Hello! Your animations are very wonderful, and seem quite similar to the fluidity of a James Baxter animation!
Anyway, my question is both where and how you’ve become so fluent! I am extremely interested in animation, but have little idea where to start or even do any of the sick lineart and make it look clean
In short I’m kinda overwhelmed! 😭
(Ps- thanks for uploading your process video on the phm animation, it gives me a lot of really good additional insight!)
tyy🥺 you are all so kind here.. really motivates me to work and get better!!
i just graduated sheridan college! i cannot understate its help to me personally, but i believe its not necessary to be college educated to be a good artist.
what college gives you that is hard to find outside it is access to a big art community (with whom you will interact every day for four years and then most likely work with for the rest of your career) and access to life drawing
• join an art/animation discord server and ask ppl for critique!
• do some fundamentals exercises (life drawing, bouncing balls, shapes in perspective etc.) BUT draw what you like. your ocs, or fanart, or just your favorite subject.
like, not just a boring pendulum swinging in a white void, but your favorite character holding a yoyo or a pocket watch or smth.
always shoehorn things you love into boring homework. life will be more bearable this way
• with every big project, try to use it to learn something new. a new style, or technique, or software. its hard to sit down and watch three hours of dry software tutorials. its easier to do that if all that time youre thinking how exactly youre gonna use these functions for your project.
• use lots of references! i film my own references for animation. it helps me with perspective, anatomy, timing, and performance!
it doesn't matter if youre a good actor (i really really am not), because you still subconsciously make little flourishes when you move, and they make all the difference.
i didnt film a reference for grace rocky hug. and even if i did, i would not show it anyway :P
• i know this sounds very generic, but like,, have fun? i always put music or an audiobook in the background (sorry milt kahl), and drink tasty drinks.
when youre doing roughs you definitely should concentrate fully, but when youre spending the entire day doing line between line cleanup (or spending the second day completely redoing what youve done the day before, haha totally not me right now😀), you might want to make life a little easier.
i guess thats about it! i hope this was helpful. i wish you luck on your journey and i hope you enjoy it! 🤝
