glennart81-blog - Tumblr blog

[glennart81-blog]

Hi Glenn! I just recently put together my first CV geared towards storyboarding, and i'd love for you to check it out. As a new graduate with not much experience behind me I decided to get a little creative with it to help draw better attention to what I can do. I'm super grateful for what i've learnt within your CGMA class!

What the? When did you send this @alexispepper? I don't check my tumblr account much, hardly ever. I would love to see your portfolio if you still want me to. Do you now have a job? If so, where are you working? Do you like it? Is it what you thought it would be? What are you still striving for?

[glennart81-blog]

Help tell the story of children caught in war with this animated short film. Mila Film is LIVE on Indiegogo Now! http://thndr.me/kC7FcE

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Slave to the whim of elementary children, our hero expresses himself through the interpretive medium of pancake. (at Burbank, California)

[glennart81-blog]

I don't have enough fingers by myself

Tuesday Tip - Basic Head construction My first contribution to the Tuesday Tips! I will mainly focus on topics from a storyboard perspective, but of course they can be applied to anything. Technically speaking (we’ll get in the entertainment part later), the main goal is to “clarify” the ideas you are presenting, which usually means to “simplify” them. In this instance, I’ll start with the human head, since human is what I have to draw the most. Heads (mostly faces) is what an audience is drawn to most when looking at the screen, so it’s a good idea to figure out this one first. I find drawing profiles first more helpful because it’s easier to adjust features and get a clear idea of the head design. Since I have to draw characters in a lot of different situations (and then some more), I try to find a shorthand that will convey what I want as quickly and clearly as possible. The more I get to “know the character” I’m playing with, the better I’ll get at finding a shorthand for it. Next time, I will cover ASYMMETRY in facial expressions. See you soon!

Norm

[glennart81-blog]

Hey Dad. Well played with

Tuesday Tips - Gesture Drawing As a story artist, I feel like one of the most important technical skill to develop is the ability to draw things things clearly and fast. Practicing gesture drawing is, in my opinion, a good way to get better at it. I think it’s fun, too! Of course, you can draw from life and find unique things people and animals do, but I also think practicing gesture drawing from imagination is truly helpful. For instance, I usually do some gesture drawings of characters I’m about to work with in a sequence. It helps me find a short-hand to start building from. The simpler, the better. Especially early on a project, it really helps to find a quick way to draw a character over and over without repeating yourself all the time. I remember Life Drawing teachers telling me to “draw from within” and to “feel the weight”. It’s absolutely true, but in terms of storyboarding, other elements came to be as important to the process. Silhouette and a sense of “cartooning” is tremendously helpful to communicate certain things clearly to an audience. I’m only focusing on character posing right now (and this is just an introduction to the subject). Gesture drawing is very close to thumb-nailing, another ultra-helpful skill. More on that later. For those who want to spend some money on great books on the subject, I highly recommend you to pick up “Drawn To Life: 20 Golden Years of Master Classes of Disney Master Classes” (Vol. 1 and 2) , from Walt Stanchfield. Do it. Norm

[glennart81-blog]

But I have actually.

Tuesday Tips SUPER WEEK - Hands This is the first post about hands. Other posts about hands in the future will cover “hands in relationship to the body”, “different characters, different hands”, “expressive hands” and “hands touching things”. If you have suggestions for Tuesday Tips, write me a personal message. Norm

[glennart81-blog]

I'm honored you guys are

Tuesday Tips SUPER WEEK - More Acting Less Anatomy I’ve received a few message asking me how to draw simple generic characters (male, female) for story boarding, and what to do when there’s no character design. I will go over all that stuff, but I need to emphasize something first. I used to be obsessed with muscles and specific anatomy when I was drawing anything. Thanks to 90s superhero comic books and raging hormones, it kept me from embracing the storytelling aspect of sketching. Even later on in art school, I would spend WAY took much time on getting that perfect line quality. Animation Storyboarding squashed most of those inclinations out of me, and that’s good. I need to confess that I almost caved in and “cleaned up” the drawings on this page. This is how I draw when do a “first pass” or just trying to find ideas. That way, I don’t lose the energy or feel of my first instinct when approaching a sequence. Here’s something you’ll hear many times if you hang around story people: “It’s not about pretty drawings.” I agree and disagree to a certain extent, but the sentiment is right. It’s about telling a story and not letting other things (like lines, musculature, clothing, etc.) get in the way of doing so clearly. Once again, message me if you have requests for the next installments. Norm

[glennart81-blog]

I don't have enough fingers

Tuesday Tips SUPER WEEK - Feet I don’t often have to draw bare feet, unless I’m doing Life Drawing. When storyboarding, the focus is generally not on the feet. They also are usually covered (shoes, socks), or just not shown on screen that much. Nonetheless, it’s important to understand their functionality and general appeal. Keep details to a minimum, unless the character uses its bare feet to grasp things or do things with them most humans don’t. The best example of pushing feet to an extreme degree of functionality would be Disney’s Tarzan (one of my all time favorite). Other than that, don’t draw too much attention to them, but find appeal in its shapes. Norm

[glennart81-blog]

You sentimental and I couldn't

Tuesday Tips SUPER WEEK - Push it! Clarity is probably the most important thing to think about at all time when boarding. Pushing your poses to an undeniable level of clarity will improve the clarity of the storytelling in general. Don’t leave space for uncertainty in posing out your characters. Your audience will be more engaged and entertained by the sequence. This is the last post for the Super Week. I hope you enjoyed it. Back on the regular schedule next week (Every Tuesday). Norm

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Haha! How are things

Tuesday Tips - Clear Silhouette Silhouette in character posing is crucial. It will make or break a design, storyboard or animated piece. Have a great Tuesday everyone! Norm *Message me for more suggestions on Tuesday Tips!

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Oo

Tuesday Tips - Clothing As always, simple is best. Clothing and fabric can be wonderful to explore in an illustration or detailed sketch, but it tends to get tiresome to overdo it in storyboarding. *special mention to Jeff Ranjo for his amazing quote! http://jeffranjo.tumblr.com/ If you have questions or requests, message us. We might just address those in future Tuesday Tips! Norm

[glennart81-blog]

Happy birthday, I

Tuesday Tips - EYES! Eyes are what convey most of someone’s expression. Body language is important, but “eyes don’t lie”. There’s a reason why someone who’s lying will generally try to avoid eye contact. We are biologically set-up to “read” someone’s inner feelings by looking at their eyes. In storyboarding, if I’m in a real hurry to make a sequence “read” better, I will try to hit the eyes and facial expression as best as I can before anything else, especially if it’s an emotional scene. Have a great Tuesday, everyone! Norm

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Dude! I'll be

Tuesday Tips - Hair There’s no hard rules to draw hair (or anything for that matter), but the one thing that I try to keep in my mind is that there’s AIR in hair. I can draw it as a shape because there’s hundreds of thousands of them, but I’m also considering the space between them. For example, the volume of dry hair and wet hair will be dramatically different. Also, the way it behaves will differ greatly from person to person. I mostly think about the “weight” of the hair. Longer hair will means that the mass of hair will be heavier and react accordingly. *As always, leave a message if there’s a topic you would like to see covered. Norm

[glennart81-blog]

Okay great! Thanks! It's

Tuesday Tips - STRAIGHT against CURVES This principle really helps to create shapes and characters with “points of interest”. The straights move the eye towards the areas of curves, bumps and details. I mostly focused on the silhouettes of the shapes/characters, but the same principles should also be applied to shapes and volumes inside the main shape/volume. Norm

[glennart81-blog]

Thanks for the birthday part

Tuesday Tips - LINE OF ACTION

The line of action doesn’t necessarily need to be drawn in. As long as you think about it while drawing, your gesture or posing will be stronger. It gives a direction to the pose, a force that runs though, or simply a visual pathways to guide your audience. Use it always! Norm

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Tuesday Tips - Life Drawing Exercise: All Straight Lines Without proper instructions or guidelines, life drawing sessions can easily become boring and repetitive, with little to no progress in understanding the process. Once in a while, I try to apply some techniques learned along the way. This is one of them. The last time I applied the technique was through instructor Paul Wee at LAAFA. A great life drawing teacher from the world of animation.  It is as simple as it sounds. Only allow yourself to draw with straight lines. I know, I know, i dedicated an entire post to “No Straight Lines”. I mean “kinda straight” here. It’ll help you tremendously in finding angles and planes throughout the body. Curves and shading can easily muddle a drawing and make it too tentative. Lines and angles have a strong opinion about them. They are very definitive. Your confidence will only grow once you go back to “full” life drawing.  Have fun! Norm

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Tuesday Tips - Life Drawing Exercise: CONTOUR LINE One of the most straight forward tip I have about Life Drawing. It kind of goes against what most life drawing instructors will tell you. The first thing you’ll hear is “Draw from the inside.” A contour line on a figure drawing is about the most superficial way to approach it BUT, it will help you tremendously at finding a clear silhouette. By the way, no one says you can’t slightly alter the silhouette you are looking at. If there’s a way to make it clearer or make a better statement, go for it. Drawing is about making decisions, not just copying what you’re seeing. The same way other techniques will help understand how the body functions, using a contour line as an exercise will help you find proportions, angles of the body and general appeal in your posing. Normand