Articles Written By: Ben

Happy 2013

  • On January 2, 2013 ·
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Happy 2013 everybody. Today I’d like to share some of my plans and goals for the coming year.

The first project I’m going to be jumping into is a short animated film. If things work out I’ll string it into a series and then hopefully a bigger film. Or I might make one and decide I want to go an entirely different route. The point is I’m going to be animating and developing this first one and when it’s finished I’ll go from there. I’ve done some ground work for it already so I’ll be revising and reworking it until it’s completed. I’ll be blogging as I go, sharing things I find helpful as well as sharing my problems.

Now that I’m done fussing with major site issues I’d like to spend my time writing and creating things. I enjoy blogging about creative stuff because it helps me focus my ideas into actionable steps for myself and usually I condense things into sharable lists. The problem stems from being introverted and just deleting posts rather than finishing them because I feel like I don’t have anything useful to say. I’ve been on the web long enough, I should be better at this. Now that I’m working in the studio again I can figure out a regular schedule which should help a lot.

I also just need to draw more. When you produce things you tend to become focused on only drawing what you need to because you need to funnel so much out. I mean how often does a guy who builds houses for a living get to lay brick just for the fun of it? I like drawing but too often it can become work you need to do rather than something you get to do. My approach is to love what you do, find something to love about it, or do something else.

Moving Forward

  • On November 28, 2012 ·
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Today I’d like to talk about projects – specifically the ones I have ahead of me right now and my plans for getting them done.

Where are the comics?

You’ve no doubt noticed the comics aren’t working on any of the archives. Webcomic, the plugin that powers the comics, recently upgraded from version 3 to 4. Changes were made to the way comics are stored and formatted. There was an upgrade tool that was supposed to convert things over but it ran into some errors. I’ve alerted Mike, the developer of Webcomic, and he’s been looking into the problem. I’ve been holding off on posting about it in the hopes that there’d be a quick fix. Also I’ve been growing increasingly frustrated with the sites and considered hiring somebody to revamp them for me. The network is something of a Frankenstein’s monster, structural changes made without much planning into how they’d impact things down the road, features added by various plugins, all piling on top of revisions of previous versions over the years. I’ve considered hiring somebody to clean it all up for me, something I may still do down the road, but right now I think I want to be the one to straighten it out.

What’s the plan?

I have one more art project I need to get out of the way before I dive whole hog into rebuilding and testing the sites. The goal is to get that done by December so I can devote that entire month to the sites. I have plans for January and onwards but those are still reliant on outside factors.

Art Rage

  • On July 27, 2012 ·
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Artrage is a fun program designed to mimic traditional media. It’s similar to Corel Painter except where the full version of Painter will run you $360, Artrage Studio Pro will only cost $60. Also the interface on Artrage is similar to Autodesk SketchBook Pro, which is easier to navigate than Painter’s. (Fun fact: if you like Sketchbook check out Sketchbook Express on the Mac App Store, iOS, or Android. Sketchbook Copic Edition might be worth checking out.)

Artrage is nice for giving digital art more of a loose and painterly feel and for easily blending colors. Here’s an example of inking clean lines in Illustrator and then painting the colors with Artrage.

It’s really easy and fun to get some nice impasto effects when painting and to work from references within the program.

The brushes are easily configured and customizable. It also comes with a selection of paper/canvas textures as well as letting you import your own.

Drawing Models

  • On July 26, 2012 ·
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Lets talk a little bit about references. Obviously the best reference is life and actual models. The second best is photos. Below that are things like technical guides and other people’s drawings. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes it’s useful to copy existing art for practice. Van Gogh did some gorgeous copies of Japanese prints, for example. The fact is, the further the artist is removed from the subject they’re rendering, the more is lost in the interpretation. There’s a line between drawing from your imagination and drawing cliche.

There’s an old adage that when you copy somebody’s art you’re not only copying their mistakes but throwing in a few of your own as well. Personally I think it all depends on what kind of person the copyist is and how they approach it. I mean you can draw from photos and make horrible drawings that are based on photographic distortions and an amateurish notion on how to render the human body. You could also draw from photos and only use them as a guide to the pose. I had a prof in college who considered using photos as cheating because the image was already 2 dimensional. If you’re seeking to recreate that exact image then yeah, I guess you could call it cheating, but what’s the point in that?

Here’s some collections online I’ve found to drawn from. I try to play loose when searching for reference and use it more for inspiration as opposed to relying desperately on an image to copy. You’ll see 2 things a lot while looking for dynamic and nude models. A) Pornography that basically says, “Here it is! This is what you want to look at, isn’t it?! LOOK AT IT!” Because we all know nudity is the only requirement for good porn, amirite? B) “Artsy” people that like to photograph themselves. I’d heard stories of the art student that would always photograph themselves nude in a bathtub whatever the assignment was but I never seriously witnessed it until I started looking online for models. I’ll try not to include any of that here.

PoseSpace.com (NWS) is my personal favorite I’ve found so far because they provide a good number of models with various builds in a multitude of poses and they rotate the views.

The Drawing Script (NWS) practice tool for figure drawing.

eyedrawthings expressions from various angles.

Reference! Reference! is a good resource for animators.

More High Speed and Photoinstrumentation Photography (NWS) is another good animation resource as it shows multiple exposures of figures in motion.

Eadweard Muybridge: Defining Modernities (NWS) Example of Muybridge’s famous figures in motion.

EADWEARD MUYBRIDGE on Artsy (NWS) More Muybridge.

Athletic Body Diversity Reference for Artists Good example of how different types of athletes can have various types of builds.

ArtsyPoses (NWS) various models.

SenshiStock Nice DeviantArt gallery of stock model poses.

CuriousPeaches Another nice DA gallery.

comicReference Another DA gallery.

josemanchado (NWS) DA gallery.

Falling-Pixie-Stock Even more DA.

Erieye-Stock (NWS) DA gallery.

homeymodel DA gallery.

idaniphotography (NWS) DA gallery.

Trimble Sketchup

  • On July 25, 2012 ·
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Sketchup is a former Google product that has been bought by Trimble. It’s a 3D modeling app that comes in a free basic version and premium for professionals. There’s two main reasons for discussing it here – the openness that having a free version brings, particularly from Google because they fostered a community of modelers and developers under it, and the fact that it’s very easy to use.

Modeling can be as easy in Sketchup as pushing and pulling shapes into desired designs. It’s also easy to enter measurements to square things up into accurate models. There’s a 3D Warehouse online full of models already put together by the community if you’re looking to try things out and put a scene together. Not to mention there’s plenty of tutorial videos to be found, both official and unofficial.

I’ve already mentioned Blender as a free 3D tool with a good community behind it. But what I really want to stress with Sketchup is the ease to which creators can mock up sets and props with it.  Not too long ago I checked out a copy of the DC Comics Guide to Digitally Drawing Comics by Freddie E. Williams II. Did you know, if you make paths of buildings in Photoshop you can extrude those in Sketchup to make them into models? That sort of cross compatibility  is crazy. An artist could build up a library of building elements in 2D and then export them into 3D. There’s tons of plugins and styles out there to use, mix, and match. There are renderers for creating photo-realistic renders of models, for creating better models with more configurable shapes, to giving your models physics.

Manga Studio

  • On July 24, 2012 ·
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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 toning options, 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.

Photoshop Brushes

  • On July 23, 2012 ·
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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.

Pencil Brushes

Stumpy Pencil V2

 Pencil Box 1

Pencil Box 2

Awesome Photoshop Pencil Brush

Cloured Pencil Brushes

Pencil Brushes

PS Brushes – Coloured Pencil

PS Brushes – Pencil

PS Brushes – Pencil Brushes 2

Sketching Brushes and Pitt

Photoshop Pencil Brush

My Pencil Brush Set 1

Ink Brushes

Inking Brush by Geekasaurus-Rex

Simple Inking Brush for Photoshop

Painting and Inking Brushes

Ink Pen

Dave’s Camelhair Brushes

Dave’s Camelhair Brushes V2

Misc Brushes/Sets

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)

Graphic Brushes

The Sketch Arsenal

Sketchtastic Brush Pack

Brushes Pack

Brushes Pack .05 – Watercolor

Ink and Watercolor Brushes

Mateu7’s Watercolor Brushes

Custom Brushes from idrawdigital

Crack Brushes 1

Crack Brushes 2

Crack Brushes 3

Rising Sun Brushes

More Rising Sun Brushes

 

Lightboxes

  • On July 20, 2012 ·
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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.

Using tupperware boxes and a lightbulb

Homemade animation table including registration pegboard out of tupperware, light, and ruler

Slightly more industrial version

Glass picture frame, bulb, cardboard box

Converting an old suitcase into a portable lightbox

Recycling an old scanner into a lightbox

Building a lightbox

Lightbox for under $20

Constructing a lightbox

Light table under $30

Simple diagrams and instructions are easy to find online, even video tutorials.

You can buy lightboxes in stores but expect to pay more unless you’re getting one used or from a wholesaler.

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 posted build logs 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.

Bill Plympton – Cheatin’ Production Blog

  • On July 19, 2012 ·
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“King of indie animation” Bill Plympton has been doing a video production blog on his latest film, Cheatin’.

Be sure to check out the rest on his Vimeo profile and his blog he shares with Patrick Smith.

Some of my favorite Plympton animations: His guest couch gag on The Simpsons.

The Kanye West music video, Heard ‘Em Say.

The “Weird Al” Yankovic music video, Don’t Download This Song.

Nick Cross – The Pig Farmer (NSFW)

  • On July 18, 2012 ·
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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.

Original fundraising post with drawings

The animation process in 9 stages with video

Inking in Flash demo video

First scene completed

Background painting process

Incidental paintings for the film being sold as prints

Slitscan effect sequence

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.