a thing that you do when you're a beginner animator): 

This is definitely not an animation I'd upload to my YouTube channel or one that I feel super proud of, but it is a very good starting point for animating something simple when you don't know the program that well and are trying out a new animation program. 

Step 3- Color! and a Background!

One thing I wanted to do, that my other animation program made difficult, was to do color and a background. I figured I'd try it out with Adobe Animate (as a test, like before), so I used the same bouncing ball animation I made and this time added color: 

It worked really well, so then I added a new layer (it allows you to have many layers) and created a background (though I did have to move the layer down and copy it in order to do so): 

And it worked. 

Since this is going to be a series, the future posts you will see regarding it will not be test animations (though there will be a few here and there). Instead I will show you what animations I make with the program. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Have you animated before? If so, what animation program(s) did you use? 

-Quinley 

It's My Blog's Anniversary! (+ Drawings)

Greetings Travelers, 

Yesterday (March 9th) was my blog's anniversary, and while I will be doing more posts like this (videos of me drawing digitally) in the future, I thought I'd introduce this new style of post through my blog's anniversary. 

You can also watch it here 

In the last post I shared a drawing of Phoenix that I was thinking of turning into a water color. I ended up not doing that, because I was worried I'd mess up the drawing. 

So I instead decided to color it digitally. 

You can also watch it here 

While I didn't include this drawing in the last post, I thought I would recolor the drawing of Annabelle (above) that I thankfully had taken a picture of because the drawing got messed up. 

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Which of the two drawings are your favorite? Have you done drawing digitally before? If so what software did you use? 

-Quinley 

Phoenix and Annabelle Get Interviewed For a Villainous Job

Hello everyone,  

I didn't make a post for the holiday season last year (2020), but that was because I had this post planned which took a little longer than I intended for it to take. Instead of one video I planned to post two. And with filming and video editing, uploading and everything, it took a lot longer than oringally I assumed it would. 

Ginny Di has done three POV videos  for Dungeons and Dragons character development: one that is a healer, one that is a matchmaker and one that is a villain. The videos are fun to watch, because they make you be in character and answer the questions in character, rather than answering the questions for your character. While these were originally intended for Dungeons and Dragons characters, I thought they would also work for the characters from my novels. Even though the villain video does mention a few Dungeons and Dragons terms it can still work really well in a Fantasy setting. So, I decided to use my two characters, Phoenix (from All is Not Lost For All Will Begin Again) and Annabelle (The Lady Annabelle mystery series), and make them react separately to being interviewed by a villain. 

Let's begin: 

You can also watch it here

In Annabelle's interview, the events that she mentions happen in book two (the death of her fiance, etc.) 

You can also watch it here

In Phoenix's interview, this is long before he is working for Reyvon, so he has no job and is desperate at this point. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Who should get the job? (Annabelle or Phoenix) and why? And of the two of them, which do you think would be a better villain? 

-Quinley 

Watercolor Paintings and Pencil Sketches

 

Hi everyone,

 I have two acting videos that I am in the middle of editing, which I hope to post sometime soon. In the meantime, since editing for those kinds of things takes so long (and since some of the footage got messed up), I am going to present for you my most recent drawings instead: 

A water color painting of Merricat from We've Always Lived in the Castle. 

I really like how her hair turned out. 

I had intended to turn this drawing of Phoenix into a water-color painting, however, I really liked how it turned out as a pencil sketch so I didn't want to paint it and mess it up. 

 I was thinking it would be neat to paint it digitally in the future.

I am not going to give out all the information for this yet (because this is something for a gothic story that I am plotting at the moment), but I used this doodle as a way to illustrate my character, Matilda's point of view. This doodle shows what happened in the story from her perspective, at least at the moment what I know of it. 

And this follows the same theme. But this time illustrating her brother, Felix's point of view. 

A painting of Chirara, I really like how it turned out, especially her hair. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Which sketch or painting is your favorite? And would you like to see me digitally paint my drawing of Phoenix? 

-Quinley  

A Look Into a World #1: Medical Magic (The Lady Annabelle Mystery series)

                       This series was inspired by Meri Greenleaf's awesome world-building posts . 

This is the beginning of a new blog series on the novels I am writing. 

I'm still writing the Mystery of the Body Thief. My goal in the first draft was lay out the story. The second draft is going to be a little more centered on character development and world-building.

This blog series will also show you more of the worlds of other Fantasy stories I am writing (All is Not Lost for All Will Begin Again and Eyes in the Night). I will be featuring the religions, the magic, the history, and the different species of the worlds I create, and maybe some of the world's scientific discoveries. 

Medical Magic in The Mystery of the Body Thief 

                                                 The song that inspired this: 

If one is to be a nurse or a doctor in Annabelle's world, it is much more time consuming for the student than in our world. This is because not only do you have to learn how the different parts of the body react to different magics and medicines, but you have to learn to devote yourself to one of the various nature gods and then learn nature magic, which also doubles as healing magic. The various gods that you may devote yourself to are the fire god, the air god, the earth god, or the water god. All have different ways of healing someone through magic that the student will have to master.

Because of this, nurses and doctors are kind of druid and witch like, and sometimes even someone you might turn to for spiritual help. People believe they can heal their body and soul. It is common that two doctors of different elements will work together, because they can heal the patient more thoroughly if the two elements are combined: like earth and water, or air and earth, or air and water, but never fire and water, because they would cancel each other out.

A lot of the training involves prayer to the god or goddess whom you have chosen to learn magic from, and looking through different spell books and delivering the sacred words.

                                                         Earth's healing abilities: 

                       The Goddess of the earth.                            

 Earth is very centered on grounding the body if the owner of the body doesn't feel like they have their feet firmly planted on the ground. The goddess also wants the person to feel the healing power of the woods and creeks. Another healing thing Earth does, is to help the patient realize they are part of the cycle of the world, and that they are not separate from the cycle. They can be one with animals and plants of the world.

Spell to invoke the goddess: I call upon the goddess of the earth, to give me strength and ground myself, tell me the secrets hidden deep in the ground, open my eyes to what I may have overlooked, 
allow me to care for all the creatures of earth that you do, allow me to harm none. Give me knowledge to heal the wounded and the sick, goddess breathe life into the dying! 

                                                            Fire's healing abilities: 

The Fire god

Fire tends to do something very acupuncture like. The person who has the magic related to it, will touch the patient's body and temporarily heal them of the pain they have been feeling in that area. It only lasts twenty four hours or a little more, but it helps ease the pain of the patients.

Spell to invoke the fire god: Oh, ever changing fire god, I call upon you. Let your warmth heal the sick and those who feel cold, like those who are in pain feel energetic like your flickering flames, 
let the body feel worth, let the injured be able to move again, let them feel energy flowing again! 

                                                           Air's healing abilities: 

The Air God 

 Air wants to help get the body to its higher (or divine) self. This also helps on the spiritual level of having the patient get more spirituality connected to the gods and the universe.

Spell to invoke the air god: Ever high up air god, let others reach your height. Let the injured and the sick feel your presense, breathe healing wind in their direction and send not the sickening winds, but the healing winds with (Nurse or doctor chanting this adds in what they want the god to send), give me your knowledge and wisdom, let me heal the sick, and let your winds come close to us! 

                                                            Water's healing abilities: 

The Water Goddess

Water makes the body feel more fluid and in the moment. If the patient is feeling like they are overwhelmed the water elemental has powers that will help them feel more like they can affect the world in positive ways.

Spell to invoke the goddess: I call upon the ever flowing water goddess, help me heal, help me heal others with your enchanting gaze, let knowledge of healing trickle onto my fingers, let it flow onto the sick and the injured, let the stuck flow like a running river, like them feel whole instead of empty! 

Because of this, the religion of the world and the magic are intertwined, and while you don't always need to be a priest or a priestess to have magic, you do at least need to be devoted to a god or a goddess in your practice of it. And if you aren't you are frowned down upon by society. 
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Which god or goddess is your favorite of the ones I created? If you had a choice what element would you have the powers of? 

-Quinley

Using Polls to Create Art #1

I wasn't feeling well one day, so I did a whole lot of drawings in order to make myself feel a little better, and because of that I thought it would be fun to challenge myself and draw my characters in different styles or doing different things than they would normally do. This is a little bit like the post I did previously, except that I'm using pre-created characters and asking what they should be doing instead of creating a totally new character. 

Since NaNoWrimo has a thread dedicated to polls, I thought it would be fun to do polls that could produce drawing exercises for me. What I did was ask people to vote for which character I should draw, and then ask them what should happen in the drawing in a separate poll. 

And these drawings are what came out of it (unless I say otherwise all of these were majority votes): 

This is a drawing of Elm which I decided would be fun to draw in the Disney 2D animated style. 

I really like how it turned out. 

                

                         Since Annabelle detests dresses (for reasons that you will find out in the future), 

                  I thought it would be interesting to draw her wearing one that appeared in my book. 

                 Even though she really doesn't like it, I still like how it turned out.  

Phoenix in 2D animated drawing  style, this time mimicking that of Tangled the Series. 

This is a drawing of Elm using her powers which are her singing abilities. 

Her singing has magical attributes, which can cause the world around her

to dance, among other things. 

                                         **trigger warning: This drawing contains a bit of blood** 

Since Halloween was soon...ish when I drew this, I had Detective Inspector Time investigating a creepy (and haunted) house. 

                                                           **end of trigger warning** 

This one was particularly hard because Annabelle is a morally gray character and turning her into a villain is difficult. Annabelle can be seen as either, and she is often seen as a threat by those around her. So instead of going full out evil villain, I turned her into an assassin instead.  She is a detective (in her story), so making her a murderer would be completely different. 

Even though this was not the majority vote, I decided to draw Phoenix as a villain anyway. Interestingly enough, everything he would wear as a villain would be raven-themed. And he would have fun being a villain. Also, for some reason I imagine him stroking a raven or crow like most villains would a cat. 

This drawing also helped me figure out what would cause Phoenix to go from a protagonist to an antagonist. 

Someone at one point thought it would be neat to see Annabelle in Steampunk clothes. 

So I ended up drawing her that way, even though it was not the top vote. And I have a feeling she would like the Steampunk outfit a lot better than she did the dress from earlier. 

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Which drawing is your favorite? What would your character(s) be like if they became a villain? 

-Quinley 

I Finished the First Draft of The Mystery of the Body Thief!

 

I just finished The Mystery of the Body Thief's First Draft!! 

I had four different attempts in writing this series, before I came to one that actually worked. The previous attempts were: The Case of Confusion, The Mystery of the Stolen Crown, The Race Against Time and The Mystery of the Phantom of Dragonspire Court.

When I wrote The Mystery of the Body Thief I intended it at first to be the fifth book, but because the other books didn't end up working, it ended up being the first book. The Mystery of the Body Thief had the strongest plot and a coherent one, as well.  I believe this is the first successful mystery book I have ever written. However, in the first draft I sort of forgot to world-build, because I was much more focused on the mystery. So, just like any first story, it's not perfect. It can be improved through editing, rewriting, and world-building. (Which I will talk more about later, in this post).

During this NaNoWrimo,  I made the word count goal pretty high at first because I thought it would take a while to reach the end of the story. I ended up lowering the goal a bit, because otherwise I would have been forcing the story to go on for longer than it needed to be, and at that point I may have been just pouring out unneeded words. 

 Now onto what the story is about: 

                                               (Images from wikipedia, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Red_hair_in_art#/media/File:William_Strang_portrait_Cynthia_1917.jpg, 

Drawn to Writing , and Pexels and Pixabay). 

                               Synopsis

Genres: Fantasy | Murder Mystery with a bit of Adventure. Series: It is the first book in the Lady Annabelle Mystery Series. 

Horatio wakes up from being in a coma, but he doesn't remember anything that happened before he fell into unconsciousness. All that he remembers is a name, "Annabelle!" 

Also... Detective Inspector Time finds himself having to solve a case without Lady Annabelle.
Murders have been happening throughout many different kingdoms, and no one knows who exactly is behind it all. 

Go here and here to read the two other posts I made about this novel.   

                   Music for the world      

 

You can also listen to it here. 

Since I made a playlist/soundtrack of music I listened to while writing my story, I thought I would post the playlist. This is where I get some of the inspiration for the world that I am at the moment working on, and that will show up in my future posts. 😉

What's Next for The Mystery of the Body Thief? 

I'm going to be working on the second draft, which is mainly going to be focused on world-building as the first draft was more focused on the plot, than the world itself. And because of that I intend to share some of my world-building process in a new series for this blog, A Look Into a World. It will be focusing on how the society works, the religions of the world work, and how the magic works. (Though in this world the magic and the religions are tied closely together, because the gods give people magic). 

Also I gave two of my character's powers recently. I need to figure out more clearly what they actually do, and what gods they are connected to. (Basically who they'd be a devotee to). I also need to figure out Vonivera's powers, I know a little about them like she can turn invisible but I don't know much else. Vonivera was born with her powers, instead becoming a devotee to a god or goddess, while the other two characters have powers given to them from gods and goddesses. I also have a sorceresses character who I vaguely know the powers of, but I need to figure them out. 

I also need to get to know the other main characters, as I seemed to be more in Annabelle's and Horatio's heads, than anyone else's. So I want to get to know them better, I already know at least one of them well at this point and that is Annabelle's father Lord Oberon. But everyone else I hope to know better through second drafting. 

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What type of magic system(s) do you have in your Fantasy world(s)? And in First drafting did you ever forget to world-build? 

-Quinley