04/04/2025 - WLH4 progress update
Added 2025-04-04 13:41:10 +0000 UTCIf you were wondering what effects I've been using for these animations, here they are! It's pretty simple, just a slight camera lens blur to ease the harsh, vectory Flash lines, and a slight drop shadow on characters/animated elements. Not necessarily trying fool anyone into thinking this is cel animation with that faux cel shadow, but it's a nice way to make the characters stand out from the backgrounds.
In those little animation loops I made before ep3 (walking down the hallway, the Laverne & Shirley doors, the vape vomit), I put a dirty paper texture over the BGs. It looks cool, but it's a pain in the ass to keep the colors consistent with the characters, and it makes any sort of camera pan a nightmare, since you need to anchor the texture to the BG. That would mean redoing any camera moves entirely in AfterEffects. A lot of work for something I don't think most folks would even notice!
I like keeping the effects limited and subtle for these cartoons (I didn't even put a glow on the fire in the last one!). So many indie animations nowadays will have the most over-the-top, elaborate lighting effects, and it always looks so tacky to me, especially when the actual animation isn't as polished.
Anyway, someone on Tumblr recently asked me to draw Leslie doing a big flip: 
