Remember a few posts back I showed you the beginning of a little animation I was working on involving a blob? Well I got a bit sidetracked from that with other stuff I have had to do. However I decided to begin working on it again last night. It occurred to me that it might be a good idea to practice Flash too, so I decided to combine the two ideas by making my blob in Flash.
I didn't want to use Flash's 'tweening' function for this as I wanted it to be traditionally animated. Therefore I have drawn every frame, just as I would have done if I had been sitting at my drawing table.
To speed the process up, I haven't been concerning myself with keeping things too neat. Thus, the lines have that characteristic 'wobble' to them which can be seen on many of today's cartoons. Of course, it could be greatly improved by giving it a more three dimensional appearance and adding a shadow, but I wanted to get it finished tonight!
Tuesday, 30 January 2007
Showing Off
If you haven't noticed the large amount of space taken up by a mini portfolio at the top of my blog, notice it now! I found a cool site called Leafletter which is good for this kind of thing. Click the drop down menu to see different sections. It's still a work in progress at the moment. I hope to finish adding drawings later today or tomorrow.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
Sunday, 28 January 2007
Quickly Gesturing
A couple of posts ago, I posed (pardon the pun) the question of the difference between the gesture drawings of Walt Stanchfield and those of Glenn Vilppu. I also asked the same question on The Drawing Board and ended up getting into a bit of a discussion about it. Still unclear on the subject, I wrote to my ex-animator friend Tao Nguyen to see if he could answer my query. Tao often refers to the style done by Walt as "quick sketching" rather than gesture drawing. What he said made a little more sense and so I decided to share it with you in case any of you were wondering the same thing. He said:
"This may help. To know the difference between qesture drawing and quick sketching, you should understand what the word 'questure' means. In the english dictionary, the word qesture is defined as- "the use of motions of the limbs or body as a means of communication".
"To me, the similarities are: they both are drawn quickly with few lines as possible to capture the moment.
"The difference is qesture drawing is gracefully capturing the body movement (using lots of smooth and line curves, trying to be fluid and graceful) and while quick sketching is quickly caputuring the action or pose to tell us about what's going on or what's the story at the captured moment (it sometimes feels 'rushed' and there's lots of quick line changes.) Most qesture drawings involved one subject matter, while quick sketches can have multiple subjects.
"Well, if you are still confused or don't quite understand it much- I'd say don't worry about it. Don't worry about you call it, but worry more about what your drawings look like."
So from now on I will be referring to the graceful style of Glenn Vilppu as "Gesture Drawing" and the rather rougher style of Walt Stanchfield as "Quick Sketching". Now, if you look at some of my old posts, you will see that the names are a bit mixed up, but I have been through them and sorted them into their correct categories. Thus in the Gesture Drawings category, you might find some pictures referred to as quick sketches and in the Quick Sketches category, you might find some labelled as gestures.
"This may help. To know the difference between qesture drawing and quick sketching, you should understand what the word 'questure' means. In the english dictionary, the word qesture is defined as- "the use of motions of the limbs or body as a means of communication".
"To me, the similarities are: they both are drawn quickly with few lines as possible to capture the moment.
"The difference is qesture drawing is gracefully capturing the body movement (using lots of smooth and line curves, trying to be fluid and graceful) and while quick sketching is quickly caputuring the action or pose to tell us about what's going on or what's the story at the captured moment (it sometimes feels 'rushed' and there's lots of quick line changes.) Most qesture drawings involved one subject matter, while quick sketches can have multiple subjects.
"Well, if you are still confused or don't quite understand it much- I'd say don't worry about it. Don't worry about you call it, but worry more about what your drawings look like."
So from now on I will be referring to the graceful style of Glenn Vilppu as "Gesture Drawing" and the rather rougher style of Walt Stanchfield as "Quick Sketching". Now, if you look at some of my old posts, you will see that the names are a bit mixed up, but I have been through them and sorted them into their correct categories. Thus in the Gesture Drawings category, you might find some pictures referred to as quick sketches and in the Quick Sketches category, you might find some labelled as gestures.
An Early Spring Clean
I have been doing a little housekeeping on my blog just now and I thought I'd alert you all to it in case it went by unnoticed!
Firstly, I have reorganised my lists of links to other sites. My animation-related internet bookmarks are quite numerous and I thought I would share the best of what I have found on my surfing travels with my readers. Therefore, I have grouped the links under various headings down the side of the page. As you can see, some sections have more than others, but they will grow over time.
Secondly, I have sorted all my posts since day one (back on June 16th 2006) into categories. This means that if you want to see everything on gesture drawing for example, you can just click that category and see it all gloriously condensed onto one page! That list of categories can be found below the list of links. I thought this might spark some more conversation on my older posts that don't get looked at anymore..."sniff". It also doubles as a good look at whether or not my drawing is improving in different categories.
Enjoy!
Firstly, I have reorganised my lists of links to other sites. My animation-related internet bookmarks are quite numerous and I thought I would share the best of what I have found on my surfing travels with my readers. Therefore, I have grouped the links under various headings down the side of the page. As you can see, some sections have more than others, but they will grow over time.
Secondly, I have sorted all my posts since day one (back on June 16th 2006) into categories. This means that if you want to see everything on gesture drawing for example, you can just click that category and see it all gloriously condensed onto one page! That list of categories can be found below the list of links. I thought this might spark some more conversation on my older posts that don't get looked at anymore..."sniff". It also doubles as a good look at whether or not my drawing is improving in different categories.
Enjoy!
Thursday, 25 January 2007
Going Potty
Hello readers! I haven't had much to post on here over
the last few days as I have been preoccupied with this job interview and the little project they set me after it. I had to model a 3D Muller Light yoghurt pot to show that I could do that kind of thing. They let me model it in Maya (my software of choice) even though I would have to use 3dsMax if I got the job. I had a go at doing it in both programs 
though in the hope of impressing them! Whether or not it worked, I don't know - apparently they are hoping to make a decision by the end of next week or the middle of the week after, which worries me because it sounds like there are a lot of other people being assessed too. I know these renders are nothing to do with animation but a couple of you have been wishing me luck and asking
about it so I thought I'd show you what I had to do. At least I'm keeping them small (click on them for a larger version). The first two renders are from Maya and the last one is from 3dsMax. I don't know whether I'm getting overly worked up about this job. I just see it as my first step into a more creative career - the change in career direction that I have been pining for.
Now since this is an animation blog, I thought I had better put something to do with animation in this post, so here is a video I found a few days ago which is apparently from Sesame Street. It's a lovely little animation.
the last few days as I have been preoccupied with this job interview and the little project they set me after it. I had to model a 3D Muller Light yoghurt pot to show that I could do that kind of thing. They let me model it in Maya (my software of choice) even though I would have to use 3dsMax if I got the job. I had a go at doing it in both programs 
though in the hope of impressing them! Whether or not it worked, I don't know - apparently they are hoping to make a decision by the end of next week or the middle of the week after, which worries me because it sounds like there are a lot of other people being assessed too. I know these renders are nothing to do with animation but a couple of you have been wishing me luck and asking
about it so I thought I'd show you what I had to do. At least I'm keeping them small (click on them for a larger version). The first two renders are from Maya and the last one is from 3dsMax. I don't know whether I'm getting overly worked up about this job. I just see it as my first step into a more creative career - the change in career direction that I have been pining for.Now since this is an animation blog, I thought I had better put something to do with animation in this post, so here is a video I found a few days ago which is apparently from Sesame Street. It's a lovely little animation.
Monday, 22 January 2007
An Unclear Gesture
Thank god the interview is over - I was so nervous! It went really well I think. The three people who interviewed me were really nice and it seemed like a lovely relaxed place to work. They are going to email me a little "project" to do to prove that I have the necessary skills, but hopefully I will be able to do it and they will give me the job!
Right, back to animation. Every time I write a post, I keep meaning to include a little bit about a useful resource I found recently, but I keep forgetting. A few of you in the UK might know of the BBC Motion Gallery, but some of you overseas may not. It's a great site full of stock videos from the BBC of every subject you can think of. I think it should make a very useful animation resource if you want to learn how a particular animal moves or something. For example, if you want to animate a giraffe and need to observe its behaviour, just type "giraffe" into the gallery and you instantly have a load of wildlife footage of the animal.
Ok, now I've got that out of the way, I have a question about gesture drawings. Glenn Vilppu's book and video have taught me to treat the gesture drawing as the basis for a more complete drawing (which could be traced over the top) and so the proportion should be monitored. An example is shown below:
However, the notes by Walt Stanchfield said that the gesture drawing is a quick drawing in which the proportion of the body parts are unimportant. Here's an example of Walt's interpretation:
Both drawings have similarities, but I don't understand the apparent differences. If someone could answer this problem for me, I'd be extremely grateful.
Right, back to animation. Every time I write a post, I keep meaning to include a little bit about a useful resource I found recently, but I keep forgetting. A few of you in the UK might know of the BBC Motion Gallery, but some of you overseas may not. It's a great site full of stock videos from the BBC of every subject you can think of. I think it should make a very useful animation resource if you want to learn how a particular animal moves or something. For example, if you want to animate a giraffe and need to observe its behaviour, just type "giraffe" into the gallery and you instantly have a load of wildlife footage of the animal.
Ok, now I've got that out of the way, I have a question about gesture drawings. Glenn Vilppu's book and video have taught me to treat the gesture drawing as the basis for a more complete drawing (which could be traced over the top) and so the proportion should be monitored. An example is shown below:
However, the notes by Walt Stanchfield said that the gesture drawing is a quick drawing in which the proportion of the body parts are unimportant. Here's an example of Walt's interpretation:
Both drawings have similarities, but I don't understand the apparent differences. If someone could answer this problem for me, I'd be extremely grateful.
Saturday, 20 January 2007
Every Cloud...
I've been having a bad day drawing-wise. I thought it might be a good idea to do some gesture drawings with animals instead of people, but every attempt I made turned out terrible, so instead I went back to what I have been doing over the past couple of days. Unfortunately, it seems I am also struggling to draw people today.
I thought I'd still share the best of the bad bunch that I drew.
All these drawings were done from pictures of dancers. I know drawing from pictures isn't as good as drawing from a live model but I'm just trying to develop my technique.
I'm nervous at the moment because I have a job interview on Monday afternoon. It's for the position of 3D Modeller at a local company. I didn't expect to get an interview because of my lack of experience in 3D work. The company is looking for someone who can use 3dsMax, which I haven't used in about a year and a half (I use Maya for any 3D work that I do now), so I have to brush up on it! The job description says they may require me to do some animation too, which I'm happy about. I hope that I can impress them enough with my wide range of skills (drawing and photography as well as 3D stuff) to make up for my lack of actual experience. Maybe this will make up a little for being let down by the Flash animation job.
I thought I'd still share the best of the bad bunch that I drew.
All these drawings were done from pictures of dancers. I know drawing from pictures isn't as good as drawing from a live model but I'm just trying to develop my technique.
I'm nervous at the moment because I have a job interview on Monday afternoon. It's for the position of 3D Modeller at a local company. I didn't expect to get an interview because of my lack of experience in 3D work. The company is looking for someone who can use 3dsMax, which I haven't used in about a year and a half (I use Maya for any 3D work that I do now), so I have to brush up on it! The job description says they may require me to do some animation too, which I'm happy about. I hope that I can impress them enough with my wide range of skills (drawing and photography as well as 3D stuff) to make up for my lack of actual experience. Maybe this will make up a little for being let down by the Flash animation job.
Friday, 19 January 2007
Drawing Untill Opportunity Knocks Again
God it's been cold today, and to make matters worse, our central heating hasn't been working, so I spent most of the day huddled under a blanket with a hot water bottle. Thankfully it was fixed by early afternoon and so after my hands had thawed out I had a go at some more gesture drawings.
I think I'm starting to get the hang of it now. I have been having a bit of trouble with arms for some reason, but I am feeling a little more confident with them now.
I hope it's possible to tell what the figures are doing. My girlfriend thought this second one was a woman holding a baby at first, so I guess they aren't perfect yet!
It's worth noting that the style of drawing taught by Glenn Vilppu is done much more slowly than one might imagine. It looks quickly drawn, but each line is laid down with a purpose in a rather slow manner.
Of course, this doesn't mean that the drawings take a long time to create. They only take one or two minutes - just the individual strokes themselves are slow.
I wondered why Glenn didn't include a line of action in his drawings, so I asked Tao Nguyen about it. He told me that Glenn only really uses a line of action when there's an extreme pose and that he doesn't talk about it much because he's more focussed on volume and construction.
I was quite pleased with this last one because of the single stroke that begins at the head, flows down through the body and up into the leg.
On another subject, I just had some disappointing news. A few months ago I got into contact with an animation director at Cosgrove Hall Films here in Manchester. He told me about a project that he hoped to get green-lighted that would use Flash, and he very kindly did all he could to try and get me involved in it. Unfortunately, the project was shut down just before Christmas and so I can't make an early entrance into the animation business like I had hoped. I had been feeling really good about it and had been trying to work on my portfolio for it as well as trying to learn Flash as quickly as I could so I could impress them.
Oh well, hopefully some more opportunities will come along before too long.
I think I'm starting to get the hang of it now. I have been having a bit of trouble with arms for some reason, but I am feeling a little more confident with them now.
I hope it's possible to tell what the figures are doing. My girlfriend thought this second one was a woman holding a baby at first, so I guess they aren't perfect yet!
It's worth noting that the style of drawing taught by Glenn Vilppu is done much more slowly than one might imagine. It looks quickly drawn, but each line is laid down with a purpose in a rather slow manner.
Of course, this doesn't mean that the drawings take a long time to create. They only take one or two minutes - just the individual strokes themselves are slow.
I wondered why Glenn didn't include a line of action in his drawings, so I asked Tao Nguyen about it. He told me that Glenn only really uses a line of action when there's an extreme pose and that he doesn't talk about it much because he's more focussed on volume and construction.
I was quite pleased with this last one because of the single stroke that begins at the head, flows down through the body and up into the leg.On another subject, I just had some disappointing news. A few months ago I got into contact with an animation director at Cosgrove Hall Films here in Manchester. He told me about a project that he hoped to get green-lighted that would use Flash, and he very kindly did all he could to try and get me involved in it. Unfortunately, the project was shut down just before Christmas and so I can't make an early entrance into the animation business like I had hoped. I had been feeling really good about it and had been trying to work on my portfolio for it as well as trying to learn Flash as quickly as I could so I could impress them.
Oh well, hopefully some more opportunities will come along before too long.
Thursday, 18 January 2007
A View to a Better Drawing
In my last post I mentioned a book called The Drawing Manual by Glenn Vilppu. I think it explains gesture drawing better than most books. However, for a while now I have wanted to actually watch someone creating a gesture drawing as often seeing someone do something is a great way to learn it yourself.
Thus I was so happy to find that there are a series of DVDs by Glenn, in which he covers each of the chapters in his book. I got hold of the video which accompanies the chapter on gesture drawing. It really opened my eyes to how these drawings are done and made me feel like they were something I might actually be able to do properly. After watching it yesterday, I had a go at some drawings myself, but I still found it difficult. Today I had another attempt though and I managed to do a few that I was quite pleased with. As you can see, the style is vastly different to the drawings I have done before.
The idea is to not get tied up in drawing what is in front of you, but to experience the action or pose and draw that in a very flowing manner. I feel like I haven't quite got the hang of it yet but I think I have made a bit of a leap forward from what I was drawing before.
Each of these drawings followed a simple procedure as explained by Glenn. First the head is drawn and then the curve of the neck is put in, followed by the main curve of the body. I'm guessing this main curve is like the line of action, although Glenn never explicitly mentions it. From this main line, flowing curves for the other body parts are added, sometimes drawing rings around arms and legs to emphasise their directions.
If any of you are interested to know whether watching someone create a gesture drawing would help you do it, then click here for two parts of a short (and small) video of Glenn drawing, along with a condensed version of the gesture drawing chapter from his Drawing Manual.
Thus I was so happy to find that there are a series of DVDs by Glenn, in which he covers each of the chapters in his book. I got hold of the video which accompanies the chapter on gesture drawing. It really opened my eyes to how these drawings are done and made me feel like they were something I might actually be able to do properly. After watching it yesterday, I had a go at some drawings myself, but I still found it difficult. Today I had another attempt though and I managed to do a few that I was quite pleased with. As you can see, the style is vastly different to the drawings I have done before.
The idea is to not get tied up in drawing what is in front of you, but to experience the action or pose and draw that in a very flowing manner. I feel like I haven't quite got the hang of it yet but I think I have made a bit of a leap forward from what I was drawing before.
Each of these drawings followed a simple procedure as explained by Glenn. First the head is drawn and then the curve of the neck is put in, followed by the main curve of the body. I'm guessing this main curve is like the line of action, although Glenn never explicitly mentions it. From this main line, flowing curves for the other body parts are added, sometimes drawing rings around arms and legs to emphasise their directions.
If any of you are interested to know whether watching someone create a gesture drawing would help you do it, then click here for two parts of a short (and small) video of Glenn drawing, along with a condensed version of the gesture drawing chapter from his Drawing Manual.
Saturday, 13 January 2007
There's a Blob on My Blog!
It's about time I wished you all a happy New Year! Let's hope that it's a good year to be animating!
Right, well I've been very laid back about my drawing over the holidays in that I haven't done any. On the plus side though, I have made it my New Year's resolution to break my way into the animation business. I have noted that most of my readers are from the US (yes, I know who you are!). Do you guys make New Year's resolutions?
Anyway, I've sharpened all my pencils, uncapped all my pens and have been poised at my newly dusted drawing table, ready for action. Actually that's a lie - I restarted my drawing in Starbucks. As was the case before Christmas, I want to practice my gesture drawing. It's a deceptive way of drawing in that it looks quite easy to do, but is in fact rather difficult to master. By all accounts it takes a lifetime to truly master it - I guess I have a lot of work to do! In any case, here are my first drawings of the year.
Due to my location, they are all unfortunately sitting positions. I'm not sure if it's immediately obvious to anyone but myself what the poses are supposed to be, but I won't bother explaining them. Needless to say, they are all variations on the drinking coffee theme!
I get frustrated easily when doing this type of drawing. Normally when I draw, I can make a half-decent drawing almost every time I put pen to paper, but in this case I produce one that I'm happy with for every ten drawings that I'm not. The next few drawings were done at the Lowry in Manchester - a theatre and art gallery, and where did I choose to begin drawing? Yes, you guessed it - another cafe! Well it was actually a bar but from the point of view of the poses, there is no difference. At least my first drawing was of someone standing up!
The lady was playing with a small child, pretending to pounce on him. On the next page of my sketchbook, I decided to simplify my drawings as much as I could, based on what I read in Glenn Vilpuu's Drawing Manual - a book which I'll talk about in a moment.
I quite liked the drawing on the left, but not so much the one on the right. Finally, I went back to the slightly more detailed drawings. I was quite pleased with the child sitting on her mother's arm.
Right, so with my attempts at gesture drawing out of the way, I'll talk about the book I found. I came across the name Glenn Vilppu on my travels around the internet a few days ago and I thought it was a name I had heard before. After looking through my large collection of bookmarked animation sites, I realised that he is the person who taught figure drawing to Tao Nguyen (the guy who has been helping me in my learning). I'm sure any of you in animation already knew of him as a great artist...I'm just catching up! Anyway, I managed to get hold of a copy of one of his books, his Drawing Manual, which is full of exercises for someone in my position. I recommend anyone else to get a copy too. By the way, if anyone can recommend to me any great drawing/animation books, I'd be most grateful. I read lots of them. I tend to absorb their contents like a sponge. Putting those contents to use is another matter though!
To finish off, I'm in the middle of making the first of what I hope to be a series of little animations to teach myself timing as well as improving my drawing skills (maintaining volume in shapes etc.). I've only been doing this first one for a couple of hours, but I thought I'd share what I have done with you as I would like some advice from anyone willing to comment.
This little bit is supposed to be a blob of rubbery goo which sprouts a 'head' (which will be put to use later in the animation). It doesn't look quite right to me though, but I'm not sure why. Maybe a fresh pair of eyes might spot something that needs fixing, so please comment. It's only 18 frames long, so it might be a matter of just adding a few more inbetweens.
Right, well I've been very laid back about my drawing over the holidays in that I haven't done any. On the plus side though, I have made it my New Year's resolution to break my way into the animation business. I have noted that most of my readers are from the US (yes, I know who you are!). Do you guys make New Year's resolutions?
Anyway, I've sharpened all my pencils, uncapped all my pens and have been poised at my newly dusted drawing table, ready for action. Actually that's a lie - I restarted my drawing in Starbucks. As was the case before Christmas, I want to practice my gesture drawing. It's a deceptive way of drawing in that it looks quite easy to do, but is in fact rather difficult to master. By all accounts it takes a lifetime to truly master it - I guess I have a lot of work to do! In any case, here are my first drawings of the year.
Due to my location, they are all unfortunately sitting positions. I'm not sure if it's immediately obvious to anyone but myself what the poses are supposed to be, but I won't bother explaining them. Needless to say, they are all variations on the drinking coffee theme!
I get frustrated easily when doing this type of drawing. Normally when I draw, I can make a half-decent drawing almost every time I put pen to paper, but in this case I produce one that I'm happy with for every ten drawings that I'm not. The next few drawings were done at the Lowry in Manchester - a theatre and art gallery, and where did I choose to begin drawing? Yes, you guessed it - another cafe! Well it was actually a bar but from the point of view of the poses, there is no difference. At least my first drawing was of someone standing up!
The lady was playing with a small child, pretending to pounce on him. On the next page of my sketchbook, I decided to simplify my drawings as much as I could, based on what I read in Glenn Vilpuu's Drawing Manual - a book which I'll talk about in a moment.
I quite liked the drawing on the left, but not so much the one on the right. Finally, I went back to the slightly more detailed drawings. I was quite pleased with the child sitting on her mother's arm.
Right, so with my attempts at gesture drawing out of the way, I'll talk about the book I found. I came across the name Glenn Vilppu on my travels around the internet a few days ago and I thought it was a name I had heard before. After looking through my large collection of bookmarked animation sites, I realised that he is the person who taught figure drawing to Tao Nguyen (the guy who has been helping me in my learning). I'm sure any of you in animation already knew of him as a great artist...I'm just catching up! Anyway, I managed to get hold of a copy of one of his books, his Drawing Manual, which is full of exercises for someone in my position. I recommend anyone else to get a copy too. By the way, if anyone can recommend to me any great drawing/animation books, I'd be most grateful. I read lots of them. I tend to absorb their contents like a sponge. Putting those contents to use is another matter though!To finish off, I'm in the middle of making the first of what I hope to be a series of little animations to teach myself timing as well as improving my drawing skills (maintaining volume in shapes etc.). I've only been doing this first one for a couple of hours, but I thought I'd share what I have done with you as I would like some advice from anyone willing to comment.
This little bit is supposed to be a blob of rubbery goo which sprouts a 'head' (which will be put to use later in the animation). It doesn't look quite right to me though, but I'm not sure why. Maybe a fresh pair of eyes might spot something that needs fixing, so please comment. It's only 18 frames long, so it might be a matter of just adding a few more inbetweens.
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