I always get people saying to me "wow, I wish I could draw like that!"
(I personally don't think I'm that great just yet and have a long way to
go before I'm anywhere close to where I want to be, but I still get
it.) And the thing is, they can! Given the time and effort, they
probably could. The simple fact you WANT to is why. The problem starts
in the lack of self-belief.
I call this unconventional because when someone asks for an art tutorial, they're mostly asking "how do I draw a head?" "How do you colour?" "How do you shade?" And then they get angry when all you can really say is "practise." There are things I can tell you, but I can only say so much before it has to become your own personal experience. I can tell you "start with a circle," "use complimenting colours," "think about the light source." But, with the exception of the head, that's not me telling you precisely where things go. I can't tell you "make that red!" because you might want it something else. If I told you that, that's not teaching you the fundamentals. That's just telling you what to do. Which is not what you want. And something people don't seem to understand is you need to begin with the fundamentals. I can show you what my drawings of, say, a fox look like and you could say "yeah, ok, I think I can draw that now" and draw my drawing. But did you learn its fundamental form? Probably not. Art is not maths, it doesn't have a set routine. You learn the skeleton, and the rest you must build yourself. "I can show you the door, but you must take the steps" comes to mind here really.
So, with that in mind, I felt a need to write this out. I'm gonna make some subtitles and explain each one. I'll use digital art as my main medium to talk about, simply because it's the one I work with most nowadays, along with pen/pencil and paper. But this applies to all mediums. And, in some ways, can apply to all professions, not just art related.
So let's begin.
Dedication
Leonardo Da Vinci spent 4 years painting the Mona Lisa. It took 150 people five years to make GTA IV. Vincent Van Gogh spent his life trying to sell his works. Myself, like every other artist, like most of those on my course, like most of us across the world, have dedicated ourselves to one thing. In my case, art. This doesn't mean throw away what you've had the ambition to do for years - it just means putting in some time to learn. Sit down at an hour a day or something and draw stuff. Draw your room. Draw your reflection. Draw your hand. Whatever you can see, draw it. And if you're a bit more serious, go out and find somewhere to draw. Find a crowd and see how quickly you can draw the area with the crowd in it. Draw a building - see if you can pick out the tiny details in the churches. Which actually brings me on to my next point.
If you're going to make it your life, it doesn't just need to be a hobby. You don't just need dedication. It needs to be an obsession.
Patience
Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither is skill. Like I said before, it takes years upon years to become good at art, or any profession in fact. Drawn something that you don't like? Don't rage quit and throw it in a bin! Keep it. Then draw it again. And again. And again, and again, and again. Until it looks right. Be patient and don't give up. And be an optimist about it. Thomas Edison didn't fail 1,000 times in making the light bulb, he just found a thousand ways it doesn't work. Over the past few days, I've found several ways in which my methods in drawing heads that didn't work before finally finding one that does.
Study!
Sounds obvious. But most people seem to take this as "copy your favourite artist". Read some textbooks about different theories, how to use your brush effectively, mixing paints and the like. And look at a variety of artists. And I don't mean copy their works. It's all well and good you can recreate someone's art piece, but did you really learn anything? Did you learn how they used light? Why stuff is that colour? Yes, you can look like this artist. But when it comes to making your own, it turns out horrible again because you didn't learn. Don't copy, but learn. Learn the anatomy, the form, the colours, the light. Once you learn the fundamentals and start applying them, your quality will take much further leaps than just going "yay, I can draw a pokemon now!" You can draw these characters if you like, but try doing it in your own style.
Light and colour theory are very important. Study the hell out of it. Look at stuff. That radiator isn't white. Even if it's brand new. It's got light from the floor and the wall reflecting off of it. Find the complimenting and contrasting colours. Find what colours not to use. Use warm colours together, then contrast with some cool colours. Learn it all and you'll notice a definitive improvement in how you use colour. It's not just "I want this Pikachu to be yellow" anymore, he's got a little bit of orange in there. So add in a tiny bit of red. You don't add shadows to colours just by making them darker. You need to increase the saturation as the value decreases (the value being how bright/dark the colour is in the black-to-white scale, saturation is how much of orange is in there. Search it up, it's hard to explain without pictures.) Try going to classes too, if you can of course. Life drawing sessions are a great place to start. The tutors can teach you about every part of the body, how it's shaped, how the form fits together. And don't be objective in their either. Got a wrinkly old man? Suck it up. And actually, as I recently discovered, it's probably actually better to have a wrinkly old man because the skin has more detail in it than that fair-skinned lady you were hoping to have. Either way you have it, you're there to learn, not to get dreamy.
Learn your tools and experiment
Learn how to use your tools. All of them. You may be sat there forever on Photoshop looking at an artist thinking "how did he do that?!" and find out that the answer was sitting in your tool bar the whole time. Find out what each of these tools do and how you can utilise them. Mess about with their settings a little too, and see what you can come up with. Custom brushes and the like. One such example of this was I was using Paint Tool SAI the other day (a great program for digital painting, much more simple than Photoshop, sensitivity levels are more accurate, very fluid and much less demanding on your system, give it a try) and I'd been trying to create one particular effect for ages using the pen and watercolour tools. No matter how hard I tried, it didn't come out quite the same as the artist I was looking at. And just the other day, I was messing about with a few of the other tools that I don't use often enough. Wait... is this marker tool doing what I think it is? It is! Wow! Doing exactly what this artist was doing! So yeah, learn your tools and experiment. Not just with the tools and settings, but with other programs too. Photoshop is pretty damn good for digital painting. And as so many internet artists have found out in the past year or so, Paint Tool SAI is a God send. Don't be afraid to poke about a little and see what else there is.
Your workspace
Art isn't just about how you're making it, but also where. Working outside can have some really calming effects that add to the therapy many artists experience when painting. Helps you to focus. Set out your workspace into something you really like, something that helps to keep you focused and comfortable and inspired. On my desk, I have my computer set up with two screens, one is a monitor I bought and the other is my TV that I'm using as a second screen when I'm not playing my Xbox. On my main screen, I'm drawing, and on the other I have Spotify loaded, or Youtube, or a video - something that I can play as ambience. Also have Firefox open if I need to do any browsing. May also have my laptop on if I want to be on Skype too. I have a nice little drawing I bought from DeviantArt set just next to my screen and my desktop background is always an inspiring image. Just by coincidence, my room is pointing South so it always has the sun in it during daytime (when Britain's poor weather permits). It's a nice little spot that helps me keep calm and relaxed, whether I'm painting or 3D modelling or animating or doing anything else that I need to do. Set up a little space in your room you can do these things, or your spare room or whatever. Make a little workspace somewhere.
Find something you enjoy
Pretty obvious really. But, if you don't enjoy drawing vehicles, or people or something, then why are you trying? Draw some landscapes instead. Find what you enjoy making, what inspires you. For me, it's colours and light, it's characters of the human, animal and in-between, and landscapes. Vivid colours, using light well, it all attracts me and makes me really want to do better. Combining these points makes me want to create something wonderful. (Just, whatever you do, don't hang up three blank canvases and call it art... That's just... No.)
Drawing doesn't have to be hard. It doesn't have to be a chore. It doesn't have to be something to throw about after getting your line art wrong. Time, patience and study is what will make you skillful. Not jealousy, raging and tracing.
In fact, on the point of jealousy, try using your green-eyed vision to be inspired by what you're envious of and let it make yourself more determined to become better.
Thursday 31 January 2013
Friday 25 January 2013
Walk Cycle Animation
Probably doing this a bit backwards as I have yet to upload my bouncing ball animations, but I've only just figured out how to render into an AVI file.
This is actually the second walk cycle I've done, kind of. The first one I scrapped half way through as I felt I had done the first step too fast and, afraid to break it, I made a new file rather than tried to lengthen the step by a few more frames. It also turned out a bit better than the original walk cycle too as there were a few things I'd picked up on how people walked since. I feel like a bit of a creep when I stare out of the bus window watching people walk, but that's beside the point.
Below is the finished animation of the character doing a simple walking animation. Although not perfect, I think it's pretty good for my first attempt. Something I need to take in to account for future animations is the first and last frames. I set them to the same settings, so there seems to be a small stop at the end of every cycle. It only lasts for one frame, but somehow it's enough to bug me. Another thing is his chest. It seems that only the top part of his chest seems to rotate, so maybe there's a control that I missed. Again, I'll fix that in my next attempt at a walk cycle. Also didn't do anything with the fingers for some reason
This is actually the second walk cycle I've done, kind of. The first one I scrapped half way through as I felt I had done the first step too fast and, afraid to break it, I made a new file rather than tried to lengthen the step by a few more frames. It also turned out a bit better than the original walk cycle too as there were a few things I'd picked up on how people walked since. I feel like a bit of a creep when I stare out of the bus window watching people walk, but that's beside the point.
Below is the finished animation of the character doing a simple walking animation. Although not perfect, I think it's pretty good for my first attempt. Something I need to take in to account for future animations is the first and last frames. I set them to the same settings, so there seems to be a small stop at the end of every cycle. It only lasts for one frame, but somehow it's enough to bug me. Another thing is his chest. It seems that only the top part of his chest seems to rotate, so maybe there's a control that I missed. Again, I'll fix that in my next attempt at a walk cycle. Also didn't do anything with the fingers for some reason
Saturday 5 January 2013
12 Principles of Animation
1. Squashing and stretching.
Squashing and stretching is one of the most important principles of animation and it is what gives weight and volume to a character or object. It is also useful in animating dialogue and facial expressions.
A bad example of this can be found in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. There are certain places in the game that the character can play basketball, and typically the ball would squash and flatten as it hits the ground and stretch. However, it doesn't happen in this game.
2. Anticipation.
This movement prepares the audience for a major action the character is about to perform, such as starting to run, jump or attack. The body does not simply swing straight into the action, but normally does a counteraction before the action. For instance, to swing a blade the character would first recoil and then swing. When jumping, the character would first bend his legs and then jump.
A good example of this is in Mark of the Ninja. A lot of the animation shows fluid recoil before an action - the character will draw his sword fully back before attacking his opponents and his body will rock back before thrusting fowards as he does so. Additionally, his legs appropriately bend before springing out to launch him into the air.
A bad example of this can be found in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. When the character jumps, he instantly launches into the air and only in the air does his body contract. But the character does not bend their legs first. This same thing is actually found in quite a few games and seems to be a bit of a struggle for animators, most likely because players want an instant reaction.
3. Staging.
A pose or action should clearly communicate with the audience the attitude, mood, reaction or idea of the character in relation to the narrative and continuity of the storyline. This is basically the use of camera position and angle in relation to the action to convey the appropriate response (such as a close-up to convey emotions). Every frame must relate to the overall story.
A good example of this can be found in Alan Wake. The game is created to look kind of like a TV series and it s hows very well in the camera angles. It mixes everything between extreme close ups to establishing shots to create the effect of a mix of brilliant, calm scenery and a dark atmosphere. One such shot is of the camera flying through the mountains during a sunset, showing the audience the kind of area the place is in, a normally calm and peaceful place. Another shot is a point where Alan falls down a cliff and into the river far below. The shot is an extreme long shot. As it's night, everything is dark and eerie yet still visible and the only indication of where Alan is is through a flare that he's holding. Because of this, you can see the height of his drop and a sense of the peril below.
4. Straight ahead and pose to pose animation.
Straight ahead animation is where each frame is drawn from the start to the end of the sequence, where as pose to pose is where the key points of the sequence are drawn and then the gaps are filled in with additional frames. Straight ahead animation has the risk of losing the volume and proportions of the character, but it does have spontaneity and freshness. As such, this method is normally used for fast action sequences. Pose to pose is more planned out and reduces the risk of loss of proportion and volume.
5. Follow through and overlapping action.
Follow through is where parts of the character continue to travel despite the fact that the main body has stopped (such as loose clothing, arms, legs, head etc.). Overlapping is similar, only instead of stopping, it's when the character changes direction and the clothes react by continuing in the previous direction before switching.
One good example is in Trine 2. The wizard and the thief's clothing have long tails and hence swish about around their feet. The clothes react very well to when the character starts, stops and changes direction as the motion is seemless and fluid and doesn't seem to pass through the character which does sometimes happen.
6. Slow-in and Slow-out
Following the theme of working in towards the final action, a slow-in and slow-out determines the speed of an action. Normally when you move, you start slow and pick up the pace. This is easiest to show in walking, as you build up to the speed rather than moving straight to walking speed. And as you stop, you ease into it rather than stopping dead.
A bad example can be found in Two Worlds. When the player starts walking, he instantly starts, and the same with stopping. Although it does have an accurate start motion, it doesn't ease into it and goes straight to running. When the player stops walking it instantly stops the character dead.
7. Arcs.
Whenever a part of the body moves, it moves on a turning point like a pendulum. Each body part makes an arc when it moves. Almost every game does this and it's very difficult to find a poor example. A good example, however, would be games that include swords (for this, I'll use Zero from Borderlands 2). As Zero swings his sword, you can see a very clear pendulum motion with his body and arms as he performs an upward strike.
8. Secondary Action.
A secondary action is gestures and the like that help to enhance the effect of the main action. Take for example an angry character. His walk would be aggressive and harsh, his feet stomping on the ground. An addition to that would be arms that swing more harshly with clenched fists. His body would tilt forwards and his head would be lowered. The secondary actions should support the purpose of the primary action.
9. Timing.
Timing is how fast the action is. It helps to establish physical things such as weight, velocity and force. Generally, the faster the action, the less frame it takes. It can also help to express emotions. A sad character might move slower than normal, or a scared character might be quick and twitchy with sharp reactions.
10. Exaggeration
It's not necessarily meaning that everything must be over-the-top through extreme distortion and broadness, but more to make it look more natural. The same applies to facial animation. Although in the real world, normal facial movement looks normal, in animation it can look stiff and mechanic, which is one reason why facial capture could become a bad thing. In animation, the movement must be more pronounced to look more natural.
A good example of this is in L.A. Noire. Using motion capture, the developers managed to accurately recreate every movement of the face for use in their game, so that the player can look out to see if the person is lying. As mentioned before, the capture might not always be a good thing, so the actors would have exaggerated their movements so that it would look more real when it's put into the game and so that the player could look for the clues without too much hassle. Through this exaggeration, the game has created some of the most accurate facial animations in gaming to date.
11. Solid drawing.
This is basically applying academic drawing to animation. You take in the three dimensions of the human body and apply it to the animation.
12. Appeal
Like a performer has to have charisma, a character has to have appeal. To create appeal, it needs to have an easy to read design, clear drawing and personality development that will capture and involve the audience's interest. The character not only needs to look good, but also have a strong personality.
One good example is Sgt. Johnson from the Halo series. He has a dominant and easily recognisable design which fits in well into his role. His personality is the motivational yet comical kind and is most memorable for his quirky, inspiring and amusing quotes.
Squashing and stretching is one of the most important principles of animation and it is what gives weight and volume to a character or object. It is also useful in animating dialogue and facial expressions.
A bad example of this can be found in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. There are certain places in the game that the character can play basketball, and typically the ball would squash and flatten as it hits the ground and stretch. However, it doesn't happen in this game.
2. Anticipation.
This movement prepares the audience for a major action the character is about to perform, such as starting to run, jump or attack. The body does not simply swing straight into the action, but normally does a counteraction before the action. For instance, to swing a blade the character would first recoil and then swing. When jumping, the character would first bend his legs and then jump.
A good example of this is in Mark of the Ninja. A lot of the animation shows fluid recoil before an action - the character will draw his sword fully back before attacking his opponents and his body will rock back before thrusting fowards as he does so. Additionally, his legs appropriately bend before springing out to launch him into the air.
A bad example of this can be found in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. When the character jumps, he instantly launches into the air and only in the air does his body contract. But the character does not bend their legs first. This same thing is actually found in quite a few games and seems to be a bit of a struggle for animators, most likely because players want an instant reaction.
3. Staging.
A pose or action should clearly communicate with the audience the attitude, mood, reaction or idea of the character in relation to the narrative and continuity of the storyline. This is basically the use of camera position and angle in relation to the action to convey the appropriate response (such as a close-up to convey emotions). Every frame must relate to the overall story.
A good example of this can be found in Alan Wake. The game is created to look kind of like a TV series and it s hows very well in the camera angles. It mixes everything between extreme close ups to establishing shots to create the effect of a mix of brilliant, calm scenery and a dark atmosphere. One such shot is of the camera flying through the mountains during a sunset, showing the audience the kind of area the place is in, a normally calm and peaceful place. Another shot is a point where Alan falls down a cliff and into the river far below. The shot is an extreme long shot. As it's night, everything is dark and eerie yet still visible and the only indication of where Alan is is through a flare that he's holding. Because of this, you can see the height of his drop and a sense of the peril below.
4. Straight ahead and pose to pose animation.
Straight ahead animation is where each frame is drawn from the start to the end of the sequence, where as pose to pose is where the key points of the sequence are drawn and then the gaps are filled in with additional frames. Straight ahead animation has the risk of losing the volume and proportions of the character, but it does have spontaneity and freshness. As such, this method is normally used for fast action sequences. Pose to pose is more planned out and reduces the risk of loss of proportion and volume.
5. Follow through and overlapping action.
Follow through is where parts of the character continue to travel despite the fact that the main body has stopped (such as loose clothing, arms, legs, head etc.). Overlapping is similar, only instead of stopping, it's when the character changes direction and the clothes react by continuing in the previous direction before switching.
One good example is in Trine 2. The wizard and the thief's clothing have long tails and hence swish about around their feet. The clothes react very well to when the character starts, stops and changes direction as the motion is seemless and fluid and doesn't seem to pass through the character which does sometimes happen.
6. Slow-in and Slow-out
Following the theme of working in towards the final action, a slow-in and slow-out determines the speed of an action. Normally when you move, you start slow and pick up the pace. This is easiest to show in walking, as you build up to the speed rather than moving straight to walking speed. And as you stop, you ease into it rather than stopping dead.
A bad example can be found in Two Worlds. When the player starts walking, he instantly starts, and the same with stopping. Although it does have an accurate start motion, it doesn't ease into it and goes straight to running. When the player stops walking it instantly stops the character dead.
7. Arcs.
Whenever a part of the body moves, it moves on a turning point like a pendulum. Each body part makes an arc when it moves. Almost every game does this and it's very difficult to find a poor example. A good example, however, would be games that include swords (for this, I'll use Zero from Borderlands 2). As Zero swings his sword, you can see a very clear pendulum motion with his body and arms as he performs an upward strike.
8. Secondary Action.
A secondary action is gestures and the like that help to enhance the effect of the main action. Take for example an angry character. His walk would be aggressive and harsh, his feet stomping on the ground. An addition to that would be arms that swing more harshly with clenched fists. His body would tilt forwards and his head would be lowered. The secondary actions should support the purpose of the primary action.
9. Timing.
Timing is how fast the action is. It helps to establish physical things such as weight, velocity and force. Generally, the faster the action, the less frame it takes. It can also help to express emotions. A sad character might move slower than normal, or a scared character might be quick and twitchy with sharp reactions.
10. Exaggeration
It's not necessarily meaning that everything must be over-the-top through extreme distortion and broadness, but more to make it look more natural. The same applies to facial animation. Although in the real world, normal facial movement looks normal, in animation it can look stiff and mechanic, which is one reason why facial capture could become a bad thing. In animation, the movement must be more pronounced to look more natural.
A good example of this is in L.A. Noire. Using motion capture, the developers managed to accurately recreate every movement of the face for use in their game, so that the player can look out to see if the person is lying. As mentioned before, the capture might not always be a good thing, so the actors would have exaggerated their movements so that it would look more real when it's put into the game and so that the player could look for the clues without too much hassle. Through this exaggeration, the game has created some of the most accurate facial animations in gaming to date.
11. Solid drawing.
This is basically applying academic drawing to animation. You take in the three dimensions of the human body and apply it to the animation.
12. Appeal
Like a performer has to have charisma, a character has to have appeal. To create appeal, it needs to have an easy to read design, clear drawing and personality development that will capture and involve the audience's interest. The character not only needs to look good, but also have a strong personality.
One good example is Sgt. Johnson from the Halo series. He has a dominant and easily recognisable design which fits in well into his role. His personality is the motivational yet comical kind and is most memorable for his quirky, inspiring and amusing quotes.
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