Butterfly Miss You Ecard

Posted on August 18, 2011 by Holly Haymaker

In this miss you ecard, a mouse creature sends some butterfly messengers to his friend on another planet to deliver an “I miss you” note. The butterfly messengers land all around her and one drops the note into her hands. The ecard displays the “I miss you” message at the end as the butterfly flock flutters across the screen.

This ecard was fairly simple to make, particularly because there wasn’t too much animation involved. I just had to do a little bit of frame by frame animation for the creature picking up the bottle, a few tweens for the butterfly wings, and animate the butterfly flock fluttering through space and landing on the other planet. It was really not too bad. Now I kind of wish I had added a flower or two to each planet. They’re such bare little planets!

The music for this ecard also came easily to me and I like it a lot. It’s really simple but it sets the tempo for the ecard and I think it adds to the feeling of the ecard. If only it were always so easy. More miss you ecards coming soon!

Click on the picture to view this miss you ecard.

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Space Cat Love Ecard

Posted on August 14, 2011 by Holly Haymaker

In this love ecard, a cat flying through space passes another cat going the opposite direction that strikes her fancy. They find each other and fly through the stars together.

This was the very first ecard I made for Magenta Galaxy. It is still one of my favorites. It is fairly simple but as with all these ecards, it presented challenges as I was working on it. Lining up the stars just right for seamless scrolling and getting the cat tails to wiggle were both a bit difficult, especially since I hadn’t done these kinds of things before.

The music came to me quite easily and I am very happy with it. I like the sound so much that I am always tempted to use the same instrument sample in other ecards. I also find myself playing very similar melodies when trying to come up with music for a new ecard. But I try not to use anything too similar.

Well, here it is!

Click on the picture to view this space cat ecard.

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Bike Cat Good Day Ecard

Posted on August 4, 2011 by Holly Haymaker

In this good day ecard, a cat rides his bike up a rainbow road into the sky. The message at the end reads “have a sweet ride.”

This ecard was difficult to make because it involved tweening both the background and the cat on the bike to situate him just right on the rainbow. The cat just rotates on his axis, while the background scrolls diagonally depending on the curve of the rainbow. The angles still look a little off to me at some points, but overall the effect is pretty good. I decided to scroll the background, rather than animate the cat entering and exiting sequential scenes because the visual quality of the cat riding the bike is not as good when it is animated to move across the screen.

Animating the cat riding the bike also seemed like it was going to be really tricky, but I just decided to just do something simple. I just rotated the legs up and down and attached the pedals to his feet. I considered adding more effects like making his tail flick around, but sometimes when there is too much going on in these ecards, the playback quality drops, so I thought it would be best to leave it.

It was also difficult to put as much emphasis on the background scenery as I wanted in this ecard, because it all scrolls by so quickly even when it seems like it is going at an appropriate speed. Things that travel in the opposite direction, like the bird near the end, have an even shorter appearance. Also it felt like I had drawn a lot more rainbow than I actually did. The ecard is a lot shorter and I had a bit less room for background elements than I expected. But I manages to squeeze things in and I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.

Click on the picture to view this bike cat good day ecard.

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Pegasus Get Well Soon Ecard

Posted on August 1, 2011 by Holly Haymaker

In this get well soon ecard, a pegasus plucks a diamond from a tree in the sky. He then flies in the window of a little cottage and drops it in a vase of tulips, which causes rainbow beams to shoot out from the blossoms. It has a “get well soon” message on a banner in the last scene.

I began this ecard with the idea that I wanted to create a tree with some kind of fruit with rainbow beams hanging from it. That fruit became diamonds and the nice organic looking tree I was imagining became this weird impossible space tree. But I like it. I decided to use this pegasus I’ve had laying around for a while, which was convenient. Scaling down the pegasus to fly in the window seemed a little strange at first, but who really knows how big a pegasus is anyways.

I was strongly considering making this an interactive ecard, because it goes so quickly when playing through as an animated ecard and you really just get a glimpse of each scene before it moves on. But I decided to keep it as an animation and just slow things down a bit. I think I may still convert it to an interactive ecard in the future.

This is another ecard where I am not completely happy with the way the music turned out. It seemed good while I was making it, but now it sounds a bit off. I think I need to get back to my bells and glockenspiel roots. Or do a little more experimentation with layering synths. Or find someone who likes making this kind of music.

Anyway, here is my get well soon ecard featuring a pegasus.

Click on the picture to view the ecard.

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Mushroom Bunny Friendship Ecard

Posted on July 27, 2011 by Holly Haymaker

In this friendship ecard one bunny brings his suspiciously similar looking bunny friend to jump on some bouncy mushrooms. They disturb the little creatures who are living inside the mushroom tops, and the creatures start to fly out and off into the night sky. The message at the end of the ecard reads “I love our adventures.”

This is one of my favorite ecards I have made yet. I love mushrooms. I love bunnies. And jumping on some bouncy mushrooms seems really fun.

It was much more difficult to make than I had anticipated though. All that jumping/sprinkles/flying creature coordination was tough. Also, I have a feeling it might be barely noticeable to most eyes, but the mushroom tops give a little and bounce back as the rabbits jump on them. Making changes to the lengths of jumps and whatnot was not easy because of so many little happenings going on at once.

But I think it turned out awesome. I’m really happy with it. And I hope people out there enjoy it too.

Click on the picture to view this friendship ecard.

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Interactive Ecards

Posted on July 26, 2011 by Holly Haymaker

I have been wanting to make some interactive ecards lately. In fact, I already made one. I just need to finish the music and sound effects for it. It has a ‘mini-game’ style to it where you have to collect some good things and avoid some bad things. I’m not sure if I’ll make more like this. I like the idea of clicking to explore and advance the animation. Or just clicking to reveal special effects, maybe on an interactive bouquet or a creature.

The problem is my imagination is always ten steps ahead of what I’m able to create in a reasonable amount of time. My animation skills are actually quite rudimentary so it makes it difficult. A lot of ideas I have had to just let go because they are too difficult to animate in a way that actually looks decent. But I’m also able to work around a lot of the difficulties (hence the rabbits hopping behind bushes) or just simplify my concepts.

The interactive ecards make music trickier as well, since it has to be a loop. That is part of the difficulty I am having in completing the music for my first interactive ecard. I set it aside after my first attempt, but I am going to finish it very soon. And then I’ll work on creating the parade of interactive ecards that is dancing through my mind.

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Get Well Rabbit Ecard

Posted on July 24, 2011 by Holly Haymaker

In this get well ecard a rabbit collects flowers from a garden, puts them in a basket and hops along to deliver them to his rabbit friend. It has a “feel better soon” message so it can be sent for lots of different reasons. I really like how this ecard turned out. It’s very light and cheery. It’s the first one were I’ve drawn a lot more detail in the background and the first drawing of an indoor space. I like the music I came up with too.

I’m already thinking about the concepts for my next get well ecards, but I’m having a hard time thinking past the concept of delivering flowers. Maybe I’ll create a a cat fairy healer or just draw some cute animals with band aids. Or maybe both in the same ecard. We shall see.

Click on the picture to view this get well ecard.

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Birthday Unicorn Ecard

Posted on July 23, 2011 by Holly Haymaker

I have just posted my birthday unicorn ecard. In it a unicorn gallops across a rainbow bridge to a floating isle where he celebrates his birthday. There is a waterfall that brings presents, a giant cake floating in the pond and some colorful friends are there to help celebrate. What more could a unicorn want on his birthday?

Overall, I really like this ecard and enjoyed making it. The music isn’t exactly what I would like for it, but didn’t realize until too late, i.e. didn’t feel like remaking it. Perhaps I will redo the music in the future. But for now, here it is.

Click on the picture to view my new unicorn ecard.

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Good Morning Ecards Coming Soon

Posted on July 21, 2011 by Holly Haymaker

Good morning ecards are on the way! It doesn’t seem like too common of a category but it seems people are looking for them, so I will create them. All the sites that come up first on google for good morning ecards are awfully spammy and have a million pop-ups and annoying noises playing on the homepage. After opening several tabs of the first few results, I was so overwhelmed I quit my browser and didn’t even see any actual ecards. I hope that my site is a bit easier on the eyes and ears than the majority of ecard sites. I can at least promise, my ecards will be very different from what is out there already. So, if you have been looking for good morning ecards, look out. They’re coming soon to Magenta Galaxy. (The first one will feature a rabbit.)

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Love Ecard: Fox Swing

Posted on June 13, 2011 by Holly Haymaker

Here is my second love ecard. It’s a lonely boy fox sitting on a swing when along comes a girl fox to give him a push. She turns out to be super strong. After making the music and publishing the ecard I realized that it is a bit too short and there should be more regular swings before the fox swings around the branch. But I was ready to move on to other ecards so this will have to do for now. Probably not a good idea because I will have to relearn the melody to lengthen the music but oh wells.

After making my first couple of love ecards so understated I really want to do an over the top one with hearts and lovey things exploding out of everywhere. And maybe it will actually say something… like…I love you. Or… your love is like a unicorn shower. I’ve avoided messages so far, but I think it’s time to start putting some of these hearts into words. But for now, if you are wishing to send some loving sentiments across the internet, there are two very cute wordless love ecards for you to choose from.

Click the picture to view this ecard.

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