Lights in the Sky (and other games)
I have recently finished, for a month-long winter challenge, an interactive gaming experience called “Lights in the Sky”. Here is the trailer for it:
This was a few months after a game I worked on based on my old "Tasty” comic, which you can also play here.
There has been a sharp trend towards interactive experiences whether they are for entertainment, tech or advertising.
One of the things I have been spending time on is developing my own interactive projects, not just to get acclimated in the developments of the trend, but also because of my own continued exploration in the interactive space.
Games is a large part of people’s past time, some statistics cite over 65% of American Adults play videogames. It’s a unique way to tell stories that video by itself cannot do.
Working on my own projects have been an incredible learning experience and absolutely bonkers fun. I hope you enjoy the games that I have been able to develop on my own.
Happy New Year
As every year, I draw the new year’s Zodiac animal for friends and family, here it is!
May you have a great new year!
Patreon Social Media Animations
I’m thrilled to see that some of the work I’ve done for Patreon are being featured on their Social Media feeds. Here are some of the posts.
It was alot of fun to get involved in this series, and be able to do multiple illustrations and animations for Patreon. This was largely done using Illustrator and After Effects.
An 8-bit Version of the Vector Car and its process.
A while back, I did an animated loop, over the course of a multi-hour social with friends on Discord.
The car was made in Adobe Illustrator, split into parts, and then transferred into After Effects where it was rigged and animated within the course of 2-3 hours.
Later on, I wanted to make a variant of the loop. So I quickly added a Mosaic Effect, Posterized the Timing, and added a few small changes that made it look like a convincing 16-bit Start screen to a video game!
It’s always fun to experiment with different things using the same elements. It’s a good exercise in exploration and I encourage it for other animators.
CatTrigger.Comics
I have just started a separate account for my comics on Instagram called “CatTrigger.Comics”.
Comics have been a part of my creative process for a long time, and have been incredibly beneficial for much of my motion graphics and animation work. CatTrigger.Comics is largely a collection of my weekly variety strips leaning heavily on comedy.
I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy making them. Thanks!
2021 Can't come any sooner!
As New Year’s Approaches, I made a small fun animation that wishes all of us… a far better 2021!
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!
Happy Holidays from CatTrigger
2020 has been a rough year for all of us.
Plans had to change, ways of communication had to be different. For many, this was a time of reflection and appreciation for the many friends and family we have.
Thank you everyone for being part of my life through this year and beyond.
I wish you all a safe and happy holiday.
Here is a small animation I did for you all, I hope you enjoy it.
Sincerely,
Patrick Cheng
Tasty Comic Anthology (and Other News)
I am happy to speak about the successful kickstarter launch and funding of the sixth “Let’s Make Comics” Anthology: “Tasty”.
Here is the video I edited and did some animation for:
I have been an admin of Chicago’s “Let’s Make Comics” for the last several years, and continue to be proud of what our group continues to produce. This has been the most successful campaign yet as our organization continues to grow and we continue to be an organization that helps encourage artistic development in the City of Chicago.
It has also been an incredibly busy year, especially during the later months for me. I hope to be able to publicize some of the things I’ve been involved in during this year later on. I know it has been a very unfortunate and troubling year for many people in this country (and the world), and I continue to appreciate the service I can still provide to people as a Motion Designer and Artist.
After the big push, I hope to update on some of the new material produced this year, and a break down on one of the projects I had kept my lips sealed on for a while.
Small Animated Loop
A quick one I did over a night with friends.
March Update
Chicago has been hard hit with the "Covid-19", the viral pandemic that is currently effecting much of the country, as well as the world.
The state of Illinois is currently under a "shelter-in-place" order, which means, for the most part, people should be keeping their exposure to the outside at a minimum.
For everybody in Illinois, the country, and the world... I wish you an incredible safe and healthy time during this intense era. Please follow the CDC guidelines, and respect people's social distancing.
Wow, I can’t believe they quoted me.
Marwen Coming Up
Just a reminder that the Marwen event is tomorrow.
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/marwen/marwen-career-fair-2020/2425783117684925/
Protection fit for a King
A small 3D Animated piece I had worked on utilizing some of the 3D Models that were developed for the “This Makes Me Sad” Anthology.
Marwen Career Fair
I am so delighted to let everyone know that I will be at Marwen Career Fair, once again, on March the 7th to speak with young aspiring artists on how to pursue a career in Animation and Motion Graphics.
It is always a thrill to work with Marwen to inspire the next generation of creative minds coming to the professional fields, be it entertainment, advertising, technology or other major use cases that need people such as Motion Designers, Artists, and Animators.
If you have any children interested in pursuing a creative career (or if you are one, yourself), you may find this career fair very useful.
For more information: https://www.facebook.com/events/marwen/marwen-career-fair-2020/2425783117684925/
Happy New Year!!
Happy Holidays, everyone!
It has been an incredibly exciting year, and I have been proud with all the projects I’ve worked with throughout.
Doing Art and Video work for a living means you’re always learning new things, and even with the amount of experience I have, I continue to find new perspectives and technologies that weren’t even part of the main conversation a year before.
I started professionally as an animator years ago, working at a studio doing web cartoons, a position I thought was where I would stay forever. Nowadays, I work in so many different things, on so many different mediums, that it’s sometimes hard to keep track on all the things my work has been in.
Books, Streaming Services, Social Media, Apps, Games… the list goes on, and I hope to see it continue growing.
Thanks to my colleagues and clients that I’ve worked with throughout the year, I hope you have a Happy Holiday and a good rest of the year!
Pug Commission!
Thanks to the people who backed “Let’s Make Comics” latest anthology, I was given the privilege to thank some of our supporters with some commissions. Here is the first one, featuring a Pug.
Alternative Color!
PocketCon 2019 !!!
Just a heads up, but I will be tabling at PocketCon again this year this coming 16th, Saturday at the Chicago Cultural Center.
The address is 78 E. Washington, and the convention will run between 12-6. Admission is Free!
If you don't know, PocketCon is Chicago's Largest Comic Convention for Artists, Publishers, Musicians and Filmmakers who are People of Color. It is a children's friendly convention that has live music events, as well as several comic and other media vendors there.
I will be tabling with my collection of Comics and Post Cards there. The Convention IS FREE, so please swing by to say hi!
More Information:
Style Transfer "Rotoscope" Animation
I’ve recently started experimenting with “Style Transfer”, a new way to get painted animation implemented over actual video footage. The technique resembles the end goals of Rotoscoping where you draw over your video frame-by-frame.
Rotoscoping, in its essence, is typically a slow form of stylizing a video. I have done rotoscope for a few projects here or there looking for a painterly or drawn feel to existing video work. The problem is that it takes longer than people anticipate.
A lot of the attempts at implementing “art filters” over footage, like through After Effects, has been haphazard at best… giving people “certain” kind of stylization to their footage, but not looks that they expect or want.
“Style Transfer” promises to get whatever style you draw or paint in, and implement it onto your video in its entirety. It certainly has its (largely logical) limitations, but it so far seems incredibly promising as a possible replacement for rotoscope.
The video above took roughly a couple hours to do, running it through Style Transfer, and then doing some work in After Effects to give it a bit more “oomph”. If this was done using Rotoscoping technique, I could only imagine it taking upwards of tens of hours… for a little gag.
Like all new technologies in animation, there is always a worry that the “older version” of an animation technique becomes obsolete.
Industry-wise, you have seen a large replacement of paper-drawn animation with painted cels to digital means. “Puppet Animation” that utilizes 2D character rigs have long replaced its older brother of cutouts, for instance.
And for Style Transfer, I can definitely see that this becomes the way to implement “rotoscope” faster. And for most people’s use-cases is great as a complete replacement.
The technology though doesn’t mean that it solves every single niche case of rotoscoping, just like Digital Puppet Animation doesn’t solve every single niche case for cutouts.
But for the lot of what’s needed, I believe it would be the future.
Happy Halloween
The last of the Halloween animations have been posted for Fanta, it has been incredibly great to work with them for these videos.