Skip to main content

Xylus and Dexter in Space! "Castle Clause" Episode 3 - Cartoon animation

Episode 3 -
of my animated cartoon series Xylus and Dexter in Space!

Here is another episode of my animated cartoon Xylus and Dexter in Space!

Concept

In this Episode: The boys are still stranded on Mars. When they make an interesting discovery.

(Related post: Xylus and Dexter in Space! "What's that?" Episode 2 - Cartoon animation)

Art

I was still re-using a lot of the character art and backgrounds from the previous episodes. I would also create some new expressions and poses for the boys when I needed them. Doing this along the way adds even more re-usable drawings to the character library I have for the cartoon episodes. 

illustration of boy and stone wall
Dexter with his arms crossed

I also needed to create more backgrounds for this episode for the inside of the castle.

I used some pictures I had found as a reference for the castle interior from old monster movies on Google image search.

illustration of two boys on wood floor in front of stone walls
Castle interior

I also had to create a new character Phineas Handela for the story. I had only drawn a few sketch ideas for him and wasn't sure what he would look like yet. 

So for this episode of the story, I only used a silhouette.

illustration of eyes glowing in shadows
Alien in the shadows

Animation

I still feel like I'm being really restrained in my squash and stretch animation technique for this cartoon, so the scene where Xylus gets an idea seems really undramatic to me. 

I re-drew the animation several times and the take I used still feels like it could have been bigger.

animation gif of boy and a red sky
Xylus has an idea

Audio

On top of doing the voice of the announcer, now I got to do the voice of the alien. 

I did it in a higher evil-ish tone but it just sounded like I was talking funny. So after recording my parts I added a pitch shifter effect to it. It kinda makes me sound like the wicked witch from The Wizard of Oz.

Next time: Watch episode 4 "Finder's creeper"

Check out the previous episode 2 "What's that?" here - https://www.tomrayswebsite.com/2021/11/xylus-and-dexter-in-space-whats-that.html

Listen To The Podcast

Popular

Chris Conidis: Comics, fantasy, Horror and Sci Fi Art - Tom Ray's Art Podcast 210912

Chris Conidis is an artist that lives in Florida. Chris started out with an interest in animation and how it worked and that evolved into figure drawing and the art of high contrast from fantasy art and old school horror movies. Chris has been hitting the comic circuit and also created a collection of art and stories for a book of his work called Monsters & Madonnas. Listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify Links Chris Conidis Website https://monstersandmadonnas.com Chris Conidis on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/conidisart Support the show! Check out the vintage pop-culture items available in my eBay Store https://ebay.to/2vMYStC Join the email list! 📬 Every season I do a call out for artists on the email list. Sign up to find out when I'm booking interviews and more 😀 Enter your Email Address Below First Name

Artwork for the original Candy Land game by Milton Bradley from 1955.

I have a vintage Candy Land game from 1955 by Milton Bradley and I was about to sell it so I thought I would add it to my personal art history course concept I've been doing . I'm going to try and see if I can find out how this game was created, designed and why? Here is what I found out about this game https://candy-land.fandom.com/wiki/Candy_Land_Wiki Candy Land is a board game about children exploring a world made out of candy and other sweets that originally came out in 1949. In every version of the game, there are a group of children that go through Candy Land. In the earliest versions of the game, it was a realistically drawn boy and girl. Drawing of the Candy Land kids I did on my phone ☝ https://board-games-galore.fandom.com/wiki/Candy_Land The game was designed in 1948 by Eleanor Abbott , while she was recovering from polio in San Diego, California. It's rumored that Eleanor also did the original artwork but I didn't find anything that

How I use one Gmail address for multiple Soundcloud accounts

Do you know the Gmail "+" trick to use one email for multiple accounts on one service? Here's a little trick I use that works for any service.  I talked about this on the podcast episode I did with artist Mortimur K . In this case, let's say I used up all the uploads I have for my free Soundcloud account . With this trick, I can open a new free account and use the same Gmail address. I don't want to create another Gmail account to sign up again.  Using my one Gmail address for multiple accounts on the same service I don't remember when I learned this but you can alter the name on a Gmail address. Like, let's say mine is "tom@gmail.com". To be clear that is not my email. I wish it was, but this is just a short example. Start with the original Gmail address Add a "+" after the email name Where it says "tom" on the address I can put a "+" after that. Add a "+" after the email name After that "+" I ca

Art Inspiration: Digging on old Scooby-Doo cartoon background artwork

Can we all just take a second to appreciate the background art of the 1969 Scooby-Doo cartoons ?  Easily the most inspirational artwork from my childhood right here.  I think this scene from the cartoon is what inspired my recent nostalgia for the Money Island computer game I wrote about in my webcomic . Who did these background paintings? I wrote a post about the artist Walter Peregoy who did the background artwork for the series over on my pop-culture roadshow blog . Some of the things I learned about the artist He had a modernist 50s style Designed the 101 dalmatians cartoon look Was an artist for one of the Liquid Television cartoons on MTV Go here to see more... Read more about the artist and their  artwork  on my pop-culture blog.  Go here to see more background artwork