More Straight Ahead

After all of my talk about not animating straight ahead yesterday, guess what I ended up doing today. Lol, this time it wasn't as bad since the action I was trying to capture was more familiar. I decided to make a quick trip to the store after the drawing of the deer turning. It seems like that was a mistake since all of the ones after that don't make much sense. I had fun doing this one and would like to do it again (and finish) properly. I think the straight ahead pass captures a bit of the energy/feeling that I wanted though so it was a somewhat success in that aspect.

Why I Never Animate 100% Straight Ahead

Hey guys,
I got my traditional animation lightbox and a new disc in the mail the other day! I'm really excited about finally being able to work in 2d at home. I tried it out for a couple of hours this evening and its working great! This crazy straight ahead animation test is what I ended up with. Lol, its a great example of why I dont work completely straight ahead. I haven't gotten to the point where I can just sit down and coherently animate something without planning everything out first and starting off pose to pose.

Tomorrow I'd like to start on a real 2d test. I'm stuck between animating Bambi prancing around in a circle, some kind of flying creature or a dog going through an agility course obstacle. So far, I'm leaning towards the first one. It sound extremely challenging and its a variation on an assignment that Andreas suggested during our meeting.

More Development Drawings

Man, having a character really makes me want to just sit and draw all day. It's awesome to feel that way again! I feel like I lost that somewhere in high school. Anyway, I'm working on figuring out the structure of his face since I seem to have trouble drawing him from a few different angles. Hopefully the skull drawing will help. I also need to figure out a permanent pattern for his markings.

Less Realistic "Dae Dae"

Sorry guys, I just had to make up for last nights off model drawing lol.

Progress

Hey guys,
I got a tripod in the mail today for my video camera. I hooked it up and am very pleased to report that it will do fine as my poor man's capture station. Now I just need to receive the portable light table that I ordered and I'll be in business. I'm planning to do significantly more 2d work in my free time. I really want to work on the next 2d film at Disney but I don't feel like my traditional animation skills are where they should be for that. Hopefully they will be by the time the show is ready for production.

In the meantime, one of my friends surprised my by drawing an awesome picture of LaQuandae today. I figured I'd return the favor and draw another Cookie picture. I'm not very happy with either of tonight's drawings though. I used a different person as my model for LaQuandae which seems to have thrown me off. He looks completely off model in this drawing. Cookie is better but I'm not happy with her mouth. Lol, they both look wierd but LaQuandae is especially creepy.

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Another One

Even More LaQuandae

He's fun to draw! Lol, I got lazy with the afro pick and changed the end from the usual fist to a bone.

More LaQuandae

Hey guys,

After filling a page with thumbnails last night, I somewhat randomly ended up throwing a drawing of LaQuandae in there. Lol, I'm sure the fact that I was listening to Mos Def while drawing had nothing to do with it. =P Anyway, you can see it if you look through the mess on the page. Today I did another drawing of him in a more realistic manner as well. I think his design lends itself well to this style and am looking forward to seeing how things turn out.

In other news, I've decided to purchase one of those fold-able traditional animation tables. I was debating against getting one of those or a cintiq and the traditional workstation won. It costs significantly less and I've solved the problem of not being able to capture drawings by purchasing a tripd for my video camera. I still really dislike drawing in the computer so the cintiq was an option simply because of my lack of capture station. Now that I've figured that out, I'm definately going with what I really want. I cant wait, I'll finally be able to produce traditional animation whenever I want (provided I have free time to do so, of course)! I hope to use these things to greatly improve my 2d animation abilities in the hopes of being able to work on future 2d films at Disney. =D

Pay Off

It looks like all of my life drawing is paying off. I drew this from my head a few minutes ago. =D



In other news, the job hunt is in full swing. I have an interview with Pixar at work on Tuesday and am looking forward to meeting with people from Dreamworks and Rhythmn&Hues next week.

Tangled Trailer!

Hey guys,
It looks like the official Tangled trailer has been released! Its awesome to finally have this available for viewing. Lol and I even have some animation in the trailer. I animated the crown in Flynn's hand and Rapunzel's hair (with hair sim on top of my animation) in the shot where she's sliding down out of the tower. =D

Let the Hunt Begin!

I made a few updates to my website last night after work. I found out that I will be rolling off of Tangled at the end of July, so I'm jumping into the job hunt now in the hopes of preventing months of unemployment. I'd really like to update my gallery section with a nice slide show widget but I feel like my time would be better spent working on a new test for my reel rather than messing around in Dreamweaver (especially since I don't know what I'm doing, lol). As the result, my Rabbit animation will have to be put on hold so I can work on this new test. I would love to finish Rabbit and put it o my reel as well, but unfortunately most studios don't seem to care very much about 2d animation and it would be more beneficial to include a new 3d test than a new 2d one. My drawing time will also have to be cut down so I can animate when I get home in the evenings.

Rhythm with Danny Galieote

Yesterday everyone at work received a fantastic announcement, Danny Galieote would be doing three classes on getting rhythm in your drawing!!!!! If you're unfamiliar with Danny, he's an animator at Disney (2d and 3d) and an amazing draftsman. You can check out some of his excellent drawings on his blog blog. Its super nice of him to do this for us since I know he's busy just like the rest of us on Tangled. Here are a few of the drawings that I did in his class today...

Random Surprise for a Friend

I thought it would be fun to do a quick drawing of a cartoon character using the things I've learned from the past few weeks of life drawing. I wanted to do a character that I had no clue how to draw so I would be forced to use observational skills. My friend's character Cookie came to mind almost immediately. I figured it would be a crappy drawing so I used it to fill up the rest of a page in my sketchbook who's upper half was filled with notes. I actually like how this turned out though and regret having all of that writing in the way. I erased as much as I could (with a mouse, lol) without losing some of the drawing.

Old Farmer

We had a costumed model in life drawing today! I remembered what the instructor told me last week about drawing inside the form rather than just doing outlines. There are a few proportion issues (as usual, lol) but I think the drawing turned out nicely.

Proportion Practice

I've been reading Robert Fawcett's On the Art of Drawing again and came to the section about drawing naturally. Fawcett believes the problem of getting the correct proportions can be solved by simply drawing things at the size that you see them. This makes a lot of sense but is very easily said than done. He says the problem with sighting and measuring is you're trying to figure out how to resize your subject and will fail once your eye becomes tired of calculating and you start to truly draw what you see. Your calculations wont be the same as the results of simply drawing what you see, and the resulting figure will be out of proportion. I really like this idea and would like to use his method. Here's a drawing I just did to practice.

Its difficult to draw something the same size as I see it when I have to look up at my monitor and down at my sketchbook. I'm going to do all that I can to make it to the model sessions this week and use this approach there. Hopefully the results will be better since I can place my board visually right the model. Fawcett says this method takes time to learn but once you've got it, you wont have issues with proportion anymore. In fact, the whole book is basically like that. It's debunking everything I've learned/read about life drawing with his own sound logic. It seems like Fawcett's main message is once you're able to truly draw what you see, you'll be able to draw any and everything. I think thats what Glen is trying to get me to see with this assignment and from recommending that I read Fawcett's book.

Fawcett also says that lots of students have learned various short cuts to drawing. He doesn't approve of such and says that true draftsmanship can only be attained once the artist has learned how to see and how to record that which he/she see's on paper in a particular (instead of a general) way. This can only be reached with hard study and constant practice. I really want to work in 2d as well as 3d and if this is what I have to do to get my drawing abilities to the level that they need to be then I'm all for it, regardless of how painfull the process can be.

Rabbit Update 5.0

I had planned on finishing the roughs for my Rabbit test today but I ran out of time. Andreas suggested rotating Rabbits head from side to side on Friday and I ended up spending all of my time on that. It's extremely rough but the basic idea is there. I need to clean up the inbetweens though since they're the same drawings from the previous version. Once that's done, the side to side motion will be much clearer. I wanted to tie this down and finish it completely, but I think its probably time to move on once the roughs are done. I remember a quote from Glen about students who made as many pots as possible improving faster than the students who spent all of their time trying to make a one pot masterpiece. I dont want this to end up being a one pot masterpiece. I still have a lot to learn and would like to try some other things.

Drawing Before Bed

Hey guys,
I decided to do another drawing before going to bed last night. I liked the flow the model achieved through his forearm, wrist and hand so I decided to reproduce it. I've noticed that Glen draws these epic hands that always have a sense of flow to them with anatomy laid on top. Lol, my drawing is light years away from his of course but hopefully he'll like it anyway.

The model's face looks wonky though. I think faces are the hardest thing for me. On Friday, Andreas pointed out that the body parts in my life drawings were well constructed but all together they don't quite fit. It sounds like I should do more full figure drawings in addition to individual studies.

Kitty Take Over

You know, I don't think I've completely rid myself of my dislike of drawing people. Yes I want to get better at drawing them but I'm starting to question whether or not I actually enjoy them as a subject matter. These two pages were supposed to be filled with human faces, instead I ended up doing more gesture drawings of my cat, Jubilee. I find a lot more enjoyment in drawing animals and am much more fascinated by them than people. Maybe I'm trying to get better at drawing people simply because I have to. I cant be a 2d animator and not be able to draw humans. Granted, I find non-human more fun to animate (especially in 2d) I'm sure I'll have to animate a person at some point in my career. The funny thing is, this only pertains to 2d. I'm fine with animating people in 3d, I'm just dreading the day that I'll have to do the same in 2d since I'm not confident in my ability to draw them.

I think its safe to say that my seemingly sudden drive to get better at drawing people over the past few weeks is because I feel like I have to rather than simply drawing people because I want to. Hopefully this will go away as I improve, because right now it seems like the desire to get better at drawing people and the desire to simply draw them are two separate things. >_<

Trip to the Zoo

I went to the LA Zoo for the first time today to do some animal drawing. I was pleasantly surprised by how close it is to where I live. My main purpose for going was to do some lion studies but I wasn't able to find any. I'm debating on whether or not I should get a membership and come to the zoo more often. I like that idea of that but I don't think I'll have the time to do so. Anyway, the tiger was the only big cat I was able to find and he spent most of the time pacing around his enclosure. Unfortunately, I'm not fast enough to successfully capture a moving target yet. The orangutans and goats (I don't remember their specific breed) made up for the lack of cats though. Both were active but held still long enough to draw.

The lion skull was done prior to going to the zoo. I planned on using it as a reminder of what's going on beneath the lion's fur.

Life Drawing Session

Hey guys,
I was able to make it to today's lunch time life drawing session at work. As usual, I'm really glad that I went and wish I could go to every session. The instructor suggested a different approach for me to take when drawing. He said to draw really lightly and then pay attention to the center of things. He said I tend to pay attention to the outer contour of the figure while leaving the inside blank. His technique can be seen in my drawing of one of the model's legs. I worked on defining the shapes inside the leg and then worked on the contour, only darkening certain areas while leaving other faint. He said that helps to give the drawing a sense of personality rather than having a consistently dark contour line. I already draw lightly, I just end up going over my lines so many times that they end up all being the same shade. I'll have to make a conscious effort to work on that.