duck walk

I have found the mornings exercises of copying Donald duck very helpful when it came time to animate. I think having the proportions drilled into my brain through repetition has helped the animation process because it is not at the forefront of my thinking. I understand the proportions therefore I can focus on the other elements that go into this animation.

I implemented a system for constructing Donald on every frame. It began with the line of action. Then the basic forms of the character: the head, the upper torso, lower torso, the neck legs then feet; all in that order. Once these were established, I went through and made these forms more solid and thought about perspective as well as the forces involved. Thinking about forces helped me determine which lines were straight and which were curved.

The purpose of this exercise was to see if I could animate simple shapes and keep the proportions consistent. I also wished to display an understanding of the forces at work behind a walk cycle. On the whole, I think it has been successful, although, I found that I was lacking when it came to the neck and head. This has been something plaguing my work since day one and needs addressing.

bosko animation

This is an animation from the exercise on the john k blog. I am happy to say that I was quite comfortable with the character's construction, months of drawing porky are paying off. I found that i knew where all parts of the character were at all times.

Having said that, there are still kinks in need of ironing out. The head does a weird wobbly thing that is the result of bad inbetweening and my line work needs to be more deliberate so my drawings don't look so messy.

back to the drawing board.

daffy and composition test

drawings that tell a story

I went to see my old uni lecturer today and after telling him about my recent trip, he encouraged me to put my experiences into the context of a story or stories. Even moments that could be expressed by a single image.

This has coincided with reading some of the Walt Stanchfield lectures where a recurring lesson is to tell a story with every drawing .

Also, John K has a post that comes to this conclusion.

Guess I better listen to the pros.

expressions

boy and plane

copying tom

Copying Jerry

John K lesson 9a

According to John K, tom and jerry are ideal for copying as they are pretty much as generic as you can get as far as design goes. I spent a bit more time than usual trying to get proportion right although I let the last two go a bit. in the full body sketches, i was concentrating a lot on perspective and i think the drawings show a bit more depth.

Suprise Take

Thought I might start following some of the animation lessons from Eric Goldberg's book directly. This is a surprise take I replaced with my own character. I wanted to see if i could apply some of the construction lessons I've been learning to an animation. Starting to slowly comprehend the squash and stretch function of the cheeks and how the mouth pushes them up.

Copying Animation Frames

Half Pint Pygmy

These are some frames from Half Pint Pygmy that I tried to draw on the pegged animation paper. definitely doesnt have the vitality of the original frames. need to work on keeping proportion right as well as line of action.

comic book construction

Line And Silhouette

trying to combine line of action and silhouette with solid construction. the idea is you can tell what the action is even if the figure is completely blacked out. some poses read better than others.

Head Construction

While doing these drawings I am really trying to picture the squash and stretch occurring especially around the eyes and cheeks like a rubber band being pulled at either end. Also I want to stay true to the underlying structure particularly the cranium and having the rubbery features wrap around this.

I am still having trouble with proportion of say a jaw to the head. I need to find an effective way to counter this. At the moment, I blur my eyes and try and picture the two shapes as a single object, draw a straight line from eyes and see how far above below nose sits and measure length of jaw/ nose/ ears in relation to head.

I still need to work on the way that the eyes stretch from bridge of nose to high on head. On my drawings the eyes sit a bit low and flat. I think the pupils need to point to the thing they’re looking at and bulge slightly.

don't know why this is underlined but anyway... i got bored of just copying and decided to do some of my own characters. I am finding consistency in characters easier to achieve as well as how the eyes work also light has been shed on how the neck fits on the head and body.
Hillbunny.....

Duck is starting to look better. I keep coming across the same problem of having the eyes too flat on head. they need to be pulled down and out.


I finally worked out how to put an animated gif in Blogger. The wolf's head is too small on all drawings and same problem with eyes too flat

rabbit head construction

All the ears are way too big. There are still quite a few inaccuracies but I feel like i am starting to get the hang of the wrapping around of features. i am finding it helps to try and keep in mind the egg shape while drawing. Also, I think the rabbits easier to draw as the features are close to the egg shape. The hanging jowls and long noses of the other characters make keeping proportion more difficult.