（ つ Д ｀）

Welcome to my art blog! ^U^ doodles and drawings and stuffs. Twitter: meltsmelts IG: meltsmelt

[meltesh28]

drew a comic of a scene from chapter 5 of drag path !! I love this fic 😭

[grim-hawkins]

i love you (respectfully) djfjkdsdfj

imagine my surprise when i crawl back outta my corner to post ch9 of drag path and suddenly there's a whole ass comic by the one and only melts, what the HELL and it's BEAUTIFUL it's literally everything i could've dreamt of

thank you for blessing us with this magnificence

p.s. i put up a link to it at the end notes of ch9 i hope you don't mind!!!

[meltesh28]

aaaaaa thank you for writing this wonderful story!!! It's been such a comfort for me!!

so glad you like this comic I tried my best to do that beautiful scene justice 😭

(also why would I mind a link its an honor to be included in there !!)

[meltesh28]

drew a comic of a scene from chapter 5 of drag path !! I love this fic 😭

[svnnysolar]

the view between villages || storyboard by @meltesh28

[meltesh28]

wait i love this 😭

[meltesh28]

Part 2 || Part 3

Hi everyone I made another... otnwas storyboard... I just really love this story okay

@jjackfrost I can never thank you enough for writing this 😭

credits:

Jack and Hiccup - @santathegrey

Snow Queen - @khaotiklly

Emily - Keeb

Jamie, Brant and Undis - @vindikaetion

[meltesh28]

Part 2 || Part 3

Hi everyone I made another... otnwas storyboard... I just really love this story okay

@jjackfrost I can never thank you enough for writing this 😭

credits:

Jack and Hiccup - @santathegrey

Snow Queen - @khaotiklly

Emily - Keeb

Jamie, Brant and Undis - @vindikaetion

[meltesh28]

Kris, just... keep walking

[meltesh28]

chapter 5 fed me so well i feel lightheaded

[meltesh28]

MELTS DELTARUNE CHAPTER 5 IN 15 DAYS ARE YOU EXCITED FOR MORE KRISELLE, SUSELLE, KRUSIE, KRUSELLE MOMENTS I AM, SO WE CAN SEE MORE OF YOUR STUFF I LOVE YOU

im so excited i can't wait to play it i just want to sleep for two weeks so i can see them all again aaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[meltesh28]

HI MELTS im a huge fan of your works! Everytime i watch your animatics I feel like there's new details to appreciate and learn from. Some art questions floating in my head (i would treasure any answer you have to give, I save advice from favourite artists and it's served me thru the years) How did you teach yourself efficiency in art? I feel like that's not often talked about, and it's super important for storyboarding and animation. Like your hijack of the northmost animatic.You (1)

Hi thank you for the ask!!

I don't think I've consciously decided to work on efficiency as a skill? There's still things I do that are very inefficient (bad habits... and lack of knowledge about the programs I use... there's definitely tons of time-saving features I'm neglecting)

But as for efficiency in deciding what to prioritize when drawing, I think it might just be a sense you build up over time, like when you draw a character enough times you know what details/shapes are essential to keep and what's free to change. Doing timed gesture studies help with training your mind to put down only the shapes that give the most important information right away imo. Also live sketching in public, since people move fast you're left without the luxury of constant referencing and so you have to pick out key features super quick

When it comes to storyboarding, because there's so much drawing involved, you don't want to exert too much energy on redundant frames... though i still indulge too much sometimes o(-( anyways I don't think its so much choosing specific frames, it's more of drawing a new frame only when something new is happening. action -> reaction -> action and so on... and because the frames go by quick, it's important to keep everything instantly readable (there are ways to lead the eyes to where you want the viewer to look at through composition, background, poses, lighting)

ALSO also a lot of the stuff I draw isn't post worthy, so like even if it seems like what I post comes from an efficient process there's the tedious work of ugly drafts, wrong proportions, erased mistakes, cut shots, deleted sketches that build the foundation of the stuff I post. So I guess my advice is don't worry about efficiency and revel in the process of trial and error? There is fun in discovering for yourself what works and what doesn't. Efficiency will come with time+practice

[meltesh28]

@xiulric I did not see the third ask before posting asjkdfhsjddhf 🤦🏻‍♀️

ok for the flight sequence, I had a good understanding of how to draw toothless because I drew him obsessively as a teen (as well as hiccup and jack lol) and that's by studying screenshots and the artbook... Living with cats helped a lot too. I also looked up skydiving videos as reference.

I basically always do study sketches to get the hang of drawing a character. First drawing of them never looks right and that's normal even if it's embarrassing to look back on sometimes 😭

For kaeya's bartending animation I compiled a lot of reference videos and picked out the movements I wanted him to do, and then put the footage together. I reduce the frame rate of the footage to 12fps and have it on a corner of the canvas for reference while I draw (I don't trace over it because the anatomy/proportions wouldn't make sense on kaeya, and I still need to apply animation principles for the movement to feel smoother. I adjust the timing and spacing sometimes so it feels better)

when I'm really stuck on poses and can't find anything online, I just take photos or videos of myself and reference that! And yeah a lot of my drawings start out bad and they look bad until they don't 😭 gotta have faith in the process

[meltesh28]

HI MELTS im a huge fan of your works! Everytime i watch your animatics I feel like there's new details to appreciate and learn from. Some art questions floating in my head (i would treasure any answer you have to give, I save advice from favourite artists and it's served me thru the years) How did you teach yourself efficiency in art? I feel like that's not often talked about, and it's super important for storyboarding and animation. Like your hijack of the northmost animatic.You (1)

Hi thank you for the ask!!

I don't think I've consciously decided to work on efficiency as a skill? There's still things I do that are very inefficient (bad habits... and lack of knowledge about the programs I use... there's definitely tons of time-saving features I'm neglecting)

But as for efficiency in deciding what to prioritize when drawing, I think it might just be a sense you build up over time, like when you draw a character enough times you know what details/shapes are essential to keep and what's free to change. Doing timed gesture studies help with training your mind to put down only the shapes that give the most important information right away imo. Also live sketching in public, since people move fast you're left without the luxury of constant referencing and so you have to pick out key features super quick

When it comes to storyboarding, because there's so much drawing involved, you don't want to exert too much energy on redundant frames... though i still indulge too much sometimes o(-( anyways I don't think its so much choosing specific frames, it's more of drawing a new frame only when something new is happening. action -> reaction -> action and so on... and because the frames go by quick, it's important to keep everything instantly readable (there are ways to lead the eyes to where you want the viewer to look at through composition, background, poses, lighting)

ALSO also a lot of the stuff I draw isn't post worthy, so like even if it seems like what I post comes from an efficient process there's the tedious work of ugly drafts, wrong proportions, erased mistakes, cut shots, deleted sketches that build the foundation of the stuff I post. So I guess my advice is don't worry about efficiency and revel in the process of trial and error? There is fun in discovering for yourself what works and what doesn't. Efficiency will come with time+practice

[meltesh28]

❄️ What's up, buttercup?

snow-crested shrines inspired fanart (again) (im still obsessed)

close ups below

[meltesh28]

Odd to come out of the woodworks like this but I did not realize you were the same person who made the DR animations (I occasionally get Hijack on my page from other blogs) and I just got crazy whiplash when I scrolled on your YouTube channel to find you ALSO made that gorgeous ass hualian animatic. It has been a very weird morning to find that what I thought were two seperate inspirations were actually the Same Person.

Anyways. Sparkle on. Love your stuff. Im going to go back to my whittling project now

I've actually gotten a few comments similar to this so you're not alone on that haha but the time span between the animations are quite long so I do feel like a different person for each project almost 😭

thank you and have fun with your whittling project!!

[meltesh28]

I'm like super interested in the behind-the-scenes of that scs hijack animatic and I hope you don't mind sharing.. were there any moments where you struggled in a scene? How did you even deal with Jack's hair??? I swear there's a curse on his hair that makes it so hard to draw but you made it look so easy and fluffy. Love your artstyle btw🩷‼️‼️

there were quite a few scenes I struggled with! Like the hand holding part, I wasn't sure how to position them at first but eventually I settled on a similar shot to the chapter 3 storyboard (hands on the lap) I was going to draw Jack holding Hiccup's hand with both hands at first but the movement felt too awkward.

the initial part with Astrid casually resting the tankard on Jack's head was a bit of a puzzle to solve for me as well o(-(

thanks for asking about Jack's hair because that gives me an excuse to draw him again YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(timelapse for this and explanation below)

To me it seems wild and messy at first glance but once you make sense of the main shapes in his hair it’s really fun to draw.

First I get the basic silhouette down before getting into the fun little swoops.

From what I see there’s three main areas, the fringe, the top of the head and the back of the head. The fringe is kind of a W that goes from (our) left to right, the hair on the top of the head spreads out from a certain point, and the back is quite tame and stays close to the neck. It ends a little below the ears. Kind of a mini mullet

I like to draw two opposing swirls as guides before adding in the swoops. Drawing swoops that go in opposite directions to each other really adds to the messy wind-swept feeling of his design. The swoops start small from the back and get bigger near the top of the head. The hair only really defies gravity at the top, the rest stays close to the head and sorts of wraps around it in short tufts

It looks fluffy so I like to draw the clumps of hair with soft curves instead of hard triangles. Think of frost flowers except it probably feels soft instead of crumble when you touch it.

It's not fully movie accurate but I think it's more fun to be spontaneous with the lines and not be too careful with it. It does help sometimes to revisit the movie and see what landmarks in the design I strayed too far from though

[meltesh28]

Had to just use a link previously since I wasn't able to upload the full video on tumblr (the file was too big) but I can still upload a little toothless compilation so... here!

(youtube link for the full vid)

[meltesh28]

hey i just saw your latest animatic. my legal status now and forevermore shall be On The Floor. consider me found the way margaret was by that email, from now until the end of time. i wish you everlasting joy. goodnight.

this made me laugh 😭 thank you!!!

[meltesh28]

Snow-Crested Shrines Chapter 6 written by @fractaljoy

Astrid Dub: @bluethebug

Hiccup and Jack Frost Dub: @santathegrey

worked super hard on this one I can't feel my hands anymore... but I'm very happy to have finished this.!!

[fractaljoy]

Meltesh oh my gosh you make this masterpiece and then apologize??? ITS AMAZING IM SPEECHLESS I HAVE NO WORDS. The use of color? The details in the backgrounds? The fact that its fully dubbed??????? You animated the whole last part of chapter 6 I am in awe! The flashbacks at the end of Jack from the different chapters had me pausing seeing the details of the snow wraith collums and him breaking the gang out at the end of chapter 2 AGH ITS ALL SO GOOD. the emotion??? I SHED SOME TEARS THIS IS MASTERY Im on my knees we shall have a spring wedding this is perfection 😭😭😭😭

[meltesh28]

HI HELLO aaahhh I'm so glad you like it 😭😭!!!!!!!!

Your writing immerses me into the world so fully I had to try and do it justice... Making boards out of the scenes you create just makes me love and appreciate every detail more 😭 This is some of the most fun I ever had drawing on a project and I can't thank you enough for it!!!!

spring wedding sounds lovely i will have my wedding garbs custom made now!!!!! ᯓ🏃🏻‍♀️‍➡️

[meltesh28]

Do you have any drafts of the backgrounds in the hijack animatic?? Floorplans, detail notes, references? I keep getting amazed every time I rewatch it you did so well on making the characters feel alive in their environment I'm starting to think you're a professional with their fandom side blogs lmao💕💕

I gathered a bunch of references from the wiki and took more screenshots from the movie and rtte! (had to turn up the brightness a lot to see the house and room properly) it also helped that I had the httyd artbook on hand.

drafts and lineart below!

here's a page of the thumbnails where I try to sketch out how the room looks to make sense of it for myself

(the rest if you're curious)

my drafts are super messy (it's more important for me to see how the shots flow and feels when it plays) so when drawing the backgrounds I do have to do another proper draft and then draw over that... I usually avoid backgrounds in general so I'm super proud that I made the effort here. maybe I CAN draw backgrounds after all