Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Doing studies

So, I mentioned that I spend most mornings doing studies. This is the type of thing I do. I always break my character down into 3 simple parts like in my "girl" demo. I do the exact same thing for all characters.





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11 comments:

  1. Will JDecember 16, 2009 at 11:00 AM

    Hey, Rad. Thanks for making this blog! The info you're writing about has been quite helpful. Do you have any suggested animated films to do studies on? Or would it be wiser to just focus on drawing from life? I'm new at this and really want to improve.

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  2. XAVDecember 16, 2009 at 12:55 PM

    That's a good way to learn from others. Very good idea Rad, I'll try it !

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  3. rad sechristDecember 16, 2009 at 1:13 PM

    Will J: drawing from life is good for 2 things. Getting poses, and training your eye to be accurate. The problem is, when you look at a figure from life, you don't know what to copy down onto your paper. There are little bumbs and details everywhere. When you copy a drawing, the artist already edited out all that stuff and changed what he saw into easier to understand stuff for you. Basically, life drawing is like taking a test. You will fail if you haven't studied (copied other artist) Also, many amazing animators and cartoonist are horrible at life drawing and some have never done it. They wouldn't even know what to do with the model in front of them.

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  4. rad sechristDecember 16, 2009 at 1:16 PM

    Xav: One of my friends at work, who is one of the best artist in the world in my opinion, said when he started at Disney, his mentor had him trace Disney drawings in this manner in 10-15 seconds or less. He said he had a breakthrough and got way better over night.

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  5. rad sechristDecember 16, 2009 at 2:07 PM

    Will J: I forgot to answer your question. You can learn stuff from all of them, but a good place to start is: Mulan (I base all my head shapes off of her head), Sleeping Beauty (I base all my humans off the prince's construction it's very easy to see without any muscles addend on top) and Timon from the lion king. (Timon has great hand, arm, and leg construction.) I base most of my mouth shapes off of "El Dorado" by Dreamworks. but study anything you can get your hands on.

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  6. Will JDecember 16, 2009 at 6:07 PM

    Whoops. Thank you so much. I really appreciate the advice.

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  7. tiffannysketchbookDecember 17, 2009 at 10:08 AM

    Wow, I found it eye-opening, your statement that some amazing animators have never drawn from life. When I watch "making-of" dvds, like, Lion King, they took the trouble of bringing in live animals to draw from. All studies seem to be done on-location, and not from books or pictures. Are you referring to 3d animators or both 2d and 3d?

    Thanks for all these little lessons, btw! I am excited everytime I see a new post.

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  8. The IvanatorDecember 17, 2009 at 10:35 AM

    Rad, those movies titles and what you get out of them are a great list. I'll keep them in mind when I revisit them. THANKS a bunch!

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  9. rad sechristDecember 17, 2009 at 10:47 AM

    Tiffanny: Animators look at reference to see how something moves, not how to draw it. Many times they learn to draw by using model sheets and having their supervisor draw over their drawing and fix mistakes. In Lion King, Simba is not a lion. He is a cartoon version of a lion that has been memorized by the animator. If the animator looks at the reference, he just puts his memorized cartoon version of the lion in a similar position. Some animators can draw from life, but I would say it is rare. It takes so long to learn cartoon versions of things that their is no time to learn anything else. Accurate life drawing seems to be more common amongst visual development artist.

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  10. Andy LathamFebruary 11, 2010 at 2:47 PM

    Hi Rad, I love this method of approaching the upper body. Do you have a similar method for tackling the lower body, specifically at the hips?

    cheers :)

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  11. joudymohaApril 26, 2018 at 5:02 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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