How the "Nicktoons Harlem Shake!" Was Made!

So, this is something I've should done before: explain how I'd make my experimental Paint animations. Today, you're going to learn how I made my Nicktoons Harlem Shake!

In general, the Nicktoons Harlem Shake! is the first major time I experimented with Paint to paste (or composite) seperate character animation drawings (or, "cels") onto a plain colored background, using the transparent background selection tool. Actually, I've tested this trick out before in a brief part of a joke in The Eye Doctor is Your Friend!, involving some one-eyed "freaks".

Leela from Futurama, Plankton from SpongeBob SquarePants, Kurt Blobberts from Lloyd in Space, Jackie Khones from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Commander Peepers from Wander Over Yonder, and the pair of Mike and Celia from Monsters, Inc. were each drawn seperately on a light blue background, then using the transparent background selection tool, with that light blue being my background color (I just had to right-click), everyone was pasted onto one still frame (with some blinking added to the mix).

So, once I've discovered this skill, I decided to take it to a higher level for myself. I've just randomly decided to do an animation of some of my favorite Nicktoon characters (I chose Nicktoons because of my enthusiasm for them, of course) dancing to a then-year-old viral YouTube trend. It took about two months to complete the animation late last year, from November 19, to Christmas Eve. SpongeBob and Patrick's animation consists of four frames, CatDog has only two frames drawn, Rocko has three, Ren & Stimpy also have three, Ginger has two, while Cosmo was only drawn once, but simply flipped and rotated around, making up five frames. Here's a sampling of cels, one for each Nicktoon character, or pairs of characters:

As for Squidward, I made him a background element, so he doesn't move at all in the entire thing. This is because, characteristically, he wants to stay out of the fun.

Then, along came the stupid ones...

Now, for the climax of this beyond ridiculous dance craze, all animation drawings of the nine Nicktoon characters moving around, against that same background with Squidward, only he's shrunken to fit everybody else. Also, still having him in character, I gave him a sign to hold saying, "I HATE MEMES!" I believe he really does.

The loop of dance moves is made up of five frames. Want to get an idea of how I did it? Simple! First of all, I must make sure that light shade of green is my background color for the transparent background selection tool to work for these guys (to get my background color, I right-click). Next, under the "Edit" menu, I go for "Paste From", select each character "cel", and place them where I want to. Obviously, for all nine dancing Nicktoons to fit into that one background, I have to shrink them all, giving them the space they need. Here's a screenshot illustrating this technique I'm talking about! I finally know how to take my own screenshot on the computer without a downloaded software!

BTW, this screenshot wasn't taken on the actual day I completed the animation, since I didn't know how to easily screen capture untill last Tuesday, but it should still give you a clear picture on how the Nicktoons Harlem Shake! was made.

And now you know! I should do another post like this next time. Next time, I'll show you how my bouncing ball logo was made within about an hour or so.

Oh, I almost forgot. Remember my green screen test with Oscar the Cat? Well, a couple of days after, on January 25, I experimented again with the chroma key effect, only with the Ginger cels used in the Nicktoons Harlem Shake!. I converted it into a GIF last night. Here you go: