How to Improve Your Skills as an Animator

How You Can Improve Your Skills as an Animator
Like everything else in the world, to be successful in animation you have to be good, but in order to be good you have to practice, practice, PRACTICE! Now if you want a career in animation, you will have to work extra hard, depending on your age. It seems most animators know that's what they want to do at a very young age. That's good, because they have more time to perfect their talents. I was able to spend a few years just working on expressions, because that's all I knew about at the time. As I learned about expressive poses and quick sketches I was able to work on those, too. The following is a short list of exercises to help you to become a better animator. It may seem like a lot of work when you look at the time recommendations. So if you're very young or just learning animation for fun, pick a few from the list and spend time mastering them. When you've got 'em down good, pick a few more to do every day and only do the old ones occasionally so you don't forget. However, if you're a senior in High School trying to get into an art school's animation program next year, you've got a LOT of work! So maybe spend less time on them, but try to do a little of each exercise everyday. Spending only a few hours altogether. Also, it will take a while to get up to the amount of time listed for each exercise. Try to do part of it in the morning, the rest at night, for example. Be sure your family or anyone who lives with you knows not to disturb you during your drawing sessions. Also try to only listen to instrumental music, or music with limited vocals when you draw. I like to listen to Enya, James Horner soundtracks, or classical music. This will help your brain stay in its right hemisphere mode of processing information. Meaning, you'll draw better. Get a beverage to sit close by. Don't let ANYTHING break your concentration! If you really work at these, even if you don't spend a whole lot of time, but if you do them correctly and regularly, you will notice improvement. But remember, the more time you spend the better you'll get! Now, pull up a pencil and get started!

Gesture:You'll need to have some people around for this one. It is well known that quick, loose drawings are highly thought of as indicative of animator's skills. Doing this exercise will not only help you build up a great collection of gestures for your portfolio, but you will also develop many skills.

Character Quick Sketch: Get a clock to time yourself, a lot of paper, and many sharpened pencils, preferably without erasers. Pick a character. This could be one you came up with, a historical figure, mythological character, or famous cartoon character. Then decide on an emotion you want to convey. Now begin drawing one full figured character a minute. Try to make each pose establish a mood or attitude. Even though the features may not be defined, the body language should be able to express what the character is feeling to anyone you show the sketch to. At First the drawings won't look too hot. You may even need to take a few more minutes. But eventually your speed and skill will improve with time. Try to spend 1 to 2 hours a day on this exercise.

Skeletal Anatomy Quick Sketch: Find, preferably in an artist's anatomy book, diagrams of both the male and female skeletons. Set an alarm clock to ring 15 minutes after beginning the exercise. Spend 15 minutes drawing the female skeleton after studying it for sometime. When finished, consult the diagram to check the accuracy of your skeleton. Then spend another 15 minutes sketching the male bones. Check yours with its diagram before redrawing the skeleton. Notice the differences in the male and female bone structure. Take note of all the mistakes you make being sure not to repeat them. Soon you will have no trouble drawing the human figure. Spend at least 15-30 minutes a day on each sex.

Muscular Anatomy Quick Sketch: On a piece of tracing paper, trace the skeletal diagram you used in the Skeletal Quick Sketch. Find another diagram that shows the major muscles in the human body. The muscles listed should be: sternocleidomastoid, trapezius, deltoid, pectoral, biceps, external oblique, supinator longus, flexor capri radialis, sartorius, vastus latoralis, rectus femoris, extensor digitorum longus, gastrocnemius, and tibialis anterior on the front of the body. Don't worry, you don't have to be able to pronounce them, just locate them. Spend some time familiarizing yourself with the locations and approximate shape of these muscles. Set an alarm for 15 minutes. Quickly add the muscles onto the traced skeleton. Just use a general line or two to indicate where the muscles are; don't be concerned with detail. Once you learn where the largest are, you can begin to worry about the smaller ones and then even begin to learn addition muscles that aren't on the list. Try this exercise on different diagrams of different angles ( ž, profile, and back.) Learn which muscles are visible from each direction. Spend at least 15 min. or ˝ hr on this each day.

Pose Construction: Find a snapshot or a photo from a magazine of a person in a distinctive pose or doing something active. Draw a basic "line of action." This is a single fluent line which can capture the entire attitude of a pose. It shows how the head is tilted, the way a body leans, the momentum of an action. Usually the line of action can double as the central axis. Do a quick sketch of a stick figure (yes those things you learned to do when you were two) over the line of action. You can use a different color to do each step if you wish. Now draw the basic shape of the body. You can use any style of shape construction you want. Add lines that suggest clothing. This exercise should take no more than 5 minutes. Spend ˝ hour to 2 hours a day on this exercise.

Bouncing Ball: On one piece of paper draw a ball bouncing in its different stages. The ball should appear round in the air. Pretty flat on the ground. Filling back out as it flies back into the air. This exercise will help demonstrate the concept of squash and stretch. Observe an actual ball bouncing. Note when it decreases and increases speed. How does it push back off the ground? You can also do this as an animated flip.

Head Turn: Do several sketches of a person turning its head on one piece of paper. Be sure to show Front, ž , profile, and all in-between poses. The slower the head is being turned, the more frames will be needed. Move your eyes from each picture very quickly to the next. You should be able to see the movement of the head turning. Can also be done as a flip.

Expressions: Decide on a feeling you want to draw. Now begin drawing this expression on many different faces. JUST THE FACE! Ideally, you should be able to convey any emotion by only using the eyes and eyebrows of a character. Perhaps that's why most animated animals have eyebrows when real animals don't! However, every feature that you draw should help to convey the emotion. Not, distressed eyes, smiling mouth. But you can learn how to make a fake smile, which is different looking and more exagerated than a real smile. You should try to have several sketches that represent each emotion adequately. Each face shows the same emotion in a different way, but somehow the emotion is recognizable on every face by other people. Try to capture that in your drawings. Decide on a character's personality. Does that sketch seem like the way that particular person would look when sad? If not, draw it again. Try to spend ˝ hour a day on this.

Design Your Own Character: This is probably the best way to learn animation, in my opinion. You can combine all the exercises into one rewarding experience. You can use a fave character from a book, invent one of your own, or even use an old imaginary friend, or the imaginary friend of a child close to you. Design the character's look, but first be very, very, VERY, sure of its personality. This will make things easier in the long run. Try to come up with an individual style for the character, not just features. Look at the differences between Hercules, Aladdin, and Eric. Not only do they all have unique features, but also the use of line and form is different in each. Pick a style of a great artist to help you with this: Picasso, Da Vinci, Degas, each had his own style of drawing. Now draw the character in different poses, doing and feeling different things. Here's where your character quick sketch comes in handy. Decide which poses seem true to your character. Disney animator Glen Keane is very adamant about making each scene of animation represents his characters well. He made one Aladdin animator re-do a beautifully animated scene simply because he thought Al seemed a bit too frightened to suit his personality! You need to learn to be that discriminating. Draw many different expressions. Decide how your character looks while walking. How does its mouth move when it talks? Combine the best sketches into a model sheet. Make sure the character always looks the same in each drawing. If it doesn't, find out why, and don't make that mistake again. Write notes to yourself if you have to. Make several flips of your character in action. When you're finished you should have a character that seems very real to you. You should know everything about that person. Then design characters for the original to interact with. Sometimes an individual personality becomes more apparent when there are other personalities to feed off of. This is just about the same as getting actual experience at a studio. Ask other people for their opinions on your character. Other artists and art educators are usually the best to ask, but remember that the general public watch animated films and develop opinions on those characters as well. Your goal is to make your character real for as many people as you can. Make sure your mom understands him and grandpa gets where that character is coming from. If they don't, there's usually a way to improve your character. But remember that you're animating for yourself. Don't let your view of the character be compromised to suit someone else's opinion. If you don't find this exercise very rewarding then animation probably isn't the thing for you.