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There are several ways to maintain the model in 2d animation. This first one is still true today but used to a lesser extent, first the artist surrounds themselves with reference of the character. Angles, other expressions that were liked, maquettes, any and all reference you could get for how that character’s proportions work. There are model sheets with scale lines, turnarounds, sheets that break down the character into shapes (and yes all characters can be as long as they are to be turned when animated. Some animators preferred straight-ahead animation and some do a pose to pose approach. Either way, you will be drawing ir photocopying the turnaround of your character at the correct size for your scene. This way you always have the correct model to refer back to and it doesn’t get too far away from when you started. I enjoyed doing straight ahead animation, but when I would do this, the character usually crept up in size as I went, so I would have to keep bringing the model in under the paper to makes sure I was maintaining a constant size. When doing a more straight ahead approach, you usually do a rough pass of just an indication of where the character will be. On paper, you would draw this in a light blue, digitally you can draw it whatever color you want. Light blue was used because it wouldn’t show up on a photocopy. For a really complicated action, like say a character is running away from a monster, trips, has to get back up and keep running all while arguing with their mom on the phone, I would animate just the body and legs first, to get that action correct, then probably do the head, because that will be dependent on where the body is, and draw the crosshairs on for where the are looking back over their shoulders, where they focus on the run and where they focus on their mom or the phone, I might have drawn in some heads and arms when they trip, because that would take them out of the conversation, then I’d do one or both arms, or the hand with phone because you know where that’s going to be now that you have the head, and you have to know there whether they switch hands or not, then the arm holding the phone, then the other arm and hand, because it’ll mostly just be working with the running. Then you get in the facial expressions that you haven’t covered and then, if it’s working with the dialogue, you add the mouth. The whole time you want to keep referring back to your printed model (or the model in the scene if digital) to makes sure it isn’t far off. When the rough is good, you go in with your dark pencil and “tie it down.” Here you are constantly putting your model underneath unless you are Milt Kahl. This prevents the features from floating and proportions from changing. Your shapes should already be consistent, but here is where it really looks like the character. Then it goes to cleanup. If it’s in Animate or Harmony, but you are still traditionally animating you can use a combo of the actual model and your own drawings. This is where the line thickness and precise style matter. So yes, you animate the same scene over and over and it does take a long time. I still do a rough pass like this, at least a stick figure with the right proportions, even when using a rig. It does take less time the more you do it, you begin to know what’s important in each pass.
Okay some of the answers on here are really depressing, and that is not what I want you to get out of this, but I am a working animation professional. It's 2 am, and I am procrastinating doing my day job, which is THAT job. It can be very fun, I get paid well, and I get to use everything I learned in school except for how to flip paper (it's a good party trick.) However, if I want to go draw at the beach or work on a graphic novel, I still have to do that on the weekend or at night.
And I do, I started painting and sketching for fun again recently. I took a class on field sketching. I have friends with graphic novels and their own shows but they still work on them at 2 am or on Saturday, until the show gets picked up seven years later and they have no time for anything else.
I'm not saying that to bum you out, more to say that nothing is stopping you from living that life you want to live, you don't have to be a working animator to do any of that. You should live near a beach if you want to sketch near the beach, but really, I lived 4 miles from the ocean for a decade and went like, twice a year when people visited, because I was a working artist and didn't go outside. Unfortunately there are definitely animation jobs that are just as soul sucking as any other workplace. And even the best ones are not you drawing what and where you want to draw, but what and where someone else wants you to draw. And the old animators talk about retirement too. I love it, and have found a way to express myself while doing that, but not everyone finds it that way. Anyway, go DO that stuff. Draw at lunch, or take photo reference to draw from at lunch. draw caricatures of your fellow government employees, in your head if you have to. Squirrel it all away for later.
I figured I couldn’t be alone in enjoying the combo!
Los Angeles, we’ve had a lot of rain this year and just starting to heat up so it’s extra pretty (and lizardy) right now!
I’m in a 10a or 10b (on a border) and you can stick it right back in the ground. Or even on the ground. Mine do the best under a deciduous tree so they get direct winter sun but shaded from the hottest summer sun, but when they are in the summer sun they just go dormant for 3 months or so.
Not inflates necessarily, but look at AI “art.” The lighting and initially look good, but once you start looking at the details, how things fit in to one another, a lot is hidden in the first impression, which is formed by the color and light representation. However most people don’t reach that level of painting ability without the fundamentals so that becomes a sniff test for AI. Definitely some people learn to render or to paint without solidifying the drawing ability first, but you can’t get super far with that (in representational art.)
Spray bottle, the little travel ones work great for this, spray it, then get a paper towel, wet it, wring it out, lay it over the top, close the lid, then go to the bathroom, or take your paints with you, do something for ten minutes plus. When you come back, they’re in perfect shape. Another person I redid puts a piece of wet sponge in theirs and that’s where I got the paper towel idea
I had a life drawing teacher that said (paraphrasing,) “I can teach you where every muscle is attaching and how all the joints work in the body but there’s no point in telling you that until you are ready to learn it.” You’re ready to learn it when you are trying to do your piece, get stuck somewhere, and then have a specific question. This is to hop on what Seamlesslytango was saying. You’re going to be learning the rest of your life. Get it out, get stuck, learn how to get unstuck, repeat.
I’m coming at this from a third perspective. I have an animation job, I’m successful at it, and I enjoy it most of the time, BUT I just now, in my 20th year in the industry, am coming back to making art, drawing, painting, for me, for the feeling of it. I’m not saying for the fun of it because it’s not always fun it just scratches an itch that doesn’t get scratched any other way. I guess what I’m trying to say is, you won’t lose art even if you do put it on the back burner, and you won’t keep it alive just by using it for work. I know many people who tried to satisfy their parents’ expectations for them only to drop out and go into animation anyway, and some people that dropped out of animation to pursue more steady work. And a very small sprinkling of people who dropped out of animation to do fine art, which is an even smaller and less stable profession. So no, you won’t lose it.
But also, if you’re like me, and you cannot fathom doing anything else, join us! (I understand your parent may disown you in which case, maybe go to college first and get in secretly)
Note that if you are in California recording someone without their consent is illegal. If the administration and parents already know what is happening that can only hurt you.
This was unlabeled but either giant red or cyclops, it flowered and I was kind of sad but the flower(s) is/are amazing!
A sketchbook, quarters for meters and phones, a pen, a wallet (with cash,) sunglasses. Mp3s weren’t used until the 2000s and they were on cds first, you could fit a hell of a lot of mp3s on one CD instead of 15 or so. I did have a diskman, but it still skipped. So if you went out for a walk and you wanted music, you would pick which album you were going to listen to that day. I would rollerblade places. You would have to call your friend before you left the house and make sure they were going to be where you agreed to meet. You would talk to whichever member of their family answered the phone. The house’s phone. God help you if your friend and their mom had the same voice.
The canyon gray sagebrush are amazing, they look like tiny dead bushes when planted (mine started very small) and within months are everything you said, billowy, spilling over rocks, I love them and had never heard of them until earlier this year.
I tried many expensive ones and the dermatologist told me this too, the cera ve in the tub, the moisturizing cream.
I guess the heads have gotten a bit bigger
Yeah I have OH and my cardiologist recommended a flavored salt to mix with my water to get more salt. He does want me to drink 2.5 liters a day though so she’s half right.
I think the apple is my favorite for the color on the inside but maybe the hardest to read shape-wise. If you are going for dimensionality, which it sounds like you are in the comments, there is something you are doing that is fighting that, and it’s interesting because I’ve seen someone on tiktok or facebook doing something similar giving tutorials and it’s a stylistic choice, but not being taught as one. You will need to look at how light really hits a round object, which all of these are except the lemon slice. Look for the darkest area of shadow, it’s not likely to be the edge. Right now you are making kind of a paint “outline” of the fruits with the deepest color, which is making them more flat and graphic. This isn’t a bad thing, they are appealing like that but it fights the volume.
Barbie. Not joking. It's used as a caricature of "the real world" but it is fully playing itself, from Venice Beach to Century City. As other people on here have said though, if what you want to see is hazy sunshine and urban jungle it has that 100 times over. It's a massive, sprawling city and every other mile or so has something completely different.
Best movies with a L.A. as the back drop?
movies