Friday, August 31, 2007

Happy Birthday Phill!


This is Phil. Today is his birthday. This is my gift to him. Phil from Switzerland. He is a very mellow guy, thats why we call him Chill Phil. Here he is with his animal friends.

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

John K's animation lesson 1 - Bosko's dance


Here is my first attempt at Bosko's dance. The timing was not hard to figure out. The strongest beat is the 12 beat where he drops to his lowest point. His hips reach the highest point 4 frames later. during the next 4 frames his hips and head stay in place and his arms move to their furthest point, then he drops back down again. This is my first time copying animation and I love it. It is fun and very informative. This is also my first time animating on 1s. I usually animate on 2s to save time.


Here is the same animation checked against the original. The timing is right, but the head is off to the right, and the hands get ahead of the original. I will go back and correct, just like I did for the $100,000 drawing course. I'm not sure when though, as I am still in the process of tuning up my bike. (overhauled the hubs today, brakes are next)

I'd like to personally thank John K for providing such great lessons. These are really improving my fundamentals. I guess I owe him some wicked funny cartoons once my fundamentals are solid enough.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

$100,000 Drawing Course Lesson 4 - Final

ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive: Meta: The $100,000 Animation Drawing Course- Lesson 4
Here is the finished lesson 4. I proportion checked as I went, just like the Bugs Bunny post. This method is much much faster. I am a little concerned I'm not learning as well, but I am definitely still learning. At the rate I was going before it would take 8 months to a year to finish this course, this way will probably take about half that.












I am going to take a break from the course for a week or two before moving on to lesson 5. I want to take some time to try John K's animation lesson, apply the principles I've learned to the cereal addict characters, and learn to do repairs on my own bike (a well maintained road bike will last forever).

Sunday, August 19, 2007

$100,000 Drawing Course Lesson 4 - Bugs Bunny

ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive: Meta: The $100,000 Animation Drawing Course- Lesson 4
Today I drew a proportionally accurate bugs bunny. I am using a new, more effective method to get these 'right'. Before I drew most of these at my desk at work then checked them later. Now I draw them at my desk at home and check them as I go. Drawing the whole thing, then checking them until I got it right would have taken forever. Checking the structure makes this much much easier. If the structure is off, it is impossible to notice where the details are wrong. unfortunately this method leads to drawing with tons of erase marks. However, the object of the course isn't to make the drawing pretty, its to make them fundamentally sound and proportionately accurate.

Off topic : the website for a short film I worked on is now online. http://www.deaddogprod.com/. I'm a little surprised by the trailer because when I read the script I thought it was a comedy.

Friday, August 17, 2007

$100,000 Drawing Course - Lesson 3 - Final

ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive: Meta: The $100,000 Animation Drawing Course- Lesson 3
I finally finished lesson 3. I had no idea this course would be so difficult and take so long. It is definitely working. I have noticed even my quick drawing are much more fundamentally sound. Here are the last drawing for me to get 'right'.for every one drawing I got 'right' there were probably about 10 'wrong' ones. Just to give you an idea here are all the drawings I did for Lessons 1, 2, and 3.







I was originally going to put up all the drawings I did f0r lesson 3 but I figured after 10 pages it gets the point across. This is about half of them, I would guess. I feel great right now, Like I really accomplished something. Now onto lesson 4, hopefully it won't take quite so long.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

New Blog


Here is a sample from my new blog. It is the online extension of a series of sketchbooks I have filled. Every day, for one hour, I do a drawing a minute of whatever pops into my head. I plan to update it as daily as I possibly can. So hop over some time and take a look.

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

$100 000 Drawing Coares - Lesson 4 part 2

ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive: Meta: The $100,000 Animation Drawing Course- Lesson 4





This lesson is proving pretty tough. This is my second try and I still haven't gotten any right. I am getting closer though.

$100 000 drawing coarse - lesson 3 part 5

ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive: Meta: The $100,000 Animation Drawing Course- Lesson 3


Got a couple more right this time. Still a few more to go. I am starting to see this process like whittling. every week I whittle away more bad habits and get a few more drawings right.