Randy Haycock's Art and Animation

Doing this virtually, so sign up wherever you are!

Also, just draw from life. I mean, draw your family, your pets. Go to the park or the Zoo and draw the people and the animals there. Drawing from life, whether from a model or just your environment, is about learning to be observant. It’s about learning how to interpret what you are looking at and express what you feel about it in a drawing.

Of course. As long as you tag me when you post it so I can save what you did. Ok?

Thanks!

I have tumblr, Instagram and a YouTube channel. Just search my name.

Thanks, Jamey! I hope you are doing well, too.

I don’t presently do commissions. Just don’t have the time. Sorry.

The map shows where people at the studio are from, not where they live currently. Everybody at the studio lives in the Los Angeles area. If you want to work at the studio, you’ll have to be in Southern California.

Got to spend some time sharing at CTNX on Saturday. Thanks Tina and crew for a fun day. (at CTN animation eXpo) https://www.instagram.com/p/B5V5N6HDDPC/?igshid=15cws520uf01q

I'm in San Diego! I'll be part of a panel Friday morning called (humbly) "The Genius of Animation". I'll be sharing the stage with some other animation veterans. Come by if you're at Comiccon.

Here are three publicity drawings made for Atlantis. I drew Kida, Milo Was drawn by John Pomeroy.

Without having seen your work, it’s hard to say. You should look at the studio websites and see what they are looking for and build your portfolio based on that.

It’s true that the current market is CG animation. If you really want to draw you may want to pursue storyboarding or visual development. There are rare opportunities to do traditional animation in the states, but nothing consistent enough to make a career out of it. It may not (fingers crossed) always be that way, so I alway recommend a good education in traditional animation even for CG animators. Most art schools still have a strong traditional animation foundation in their animation programs, and good drawing will only enhance your work in CG. One final thought… although traditional and CG animation have different processes, the goal is still the same, to create entertaining and believable performances. If you look at it that way either technique is as rewarding as the other.

Keep your goal in mind. Dental school isn’t the most obvious path to a career in animation, but stranger things have happened. That said, I think if you are serious about a career in animation you will want to go to a school that offers a degree in character animation. The studios actively recruit from a number of art and academic colleges that have animation programs, and in today’s market, you will need a degree to be looked at seriously by most studios. I think you’ll need to decide how much you want to be in this field. Then you may find you’ll need to make some different choices to get there. Best of luck.

I try to mainly animate on twos, mostly because that’s how I was trained. That said, there are definitely times when ones are appropriate or even necessary. If the action is quick or your character is being tracked in a camera move (especially where there is visible foot to ground contact), for example. I usually use spacing to determine if ones are necessary. If no part of the consecutive drawings overlap, I will put it on ones to keep the animation from strobing. A couple words of caution about ones, though. If overused the animation can lose its crispness and start to feel soft or mushy. You need to time for ones in your charts, don’t just add drawings in between your inbetweens. Make sure your slow-ins and slow-outs are timed and spaced for ones.

Whenever I get tired or uninspired I try to do some other creative thing. I write or sculpt or draw in a different style or different subject matter. Sometimes I just take my sketchbook to the zoo or some place else I can just draw from life. Sometimes I find inspiration in the people and events around me, or in art museums. And sometimes I just put the pencil down and read a book, watch a movie or look at tumblr or Pinterest for inspiration from other artists. We all go through times of discouragement where we feel we aren’t up to the task, or aren’t good enough. It takes a certain amount of courage to forge ahead in those times. When I was younger I was fearless. I would try anything if I thought it would make me a better artist. It’s a quality I still try to hold onto today.