Character for the animation contest

Well, it took me a lot of time and I missed some sleep, but my character for the animation contest is finished. As usual, I had made it all too complicated (probably because I wanted to make it too perfect), and then simplified matters. I'm just not experienced enough to have a good workflow.

Here is my character doing a pirouette.



Notice that his arms are not balanced. The arm that is up, should be down, and vice versa.

Entered animation contest!

On Animationforum.net there is a monthly animation contest running and anyone can enter (see here for more details). The character on the right is a test drawing. I have to go into the details, using some of the animation books I have, because a nice drawing doesn't make a cartoon character. The plot is to have several of these legged balls dancing around on the music supplied by the contest organizer.

Hand drawn blob

Well, the blob is hand drawn. The eyes are constructed.

Spongethingie

Well, it isn't anything like the real character, but it was a lot of fun creating this guy.

Another sprinting stick figure

Here's another attempt of animating a starting sprinter.

How about a talking head?

I was playing a bit with my animation program, Anime Studio Pro, and because I seem to be into heads lately, I decided to create an animation of a talking head. I pulled the audio file from the Net (just Google "movie quotes audio"). Alas, the YouTube video compressor removed some of the fun details. You can watch the file I compressed myself here.

Start to run

Well, here is a line test of an animation about running. Perhaps I should develop it in to a weird running animation of a stick figure.

Just some doodling...

Well, knowing something about drawing faces seems to pay off after a few days. The knowledge has to sink in a bit before something useful surfaces.

It's not a great drawing (it's doodling), but much better than what I could have drawn a few weeks ago. Maybe now all I have to do is to study the subject more thoroughly...

Shades of gray

	I was trying to create an image of a tennis ball in shades of gray. First I put the tennis ball on a sheet of drawing paper and shaded the shadows the ball casted. Then I removed the ball, and shaded the details of the ball
	Here is the drawing, with some test drawing of shades of gray.

Drawing a face

As was to be expected, my first drawing of a face is not very convincing. What I'm clearly lacking is experience and knowledge. I hope by doing it more often, I will get better. In the center you can see my pathetic attempt to copy a drawing of a face (top right corner). Nevertheless, I see a couple things I can improve immediately: draw more cautious (less pressure on the pencil), and try to measure the basic shape from the original (not proceed until that is correct).

I promise to get better, much better, than this.

(Note to self: drawing life images would be a very humbling experience right now, perhaps I should stick to self portraits until I'm better at this)

More drawing

I keep drawing circles, squares and pentagons. I tried to draw some real life objects as well. Not yet as a study, but only as a doodle.

I'm really eager to start using the books about drawing (The Joy of Drawing, by Bill Martin), anatomy (Human Anatomy Made Amazingly Easy, by Christopher Hart, translated into Dutch), and cartoon drawing (Cartoon Animation, by Preston Blair, translated into Dutch). I think I'm ready for that now.

Another attempt at blinking eyes

Here is a better animation example. Thanks to the guys in the Anime Studio Forum for their advice and support.

Blinking

Does it matter how your character blinks its eys: eye slow of fast shutting, slow or fast opening?



A good excuse for animating. This time with Anime Studio Pro 5.5.

Some real improvement

When I compare what I draw today and twelve days ago, I'm seeing some real improvement. Not only do I take more time to draw, the pencil strokes are also more deliberate and exact.

October 21, 2006	November 2, 2006

I wonder what happens if I try to draw from Preston Blair's book about drawing animation, and from a book on drawing human anatomy? Who now claims that for some people it is impossible to learn how to draw, is either someone who doesn't know or someone who is telling lies. I'm was in the first category, but now I'm in neither.