How It Started

I had already planned to continue my Inktober animation challenge for the second year. As of Fall of 2019, I also became the Vice President for the University of Georgia’s Society for Students in Animation. I thought it would be fun to expand my personal Inktober animation challenge to the club since it was already October.

Just like last year, I animated in a software I’ve never used before: OpenToonz.

Development

I used classic paper and pencil to do a lot of the early work. I staged various versions of the scene, all while developing a little story of a lone adventurer and a dragon. The traveler’s relationship with the dragon changed over time: first a travelling companion, then a beast to battle, and finally, a specter to haunt him.

Working in OpenToonz

OpenToonz proved to be a relatively straightforward and powerful animation software. As long as you didn’t try anything too crazy, it was simple enough to understand.

Final Thoughts

This year I did my best to create an eye catching animation and use as many of the prompts as possible. This meant meticulous planning for all of the prompts. Even though I blew through several iterations of the scene, I still didn’t nail all 31 prompts like I wanted to. Regardless, I think I have certainly stepped up my Inktober animation game.