It is What it is !

Q: Granny Logan, now that's a catchy name. Tell us a bit about your background and profile.

I'm just a guy who's a huge fan of animation. Ever since I was a kid I was always fascinated by the way traditional animation was done. Unfortunately, I just never had the patience to do it. So instead I got into doing voiceovers, and then later marketing. Throughout the years I've dabbled at creating my own animations, using various types of software.

As for the Granny Logan name, I grew up on a street named Logan. On my block there was a lady who was like the neighbourhood grandmother. Later I came up with an animation idea based on her. It's about an old woman who has a bird named Taffy . . . rather than explaining it, here's a story board I did (don't mind the drawings, most of it was done while I was sitting in a pub):

Anyway, I still haven't got around to finishing it, but I'm hoping that the new version of CrazyTalk 2 will help make it happen. I even created a website called http://www.grannylogan.com to help me get motivated to finish it. On the site you'll find everything from doodles, music mix tapes, and weird ideas that I've come up with, it's basically a place to keep my creative juices flowing.

Q: Your Lemmy Mole's animated performance with Ace of Spaces, is quite good. What's the story behind this animation?

A friend and I were doing a podcast a few years ago called FBR. On one of the episodes we started talking about Motorhead's Lemmy Kilmister. I made a joke that Lemmy's Mole gives him business advice, and tells him what to do.

That later turned into a segment called Ask Lemmy's Mole (a.k.a. Ask The Mole of Wisdom). I thought it would be cool to do a little animation of the mole talking. I decide to use CrazyTalk Pro to do it. My daughter and I used it about a half a year earlier to create an animation for one of her school projects.

Screenshot from my daughter's school project

Q: Lately, animated adverts and explainer videos have been all the craze. Tell us about your National Television Commercials.

I was lucky enough to get a chance to work on a project for a national television network in Canada. I created a 60, 30, and 15-second spot in under 40 hours using CrazyTalk Animator Pro. The final edit for the spots were done in a professional video editing suite.

It was a fun project to work on, and I even provided the voice of the announcer. The big challenge in doing this project was making sure that it looked good on HD television. I learned quite a few tricks along the way on how to achieve this type of quality. I even came up with a template that I use to make sure that the projects are SD and HD title safe (TV ready).

Q: Using CrazyTalk Animator PRO, how long does it take you to create an animation like this? Is there an advantage of using CTA over other tools?

As I mentioned in the previous question the national television commercial took about 40 hours.

Here's the breakdown of the process:
1. Picking out photos = 3 hours
2. Photo preparation (close cutting images, removing backgrounds, creating animation puppets, etc.) = 12 hours
3. Voiceover and audio edit (including sound effects) = 3 hours
4. Animation and final output = 22 hours

The Lemmy's Mole - Ace of Spades animation took about three months, but that was because I gave myself three months to do it. Every day I tried to work at least 15 minutes on it, cutting up images, animating a few key frames per day, etc.

So I guess it really depends on how much time you give it. I've seen producers/animators create fantastic stuff in the matter of days or even hours.

The most consuming part is finding the images, cutting them, prepping them and then creating the sets, props, and characters. Once that is done and you put into CrazyTalk you can take full advantage of the preset movements, and real-time animation features. By using just the basic functions, you can have a great looking animation in no time. The big advantage for me is CrazyTalk Pro's advance features which allow me to have full control over the timeline and key frames to get the look and movement I want.

Q: Your animations have a very good quality to them, do you plan on creating any additional commercial projects?

Thanks! Like I mentioned earlier I learned a few tricks on how to create HD quality along the way. I think the most important part is to keep on doing it. The more you do it, the more you learn from your successes and your mistakes. I always strived to try to make things better, and keep learning.

Lemmy and The Mole storyboards	Lemmy and The Mole model sheets

Police car video test	Building a character for the TV commercial

I'm really excited about trying out CrazyTalk's new custom multi-dimension character system, as well as all the other great additions that have been added to CrazyTalk 2.

My workspace: http://s1094.photobucket.com/user/1672Logan/slideshow/studio%20and%20voiceover%20booth

Before I go, I would like to thank Reallusion for creating such great products that make it possible for a guy like me to keep creating and sharing stories.

"Just get old enough to get respect and a paycheck, but stay young enough to still play with your toys, watch cartoons, and dream." - Granny Logan

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To see more, visit >>
Website: http://www.grannylogan.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/1672logan
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/1672Logan
Twitter: https://twitter.com/GrannyLogan
Instagram: http://instagram.com/1672logan