Hey look! Spurred on by my apparent love of prize-free online competitions, and possible creeping dementia, I drew several hundred pictures to create the fleeting illusion of motion.

Actually, I’ll spare you the usual self-effacing stuff. I impressed myself over the past couple of weeks by finally finding the patience to accomplish something I’ve wanted to do since I was a kid. I learned a lot, and started to grasp some concepts that seemed amorphous on the printed pages of my animation how-to books. I have a long way to go, but I’ve crossed an important threshold: I now realize that animating, mad as it is, is not superhuman task. It’s just something that will require a huge amount of practice and patience.

You can check out the contest here; as of this writing it hasn’t started yet, but maybe it will have by the time you click. And luckily, this contest doesn’t stretch for 10 weeks; I believe the voting is over in less than a week.

Edit: I’m amazed that out of 347 frames, the Posterous video player’s holding frame is the exact same drawing I posted yesterday!

Another thrilling frame from the animation I’ll submit tomorrow. Continuing a tradition I started in college, I’ll finish it up in the morning.

Ow my crampy hand. I promised Kerkel that if he’d finish my animation for me, I’d rustle up some votes for week 4 of the never-ending comic strip contest. Click here and search for Kerkel!

Oh hey, I’m busy animatin’, so have a naked lady from yesterday’s class. This time round, we were studying tone by using white chalk and charcoal on gray paper. And yes, the model was reading her Kindle.

And now she just needs someone to talk to. You’d think I’d have started on character #2 by now, but hey, I was having fun getting the Poehler stand-in just about right. Every time something felt a little stiff, I referred to my trusty Animator’s Survival Kit and found ways to make her more dynamic. Not saying I got everything right, but I’m really happy with the way it evolved.

4 days left, so I’ll start the exasperated husband just in the nick of time. Luckily he won’t also be moving like a hummingbird on crack. He’s onscreen for three more seconds than she is, so it’ll be interesting to see how the time spent animating compares.