Traditional Animation Week 4: Polished Pass

And as promised, the cleaner version of the rough pass - Golf Crisis.

Its not the final, and I doubt I'll have much time to create said final (maybe I'll add a few elements).

You can definitely tell by the jittering feet it needs to be cleaned up a bit more. Granted if I had more time (and paper) I definitely would do a final pass.

Enjoy!

Traditional Animation 3 - Week 1-3 : Sports Reaction

Hi Guys!

Okay, I have had little time to upload the drawings I've been doing - primarily because between work, school, a video project and a video game project for USC (thanks again TEAM COLE)  I've had to sadly slow the blog down a bit. Worry not, the drawings are here so in a couple days or so expect a massive drop in drawings.

Things will be turning around this semester, I've definitely fallen back in love with animation and drawing - I'm determined to return to my previous skill level and go beyond. I've been finding alot of inspiration (HINT: Check out my posts about finding inspiration with people and podcasts) so it's time to break this plateau and move to the next level.

Meanwhile - just create your art as best as you can ONE DAY at a time.
Heres a piece I've worked on for school for the past couple weeks. The next one is just as exciting.

Growing Pains

Sigh - this is a horrible track record for my drawing month. Rest assured faithful readers the drawings haven't stopped but I have just been computer-less for the better half of 2 days. The reason is quite exciting. I bought a new case and cooling unit for my computer. It just couldn't keep up.

The old computer was CONSTANTLY loud. No matter if I was animating, playing a game, or writing a word document. I couldn't handle it anymore. Also it overheated frequently - notably during animation renders which of course is a pretty big blow to animation major. Betrayal almost. Only cause I built this rig myself.


Well - issues aside I finally got it up and running! Time to play catch up for school. Drawings will be uploaded tomorrow! Days 5-8. Thank you for reading. Also I'm going to take my professors advice and start offering tips for other people struggling with the things I Struggle with. :)

I could definitely use tips if any of you have any.

Old fan versus the new one. Umm.. what?

Animation Spotlight - Shave It

I saw this a while back and didn't think anything too much of it. But now this time I just LOVED the style and color schemes used in the design of this short film.

What do you think?



Shave it from 3DAR on Vimeo.

A Glance Back - Old Charcoal Pieces

Hey Guys,


I thought this was a cool what I stumbled upon, so I wanted to share.

Like my entry 'Struggles in Confidence' had suggested to readers - if you are hitting your lows and aren't feeling good about your art, go take a look back at your old work. Instead of looking at others amazing works of art which will only make you feel worse about yourself in this bluesy stage, I suggested others look at their own work. Take a minute and do a reflection of your own growth - because we never give ourselves enough credit.



As some would pick up from my drawing challenge posts - its been a decent amount of time since I last drew/sketched with charcoal. In fact it's been a while since I did portraits. I never should have stopped. I was great at it! And by great I mean - I was definitely on the road to making AMAZING things. I still am. I've found the road again and I'm ready.


But in my bluesy stage I kept telling myself "Man, I can't draw. I can't draw people". I'm here to tell you that is #Bullshit (I found hashtags ironically funny - get used to it). I'm so happy I looked back at my work and found what I did because I surprised myself. It's funny how in the moment of creating art we believe its horrible and now I'm ridiculously happy and surprised that I CREATED this images.



So I thought I'd share....from a guy who thought he couldn't draw people.



Most of these are 30 min sketches to 2 hour drawings, not more than that.

30 Day Challenge

Between working full-time and trying to keep up in school, finding time to do something you enjoy is hard.

But if you want something bad enough - you should be making time for it. I'm so freaking bad at that.
I've sketch so rarely lately and in fact I haven't done a charcoal drawing in over 7 months - primarily cause I've been doing so many digital doodles.


So how does one make it a habit to draw/sketch daily? Well - force yourself into the public eye then they'll ostracize me for not keeping to my word! Right? That works for me.

Well eff it. I'm going to try.

This 30 Day Challenge is to sketch and draw everyday. The topic could be anything but for the sake of consistency I will make this a figure drawing challenge. For the next 30 days I will fill out as many pages in the sketch book as I can.

Sketch books aren't exactly for public display so I'll try to do one piece daily that is an actual effort for posting my progress.

Struggles of Confidence

From Fengzhudesign Blog

Being an artist is hard.



It's a great time to be alive. So many things in the world are advancing for the better. Everything from social issues to technology - living in the world of today is more comfortable than ever.

And yet it's never been more stressful.

So you decided to be an artist huh? You enrolled in a private college for 4-6 years, paying the sum of a new vehicle every two semesters for education in something you love. By the end of it you will have amassed a debt equivalent the worth of a brand new house in the state of Florida.

Next - finding a job. This is where I connect the awesome comfort of today with the ridiculous standards for students.

Living in a highly populated world, you have a lot of competitors, which raises the bar of quality work, which inspires the youth who will one day follow your path, leading to more struggling artists in the industry, leading to saturated talent pool, which means more competition, which raises the bar of quality work accepted...etc, etc.

Jason Reisig - Dreamworks Animation

Job requirements have become pretty stacked with a list of requirements they'd like for you to meet, and as you continue to race to keep up in the number of softwares, procedures and techniques that are red hot today (but might now be tomorrow) you begin to grow weary as if the qualifications you've earn just aren't enough anymore.


A top of all this - you have this tiny tiny piece of you that sits and waits for any form of rejection before it rears its ugly head. You know its there and you do your best to ignore it. We as artists are TRAINED to take any criticism as valuable feedback; we can be hit with rejection and keep on coming. We can apply to hundred of jobs, be denied, dust it off our shoulders and get the resume ready for the next position. But for some reason - we can never defend ourselves from....ourselves.

This tiny piece I speak of is - self doubt.

Van Gogh

You worry that at any moment someone will kick down your door and a squad of Anti-Artist Agents will come in and take you away for fraud - for being a poser in the industry. Glen Keane said it best (linked video below): "...They [students] all believed that everyone else had their act together - but not them[selves]".

But slow down...take a second. Breathe dude! Or if you're a girl, Breathe dudette! (Can you tell I'm born and raised in California?)

 Image from Feather Notes Deviant Art

Being an artist is hard. We know that - yet we can never accept it when it's applied to us. For some reason we believe when we (you - the individual) makes art - it should be easy. You should producing magnificent works of art at all times. Its a vicious circle in our heads and its hard to make it stop.

But do this. Instead of looking at other peoples blogs and works of art in this free falling stage - look at your own art. Go back to the first drawing you ever did in art school. Look at your first animation. Then look at your latest one. Understand your growing. Beautiful things take a lot of time to make!

Your greatest piece of work will be the last thing you ever make, because we are constantly growing. We are constantly getting better. If you ever think you're a great artist and you no longer need to learn - that is a the day you stop being a great artist. As long as you make something today and you learned from the mistakes from yesterday - you are a bad ass artist. I implore you to go to your bathroom and say it in the mirror. Not many people can create things they see in their minds! We are so few! Take solace in that fact.

I do not know this artist or photographer. Sorry :[

Going back to the world we live in. Debt will always be there. Stress will always be there. Necessity for money will always be there. But just make sure you are happy doing what you do everyday. Be happy with the journey you are on - don't expect the destination to provide you will all the solutions and make your life perfect. As an artist you should understand - imperfection is beauty.

No matter how bad you think you are or how much you feel you don't belong in the industry full of amazing talent - you are better than those that never started on this path in the first place. You are willing to pay an arm and leg for the education, face improbable odds for landing the job and yet you stand -You absolutely belong.


I will leave you with my own self portraits over the years, a wonderful quote by Ira Glass which I have posted before and the video from Glen.

Glen Keane talks about Animation and CTN from Creative Talent Network on Vimeo.