So the other day I was taping my old plastic, sloped light table to the top of my air conditioner outside, to keep the rain from pounding on it too loudly. It has been three years since I've needed it, seeing as how I've been using this extravagant & huge 21" Wacom Cintiq tablet to animate (you can see me using it at the end of RAB19. I haven't ever looked back, because it is a very practical, useful, and sexy thing to work with.
Gone are the days where I had to draw on paper first, with a damn pencil. I would be inking, scanning, vectorizing, coloring, and importing artwork into Flash, all before actually assembling everything together into a RAB episode. Now I just draw the shit RIGHT IN FLASH, allowing for a better line quality, easier quick-fixes if an arm or eyeball or testicle is out of place, and greater control over the animation process itself.
It has made the quality about 500% better.
However, it has NOT exactly made the process 500% quicker! Oh, sure, it seems like a more elegant workflow now that I'm not having to go through all the crapola that went with the light table (here's an old "Behind-the-Scenes" thing on YouTube, filmed in 2004 around the time RAB5 was getting made). But let's face it... I was unemployed in 2003 and cranking out a new RAB episode every single week. And now, even though the episodes are only about 3-5 times as long, they're taking ALL FUCKING YEAR.
WHY?
I hear the pleas of RAB fans asking WHY, WHY, WHY THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT TAKING SO LONG? FINISH RAB21 ALREADY! Because... FUCK. I started this episode back in January, and have been working on it, on and off, EVER SINCE. And it's still only about 85% done. AND I'M UNEMPLOYED AGAIN SO I SHOULD REALLY BE KICKING ASS ON IT, YA KNOW?
Well, I think the problem is that since better quality is possible, I've been really kind of getting into actually employing that quality. Check out RAB1, 2, and 3 again, and compare that to the kinds of shit going on in RAB 17-20 (the post-DVD Cintiq episodes), and you'll see a lot more hardcore animating in there.
The OTHER major issue is that I had a real routine back in the day, and I don't think I do now. There were little 2-3 day long production processes back in the pre-'05 days, and as these baby steps were scientifically taken, I was able to get into "the zone" more fluidly. But working 100% within Flash from sketch to finished, lipsynced animation is more of a mental GLOM. All one, big, horrifyingly complicated process which causes a lot of hours staring slackjawed at the screen.
There's a third minor issue... back in the wayback I would rape older episodes of art resources a lot more often. Donkey and Hamster heads are about the only things that ever get re-purposed from older episodes; Cat, Bunny, and Puppy almost always get new heads & bodies drawn for every single scene they're in. That's a lot more custom art going on than before, and when added to the average length of episodes plus the lack of an efficient, assembly-line type of workflow, well... you've got yourself a year-long waiting period between RAB episodes!
So bear with me... it's obviously all about quality (such as it is, when compared to greater works from my superior peers [i.e. pretty much all of you]) versus quantity these days.
I'm leaving for a 3-week road trip on July 11th, culminating in a Vegas wedding for me & my hot fiancee. You can bet your ass RAB21 will be done before I leave, probably LONG before I leave!
Thanks for your patience! It will be worth it, I promise. This one's pretty over-the-top, and digs back into my 2003 roots for humor at times.
