Storyboard Process

Okay, lots on this post. So I'm going to give a little description up here.

These were all done almost four months ago for my Digital Production Arts class this past semester. We were supposed to make a short (20 panel) storyboard about our space cowboy character. I didn't want to try to tell a full story with just 20 cuts, so I just did the first part. I really probably should have put this stuff on here sooner.

Above is the first go of this that I did. As you can see, most of the shots are straight-on or side view, like how I usually draw subjects right now. My teacher told me to try more 3/4 views, which I made a note of above. Personally, I'm pretty happy with how readable my drawings are at this scale.

 

Try #2. A little more experimenting. I accidentally skipped a row, so I just went with it and drew arrows to indicate the order of sequence. My classmates and teacher were all very quick to remind me that if I had done this digitally it wouldn't be a problem. If they want to buy me the equipment and software and then teach me to use it I'd love to see it. Ingrates. (I'm being sarcastic. I consider myself on good enough terms with them to jokingly call them "ingrates," as strange as that is.)

And here are the final storyboards: 

 

 

So that's it. The criticism that really stuck with me from class was that "nothing really happened," which is fair. I wanted something slower paced and more atmospheric (I was thinking about Samurai Jack or the old 2003 Clone Wars cartoon), but they didn't like it. Oh well.

 

Anyway, I thought I'd include these too. I had to make them as part of the character turnaround. I wasn't sure about it at first, but I like how it ended up. With these, I was told I need more consistency. Makes sense I guess. I was trying to use squash and stretch, but I don't mean to make excuses. 

Anyway, thanks God for helping me to do this before school starts again in a couple of days. Protect us all in this time, and be with us. God, be with me. Thanks. Love you.

Motion Blur

 

 

So, I did some experimenting with motion blur today, and I drew this just to finish off what I learned. I'm pretty happy with this. It feels right, even if there are a ton of proportions/form errors. So I wanted to put it here. 

 

It's also a nice contrast with the last post: what I learn versus what I want to learn. Stepping stones, I guess. I've gone back to practicing copying certain animations that I like as a way to get better at what I know. It's a lot less pressure and I'm a lot happier making small steps than big ones. I'll get there eventually if God helps me. 

 

Love you, God. God help me.

Self-Portrait

This is a self-portrait I did over the summer. Originally I really didn't want to do it because I'm not that good at drawing people from real life. But after a few days of working on it and using what I learned from art class about proportions, I liked how it looked enough that it was easier to work on it. That's another reason I prefer to work in abstract cartoons instead of drawing from life. Drawing realistically isn't that difficult, it just takes a lot of time. Why put so much work into something I could get in a second by taking a photo? I want to draw things no one has ever seen before. Oh well.

The face is probably the part I'm happiest with. I took a picture of myself so I could use that as reference, because it's a self-portrait. But the sketchbook doesn't have the same dimensions as the photo, so everything below the shirt sleeves is basically made up. And I still made my head too wide and the features too small.

While I'm talking about realism vs abstractism, I might as well put all of my thoughts on it here. Not to put too fine a point on it, but right now the animation industry is so focused on realism that it's actually crossed into ugliness. The "appeal" of the animation has been lost. Now all that remains is overly lighted and textured animated characters running around next to a lifelike cat.

Now that the technology exists to create fully realistic CGI objects, they're just making extra work for themselves. Special effects and animation used to be able to rely on improved technology to create spectacle, but now that isn't enough.

Let's go back to creating something more focused.

I agree that drawing from life can improve a cartoon style, but only to a certain extent. And I don't believe you need to know all the rules of drawing realistically in order to make good cartoons. Drawing abstractly and cartoonishly is a separate but related skill. I know impressive realistic artists who would love to be able to draw something as cartoonish as I can, and I'm not that skilled.

And another reason I wasn't super excited to work on this project was because I knew at this point that- unless I did something stupid on accident- the final product would look okay.

Because honestly, what am I getting out of this aside from the satisfaction of using a few new tricks and a job well done? Who am I really helping here? Well, whatever.

God bless this post, and, Lord, be with me.