Today I’d like to discuss Manga Studio. Known as ComicStudio in Japan, this app is actually pretty impressive in how it’s geared towards the creation of comics. Like Smith Micro’s Anime Studio, it comes in a cheaper version for beginners and a fuller priced version for professionals. (Manga Studio EX 5 and Manga Studio 5, respectably) When starting a new project you can select to either start a new page or a new story. You’re presented with some good preset templates or you can configure your own. The brushes are extremely configurable, the vector tools allowing you to adjust the correction and stroke in/out. You can make your own custom brushes or download some like these by Ray Frenden.
The brushes are probably my favorite thing about Manga Studio though there’s also the ability to import 3D models, all the various toningoptions, filters, and perspective rulers. It does take some time to get used to the interface but it’s pretty rewarding when you do get the hang of it. Meredith Gran of Octopus Pie was the first webcartoonist I saw making good use of it. Since then I’ve seen a number of folks trying it out.
Here’s some sets of photoshop brushes you may find useful. I’ve done my best to point to the original sites of the creators where possible. I tend to use the stumpy pencil and the digital inking brush from Geekasaurus-Rex almost exclusively these days.
Nagel Brush Series (This is a series made up of about 43 different sets. Sets 1-39 are collected here while you can grab 40, 41, 42, and 43 separately)
Today I’d like to talk a little bit about the lightbox. Some artists starting out may not fully realize the benefits of using a lightbox. It’s a really simple tool and it makes tracing over/reworking your art a lot easier. How simple is it? There’s a number of blogs online about how to make one yourself on a budget.
Animation desks are slightly more involved in design as the require a way to register the drawings in place with each other and usually facilitate turning the drawing. Here’s an online gallery full of reference for people looking to buy or build their own. Other animators have postedbuildlogs online of their desks being put together.
This Disney Studios animation desk went for $8,200 on ebay. I like to think I’m responsible with my money but if I’d had the 8 grand damn right I would have bought it. Actually I should mention I bought my animation desk from AnimationDesks.com in Canada where Colin Johnson assembles them at a very competitive price. He builds the desks with adjustable heights, includes an animation disc with pegbar and backlight, and ships it all for what you’d probably spend on materials and labor.
I’ve been watching a lot of student and independently animated films lately. Today I’d like to highlight Canadian animator Nick Cross’s The Pig Farmer. Be aware that the film is for mature viewers and not work safe.
I chose this cartoon to bring up because A) it’s a well done and weird little short that should be seen and B) it’s production was well documented with behind the scenes blog posts.
Cross mentions on his blog that he wanted to defend Flash from some of it’s detractors by showing that a film like Pinnochio could be made with it. I recall John K. mentioning when he switched to Toon Boom Harmony that Flash wasn’t really made for animators. I personally think Flash, like any other program out there, is a useful tool though it’s not exactly ideal for traditional animating. You can bend any tool with enough effort and know how, just look at MS Paint. It’s really more a matter of which software you feel more comfortable using, which fits your production pipeline better, and which gives you the best results you want the fastest.
Anyway, be sure to check out Cross’s blog and his profile on Vimeo for his other films.
Here’s a list of different software packages out there for animators. I might review some of these more in depth in the future but for now here’s just a general list of things I’ve found so far.
Freeware
Pencil 2D – Cross platform open source program that does bitmap and vectors as well as sound. Still in beta and kinda buggy. I stopped using it when it started crashing my Wacom driver.
Plastic Animation Paper – Windows-only (though there was a Mac beta floating around) program that went totally free when the development schedule went up in the air.
Synfig Studio – Cross platform open source program, does bitmap and vectors as well as sound.
MonkeyJam – Windows-only pencil test/stop motion program and supports sound.
Blender – Cross platform open source 3D content creation suite.
Commercial Software
3D Studio Max – 3D modeling, animation, and rendering package.
Maya – 3D modeling, animation, and rendering package. Fun fact: South Park is made with it since they’re able to simulate cut out stop motion with textures very quickly.
LightWave – 3D modeling, animation, and rendering package.
messiah:studio – 3D bone rigging, animation, and rendering system.
iStopMotion 3 – Mac/iPad stop motion/time lapse program.
Toki Line Test – Mac/Windows pencil test/stop motion program that supports sound.
Moho (Formerly Anime Studio) – Vector and puppet animation with bone rigging, simulated physics, and auto lip-syncing. You can do some nice South Park-like animations with it.
Stop Motion Pro – Used in films by Aardman Animations like Wallace & Gromit and Pirates! Band of Misfits.
AnimatorHD – Windows-based stop motion and time lapse program.
Adobe Flash Professional CC [Digital Membership] – Vector animation and web interaction interface software. Most commonly used for it’s motion/shape ‘tweening and scripting capabilities. Traditional animators can also achieve some very impressive results with it.
TVPaint – Designed to mimic traditional art techniques. Cross platform and supports paper as well as paperless animating. Looks both awesome and totally intimidating.
Toon Boom – Various vector-based animation systems. Everything from the hobbyist up to huge studio workflows.
Digicel Flipbook – Designed from the ground up with the traditional animator in mind. Supports scanning/photographing
Over the years I’ve collected a bunch of books on animation. I might review some of them more in depth later but right now I’m going to give you my list of the most useful ones.
Cartoon Animation by Preston Blair
Pound for pound this book contains the most information stored in an easy to understand format. It’s deceptively simple. It covers everything from drawing and character design to the basic elements of animating and production. The layperson can flip through it to gain an understanding of the essentials while the student and professional will regularly flip back to the super useful charts illustrating the differences between all sorts of bipedal and animal movement.
The Animator’s Survival Kit by Richard Williams
Where Preston Blair’s book is the essentials, Richard William’s book is like the expanded manual. He provides detailed and analytical breakdowns of movement. The copy I actually have from college is a pre-expanded edition so I need to update myself. There’s even a 16 DVD box-set which I would love to have someday.
The Animator’s Workbook: Step-By-Step Techniques of Drawn Animation by Tony White
This book is a nice primer on the basics and a decent addition to the reference shelf.
The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation by Frank Thomas & Ollie Johnston
This is a beautiful book showcasing a lot of behind the scenes art from Disney classics. My only issue is it’s more of a retrospective of the studio’s achievements so you’re not going to glimpse the same understanding of what the artists are doing in this one as you would in the how-to guides on this list.
Chuck Amuck: The Life and Times of an Animated Cartoonist by Chuck Jones
This book is a really great read. Jones walks us through his formative years and how he got started down the life path to cartooning. I almost want to say it’s like The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance for cartoonists. There’s bits of animating advice and art throughout but this book really illustrates the thinking mind of a great director.
Chuck Reducks: Drawing from the Fun Side of Life by Chuck Jones
An interesting follow up to Chuck Amuck, this book focuses on character – specifically key characters throughout Jones’s career. His other book dealt with the discovery that characters in his cartoons are really parts of himself personified. This time around he analyzes what makes each particular one tick and how he identifies with them so we in turn do the same. An important part in understanding how a character moves is understanding what they’re thinking and feeling. Being better aware of what the character is all about leads to better acting in the animation.
Make Toons That Sell Without Selling Out by Bill Plympton
“King of Indie Animation” Bill Plympton shares his thoughts on making cartoons. This book has a very personal voice, which isn’t surprising considering it’s from a guy that animates shorts and feature films by himself. He explains his methods of production and how one man can make cartoons outside the system. It’s a good overview and makes you think about every stage in putting a film together and getting it seen.
As an artist I like to see others credited when I find their work online. Both because they deserve it as the creator and so I can track down more of their stuff later. So why do people on tumblr and other places strip the artist info from images and comics before reblogging them? Why take that extra step and deny somebody credit for what they made?
The concept behind it is one of ownership. Probably not in the way most people think of it. I’m not saying people who do this are trying to pretend like they made the images. Hell, half the time they’re sharing tons of images totally unrelated to each other so the average person wouldn’t assume they came from the same artist. (Then again people can be led to believe almost anything so I wouldn’t totally rule it out, either.) The issue of ownership comes from the notion that this person’s tumblr, their facebook, wherever they’re collecting these images for people to find, is their site. They want folks to discover this content on their blog and they want to receive the credit for discovering this comic or image. Think of it more like a mixtape. You may know all the artists on it but the reason people put them together is to express themselves through a collection of somebody else’s stuff. The problem here is, when they strip away the source info, the creator of that material gets no real benefit for it being shared. Oh, sure, people are seeing their work and being aware of it. But does your doctor pay his bills by having you tell others how awesome he is when he finishes surgery on you? Of course not. He might get future referrals from clients if he does an excellent job but that itself isn’t compensating him for his time, his training, and every other expense involved in using his skills. And at least in that example you’re crediting him for his work. Little good it would do that doctor for you to walk around showing off your new nose job and never mentioning his name.
Personally I think of tumblr as a catchall. If somebody blogs something I want other people to see I reblog it. I tend to keep comments alive because sometimes I know I find new tumblrs via comments and reblogs of things I like. However I can see the problem with keeping them. Youtube comments, for example, are some of the most useless text ever committed to the internet. And the iphone client I use for tumblr hides (important difference: not strips) comments until I decide I want to read them so it doesn’t distract from the original post. If you’re interested in seeing the chain of an image being shared online it should be there to follow. Then again there are some sites that try to rebrand all material hosted so it points back to their site. Look up the original issues dealing with ebaum’s world if you’re so inclined. I know I get tired of seeing a watermark clearly slapped over another watermark.
This comes back to the concept of etiquette vs entitlement. Is a creator entitled to have their identity passed down with their content? I say yes, totally, reverse the situation and you’d want the same sort of treatment. Now is the creator entitled to decide what the audience does with that material? That’s a grey area. EULA don’t really hold up in courts and personally I don’t subscribe to the notion that I’m merely licensing my content, not owning. This is a line the digital age is crossing where middlemen and gatekeepers are finding themselves at an unenforceable impasse. You used to have to buy an album if you liked a song. Now you don’t even have to download it but can usually find it streaming from various sources. I’m sure plenty of people would like to put the genie back in the bottle if they could but keeping content officially offline just means it will be more easily available unofficially. Call that whatever you want, you’re leaving money on the table when it’s easier to steal your product than it is to legitimately purchase it. I like spending money on things I like because that’s how the system is supposed to work. I like supporting good content. The problem comes when gatekeepers try to make an audience jump through hoops by limiting how they can enjoy said content with crap like DRM or expecting people to buy the same material again in a different format.
Back to etiquette for a minute. If you’re running a site that reposts stuff from other people and you intentionally strip their credit info from the files, stop doing that. That’s a real dick move. Also, if you’re a content creator and you’re branding your images with a huge watermark that ruins having an online gallery, stop doing that. It’s really annoying to people who don’t steal and it makes you look hyper paranoid that everybody’s going to rip you off. I wish I had better answers on how to encourage better sharing online and better ways for creators to get paid for their stuff. All I can say is make it easier for people to pass your stuff around legitimately. Get on tumblr yourself and share it. Find the folks who do credit creators for their work and follow them back. There’s always going to be the percentage of people that will never pay for anything and I suppose there will always be people trying to take credit for somebody else’s stuff. It’s a better use of time and energy to find and establish communities of people that will support artists and that will dress down others for lacking proper attribution.
I like this interview with Bill Plympton for a number of reasons
1. You learn a bit about his personal path to what he does today. Nobody likes to talk about how they noodled around for a few years before getting to what makes them happy but it’s really relatable knowing there’s a journey involved. Creative life can be a series of stops and starts. It’s encouraging to hear people talk about getting over setbacks.
2. He talks about how he works and discusses who he has on staff. I know I could personally geek out over the details of his studio setup but it’s good to hear how an average day goes by. What he does while shading, how he unwinds by drawing, little things that are interesting to hear about.
3. It’s clear he loves what he does. My favorite interviews are the kind that are both informative and encouraging. This is the kind of chat you can listen to while you’re working and feel reminded of how awesome it is to be in the studio.
– Mac/iPad stop motion/time lapse program.
– Windows/Mac stop motion software and keypad. Used in films like Frankenweenie
– Vector animation and web interaction interface software. Most commonly used for it’s motion/shape ‘tweening and scripting capabilities. Traditional animators can also achieve some very impressive results with it.
for cartoonists. There’s bits of animating advice and art throughout but this book really illustrates the thinking mind of a great director.
