I've just posted a new animation online today, it would be great to get some feedback. Hope you enjoy!

http://www.shoepie.co.uk/13/index.php

P.S. Couple of rude words.

I liked it. The highlights for me were the NASA phone service and awkward girlfriend's head moment. While on your site I found another gem, the Courtroom sketch was fast paced, funny every other line. Did you sub that to the BBC animation competition?

Objection! Objection!
Yeah, I really like the courtroom scene too.
Back on message, I thought the planet thing was good in parts. The NASA phone line was great, nice twist at the end, and nice topical intro about Pluto. But I felt it dragged a bit in the middle (though I love the animation style and the voices).
Keep up the good work.

brill Loved it loved it, it's good to see some animation really liked it. I'd suggest when you record voices next time to raise the mic above the top lip to avoid sybalyses and plosives.

I've very quickly become quite comfortable with your style. I'll leave to others pick over this latest animation but for my part, I really enjoyed it.

Thanks a lot guys! It's great to have such a positive feedback after spending so long working on this one. I agree it's a bit long in the middle. I cut about 15 seconds out but I couldn't bring myself to lose anymore this time round. Lesson learned though!

Thanks for the tip on the sound recording too Gavin, I'll give that a go for my next batch.

I Really enjoyed the sketch and thought that the style was very watchable too. Couldn't get the courtroom one to load though.

Is this sort of animation difficult from a technical point of view? Do one need much in the way of software and technical gubbins?

PS went back and the courtroom one loaded this time. Very good too.

Well done

Thanks Blenkinsop.

I have a standard mid-range PC and I use a piece of software called Moho (www.lostmarble.com) although it's been renamed to Anime Studio and re-packaged as Pro and Standard editions so I'm not sure which version I have.

They have a free trial version and some really great tutorials so it's worth a play around with. It takes a bit of getting used to but it's much easier than Flash or 3D to do character stuff.

Another trick for recording audio is make your own pop shield.

Get a wire coat hanger, pull it from bottom centre to form a square or diamond shape. Slide a stocking or tights leg over it (seriously) and knot the loose end so as to pull the nylon to a tension loosely tense but not wrinkled or creased. Voila. Speak into the mic from a six inch distance with the pop gaurd about midway.

I use a piece of free software called Wavepad (available at www.download.com). It has a remove noise feature that works really well at dampening background noise to almost zero.

And you can amplify audio....if for example your actors weren't the same distance apart from the microphone!! ahem....not that anyone would make that mistake...

'I've got a mole on my arse bigger than pluto! - ho ho ho.

Another great animation from Mr Shoepie. Is Uncle Bob going to part some words of wisdom soon ?

Thanks Nick. And welcome to the forum!

I'm tempted to ask Uncle Bob to pitch an idea for the Dragon's den competition on comedy soup.

Well Done ShoePie for getting this on ComedySoup's pick of the week.

Thanks, and congrats yourselves!! A well deserved front-page for optimism in a can.

That was great.