August Snapshot #1

Hey everyone! Its been a busy and exciting month for me, plenty of projects moving through the pipeline and a few more already nearing completion very soon!

Avatars & bi-weekly prototyping:

I've had such a good reception with the last few submissions in my scraps that I thought given the time my projects tend to take (usually months) I would be a bit proactive by posting some concepts animatics and random ideas in that gallery once every couple of weeks (this will mean that you guys get to see them first ofc) they're usually quick and easy, something I can complete 10 seconds with for a dedicated weekend afternoon and I can cover a wider array of interesting subject matter I feel like doing - perhaps I might open the floor up to you all for suggestions and requests. These are very rough and quick passes though but they seem to scratch that itch I have to appear more active and share in some fun interesting themes.

On a separate note I'm considering periodic offers animating avatars for people, these will be much cheaper given the size and time constraints but it might be a fun event and allow me a means to see how that pans out. Just looking at all the angles to exercise my creative muscles. I'll post more info about that when the time is right. Right! On to the good stuff...

Characterization/character sheets:

Let me preface by saying that I get a lot of great material from those whom I've worked with, this abundance of reference sheets is great for my understanding of the characters manner of movement and personality. I thought I would share in a couple of samples that provide context to what animators often develop to understand their characters and what better place to start than the classics with the team from Disney Animation:

Walt Disney Company (c)

Walt Disney Company (c)

Walt Disney Company (c)

As you can see there's numerous concepts that would be produced for the same characters not only informing the animator of the size and physical attributes, but also numerous sketches of expressions, distorting the visual look of the character in exaggerations to see how the 'meat' of the form molds with the action. These are important keynotes for animators as it helps provide a reference point to what we can think about when animating the characters in various situations. In truth the more information an animator has have the better - there's never too much research. Sometimes for my projects I'll look up photos or art references to see how some clothing might look (i.e. skirts swishing in the air) or if I'm looking at physical changes things to reference for say transformational processes, etc it helps to understand how light hits the subject or how shapes mold convincingly if say, liquefied effects are used how they would behave. The important aspect is maintaining a readable form when moving from one type of mass to another.

So! If you ever decide to make a character sheet or collaborate with fellow artists on these ventures, adding more information can never be a bad idea, us animators will be thankful for it ^^

Line, colors and animated aesthetics:

As a final note I wanted to add a little blurb about the last project 'Demon Ell's Prize' covering the method I used for coloring. In prior projects I often only painted flat colors composited with the line drawings, often having a harsh black lined look to the subjects. Looking to develop this a bit I experimented with coloring the lines themselves in tandem with the paint layers. This process a bit more work as you'll see in the screenshot but the final appearance has a very rewarding payoff. Something I'm likely to continue moving forward with, although the method and applications I use might change as you'll see this is a very manual process. I'm sure there's tools that can mitigate some of this careful painting work - despite how satisfying it can feel to bring it together - I'll just have to keep experimenting. I've also been working closely with a programmer on setting up some of the tools and plugins I use to help process these tasks so this evolution will keep happening as I aim for more ambitious milestones.

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I think that about covers it, I'm planning on some more content in the coming weeks so stay tuned, and let me know what you think about any of the topics discussed. Do you have character sheets of your own? Let me know! ...and see you next time!