Full Body Side View Walk

This is my third walk, now adding a full body complete with arms and head. This is another copy of an example from Tony's book. I added a "pencil" cleanup just to see what it would look like. This high-stepping walk is more like a march, but I'm not concentrating on personality yet, just learning the up and down motion along with the arm swinging.

Front Walk

This is my second walk, a front-on view I copied from Tony's book. Even though it's pretty bow-legged, I'm starting to see how even a real simple walk can be varied. I tested it before creating the last inbetween and the effect gave the walk a little swagger. More practice and variations on the timing to come. Hopefully my drawing will improve too.

Learning To Walk Again

Here are some updates since my last post:

• I got a 6x8 Wacom tablet and 'upgraded' to felt pen tips. Using these along with Toon Boom Studio solves my procrastinating-inducing dilemma of how I want to continue to learn.
• I've adjusted my expectations and come to terms with the fact that animation is hard and more time-consuming than I first thought. To learn and do it with any skill at all is going to take a long time especially considering that I have to work it in with my other responsibilities.
  
• Since the FAS folks are moving a good deal slower on returning my assignments than I'd prefer, I got a very used copy of the highly recommended FAS Cartoon Course to work through at my own pace.
• I'm slowly working through The Animator's Workbook. I just started the chapter on walks. Very convenient with the Ken Harris/Richard Williams discussion I just read (from Cartoon Brew). I plan to pencil test most, if not all, the exercises along with whatever else I feel is appropriate. The pencil test below isn't an exercise though, it's just an example I copied from the book.

FAS Assignment 3

Section 3 of the FAS course was Basic Design - an introduction. This section was definitely design 101, mainly about visual communication - the use of shapes and symbols and how they can be arranged for different meanings. The assignment was to complete seven different areas related to what was discussed in the text. Unlike the first two assignments, this assignment was varied, containing a few areas that required fill-in-the-blank answers and a few that required me to do some simple drawing. The last page was the arrangement of colored paper cutouts of different shapes of a single object. I choose a seashell (the shapes are views of the shell from different angles) and tried to arrange them to indicate the shape of an ocean wave.

Page 1	Page 2
Page 3	Page 4

Sack Joy Jump

This is a simple pencil test of the flour sack jumping for joy! There's not much business going on other than the jump. One thing I'm going to be working on in the near future is to make these tests more emotional - to try and show some "thought" before an action. Also, this is only animated at 12 fps, I probably need to bump it up to 24 fps so I can get smoother action.

Sack Stretch

Very simple, very short sack pencil test. I'm trying to get comfortable with the shape of the sack and how it will stretch and squash.

Rotating Cube

This is a 'pencil test' of a cube rotating in space - a short exercise I created for myself. The main point was to freehand the drawings and try to keep the perspective correct as the cube rotates. The inbetweens were done from key poses and breakdowns to help me line up the angles correctly.

This was the first animation I've posted that was created in Toon Boom Studio. The rotating disc feature was invaluable!

Please click the '>' button to play the animation.

To help with my sense of timing and patience, I'm going to do a few more ball bounce exercises before moving onto some character animation exercises. As I wrote previously, my animation library has grown considerably. Two books that I'm working from that include good exercises and explanations are Mechanics Of Motion and Character Animation in 3D (this book actually has good 2D exercises, I'll be skipping the 3D stuff for now).

FAS Assignment 2

UPDATE 10/31:
Received the assignment 2 watercolors back from FAS last week. Overall, they were happy with my work. A comment regarding both painting is that I need to work on controlling my edges better. I thought they were going to slam the lighthouse blending but they didn't. I guess it didn't turn out too bad. The instructor did paint his own blending on a clear overlay. Very helpful but just reinforces my opinion that 'technique' instruction is done a lot more efficiently in person not through coorespondence. Corrected painting is below:



Last night I finished the second watercolor painting to turn into FAS for evaluation. This was done using white/grey/black gouache. I posted the transparent watercolor a while ago.



I probably learned more about myself (ie, my perfectionist, procrastinating tendencies) than I did about how to paint with gouache. I've slowly started to get a grip on controlling the paint, it's not as frustrating as it was when I started. But I have to say, this exercise would have been a lot easier if I had taken a class (which I eventually will - I like painting with gouache).

This is the last 'technique' lesson. Next lesson is learning about design.

Stumble

In this journal, I've meant to describe the path that I'm taking in learning to animate. I'd prefer that path to be, if not straight, at least always moving forward.

But that's not happening.

Since my last post I have:

1. Started to learn Toon Boom Studio.
2. Become enamored with the world of silent films.
3. Struggled with the part of my FAS course where I'm learning to paint with gouache.
4. Bought more books on animation than I care to admit.
5. Gotten depressed about how late to the game I am, angry at myself for wasting so much time and frustrated about how good I want to become but fear I never will be.

Since my last post I have not:

1. Animated.

Animation. I've thought about it. I've read about it. I've watched it. I've browsed the web looking for a lot of information about it. But I haven't done my work. Basically I'm spinning my wheels and procrastinating. Why? I think because this battle started inside my head with one side being "You need to learn principles if you're going to be any good" and the other side being "The whole point is to create something, so stop with the ball bounces, start creating a film".

The thing is, I think both thoughts are correct. So what to do?

Well, in my procrastinating-based web browsing, I did come across one site that I spent a lot of time reading: Mario Furmanczyk's Animated Buzz. Mario journals his years at CalArts as an animation student. I took a lot of great information away from what he wrote but most importantly, for me: deadlines. The students operate under the deadlines of end-of-year shows and portfolio reviews.

Deadlines. That's one thing I've been missing. And that's what I'm setting for myself. Maybe most people can create all good and well without them but, at least right now, I need the guardrails of deadlines to keep me on track.

So to balance the "learn principles" vs. "create something" aspects, I'm setting a deadline for myself to work on and learn animation principles and storytelling knowing that eventually I'll leave the training wheels behind and start on creating performance pieces and short films. March 21, 2007. The first day of spring.

I'm continuing the FAS course (I'll be turning in a crappy gouache painting) and I draw a little every day.

And I dream.

Animation Principles - Head Turn

For a change of pace, I decided to work through some of Tony White's book, The Animator's Workbook. This is a head turn exercise where you're supposed to arc the turn down first and then arc it up on reverse. An eye blink is added on the down arc. The other simple bits are my additions. I've worked very rough here. Thanks to JK for the suggestion to reduce the opacity of the drawing tool.

Please click the '>' button to play the animation.

Animation Principles Assignment 14 again

Here's a second version of the double ball bounce. I squashed the big ball a little more at the bottom and added an extra drawing coming out of the squash.



Click image above to view animation

Animation Principles 14

This exercise was to complete a perpetual double-ball bounce where the smaller, top ball overlaps the larger bottom ball. Unlike the balloon exercise where I had to try and work the timing and drawings out myself, everything here was pretty much laid out in the book. I'm going to mess around with it a little more and change some of the drawings, but the basic exercise is below.



Click image above to view animation

FAS Assignment 1

I received my first assignment back from FAS a couple of days ago. The point of this exercise was to demonstrate that I could use a few pencil and ink techniques to get different effects.


Pencil Drawing


Ink Drawing


Ink Drawing Instructor Overlay

Animation Principles Assignment 13

This was another weight/bouncing assignment, this time animating a bouncing balloon. The additional challenge here was to turn the balloon while it was falling. Originally, I did every frame manually. The results weren't very good - I over-tweaked the bouncing motion. The second version I did, posted here, used Flash's motion, inbetween and slo-in/out tools. I drew a motion path, plotted a few keyframes and then used trial and error to get the timing satisfactory. No surprise that the second version didn't take me anywhere near as long to do.



Click image above to play the animation.

Plan Of Action Update

As I wait for FAS to send me feedback on my first assignment, I've been doing some thinking about the non-animation part of my self study.

The FAS course isn't as intense as I imagined it would be so I'm also going to work through a book called Gardner's Guide to Drawing for Animation. The book will start as a refresher on basic drawing skills, especially where structure and perspective are concerned and then continue on to cover aspects of the human figure geared towards animation: simple poses, design and simplification, and storytelling. The book should also help prepare me for when I get to the figure drawing portion of the FAS course and can get some feedback on what I'm doing (wrong).

UPDATE 8/18:
After starting into the Gardner book, I realized that a lot of it is still life drawing. Not a bad thing per se, just not the sort of thing I want to work on now. So I brooded for a while and then did more research. Glenn Vilppu's Drawing Manual kept popping up as recommended and after seeing a picture of the cover, it looked familiar. No wonder, I soon realized I had bought the book a few years back but never used it (I can't remember why not)! So I anxiously dug through some boxes hoping I hadn't donated it. Found it! I flipped through it and yep, it'll be good for me right now. Better late than never.

Animation Principles Assignment 12

This assignment is to animate a bouncing bowling ball. My drawing of the table is a little taller than in the book so with the original timing chart, the ball fell too fast. So I experimented and added an extra frame to slightly slo-in the fall.


(Click image to view the animation)

Animation Principles Assignment 11

This assignment was a continuation of learning anticipation-reaction. I'm not happy with how this turned out and I'm still learning to tell at what point I need to stop perfecting a set of frames and just move on. Brian didn't provide as many inbetween frames on this action so it was a lot more trial and error to figure it out. It was easier for me to turn to pencil and paper to thumbnail some frames. Luckily he provides a Quicktime of all his exercises, so after messing with it on my own for a while, I can see where my shapes and timing are off.
Click here to view original animation.

UPDATE 8/10:
Well, I still couldn't let this assignment go yet. I examined Brian's example and the main problems I discovered were:
* the snapping action was too stiff, the 'wave' action was too weak
* the seaweed was straightening up too fast
* the reaction movement moved too far
* the end 'wiggle' lasted too long
I'm sure there are other problems too but these are the main one's I found.


(Click image above to view the updated animation)

Darn Barn

I still haven't received feedback from FAS on my first assignment. I think it's been a little more than two weeks since I sent it in. The course recommends that you continue onto the next lesson while waiting but not to do that lesson's assignments (so that you can incorporate the feedback).

Well, I'm too impatient.

Considering that these first 2 lessons are mainly about getting familiar with the materials, I'm not sure how relevant the feedback will be to this lesson's assignments. Perhaps, I'll be surprised!

Lesson 2 has another two-part assignment - create a transparent, black-only watercolor of a barn and silo and then create a black/grey/white gouache painting of a lighthouse. I'm posting the barn here, I haven't worked on the lighthouse yet.

One important lesson I learned while working on this assignment was how important it is to have the correct lighting in your workspace. I use a little tabletop easel on my dining room table. There is a hanging light over the table. It was a constant battle to keep the paper angled but not throw shadows on the paper. The barn roof and side aren't as smooth as I'd like because of this (I kept losing track of the puddle of wash). I'm going to look into getting a clip-on light to put on the easel.

Animation Principles Assignment 10

This assignment used drawings from assignment 2 (which I didn't post - that assignment was a simple slo-in/out with a ball). This assignment builds on that one to add anticipation/reaction. The timing is pretty mechanical but I peeked ahead to the next assignment and the first paragraph mentions how to start utilizing anticipation/reaction to its fullest.


(Click image above to view the animation)

Animation Principles Assignment 9

This is basically the pendulum swing in perspective. Brian's book helps you with placing the pendulum arc and the timing. I freehanded the clock from one in the book. Drawing swinging circles in perspective is tricky! At least for me...


(Click image above to view animation)

Playin' In A Puddle

I sent in the assignment for Section 1 to FAS last week for review. I'll post the assignment and FAS comments when I get them back.

Section 2 is working with watercolors and it's split into two sub-sections: working with transparent and opaque material. I've never worked with opaque watercolors and I can't remember the last time I painted with transparent watercolors (and that was with those little inexpensive cakes).

All the FAS material has been very helpful with teaching technique but the one thing that was explained very well was how to create a graded layout. The instructions had you experiment with pushing a puddle of black wash down the page, going from light to dark and vice-versa:



Eventually, I want to experiment with using some watercolor background layouts within Flash. I'll think it will create an interesting contrast within the animation.

Animation Principles Assignment 8

This assignment is called the Overlapping Pendulum. It combines the principles from the pendulum and seaweed assignments.


(Click image above to view animation)

Inkblot

Continuing with the first FAS section, you get to practice with ink, specifically india ink and markers. I've used markers to create trouble in one manner or another my whole life but I've never worked with india ink (and the picture below bears that out!).

For india ink, the FAS instructions suggest practicing with both a watercolor brush and pens. The materials list mentions certain pen tips with Hunt numbers listed. I expected to find a bin of these at my local Michael's but no such luck. So after staring at my limited choices for 20 long minutes, I went with the Speedball drawing kit. I believe that one of the drawings I actually send in to FAS for comments will have me use pen and ink so hopefully my utter lack of pen tip knowledge won't become an issue.

I like working with markers the best but using the pens are addicting - I've never had an hour go by so fast.

Using marker:


Using india ink:

Animation Principles Assignments 5-7

Assignments 1-4 are learning slo-in and out and a ball bounce. They weren't much trouble. But starting with #5, the pendulum, takes real concentration. I'm drawing these frame by frame in Flash so that I can really start to understand how the timing works. I'm pretty embarassed by these but I have to start somewhere.

Interesting, scary thought from Brian's book - he surmises that an average 90 minute feature would take one person about 38 years to animate by hand. His larger point is to remind readers that animation takes a lot of individual drawings to get your idea across.

Assignment 7 - Overlapping Action 2 (Seaweed)
UPDATE: Re-did this one. Even though I'm going to continue doing these assignments in Flash, I'm going to freehand it and first do a rough sketch using the pencil tool and then finish with a brush overlay. It was too much of a pain to push/pull using the pen and line tools. Assignments 5 & 6 use that method but I'm not going to bother changing them.

(Click image to view animation)

Assignment 6 - Overlapping Action 1

(Click image to view animation)

Assignment 5 - Pendulum Swing


(Click image to view animation)

Perfect Timing

Just in time for starting this blog, my FAS package arrived. It was well-packed and I got busy emptying the box. I examined everything carefully and am left with two distinct impressions:

1. The pages are quite large and very high quality. 4-hole punched.
2. They smell like they've been stored in an musty attic since 1969.

Anyway, this blog isn't a critique of FAS, it's about my decision to get serious with art and animation.

The first FAS section is about getting familiar with materials, specifically pencil, charcoal and ink. The first practice was copying an outline of a bird then using different pencils and charcoal and drawing methods to fill in the bird. I'm posting my favorite, a charcoal drawing, not because I think it's any good, but because I had fun smearing the charcoal around and making a mess. I free-handed the outline, that's why the shape isn't very good.

Begin the begin

I'm using this site as a journal and archive for my own reference as I learn animation on my own.

My first plan of action is to become a better overall artist. At this point in my life, regular art school would be too much but I also don't want to simply follow a book on my own. So, I enrolled in the Famous Artists School Career Art course (I learned about this from reading Mark Kennedy's most excellent, educational blog). My hope is that it will give me a balance of quality feedback and comprehensive instruction (ie, more than a single community-ed drawing class) at a affordable cost. I'm a little wary of the correspondence method but their website does a good job of explaining how it works and if it's accurate, it should work out good. They're very up-front about explaining the work involved. Future posts will document my experience for posterity.

While working on the FAS course, I'm also going to start learning animation by following Brian Lemay's Animation Principles book. While his book has you draw the exercises on the paper, I'm adapting it to use with Flash. It's a thorough, step-by-step exercise book and he includes a CD with his version of the completed exercises for comparison.

Beyond this, my plan is to balance actually creating stuff with 'topical' learning (such as acting, filmmaking, etc) and studying movies and other cartoons. Another book I own, Flash Cartoon Animation, takes you step-by-step through completing a short cartoon that I think I'll follow.

If you're happening by this site, any helpful suggestions on the work I upload are most appreciated.