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Xylus and Dexter in Space! "Pins and Needles" Episode 7 - Cartoon animation

Episode 7 -
of my animated cartoon series Xylus and Dexter in Space!

Here is episode 7 of my animated cartoon Xylus and Dexter in Space!

Concept

In this Episode: Xylus and Dexter had eliminated what they thought was the ghost of Phineas Handala... Or did they?

(Related post: Xylus and Dexter in Space! "Mirror, Mirror" Episode 6 - Cartoon animation)

Cartoon Art

I had been watching a lot of Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons and it inspired me to take a different direction with the backgrounds and character drawings that I had been doing up until now.

I started out trying charcoal and sponge-styled backgrounds, like this one of the outside of the castle door.

illustration of stone castle on white
Castle exterior in Photoshop with sponge and charcoal textures

But when I was animating the cartoons importing these image files as the backgrounds it made the file sizes huge!

So I took the art I had already made in this style and redrew them in the animation software. 

Then I vectorized one of the sponge brushes I was using for highlights on the background art.

illustration of alien outside a castle
Animation artwork - outside the castle

illustration of two boys in costumes with radio one smiling
Xylus and Dexter inside the castle

Cartoon Animation

I was still just drawing the storyboards directly on the computer, quickly and with little detail. 

I use them for layouts and animatic audio cuts in my video editing software. I import that video into my animation software to animate on top of the storyboards.

illustration of six squares with doodles in them
Cartoon animation storyboard page 3

illustration of six squares with doodles in them
Cartoon animation storyboard page 5

Cartoon Audio

I had to do some more searching for sound effects for this episode. 

I needed a drilling noise, a poking noise for the pin, and a radio sound for tuning in the transmitter.

I also had to alter the sound of my voice as the person who contacted them on the radio to sound all static and distorted.

I did that in the audio software I use called Ardour that I use to record songs for my band Lorenzo's Music. The audio software has a distortion pedal plugin for the guitar. So that's how I did that.


Next time: In episode 8 can they escape Phineas Handala? 

Check out the previous episode of Xylus and Dexter in Space! where they read a letter from an online critic - https://www.tomrayswebsite.com/2022/05/xylus-and-dexter-in-space-special.html
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Location: Madison, WI, USA

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