Réeio Jackson

1. Simplify – your time, your stuff, your social life.

2. Live in the moment.

3. Practice gratitude.

4. Take control of the thoughts that pull you back into the past.

5. Stop the anxious thoughts about “what next”, or of your future.

6. Practice getting comfortable with saying “no”.

7. Don’t worry about others, and what they think of you.

un-disgruntle yourself

comfort someone

be comforted

go to a quiet place

press a magic button and fix everything

get a hug

see something cute

hear rain noises

play cute games 

cut something/someone (blood)

break something

open a window

have a guided relaxation

listen to nature sounds (or here)

do nothing for 2 minutes

play the piano

make cute ecards

make cool music 

get an idea for what to do

avoid boredom

watch a dream

have a stickman adventure

play a fun and philosophical game

talk to someone

make sand designs

listen to ambient coffee shop noise

turn off addicting sites so you can study (mac only)

make cool symmetrical designs

get your thoughts out of your head

play a cool game

be calm

sort through something that’s been troubling you

websites:

Animation World Network

Animation Backgrounds

Animation Magazine

Animation & CGI

Animator Island

Anime News Network

Cartoon Brew

Character Design References

On Animation

Reference! Reference! (free database for animation)

11 Second Club (monthly character animation competition)

tumblr blogs:

animationart

animationforce

animationtidbits

aspiretoanimate

calartscharacteranimation

disney-moments-sketches (Allen Ostergar’s blog, animator at Walt Disney)

drawingforsuckas

fuckyeahconceptart

storyboardresources

theanimationarchive

theartofanimation

wannabeanimator

resources/tips:

Animation schools: 1 / 2 (Top 50 USA) / 3 (Top 100 international)

Which animation school is right for you? (Ringling vs. CalArts)

Don’t want to/ can’t afford art school? you’ve got other options.

Animation Mentor: The online animation school

Art school exercises!!

51 Great Animation exercises

20 things you can expect as a traditional (2D) animation student that they never tell you

A Survivor’s Guide to Life Inside an Animation Studio

Animation basics: The art of timing and spacing

Animation Notes From Ollie Johnston

Animated chart of the basic principles of animation

10 Second tip: Always Anticipate

book: Animation: Learn How to Draw Animated Cartoons by Preston Blair

book: A System for Planning and Timing Animation by Glen Keane

book: Timing for animation by Harold Whitaker and John Halas

book: Gesture Drawing for animation by Walt Stanchfield

Basic 3D Animation Terminology

Digital pencil test!!

Keys to Emotion in Animation

Lessons from Disney’s Zootopia

Model Sheets central

The importance of Acting in Animation by Segio Pablos

Printable exposure/dope sheet

Phoneme Chart

Recommended reading for animation students and enthusiasts

The 5 Types of Animation

The Know-How of Cartooning 

The Unofficial Truth about The Animation Industry

Why Disney Sends Its Animators To Life Drawing Classes

Walk/Run Cycles reference

What is Pixar looking for in Animators? (scroll down)

Portfolio Advice for The Disney Animation Internship

What is Rigging?

3D Rigging Terminology

3D Modeling Terminology

tutorials:

Animation for Beginners: Where do I start

Animation Physics (Video tutorials on physics for animation artists)

Animation tutorial part. 1 AKA “the secret of animation”

Appealing Poses in Animation

Background & Movement in TV

Blinking tips

Breakdown tutorial (middle frame between to keys)

Drawing & Composition for visual storytelling

Drawing for Animation

Drawing a Likeness

Animation fundamentals + tutorials

Filmmaking: Composition and Framing

Getting Shape Change

How to animate using photoshop

How to animate Characters in Perspective

How to Animate Head Turns

How to Draw Gesture

OpeenToonz tutorials masterpost

Overlapping Action and Drag

Portfolio tips / Making A Successful Portfolio

Lyp Sync tutorial

Line of action

Basics of good cartooning 1-12 by Sherm Cohen

Squash & Stretch tutorial

Squash and Stretch 2

Storyboarding tutorials by Sherm Cohen

The Illusion of Life: 12 Principles of Animation

Tilt, Flow & Rhythm

Underlying Structure When Animating Expressions

TVPaint tutorial: Uploading and Coloring Scanned Animation

supplies (traditional animation):

10 Essential Art Supplies for the Traditional Animator

How to Use a Light Table for Animation

Making a Simple Animation Lightbox

Peg bars, Animation Disk & Desk

softwares:

free

Blender (3D creation suite. It supports the entirety of the 3D pipeline: modeling, rigging, animation,etc)

Emofuri (animate using .psd files)

Google Sketchup (

Live2D ( animation/drawing software

OpenToonz (Studio Ghibli’s open source animation software)

Pencil2D (create traditional hand-drawn animation (cartoon) using both bitmap and vector graphics)

Renderman (Pixar’s free 3D rendering software)

Sculptris (Free digital sculpting tool by the makers of Zbrush

SculptGL (Online modelling program)

Synfig (2d animation using a vector and bitmap artwork)

paid

Zbrush (digital sculpting sw by Pixologic)

Mudbox (digital sculpting sw by Autodesk)

Cinema 4D (digital sculpting sw by Maxon)

TVPaint  (2d animation)

animation studios:

Aardman (Bristol, UK)

Blue Sky Studios (Greenwich, USA)

Dreamworks (Glendale, USA)

Fox Animation (USA)

Imagination Studios/CN (Burbank, USA)

Industrial Light & Magic (San Francisco, USA)

Laika (Hillsboro, USA)

Luma Pictures (USA / Melbourne, Australia)

Nickelodeon Animation (Burbank, USA)

Pixar (Emeryville, CA)

Rise FX (Berlin, Germany)

Studio Ghibli (Tokyo, Japan)

Sony Picture Imageworks (Vancouver, Canada)

Sony Pictures Animation (Culver City, CA)

Walt Disney Animation (Burbank, CA)

Weta Digital (Wellington, New Zealand)

inspiration: worth watching short films

Coda by and maps and plans

Contre Temps by the Contre Temps Team

Duet by Glen Keane

DOG ENVY by Olivia Huynh

Fallin Floyd by  il Luster

French Roast

Gravity by Ailin Liu

In Between by Gobelins

Jinxy Jenkins and Lucky Lou by Michael Bidinger and Michelle Kwon

My Big Brother by Jason Rayner

Night Light by Qing Han

Nephtali by Glen Keane

Nocturne by Kari Casady

Historia de un Oso by Gabriel Osorio

Home Sweet Home  by home sweet home the film

One Bright Dot by  Clément Morin

Stickboy by Giant Ant

SOAR by Alyce Tzue

Tsunami by The Animation Workshop

Thought of You by Ryan Woodward

Vagabond by  The Animation Workshop

For anyone struggling with depression and/or anxiety, this guide is for you. It’s the simple things that help, and a good shuppet can really relieve the stress!

Not something I’d get asked as often as one might think, but I do get asked this nevertheless. Every other artist that maybe skilled, talented, experienced, etc. get asked this all too often from what I see. The best me or any other artist that isn’t a teacher can give you is just advice. Here’s some ideas on how to improve in drawing in general.

FIGURE OUT WHY YOU WANNA DRAW

Why do you wanna draw? Do you want to make a living off of it? Do you have a story you wanna create? Do you wanna be apart of the community? Or do you just find it fun?

DRAW FROM YOUR INFLUENCES

What inspires you? What is something you like? Do you like video games, anime, cartoons, comics, food, toys? There are so many things that inspire us to draw and influence us, draw your inspiration from that and make it your fuel on how you draw!

STUDY LIFE DRAWING

This is a common tip, if you wanna get good at drawing whatever you want then learning the construction of real life people, objects, physics, and envorinments is absolutely key. Take life drawing classes, buy anatomy books on figure drawing, look up references and tutorials online, stock pile on pictures of people that can do what you’re trying to do. When you get this down then you can practicially draw however you want and then exaggerate it to no end. Many famous animators and manga artists do this, this is basically a requirement if you wanna improve at a more efficient pace.

REFERENCE ANIME AND MANGA LIKE YOU WOULD REFERENCE DISNEY AND CLASSIC ANIMATION

TOO often is this regarded as a HORRIBLE thing to do, but I’m here to tell you that anyone that says you shouldn’t reference anime or manga is a goddamn idiot. Your professor of however many years he’s been teaching says “Don’t go to Anime as a Guide to drawing, you won’t learn anything” yet says “Reference Disney movies and classic cartoons” doesn’t know what he’s talking about and is being hypocritical at the same time. Anime/Manga is NOT a drawing style but a MEDIUM, any SMART artist/animator will tell you that (Maximo V. Lorenzo is a perfect example). There’s good Anime and there’s bad anime, just like there’s good and bad western and european cartoons. It’s up to you to know what is quality to reference and know if what you’re referencing is informative, some animes might be good at portraying action but lack in anatomy and vise versa, same goes for cartoons and western comics. It’s also good to reference bad Anime/Manga and Comics/Cartoons so you don’t end up with your stuff looking like Kanon or Johnny Test (It’s just my opinion on what’s bad mind you)

ART SCHOOLS

The Million Dollar Question: “Should I go art school?”

Speaking from experience and graduating from a horrible HORRIBLE school, I say if you INSIST on going to an art school only go if you’ve done your research on the school of your choice. Art Schools do have benefits to them I won’t lie, but truth be told the negative HEAVILY outweighs the positive in this day and age with more useless art schools that look nice but don’t have the quality info you need. Most of the teachers I’ve met discourage some of the techniques and learning methods because they’re “by the books” folk and teach us using info we could look up on google, AND YOU’RE PAYING PEOPLE FOR THIS?! Plus you also have to factor in the other half of the courses that you’re forced to take that’s basically useless information when you could be spending time working on improving in what you were set out to do in the first place.(And people wonder why I bad mouth my school) If you must take college courses then PLEASE do research and don’t make the same mistake I made by diving into debt and neglecting to look for other schools that have better information. Don’t be fooled by schools that say “THIS FAMOUS ANIMATOR WENT HERE!” because chances are the quality in the classes have dwindled since then. 1 Step forward and 2 steps back and falling down a flight of stairs. Unless you’re loaded then go for whatever school you want, I guess. If you wanna do research, ask people who went to art schools, you’ll get your answers there.

ARTBOOKS

There’s a lot of drawing books that’ll help, go to a bookstore and flip through a few and see if they have any useful information. Books on Anatomy are a great place to start, even artbooks from movies and comic books provide useful info as well. Try reading “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain” that’s a buffet of information. However bypass most of the “How to Draw Manga Books” there’s only a select few where they have people who know what they’re talking about, the rest seem like they’ve watched a couple of episodes of Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball and suddenly think they’re experts, does that make me a Master or something?

LOOK UP DRAWING TUTORIALS ONLINE

There’s a lot more information online than people realize. Many people create and upload their own tutorials on their methods for drawing and even techniques, they have tutorials on just about anything. Some even upload PDF files of books. Lurk and stockpile on these.

WATCH HOW PEOPLE DRAW

Look up drawing videos online, demo reels, watch livestreams, even watch other artists and how they draw (Just don’t loom over their shoulder like a creeper) watch how it’s done, you might learn something from it.

ASK QUESTIONS

If there’s something you wanna know then just ask. People with the level of experience you’re aspiring to achieve are your best bets, just be sure to ask the right questions. A stupid question would be “WILL YOU TEACH ME HOW TO DRAW?!” you’ll be out right ignored. A better question would be “What’s a good art book that you’d recommend to help with drawing hands better?” Remember, it doesn’t hurt to ask. Keep in mind that people that don’t answer might either be busy or don’t check their messages, so ask more than ONE person.

DON’T BE AFRAID TO MAKE MISTAKES

This is something that prohibits people from improving SO much. Infact, this prohibits people from doing a lot of things in general. It’s a common fact that people are afraid they’ll make mistakes so they give up before they start and if anything that’s incredibly counter productive. Making mistakes is a GOOD thing in life, because you can learn from them. The drawing you do today might not be good, but the next drawing you do will more than likely be better as long as you learn from it. Making mistakes is all apart of life, cause we’ll know what to do and not to do next time. As Ms Frizzle once said, “TAKE CHANCES! MAKE MISTAKES! GET MESSY!” (Yes I quoted a cartoon, so sue me. Magic School Bus was awesome)

DRAW EVERYDAY

This is pretty basic. No matter WHAT you draw or the quality of the drawing, draw something at least once a day. You can either spend the entire day drawing or just doodle something random, either way you’re drawing something and making sure you can still draw without any problems.

CARRY A SKETCHBOOK WITH YOU EVERYWHERE YOU GO

A sketchbook’s purpose is to be portable. It’s not something you just let sit. Back in college I had 8 empty sketchbooks just sitting there collecting dust, it wasn’t until that I took’em everywhere when I was away from my workstation, and now I not only filled them up, but I’m currently filling up more and pocket sketchbooks as well. So instead of bringing your DS, PSP or iPad, grab your sketchbook and draw where ever you go. It’s a lot more soothing and you’ll feel much more productive than you would getting a high score on Angry Birds or catching a legendary Pokemon.

DRAW IN PEN

I know that sounds pretty crazy, but drawing with pen is EXTREMELY productive on improving. Drawing in Pen does mean you don’t have an eraser and are prone to making more mistakes, but if anything that’s a good thing. As I’ve said, making mistakes means you can learn from them. When you draw with pen you’ll force yourself to make less mistakes cause you won’t have the luxury of correcting them, it’s a great mental way of improving.

EXERCISE

I’m not saying be a health nut and go work out, just move around once in a while, stretch your limbs, go for a walk, get the blood in your body flowing. It’s very productive to exercise a little so you won’t feel sluggish when you draw and not procrastinate so much, going for a walk also helps you come up with ideas a lot easier instead of sitting trying to think.

TRACE 

This is heavily regarded as taboo by countless people and for good reason. Many people do trace or draw from sight pictures and try to pass them off as their own, many of us have done it when we were younger (don’t try to deny it) and that in itself is a big problem. But did anyone ever stop to think of the benefits of tracing? Tracing’s actually more of a physical technique of drawing as it’ll train the hand in drawing certain things. Many famous animators do this if they have to style match character designs before animating them, some Korean animators even do this before they start working, it’s also a good way to increase the rate of your drawing speed as well. The best way to trace is with a lightbox so you get the full feel than you would tracing digitally, you can usually find them at art stores for about $40 so they’re pretty inexpensive unlike a professional animator’s lightbox. However, any traced work of someone else’s drawing should NEVER be passed off as your own, as far as tracing goes it’s usually strictly for practicing and scrapped warm-ups, just remember that tracing isn’t entirely bad as people claim it is.

DRAW WHAT’S AROUND YOU

The coffee cup on your desk. Your cat. The tree outside your house. Pictures on the internet. Anything you can physically see is a reference and potencial reference for you to draw.

DO NOT HARSHLY CRITIQUE YOURSELF

This is a habit I’m still guilty of but I’m trying so very hard to break. Don’t judge yourself harshly, don’t say you suck at drawing, don’t put yourself down when someone compliments you. While this is a quality that makes you sound like you wanna improve and get better, many people’ll think you have low self-esteem. Just have faith in yourself, you might not be as good as you wanna be, but you’ll get there in time! But don’t become overconfident and think you’re the greatest artist in the world either.

DO NOT LIE TO YOURSELF

You might be wondering what I mean by that, but let me explain. Let’s say you drew anime but people started knocking on your drawings cause that’s what they always see, how would you feel about that? It’d kinda depress you wouldn’t it? Now let’s say you wanted to stand out so you draw entirely different and break your back over doing so and only a select few people go “Ooo, that looks pretty sweet.” now honestly, do you feel better drawing in this new style? Is it comfortable than what you’re used to drawing? Do you still get the same satisfaction drawing this way than you were before? Chances are you’re not. I think it’s a phase everyone goes through like in school, everyone wants to fit in and in the process end up hiding what they really love. For example: I love reading and watching Shonen series and I love wacky cartoons. While many people knocked on them for being predictable and stupid it was at least something I enjoyed. While I admit a majority are pure nonsense, they’re at least entertaining and they leave me with a good feeling, so it’s no mystery as to why that influences the way I draw, it’s the reason I still draw the way I do. Remember, we’re not gonna be able to please everyone, but if you’re not true to yourself then what’s the point?

DRAW WHAT YOU WANT AND HAVE FUN

If you wanna draw anime then draw anime, if you wanna draw fanart then draw fanart, if you wanna put boobs on an anthropomorphic wolf then by God you put boobs on that wolf! Have fun with what you draw! If you’re not having fun then you’re in the wrong place.

DRAW WHAT YOU’RE BAD AT DRAWING

While I say draw what you want, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to broaden your skills. If you have problems drawing something, say backgrounds for instance, the best way to get good at drawing them is to just flat out DO IT. Is it time consuming? Hell yeah it is, but it’s VERY beneficial in the long run.

SEEK CRITIQUE 

The best way to tell what you can do to improve on drawing is to seek a second opinion. Go to places to get a portfolio review or ask people who are experienced on what they think and how they can improve. Remember, critique does NOT mean they hate the way you draw, people wanna make sure you’ll get better so don’t go “IT’S MY STYLE!” when they comment on how much the anatomy needs work and give you advice on what you can do to improve it.

DRAW AS MUCH AS YOU CAN

In other words: PRACTICE!

It’s something so MANY people hate to hear, I mean I hated hearing it too, but that’s all it really boils down to. Someone once said “Everyone has about 100,000 bad drawings in them, and the best thing to do is to work on getting them out of you by drawing them.” that man was Chuck Jones.

I would just add that your decision to go to “art school” or not should also be based on your learning style. Some people, like myself, benefit greatly from a structured classroom setting. I am also not very socially inclined, and school offers me more ways to make connections (VERY important for an arts career) than I would be comfortable with on my own.

Also, for undergrad, going to a regular state university for art can do just fine. That’s what I’m doing. Especially if what the OP and a lot of others I’ve met say about “Art Schools” is true. I’ve had professors tell my classes this as well, and plus…it’s SO much cheaper. Really.

here are tips I discovered very recently:

something is better than nothing. 5 minutes of work are better than zero. Just because you missed something on your schedule doesn’t mean you can’t still work on it, even for 5 minutes. Grow and build on this.

second drafts / reviews can be done after.

Don’t think you are going to do your very best work on the first try. Take the weight of perfectionism off your shoulders.

don’t think about doing it. just do it as fast as you can.

build on your productivity, not your failures.

If you come from a past of procrastinating and now feel motivated to change and discipline yourself, do NOT try to do everything at once.

if you have a set of different goals to accomplish, begin with the most important one. Wait until the rotine of working for that one settles in (you feel productive and comfortable-ish), and then begin with the next. Repeat.

this way you’ll be building your way up and not juggling everything at the same time, hoping everything works out.

be patient with yourself, you’ll get there!

set smaller deadlines for your goals

have monthly and weekly-ish deadlines

e.g. if you are doing a project, due 22nd Feb, set personal deadlines, like have Introduction written by 2nd Feb, have Methods written by 10th Feb, have project complete by 18th Feb.

take them as seriously as you possibly can, don’t miss out on yourself.

write realistic daily tasks and don’t stop until you finish them. after them you can do whatever you want

on writing realistic daily tasks, the secret is knowing you can only do so much in one day, but trusting you can accomplish everything in the course of any period of time (a week, or 2 weeks or a month, etc.) because you will combine the work from all these different days.

it’s very tempting to write down all the tasks you need to accomplish in one day to just get over with it, but the real deal is you won’t accomplish half of them. You’ll feel very unproductive then, wich leads to demotivation.

spread daily tasks in the time necessary.

have a consistent sleep schedule.

if your mind isn’t ready everything will fall apart.

have one rest day per week where you plan nothing, do whatever you want except studying. this can be harder than you expect!

plus, you can look at it in 3d!

theres a lot of viewing options and other things! theres an option on-site to take a screenshot, so you don’t have to have a program for that!