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Note: This will be updated as I get stuff.

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My basic tutorial with text/images

Video tutorial by admiringapostates

Tips from dundee998

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for learning to draw armor i’d use a similar approach to the one i used for drawing swords!

again, there are two main things i’d suggest focusing on:-studying the different parts of an armor and how they workand-visualizing the armor as 3d shapes

i found some sites that go over things like armor parts and their functions here and here, a lot of nice photo reference here, and a bunch of labelled diagrams on google images

i couldn’t find any clear image reference for how medieval armor is layered but you can see that in this video of a guy getting armor put on

basically though i think its a bit like this:

there is a lot of liberty you can take with the details, shapes, and proportions etc, (also remember, medieval europe isn’t the only era armor comes from!) so you can use that to communicate things like the time period and culture the armor is from, the personality of its wearer, etc.

with simplifying armor into 3d shapes i’d basically just use a regular human body as a base. having a decent grasp of anatomy really helps with this i think

there is technically little or no difference between actual male/female armor, from the way i understand things at least (armor is just armor after all), but you can take a look at this post of mine for strategies you can use to make armor look more masculine or feminine

and then of course there’s that boob plate thingthere are reasons why those don’t really work in real life but you could always pull out the artistic liberty card so

A long ass beginner level tutorial for all of you comic folks who want to start using sketchup for your backgrounds but don’t know how to get started.

I made these as a way to compile all the geographical vocabulary that I thought was useful and interesting for writers. Some descriptors share categories, and some are simplified, but for the most part everything is in its proper place. Not all the words are as useable as others, and some might take tricky wording to pull off, but I hope these prove useful to all you writers out there!

If you want to improve your drawing skills by taking classes or courses, but you don’t have time, can’t afford it, etc. then this site is really great. 

It has three different kinds of courses; one for drawing faces, one for animals and one for anatomy and figure drawing. It’s completely free, and you choose what kinds of models you want (with clothes, nudes, male/female, etc.), and then choose for how long you want to draw. It offers quick gesture drawings and warm-ups (30 sec drawings), and longer drawings, depending on how long of a class you chose. 

It has really helped me improve, and it’s a great motivator as well, as I often find myself in a bit of a pickle when trying to draw at home, as I don’t have a lot of references to go by, and I’m not very confident in my anatomy, so I just end up drawing the same two or three poses and figures all the time. Instead, this forces you to go out of your comfort zone.

I see a lot of people saying, “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know” - and in part, that’s true. But I have yet to see a successful explanation of how to know the “right people.” So I’m going to try.

First, do good work, and be a good person. Like, this always holds true - anyone with a modicum of sense knows that.  

So I’m just going to cover how to get your good work seen.

The most common advice I see is “put yourself out there.” That means:

Make a website.

Get on social media.

Go to conventions.

Basically, stick your work in front of everyone possible, every place possible.

Right. That’s all important. But that’s only step one.

I’ve got a huge network, and I generally don’t have a problem finding opportunities. … but get this, I’m actually an introvert. It’s not that I hate people, it just that maintaining relationships requires energy (and about once a month, I hole up in my room for a weekend to recharge).

There are generally two approaches to all problem-solving, “go wide” and “go deep.” The common advice is to go wide - people will remember your work after seeing it 100,000 times.  If you’re lucky, someone will remember. If you’re not, you’ll sink into that cloud of online noise and people who draw just like you and like the same things as you.  

My advice is “go deep.” That’s where my energy goes.

The core of networking is getting people to remember you, so they think of you when a good opportunity comes up. Since people are generally empathetic, the easiest way to do that is to remember them back.  Give time and energy to your newly-formed relationships - or else your image will fade like a 30-second commercial on Hulu. Here are my tips:

Most importantly, take the time to remember faces, remember names, and remember what they need.  Just the core of getting to know someone, really, knowing them as a person.  If you’re not good at remembering things, practice with celebrity faces, do some memory games. Remember, people are people, not just job gatekeepers!  

Go out of the way to remember seemingly irrelevant things they’d told you (don’t pressure them) like where they are from, what they like to eat, if they have pets, and what their favorite shows are. Try to find common ground that’s not work.  Be humorous, be intelligent. If you have a conversation about something other than “get me a job,” you will be more likely to remember each other.

If you can, truly dedicate a chunk of your brain to the new person.  Don’t be afraid to make the first move to show you want to invest time in this relationship, especially if they’re new in town.  Take them to your favorite restaurant.  Invite them to your next house party.  Suggest seeing a new movie. Or simply say, “i really like how you did [such-and-such] and would love to be a part of it. if you need more help, e-mail me.” (Caveat: small group gatherings in public places are wiser, otherwise things can be misconstrued and go into weird and possible squicky romantic territory.)

Go ahead and follow fan pages, blogs, and public sites, but don’t cold-add people on personal social media (ie, a private Facebook) if you haven’t had a conversation with them. Relationships, even networking ones, are largely about privacy and trust. That “follow for follow” thing is bullshit, don’t even try.

If your name is super common, hard to spell, or otherwise hard to remember, you might want to make it easier for the other party to remember by coming up with an easily searchable handle.  Things such as puns and common words work well (people remember my friend “ProdigyBombay” years after she stopped posting).

Even if it’s been years, don’t forget people. It shows people you give a damn.  Social media is great for this.

Finally, remember the setting and space you’re in. And respect peoples’ privacy. Don’t assume someone exists simply so you can get something from them. Showing your portfolio is what’s expected during a review, but not a bar unless they ask to see it.  And if someone doesn’t want to give you information, don’t pry. You wouldn’t make your friends owe you anything, so why should you do that to someone you just met?

Great, so you kinda know a bunch of people, now what?

There are two economic theories I’d like to introduce to you: “Giver, Taker, Matcher” Theory and “Tit for Two Tats” Paradigm. Read these two links before continuing because I’m going to talk as if you know what they are.

Giver, Taker, Matcher suggests there are three kinds of people in the world: those who give, those who take, and those who match. Be a smart giver.  If you only take opportunities, no one will want to help you because you’ll be seen as a selfish ass.  Givers try to give opportunities to everyone. Most people are matchers who will “do unto others” - so they’ll take if you’re a taker but they’ll give if you’re a giver.  So if you are a giver surrounded by matchers and other givers, things will be given to you. Those so-called “impenetrable industry circles” are really groups of givers and matches who trust each other and therefore give to each other (you know, like groups of friends).

Tit for Two Tats is an iterated prisoner’s dilemma scenario which helps protect you as a giver. If you’re surrounded by takers, you’ll be well, taken advantage of. Be a giver in your first impression, because matchers and other givers will immediately give to you. But if you’re taken from, give once again - because hey, sometimes people are down on their luck and they simply can’t help you out. And a friend who only helps when you can help them back isn’t reliable.  However, if the pattern of taking repeats a lot, cut off your giving before that person hurts you.

So I’m saying, yes, sometimes you might actually want to work for exposure or for cheap. The world is full of takers who will leave you high and dry, but if you know someone is a matcher or a giver, it might just be worth it to do that discount job.  Good examples would be for a high-profile Kickstarter or charity, although most reliable for-profit businesses should offer to pay.  When doing small personal stuff for friends, I charge a nominal fee of about $10/hr. This works out pretty well by giving me motivation, and friends help keep friends fed. (Note, corporations who use your work for profit are not the same as your friends and for professional jobs the rate is the rate is the rate.)

Since we are all limited by physical and temporal resources, give your help when it’s needed most. Go out of you want to see the friend who’s in town for a only day.  Pick up that sad soul stranded at LAX (thank you, i love you, rollaine).  You don’t need to hang out every day to maintain a meaningful friendship, but a real friend is there when it counts.

Finally, once you’re comfortable with that person and have a reliable relationship, don’t be afraid to ask for work, especially when an opportunity really interests you and doubly especially if someone straight-up asks you to apply (this includes open calls for art).  Not everyone knows who needs work at what point in time, so making note of your status is totally allowable.  Your friends can’t help you if they don’t know you want help.  But if they do know already, don’t be bothersome.  You’re letting someone know your availability, not demanding they give you a job.

So yeah, that’s essentially the “going deep” part to networking - dedicate the same mental energy to whom you’ve met as you’d want dedicated to you!  And that includes not being a shitty, take-y person.

Ah well lighting in animation backgrounds are done with the express purpose of guiding the eye to where the animation is going to take place - think of it like setting up spot lighting on a stage!

In fact, in a lot of cases the su team do literally set things up with what are essentially spotlights

Note that all of the characters are in areas where the light is shining. This is done because your eyes are drawn to the areas with the highest contrast, so your eyes jump to the spotlights - and by extension, the characters!

Now if i show you some backgrounds without the characters, can you guess where abouts the characters are on the stage?

Now the thing to understand about the lighting in these backgrounds is that there are some rules and guidelines that inform the colour choices and value ranges.

Scenery is divided into planes, the Foreground, Background, and the Middleground which is generally where the characters are staged.

In outdoor scenery there is also often Deep Space, which is things waaay off in the distance like mountains.

Take a look at this background for example:

This background has all of the different planes, you can flatten them each down into a solid colour

as i mention in the key there, the foreground is generally in contrast to the background and deep space.

If the background is full of cold blues and purples, the foreground is going to be warmer colours like browns and greens.

It’s also going to be on the opposite end of the value range - deep space is usually pale in colour and uses the higher end of the value range, whilst the foreground is usually darker and uses the lower end of the value range.

the colour of the sky is very important to the rest of the colour scheme!this is because of aerial perspective. It’s a simple enough concept, but it does need a little explaining

This is easiest to understand if you think of a really foggy day - you know how things get really hazy the further out in the fog they get?

This happens on regular days too! It’s just that it needs to be super far away for it to be noticeable.

So, basically, the further away something gets, the less contrast there will be and the colour will become closer to that of the sky.

The reason for this is because of the water in the atmosphere - the sun shines on it and it reflects the colour of the sky, which is particularly noticeable on foggy days due to there being so much water.

most of the time, this means that things in the distance will turn bluer, due to the sky normally being blue.

However! SU regularly takes place at different times of day, so you can see how the colour of the sky and how bright it is changes the aerial perspective

as for actually setting up the lighting, there are some simple rules to follow.

the area of highest contrast is where the viewer is going to look. To understand this better, look at the backgrounds in black and white only:

Your eyes are drawn to Beach Citywalk Fries because there is a stark contrast between the shadows and the spotlight! 

It has the highest range of values going all the way through from black to white in the middleground.

The areas your eyes are not drawn to, however, only have a small range of values. The foreground goes from dark grey to black, and the background goes from light grey to white.

Generally, the foreground will be darker than the middleground, and the background will be lighter, whilst the middleground will have a full range of values.

I say generally as this is not always the case, there are lighting situations where the background will be the darkest part of the image

but they’re pretty unusual!

so in summary:

- figure out where you want the viewer to look, that should be the area of highest contrast. That means that there should be strong shadows and strong highlights.

- make use of aerial perspective to add depth to your scenery, the further away something is the less contrast it should have.

- Set your scenes up with the planes in mind, use the most values in the middleground and use opposite values for the foreground and background.