izzaster

Someone asked how I do the glowy thing, soooo, here’s some how to do the glowy thing in Manga Studio. :3 

Contour vs Structural Animation

A friend asked recently: how do I start animating? So here I have a quick example of happy running squirrel.

Start simple, I recommend, that is, to simplify your animation so you don’t get caught up in the details in the beginning. I observe there are two basic ways you can make a rough animation - by Contour and Structural animations. 

Animating is basically to draw a lot and link these drawings together. Some of us draw naturally with contours, the best way for them to begin animating is perhaps simply by animating the contour! So here we link all the drawings by animating the outline and silhouette that are represented by curves, straight lines, and angles. 

Some other of us draw more comfortably with the structures, because that how most of us are taught to understand forms in school. With balls and springs, it’s maybe easier for them to understand what’s happening underneath the moving body, and what drive different parts to move differently. 

Personally, I’ve always animated with contours because that’s how I draw naturally. Since it’s convenient for me, I could then focus on delivering a more dynamic action. But there are occasions where the character design is based heavily on forms which requires me to animate structurally. 

So you could consider trying either of these two by first understand how you draw - do you draw better by jumping straight to the outlines, or by first representing the body with a skeleton. Contour and structure are like the two ends of a spectrum, once you master one method, you could try the other way to improve your animation! I believe good animations are based on the knowledge of both. 

I hope this helps!

by Johannes Helgeson AKA  @helgesonart​, edited by @help-me-draw​ for clarity

I’m occasionally asked how I paint from imagination, and I’ve sometimes given demos to friends. I figure I’d indulge and try to explain for everyone. Beware, text and pictures ahead! This process is designed for a reasonably fast and predictable result. It’s aimed at beginners who are familiar with photoshop primarily, but might be beneficial for more advanced users as well. It’s meant for painting from one’s own imagination, and I’ve reached this process through years of experiments and advice from more senior artists (Adam Fordand Sam Nielson have outlined similar approaches in the past). If I had a reference or model in front, my approach would be different, and I’d focus on getting the right shape, color and value of each stroke from the get-go. Here we’re using Photoshop as a tool to figure out colors and values. I would like to point out that my process is continually changing as I’m learning new stuff, and what I’m doing here might be obsolete in the near future. Please apply your critical thinking when approaching this, and know that I have merely attained a journeyman level of expertise. If you’re serious about learning, check out masters such as Zorn, Sargent, J.C. Leyendecker, Rockwell, Velázquez and Sorolla.

1. Lineart 

I just drew some chicks doing stuff. Talking about drawing is a whole different chapter, and this tutorial is about painting. In short, I try to have some fairly clean lineart which I can use as a foundation. For more about drawing, look at Stan Prokopenko’s Youtube Tutorials, check out RadHowto, read Glenn Vilppu’s Drawing Manual and Walt Stanchfield’s Drawn to Life Vol 1 & 2.