More Caricatures

Playing around spotting the T shape and exaggerating head shapes.

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Instincts

I once read a post on John K's blog that caricature is the cure for formulaic drawings. 

Feeling stuck in a cartoony rut, I did some today: 

Like ice cream, I can't choose a favorite. 

I didn't think at all, just let my instincts and observation guide me. That was a fun session, I'll do that again when I have the time.

“Refine your skills to support your instincts.”
- Linda Ronstadt

One of the things I found out is that caricature lends itself to spontaneity. Once an opinion of the subject pops in your head, immediately draw it using confident strokes. Another thing I learned is that John K was also absolutely right when he said don't caricature in someone else's style, a subject will show you how it needs to portrayed. Here's the complete quote in his own words:

"Don't impose your "style" of caricature upon the model. Or worse, Hirschfeld's.*

Open your mind and let the specific new information change the way you assume 

things should look. Otherwise you are looking at the world through thick gauze 

and missing out on the tons of interesting new information staring you in the face."

What can I say? The man is a genius. Other than that, I bought two new sketchbooks, one for realistic life drawing and the other is for what I've shown today- caricature. So I've got 4 active sketchbooks now, 2 for what I've mentioned just now, 1 for copying 40's - 50's cartoon drawings and the last one which is the smallest is for gesture drawing. I'm excited to fill these up again, and since I've organized them into subjects, maybe I can see my progress from the first page to the last. 

*note: John was taking about Al Hirschfeld - caricature genius, the inspiration in Rhapsody in Blue from Disney's fantasia 2000

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System for timing charts

Timing charts - the stonehenge of animation, well atleast for me. As I was making my final homework for Force animation, I noticed I'm not being extremely challenged about it. I mean the deadline is challenging as always, and I'm sure I'm not going to finish the whole animation in time, but animation skill-wise, that's about the only other thing that is challenging me, the other one is drawing cute limbs. So I decided to incorporate the use of timing charts which has always been a mystery to me.

This is what encouraged me to do so: 

http://tombancroft.blogspot.com/2012/03/timing-charts-for-traditional-animation.html

Here are Tom Bancroft's awesome notes in that post:

That post is golden, four simple images explained timing charts to me in a way 

books and videos have never been able to accomplish. 

I made a simple step-by-step version for myself as well, since I'm still a beginner at this. 

Pretty sure these rules will change over time as I learn how to use the charts more, but for now these will do as I gotta get back to work on the animation. Catch you on the flipside!

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Ugly Jenny - Concept art take 2

Earlier today I posted my character designs for Ugly Jenny - my last, big homework for Force animation. 

http://boybogart.blogspot.com/2013/03/ugly-jenny-concept-art.html. Here's my follow-up post and some revised material. I wish I could do more but I only have a week to do it all. 

The designs were ok, but I noticed several things while I was making the blog post, namely - Jenny's eyes doesn't have depth and solidity, the cartoon itself could prove to be funnier if Jenny is a very young girl who still doesn't have body coordination then starts to act like a friggin' action star when she was wronged, and Ritchard Gale - the bad kid - could use a little more appeal. I read that somewhere in the illusion of life - villains should look appealing as well, people wouldn't like them but they're still pleasant to look at.

Here's what I came up with after dinner:

Not bad, not bad at all. Jenny is cuter than ever and still retains structure. I love drawing those cheeks. Her budget also got lower since she's made of more simpler shapes now, especially the hair.  Ritchard's shapes got a bit more appealing and he still looks like scum, an appealing scum, which is essential in moving the story forward. His arms also got an upgrade from rubber hose looking to a 1940's cartilaginous-boned macaroni. 

I'm surprised I did all of this in one day, maybe studying classic cartoon construction is starting to pay off for me. In any case, I don't have the luxury of time to revise this, I need to move forward to finalizing the storyboards tomorrow. That could prove to be a good thing. I just hope I can animate something before Sunday comes so I can get feedback in class. 

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Ugly Jenny - Concept art

For some reason, I suddenly remembered Ritchard Gale's scummy face yesterday while thinking of who to reference as an awkward teenage bully for my animation short for Force class. Looking back, I think I made the right choice, that face looks just like the part! 

Applying concepts of construction really helped in this pliable noggin'.

What a pretty piercing.  Too bad I can't the same for where it's attached to.

  But after I did that, I feel like a scum as well so to wash off this dirty feeling, I immediately looked for references to Jenny - the main character in the animation short. I found this little girl that is just so cute! I've almost forgotten I was looking at Ritchard Gale's face a few minutes ago!

Jenny isn't so ugly after all.

OH MY LAWD! THIS GIRL IS JUST SOOO CUTE!!!

I had to tweak her age though, since this super cute girl is just too young to be able to run really fast and do action stuff...or would it be funnier if she is like this really young kid that does all this action star stunts. Hmm, that is something to think about, sorry thinking aloud.

Anyway, I feel positive towards most of the designs, Jenny's eyes is bothering me though. It feels anime-ish, and just doesn't show depth and solidity. I'll rest on this for a bit and come back later with a more pliable, animatable eyes for our cute heroine, or maybe a younger, cuter design. We'll see. 

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Boybogart's Influence Map

I know, I know. I’m way too late for this, but I still learned a lot about my preferences in making it. The most recurring themes I noticed in this are - a. Well constructed, appealing animation b. Fantasy c. Humor

Here’s a list of what/who’s in it:

1. Chuck Jones - One of the greatest animators/directors that lived. 

2. John K - Great teacher, made me appreciate the Golden age more

3. Regular show - I regularly watch the regular show

4. Magic the Gathering - Kev Walker, Mark Zug - The card game started my interest in fantasy art. Kev walker’s art is just insanely good, I always get inspired when I look at it. Mark Zug is another artist that is a huge inspiration to me, I remember writing him an email several years ago, telling him how huge his paintings made an impact on me to pursue a career in art. Reading his response was really awesome, I can’t imagine I just “talked” to the guy whose paintings I stared at too many hours when I was a kid.

5. Fleischer's Popeye run - Clean, and simple fun but their gags still make me laugh

6. Bob’s burgers - Never fails to make me laugh. Tina’s capoeira episode is hysterical! I’m feeling the urge to watch it again later.

7. Fred Moore - Great poses and appeal is what he does best.

8. Andrew Loomis - His books taught me how to draw properly. He made self study possible for me.

9. Mike Mattesi - My animation teacher right now, his concepts made me see the world through different lenses.

10. Stardust - I still remember the feeling I got after I watched this film. It was pure joy and fuzziness. 

11.Matt Dixon - Insanely fun paintings. Plus his brush strokes are delicious. Doesn’t get better than that. 

12. Dragon age origins - I also still remember the feeling after I finished the game. It felt like saying goodbye to a world that I loved, and to friends that I knew.

13. Wayne Reynolds - I love the way he uses blacks/shadows on his art.

14. Gravity falls - Nice animation, great backgrounds, memorable characters and funny. This show is a winner.

Runner ups (also known as the ones that didn’t fit the meme):

15. Lewis Trondheim - Incredibly talented comic storyteller. His works are some of the most memorable comics I've ever read. His themes are also really unique and fun.

16. Eric goldberg - The man himself is really fun, he’s like a big balding kid. And his animations are amazing. I ordered his book last week and I can’t wait to get it on my veiny hands. 

17. Bill Watterson - Everyone knows him, the man who gives profound life lessons through his cute comic strip.

18. Fullmetal Alchemist - It was the show that I wish would never end.

19. John Nevarez - Very forceful, gestural drawings. He also makes insane layouts and BG’s.

20. Gobelins - I used to be obsessed with the quality of the animations the students of this school produces. These days, my interests have changed but it doesn’t mean I still don’t get inspired by seeing these wonderful animations.

21. Zen pencils - Inspiration in comics form, this is one of my goals.

22. Asterix - I like the way Uderzo draws fat men in action.

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Force animation class progress weeks 4-6

Hey gang! Here's another update on the animation class I'm enrolled in - Force animation. If you want to learn more about the class' first three weeks, you can check out my previous post here. We're past halfway through the class and a lot of things have happened. What kinds of things you might ask? Read on and find out!

Week 4: Basic walk cycle. So yeah, every animation class has atleast one session dedicated to walk cycles, why should you expect any different from this class? Besides, the rationale behind that thinking is true : Animating walks is hard! And I think it never comes easy for anyone, a lot of things are going on and all the basics are applied on a walk - squash and stretch, follow-through, arcs etc. The main thing that Mr. Mattesi emphasized on this session is that in walks, you can think of the character positions in terms of the bouncing ball. For example, the contact position in the walk is similar to the contact position of the bouncing ball, the recoil position of the walk is the squash of the bouncing ball, so on and so forth. I kept those things in mind and decided to use an existing character - Elmer Fudd, to animate for the walk.

It's not a bad walk per se, but it's very "utilitarian" as my professor had described it. It does the things it's supposed to do, but it's not fun, and Mr. Matessi felt that I could've done better. I actually agree on his comments, I started out too tight on the walk, never experimenting with movement and just sticking to the things I knew. So I made another one immediately after the session and the result is this:

I gotta say, this is a hundred times more fun to make than the previous one. I actually sat down and used my brain and studied new actions. A classmate of mine had a great walk cycle to show last week and it reminded me of the use of "successive breaking of joints" as taught by Richard Williams. I incorporated a lot of that in this walk, mostly on the arms as the elbow leads it. I showed it on the next class and Mr. Matessi's comment was "It's a good start". You've got to love a teacher that just pushes you hard and is actually more supportive of a work that sucks but you tried and pushed for new things than a nice piece of work but shows no playfulness, no invention and learning. In short, my teacher is helping me reach the next level! For that I am thankful, since that is totally my goal. Anyway, what my professor commented on this time was my timing, he liked the walk itself but he said that the timing is too even. It's like when use clicks to time it, he wants something of a "tiiiiiiiic-tic,tiiiiiiiic-tic,tiiiiiiiic-tic" instead of "tic-tic-tic-tic-tic-tic", contrast makes interest. And once he brought this up, I actually realized that this "even timing" thing can be seen in a lot of my work. I tend to even out timings, maybe because that was my attempt to make things smooth or something. I dunno, but the even timing has got to go. So I made another revision and here's what came out:

As per Mr. Matessi's suggestions, I added more i.b.'s on the top positions so it would be more interesting. I also offset-ed the positions of the arms, I delayed the back one and didn't spread them out the same time as the contact positions. I liked how it came out, much more interesting than the previous one. Amazing how much of an impact holds can make. With that week 4 is done and I give myself a pat of the back.

Week 5: Encumbered walk - a walk with something attached to one or two legs of the character, could also be carrying a heavy object or just normal walk positions but with offbeat timing. This week was utter hell. I still needed to re-do the previous week's walk and got hit by flu real hard. It started out great mind you, since I got the walk done by Tuesday afternoon, right after the class. Then I got the encumbered walk about 80% done around Thursday. It would seem I will finally get Sunday off. Then I overworked myself, got rained on after I got my takeout and fell horribly ill on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It was a disaster. I never did finish the encumbered work on time but I'm just glad my health got better fast. 

But as life would have it, I would take no for an answer and just kept coming at the homework once I felt better. I remembered "fate's test" as mentioned by Bobby Chiu and reinstated by my friend. That belief goes something like this:

"When bad things happen when you're trying your absolute hardest, good things are just around the corner."

After I heard those words again, I knew that the next weeks will be awesome! So I kept on working on the walk and what came out is this:

What Mr. Matessi suggested in this is to add holds to the up positions. I did add one in each, but I also delayed the peg leg and added more drawings on the down positions. Honestly, I'm still not happy with it, but I'd rather do several new cycles now than to overly polish a single walk cycle. I think at this stage, I just need to make a lot of walks to really loosen up and get things going. We'll see if there's more feedback on this coming next week. 

Some notes about this walks: I acted this walk out and used the video for reference. That creature is a rabbit that cut off it's own feet for good luck. Yes, that sounds nasty.

Week 6: Run cycle. Finally, fewer drawings than the walk cycle! Nah, not really. But I did enjoy this homework more than the walks just because runs have more forceful poses than walks. Runs are more violent, and all over the place. You can totally do weird things in it that will look alright when the animation is played. So I did weird things and here is the result:

It was supposed to be Forrest Gump as a kid but since I shorthanded his head into a circle, I decided to just make him just a pedestrian kid. I loved the squash and stretch of the head too much to replace it. Feedback is yet to be heard of this cycle but I'll be sure to make updates as it comes out!

For now, I shall totally enjoy this Saturday night and look forward to Sunday off with gusto. 

Keep it cool

-Kev

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