The Workshop

[Dave]

We have started this thread specifically for students of the Workshop. This is a private forum; it is not visible in the main forum so you may want to bookmark this page in your favorites folder. Please, do not post the link to this private forum in the main forum. We will make it available to the general public after the Workshop is over.
You may post anything pertaining to the Workshop in this forum. Questions comments, images, links to your pencil tests are all welcome as long as they are linked to the Workshop. Everything else will be deleted!
We hope you enjoy this course and learn much throughout the five weeks. If you need help with any part of your scene, please do not hesitate to contact dave@donbluthanimation.com or post a question in this forum.
Best of luck to you.

Dave

[ericaanimation]

Here are some of my first drawings of the one of the chracter's from the workshop. I will be doing some more tonight. I am trying to familarize myself with him. I am really looking forward to the workshop tomorrow.

:)
FROM DON'S DRAWINGS

<a href="http://s993.photobucket.com/albums/af59/ericaanimation_art/WorkShop/?action=view&current=Mouse_0002.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i993.photobucket.com/albums/af59/ericaanimation_art/WorkShop/Mouse_0002.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

FROM DON'S MODEL SHEET

<a href="http://s993.photobucket.com/albums/af59/ericaanimation_art/WorkShop/?action=view&current=Mouse_0001.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i993.photobucket.com/albums/af59/ericaanimation_art/WorkShop/Mouse_0001.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

SOME OF MY OWN DRAWINGS BASED OFF OF MODEL SHEET

<a href="http://s993.photobucket.com/albums/af59/ericaanimation_art/WorkShop/?action=view&current=Mouse_0003.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i993.photobucket.com/albums/af59/ericaanimation_art/WorkShop/Mouse_0003.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

Erica

[Rodney]

You are off to you great start Erica!

I'm in the process of downloading the Model Sheets now. :)

[ericaanimation]

Here are some drawings I did tonight it is another model sheet of the mouse and one drawing I did based ont the model sheet. I am trying to draw the drawings that were given and then make a couple based on model set put of my own poses of the character.

<a href="http://s993.photobucket.com/albums/af59/ericaanimation_art/WorkShop/?action=view&current=MouseDrawingsSet2_0001.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i993.photobucket.com/albums/af59/ericaanimation_art/WorkShop/MouseDrawingsSet2_0001.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

<a href="http://s993.photobucket.com/albums/af59/ericaanimation_art/WorkShop/?action=view&current=MouseDrawingsSet2_0002.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i993.photobucket.com/albums/af59/ericaanimation_art/WorkShop/MouseDrawingsSet2_0002.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>


Erica

[Sung1]

Some random poses. Please draw over them if there's time, and give me suggestions on how to improve them. Thanks for the inspiration Erica.

-Sung

[samuelvictorjones]

Thanks Dave I can now get in :) Looking forward to the first session of this workshop very much, loving the mouse & pig characters! Erica & Sung1 - great pics guys!

[Richard Willimot]

Great drawings! Your cheese eating pose is brilliant Erica and the second model sheet is alot closer to model. Sung1, I think you nailed him. It seems like you both have got his personality down, it'll be interesting to hear from Don about his backstory.

[Rodney]

Sung,
I'm rather partial to the drawing of the mouse with the pizza.
(Probably because that is what I'm eating now!)

I am always intrigued by the use of props with characters and your two drawings with props are great for single image storytelling. Nice.

You've given me some insight into the construction of the character that I hadn't discovered before by just looking at Don's model sheets. You've captured him rather well.

Edit: Given his small size though... perhaps a wooden match would work for the pool cue... and different colored berries for the pool balls? Dunno.

[Sung1]

Hey. Don't know about the berries, but I love the idea of the wooden match stick. That kind of thinking never even occured to me. Thanks alot!

[feliceworkshop]

ohh.. nice going Erica & Sung! I can tell you guys are really enthused about the workshop! :)

[Rodney]

Don't know about the berries, but I love the idea of the wooden match stick.

There are two reasons I thought of berries:

1. They were a response to my initial (rejected) thought.
I first thought of Marbles but then thought they'd be too big at Mouse's scale for pool balls. So, I tried to think of other little round things mouse might have access to...

2. The berries would supply an opportunity for animated action.
For instance, TO YOU berries might make a really bad choice as pool balls. That's silly... and so obvious. You can't hit a pool ball berry with a matchstick cue. That's so silly. It won't work! But what if Mouse doesn't know that? There may be some potential for animated entertainment in there somewhere.

As little Donny BluthMouse might say, 'Animate outside the matchbox.'

[samuelvictorjones]

Don't know if this is any use to anyone, just uploading them incase :)

Unfortunately I don't have any animation paper, or plastic field guides. I've orderred some but they haven't turned up yet. In the meantime I used the example attached to the scan of the background, traced over it in paintshop to make temporary paper, field guide, and animation guide with the widescreen borders and marks at 8W&E as suggested. Printing these then putting them on a lightbox should be adequite to work with normal paper in the meantime.

They are far from perfect, just quickly made for me to practice with. Just thought I'd upload them incase anyone else was in a similar situation :)

http://i622.photobucket.com/albums/tt308/arifnbd/samsfieldguidefull.jpg
http://i622.photobucket.com/albums/tt308/arifnbd/samsfieldguideanimframes.jpg

[samuelvictorjones]

...and a link for anyone who can't view attachments :)
http://yfrog.com/6bsfieldguideanimframesjx

http://i622.photobucket.com/albums/tt308/arifnbd/sfieldguideanimpaper.jpg

[Dave]

Erikk sent me an email regarding availability of Field Guides.
Here's a great link for these supplies.

http://www.cartooncolour.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=5

[arif]

Sam...
Good job for making those...hope, it would be so helpful to others who are same situation like you(me also,,hahhahaha)......

i have re posted your images again so that it looks better....i used photo bucket(www.photobucket.com) account for it...you can do also.....

Cheers...
Arif.:)

[samuelvictorjones]

Thanks for the link Dave :)

Arif - glad they are useful man. I figured being I made them for myself might as well upload them incase someone else could use them. :cool:

[Rodney]

Samuel,
I know I should just say 'Thanks' and leave it at that but I have a request... ;)

Before proceeding with my request I do want to thank you for these!

I belive the real value of any guides such as these in digital form is where they have the required degree of transparency in the viewing areas. Of course the problem with this is that the image format must be capable of supporting transparency. Perhaps the best image format would be either TGA or PNG. As TGA images don't display via most internet browsers without plugins, PNG is the defacto format needed.

I'd be happy to assist with creating these guides in PNG with the transparency. My quick test tranforming one of your guides wasn't entirely successful.

There are a few criteria needed for the guides with transparency to be viewed correctly. For instance, the black lines of the guide on a black background don't appear very clear. A fix for that would be to have a white line underneath just slightly offset of the blackline. This would allow the guide to be seen over just about any imagery.

Why do this at all?

There are obvious reasons for those who manipulate digital imagery but the primary benefit for hand drawn animation is for demonstration and analysis of proper layout techniques. With these enhanced field guides we could properly and straightforwardly explore Don's techniques. They would also be quite useful as storyboard overlays placed over drawings/sketches/backgrounds after they have been scanned in.

Edit: It should be noted that the guides as they are can be overlaid already using 'Multiply' on a layer in most graphics programs. However, depending on other filters used on other layers this may alter some of the color underneath.

Hope this makes sense.

Again, many thanks for the guides!
Even without the transparency... they work great!

[Moneyguns]

Someone said you could get a metronome for your ipod. I've been trying to find this thing on Itunes. Any one know if it has a specific name or whereabouts on Itunes?

[ericaanimation]

Thanks for the tips on the field guides. My field guide just came today. Still do not have the TV Cut Off it will have to wait a little while.


Erica

[Rodney]

Someone said you could get a metronome for your ipod. I've been trying to find this thing on Itunes. Any one know if it has a specific name or whereabouts on Itunes?

The link was posted in the forum somewhere in a topic related to the Masterclass. If you can't locate it let me know and I'll search for it.

Do a search for 'ipad' in the top forum and it should show up.

[Moneyguns]

Thanks Rodney.:)

I just thought of something. Not that I'm complaining or anything because I'm still going to by one of these but, why do we need to by a needed eraser? Dose it do something special that others don't?

[Stewart]

I?m using the field guide supplied with the layout of the background. I loaded the whole file into Photoshop and increased the image size by 100%, I then printed out the field guide full size using an A3 printer.(Unfortunately it's too big to print out to A4, unless you do it in two halves?)
The tricky part was carefully cutting out the registration holes with a scalpel, to finish, I stuck down a thin strip of ACME registration paper on top to give it a bit more strength and accuracy. It?s a bit of a faff but it saved me about ?25!

You can also download a 12 field template from Animation Meat.

http://www.animationmeat.com/templates/templates.html

[Rodney]

why do we need to by a needed eraser? Dose it do something special that others don't?

There are several reasons kneaded erases are the popular pick of a lot of artists. While you could use another kind of eraser, if you've never tried a kneaded eraser you really aught to.

One of the primary reasons to use a kneaded eraser is that its very forgiving on paper and in my experience damaging the paper with a kneaded eraser is really hard to do. If you ever ink your lines its nice to erase the pencil lines underneath and kneaded erasers don't tent to cut away at the ink lines either.

Try one, they are cheap. See how it works for you.

[samuelvictorjones]

Plus you can mould them into shapes then practice stop motion animation too! :laughing:

[samuelvictorjones]

Glad they are of some help to people.

As for your request Rodney, I made the images as strict 2 colour with no smoothing to make them simple to edit. For example I have them as a PSP file with separate layers which I can show and hide as necessary.

I did what you asked and made the image transparent, then added another layer of white lines slightly shifted as a highlight for blackenned images.

I use an older version of Paint Shop Pro on my laptop that I'm using here - Photoshop is very slow and clunky on it due to a lack of ram. PSP5 doesn't seem to like saving transparency information in PNG or TGA. However, it can output to photoshop PSD files, seemingly remembering the transparency and the layer information, so you can chose to keep or loose the white lines depending on whether you need them. You should be able to open these in photoshop and save them as whatever image format you like.

Hope this works for you :)

http://jump.fm/VHVDY (scroll to bottom of page and click "Save file to your PC: click here" )

[Richard Willimot]

They don't leave all the messy shavings behind either do they?

[ericaanimation]

No Richard and you can knead them to clean them. So if they are heavy with gray smudge you can basically give it a few kneads and it like new again or pretty much like new and the do not smudge your work either. Or least that has been my experience with them.

Erica

[Richard Willimot]

i really have to find where to buy one around here,otherwise it ends up costing more for shipping n handling then it does the product lol

[ericaanimation]

Richard most craft store carry them. I usually get mine from Michaels Craft Store. Some Office supply stores might carry them as well. Anyone that carries the standard graphite drawing pencils should carry them.

Erica

[Richard Willimot]

Heya Dave, I was wondering if you could post these in quicktime so we could scrub through them?

[Dave]

Heya Dave, I was wondering if you could post the videos in Quicktime so we could scrub through them?

Richard
We've no way of securing the files once they are in Quicktime format; we don't want to see them floating around the web since we'll be using them for a future class.
One more thing... Don says they are only to be used as a visual reference; he doesn't want any of the students copying the individual frames.

[Richard Willimot]

ah k, thank you Dave. I didn't realize all the tech side of stuff.

[samuelvictorjones]

[edit] removed all questions that have been answerred :)

Only one left is : Have I missed the instructions as to where/how to get the book talked about in the last class?

[ericaanimation]

Here is my Peepers Animation on fours I still have to put her on two by tomorrow but I was hoping for some feedback before I inbetweened.

http://www.donbluthanimation.com/videos.php?showvideo=428


Erica

[Richard Willimot]

Erica, I think you have some repeat frames on that test,the left knee comes up twice.

[samuelvictorjones]

Sorry to keep asking, just slightly paranoid I've missed it, any news on the workshop/masterclass book? :cool:

[ericaanimation]

Thanks Richard I fixed it and put it on 2s it is in the critique thread.

http://www.donbluthanimation.com/videos.php?showvideo=432

Erica

[ericaanimation]

Here is my redo of Peepers. I think I have measured the feet correctly this time. I need to clean them up a little and rescan them. I was hoping to add the secondary action by Saturday so if someone could give me feedback by Wednesday that would be great.
http://donbluthanimation.com/videos.php?showvideo=446
Erica

[Richard Willimot]

Erica sure looks like you figured it out to me, way to go! One problem though is at fr 13 and 15 you have the legs on the wrong side, easy fix though :)

[ericaanimation]

Thanks Rich here is the new one with problems solved. I still have to add the secondary action.
http://donbluthanimation.com/videos.php?showvideo=448

Erica

[tk421]

Thanks Rich here is the new one with problems solved. I still have to add the secondary action.
http://donbluthanimation.com/videos.php?showvideo=448

Erica

BINGO! Good job! Keep it up!

[samuelvictorjones]

Erica that is 100% better - great job! Nice one :cool:

[Stewart]

Hi Don,

last week you said that my pose test had line of action problems and you were unable to comment further because I had not uploaded the stills, sorry. I later realised that part of the test was shot from 1-25 and then back to 1 again instead of 1-49. (Hope that makes sense) So I have re-shot the test which is now partially on two's.
http://donbluthanimation.com/videos.php?showvideo=452

Here are the stills from the original poses, I have done some tweaking but I'm not sure if the cycle works and would appreciate any advice or input you can give. I haven't uploaded a background pan this week because I don't think I'll be able to make it to the workshop, my sister is getting married at the same time! Although I am hoping to do a bit of a 'stuey' at some point and 'sneak' away!:laughing:

http://i987.photobucket.com/albums/ae360/littlestu43/Stuey%20the%20pig%20sneak%20pose%20test/Pose1.jpg
http://i987.photobucket.com/albums/ae360/littlestu43/Stuey%20the%20pig%20sneak%20pose%20test/Pose5.jpg
http://i987.photobucket.com/albums/ae360/littlestu43/Stuey%20the%20pig%20sneak%20pose%20test/Pose9.jpg
http://i987.photobucket.com/albums/ae360/littlestu43/Stuey%20the%20pig%20sneak%20pose%20test/Pose13.jpg
http://i987.photobucket.com/albums/ae360/littlestu43/Stuey%20the%20pig%20sneak%20pose%20test/Pose17.jpg
http://i987.photobucket.com/albums/ae360/littlestu43/Stuey%20the%20pig%20sneak%20pose%20test/Pose21.jpg
http://i987.photobucket.com/albums/ae360/littlestu43/Stuey%20the%20pig%20sneak%20pose%20test/Pose25.jpg
http://i987.photobucket.com/albums/ae360/littlestu43/Stuey%20the%20pig%20sneak%20pose%20test/Pose29.jpg
http://i987.photobucket.com/albums/ae360/littlestu43/Stuey%20the%20pig%20sneak%20pose%20test/Pose33.jpg
http://i987.photobucket.com/albums/ae360/littlestu43/Stuey%20the%20pig%20sneak%20pose%20test/Pose37.jpg
http://i987.photobucket.com/albums/ae360/littlestu43/Stuey%20the%20pig%20sneak%20pose%20test/Pose41.jpg
http://i987.photobucket.com/albums/ae360/littlestu43/Stuey%20the%20pig%20sneak%20pose%20test/Pose45.jpg

My main reference for the cycle was from Preston Blair's example which I used to help thumbnail the action.

http://i987.photobucket.com/albums/ae360/littlestu43/Stuey%20the%20pig%20sneak%20pose%20test/PrestonBlairSneakcycle.jpg
http://i987.photobucket.com/albums/ae360/littlestu43/Stuey%20the%20pig%20sneak%20pose%20test/ThumbnailscanAug10th.jpg

Just a note about the head, I realise that it doesn't really work moving it around on a cycle and I am going to keep it more or less in profile.
thanks, Stu.

[samuelvictorjones]

Dave/Don : I managed to get the video & frames in the critique thread this week on time (juuust! ran home after work!), but it was locked before I could type my notes & questions about what I did.

I've posted these in my workshop thread: http://donbluthanimation.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1009

Really looking forward to the workshop tomorrow :)

[drawtolife]

great work people