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#want to get drawings i like more in storyboard pro
yamujiburo · 10 months
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✨YAMUJIBURO F.A.Q.✨
Should've made this a while ago! I'm starting to get a lot of the same questions in my inbox nowadays tho and I feel bad for clogging up y'all's timelines with the same questions haha
GENERAL QUESTIONS
Who are you?
I'm Kiana, I'm a queer, Japanese Jamaican woman, and a Director/Storyboard artist at Disney Television Animation.
What are your pronouns
I usually go by she/her but I don't really mind any pronouns~
Where did you go to school?
California College of the Arts (but I dropped out when I was hired at Disney)
How did you get hired at Disney?
My bosses found me on twitter through my Team Rocket fanart. They liked my drawing style and asked if I wanted to take a storyboard test. I did, I passed, I got interviewed and moved to LA two weeks later to start storyboarding.
Is this a repost blog??
No, you might know be better as @kianamaiart. This is just my Pokémon sideblog where I post exclusively (for the most part) Team Rocket and Pokémon art.
What does your username mean?
It's a combination of the main 4 Team Rocket members' Japanese names: Yamato (cassidy), Musashi (jessie), Kojiro (james), Kosaburo (butch)
What program and brush do you use to draw?
Default brush in Storyboard pro
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GENERAL POKEMON QUESTIONS
Who's your favorite Pokémon?
What are your favorite ships?
Any ship with Jessie. Yamushipping, Rocketshipping and Hanamusashipping are my top three!
Who do you ship Ash with?
I was a big Pokéshipper when I was younger but nowadays don't really feel strongly about any of the ships involving the kid characters. I'm also in the "Ash is aroace" camp.
Do you have any trans headcanons?
You can find em here along with other headcanons! It should be noted that I don't usually marry myself to one hc (unless it's for a specific AU I'm trying to build out) and love seeing various interpretations of a character! Trans woman Jessie, Trans woman James, Trans man James, Genderfluid Jessie, give em to me!
Do you play the games?
I've played all the mainline Pokémon games and very much enjoy them! But I am much more invested in the anime and the characters in the anime.
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HANAMUSA AU QUESTIONS
Where can I read all the comics in order?
Here! I update anytime I make a new comic and list them in chronological order (since I just draw comics at random points in the timeline as they interest me). This post also already answers some of the frequently asked questions about this AU like: How did Jessie and Delia meet? What are James and Meowth up to? How old are Jessie and Delia? etc.
What does "Hanamusa" mean?
Hanamusa is a combination of Delia and Jessie's Japanese names, Hanako and Musashi respectively.
When does this AU take place?
It takes place sometime after the Mezase Pokémon Master/To Be a Pokémon Master series. So all the events that happened in the series, unless retconned within the series, happened. Ash is 10 at the start of the comics.
What's the status between Jessie, James, Meowth and Giovanni/Team Rocket?
Not great terms since they were fired, but also not the worst terms. Giovanni just let the three of them go without any further issues. I will say that I've always loved the theory that Giovanni keeps Jessie specifically around because of her parentage and he as a soft spot for her that he keeps a secret. I feel like Matori was the one that got the three of them fired and Giovanni wasn't able to make an excuse for them this time (without showing nepotism/special treatment) so he was forced to let them go.
If you headcanon Delia as a lesbian, how did Ash come to be?
Delia was young when she had Ash and I hc that she just didn’t really explore her sexuality much! I myself didn’t realized I liked women until I was 18 and didn’t know I liked ONLY women until like 2 years ago. She got married, had a baby and realized after her husband left that she liked women (trans people exist obviously but I’m also interpreting Ash’s father as a cis man).
Who do you think Ash’s dad is?
I don’t know and I don’t really care to explore it. I’m going off of the novel interpretation that he’s just a deadbeat that left to be a trainer, failed and never came back because of the shame. He’s not important.
Isn’t Giovanni Ash’s dad?
That’s a common misconception that people remember wrong from the Pokémon Live show. Delia mentions she dated Giovanni but then left him and his gang after meeting Ash’s father. I also don’t consider the live show canon personally! I follow The Birth of Mewtwo timeline where Madame Boss founded Team Rocket.
Do you think Delia and Giovanni dated at least?
Nah, I think he’s too old for her? I always got the vibe from The Birth of Mewtwo that he was quite a bit older than Jessie and it’d be sus if he was dating Delia when she was married to, and had a child with her husband at 18/19. He’s a bad guy but not a BAD guy.
You mentioned you still ship Jessie and James. Why not make a Jessie, James, Delia polycule?
I have a few reasons I’ve mentioned before! 1. I’m in super deep with this AU already and I feel it’d be very confusing for casual viewers of my stuff if James was added into the relationship haha. 2. I’ve drawn Jessie and James together since 2011 and took this AU as an opportunity to try my hand at writing them as queer, platonic besties bc I love that interpretation of them a lot as well. 3. I’m not poly myself and the way I write this ship is largely based off of my experiences with my girlfriend. I just know I’d favor the Jessie/Delia of it all which isn’t fair and not a good interpretation of a poly relationship. All that said, I DO super enjoy seeing peoples’ poly headcanons and art!
Who does James end up with in this AU?
No one. He's aroace and is happy to be single
Do Jessie and James have all their Pokémon in this AU
I think they have all the Pokémon that they did by the end of Mezase Pokémon Master (all their Pokémon that were left at HQ). Most of their released Pokémon have stayed released and the Alola Pokémon are still in Alola. I bring back Arbok and Weezing post-Jessie and Delia getting married. I may bring back Chimecho, Growlie and Cacnea if I think of an idea I like!
What are Meowth and James up to in this AU?
Hop back to the top of this post under the "Where to Start" section. All your questions will be answered.
Does Ash travel with anyone at this point of his life?
I don't have anyone in particular in mind! I could see him making new friends (Nemona???) or traveling with different combinations of old friends. Like him, Misty and Goh, him, Dawn and Cilan, him, Serena and Lillie etc.
Will Delia ever get over her phobia of snake Pokémon
Not fully! I think overcoming fears is fine and good but I think real PHOBIAS are much harder to get past and I don't want to cheapen it. She slowly gets used to Jessie's Seviper specifically and gets to the point where she can pet it comfortably with Jessie in the room. But otherwise, still scared and would need that same amount of time per Pokémon
Is Jessie gaining weight or is it just me?
Not just you! Jessie puts on a bit of relationship weight overtime as you'll see in the later comics in the timeline. Jessie grew in poverty, never knowing when her next meal would be and that continued into her life as a Team Rocket member. Once she was able to settle down (with a woman who runs her own restaurant no less) she's able to live a healthier lifestyle with regular meals and puts on some weight because of that.
Does Jessie ever feel self conscious about gaining weight?
Nope! She feels happier and healthier and hotter. She's also unreasonably excited to clear out her old clothes and get a new wardrobe.
Would Jessie and Delia ever have kids together or adopt?
Nah, Ash is enough for them! I have come up with hypothetical kids for them but they're not canon to this AU. Just a fun little thing for me.
Will you ever put this on webtoon?
Nah. People mostly ask me this because they want to read everything in the order of the timeline but to my knowledge, you can’t reorder chapters or installments which would defeat the purpose. I also don’t think nintendo fan stuff would fly there. Also, also it’s just extra work and another place to upload and I want to keep this all fun for myself~
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tonkable-art · 5 months
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✷ Tonk's Art Resources ✷
Hi! No one asked but I wanted to make a big list of art resources I use because I like to try and help people be creative! Not everything I list is free (mostly the books & some PDFs), but I’ll try my best to keep a big portion of it unpaid.
I've also made a carrd with the same links and a set of software links + prices but I'll be updating this with more things I find that I think would be helpful. :)
Drawing
GES DRAW PARTY - Timed model videos
Drawing Tutorials Online - Figure drawing tutorials (& fun SVA student sketchbook videos)
Line of Action - Timed model Photos
3 tips to improve your PEOPLE SKETCHING (fast urban sketching techniques), Sketching Scottie
Creating Backgrounds, Tim Mcburnie
Drawabox
Reference Angle
Kaycem
Colour Theory
Why Color Studies Are So Powerful, Light Ponderings
Marco Bucci
Colour Tips and Tricks, Iniro (PDF)
This post
Animation
The Animator’s Survival Kit, Richard E. Williams (book) - I think this one is a pretty obvious must-have
How to Animate Night In The Woods [Scribble Kibble #103], Crowne Prince - Helped me get a grip on After Effects
Little Miss Hellraiser Toon Boom Harmony Rig, Edu Bruks - Free Toon Boom Harmony rig
Alex Grigg // Animation for Anyone
BaM Animation
Storyboarding
Exploring Storyboarding, Wendy Tumminello (book)
Storyboarding Essentials: SCAD Creative Essentials, David Harland Rousseau & Benjamin Reid Phillips (book)
Storyboard Pro Crash Course/Tips for beginners, OhJeeToriG
A Guide To Storyboards, MagicBunnyArt (PDF)
Character Design
Character Design Crash Course - A huge free course document with assignments you can work through
Delicious in Dungeon - Fundamentals of Character Design, lines in motion
Writing
Writing for Animation, Comics, and Games, Christy Marx (book)
Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting, Syd Field (book) - I have the 1987 edition
Reedsy
How to Plot a Comic From Start to Finish!, McKay & Gray
Portfolio Tips
How to make a Character Design Portfolio, Jackie Droujko
Top Tips on How to Kickstart Your Storyboard Portfolio, Brown Bag Films
25 Tips to Create an Animation Demo Reel, Sir Wade Neistadt
Extras
PuccaNoodles’ Animation/Art Resource Sheet
My Study References Pinterest board
Motivation Station - Playlist of sketchbook videos and some speedpaints that I use to motivate & inspire me
The Illustrated Freelancer’s Guide, Heather Parry & Maria Stoian (PDF) - Really useful for freelancers in the UK
Software substitution chart
Adobe Suite substitute chart
Remember to check out the carrd, it might have a more updated list!
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rileyclaw · 11 months
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Hii! First off i just want to I'm such a big fan of your art and animatics! Your art is just so expressive and unique its addicting to look at 💞💞
I was wondering if you could go over how your process or tutorial in making an animatic? Whenever I try to start to make one, I get jumbled up and end up ditching it lol
I'm sorry if you get this question a lot 😭
So sorry it took me so long to answer this- I was in a Busy time (diseaseridden with covid and being punched by finals) when I got the ask and wanted to answer it with some stuff Im using for my next TOH animatic!!
I'll say one thing first: I get jumbled up and ditch so many animatics. For every one animatic I release, there are three to five more I have that have NEVER seen the light of day (yet). And that's okay!! It's fun just to make them for me, and I hope it is for you too!! Animatics are scary because if you're working on it alone, it can be really hard to be your own cheerleader to keep up the mojo to keep going. So that makes it really special when there is that project that makes it to the finish line- cuz you can look at it and go "holy crap I made this. holy crap i MADE that look how SICK that is dude!! all that work and look at the turnout!!"
The following stuffh is just my personal process and is by no means representative of a professional animation pipeline, but this works for me as a Lonely Artist! It all begins with the idea - whether it's a song, or just a story you wanna tell. In the case of the one I'm gonna demo here with , I wanted to animate Hunter's first day as Del's apprentice!
The first thing I did was write a script. Not fancy or AO3-quality, but enough that I understand the pacing and the visuals of each shot. I usually just put this in a doc or put it in a script format, if I feel fancy.
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Then, I take that script and find music that I think would fit for it- and remix it (if needed) to fit the pacing/mood/etc! This is what this new animatic looked like before I began ANY artwork- this is a me thing because I'm super inspired by audio as opposed to visuals first. But you might be different- this is just how I like working personally!
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Then begins the research! I find references for characters, background layouts, and create a style guide for the animatic that tells me how thick lines will be for characters, backgrounds, if there'll be tons of value or no. I make a turnaround for each character so I can refer to them because Im gonna be drawing them over and over a LOT and want to be consistent! Luckily TOH has no shortage of references, so I based my work off them.
THEN, I can begin drawing. I'm a little,,, (a lot) ADHD and may not always do this process, but if you're new to animatics or daunted by the task at hand, make beat boards of the entire project.
This is just a page of rough thumbnails that get your visual idea down - look how rough and quick these are!! I try not to spend over a minute on each beat board if I dont have to, unless it's a particularly complex shot.
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When it gets to the stage where you're ready to begin the actual scenes, I personally tend to do backgrounds first because I like to set characters into backgrounds - and for every animatic, I have the Awkward Blue Sketch Stage which is basically my beat boards timed out as an animatic.
I used Storyboard Pro for this (Toonboom, not free ): icky), but the process can be replicated across most art platforms in whichever way you feel most comfy with! This is so I can time the drawings before I devote time cleaning them up-- which can make for some Pretty Funny looking little guys but theyre important!! trust!!
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Once a big sequence of shots is cleaned up (I usually do 40-60 second chunks at a time), I export the .mov and send it to my editing program (which in this case is still Premiere Pro) - and then repeat this process again and again until.. it's done??
Here's like a TL;DR list of basically everything I said summed up:
• Make a loose script or bulletin of the idea! Do your research!
• Depending on what kind of animatic you're making, time it to music!
• Make a beat board of very loose gestures for your shots, and time them - then move on to refinement & cleanup!
• Combine all shots, refine music cues and timings, add any last needed VFX, and export!
There's no secret recipe or anything, it's just learning a pipeline that best suits you, whether it is for something professional or something you want to make for fun because you just love to make!!
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38sr · 4 months
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Hi! I love MAWS it’s so good!! It’s literally changed my mind on Superman as character bc he was never one of my favorite DC characters until now!
I have a story boarding question if you don’t mind!
What’s your process for starting to board a scene? Do you thumbnail out first? Do you look at reference?
I want to be a storyboard artist but it‘s daunting to start the actual boarding process because I don’t really know how to start? #industryQs
Hello hello!!! Aw, thank you so much for enjoying the show! Hopefully you and fans will also love the second season once it comes out~ Oh, my process for storyboarding. Well for reference, I've only worked on script-driven shows which means there are writers who write the scripts as opposed to board-driven shows where board artists are writing dialogue on top of doing the storyboards. So when I'm first given a script I (obviously) read it and ask a lot questions to my director (if possible the writer) for things that are for sure needed to be there. Usually this can be like "Hey, throughout the section a character is feeling this emotion" or "Make sure the screen direction is this because of this other element". For me, these are like tentpoles I place down and work within so that I'm giving what my director wants. But once I ask the questions and read the script way too many times, I make very bad thumbnail drawings on post-it notes haha. Normally if I get a good script, I can clearly see the images in my head and quickly put it down on paper (and it's not very good haha, it's more like this is the composition I want). Sometimes I don't see certain parts as clearly and I'll ask my director for feedback/advice and we work together to put it all on paper. Sometimes I do look at references if I'm stuck on a section or I really liked how a show did a shot and I wanna dissect that further. It's all very dependent on the episode in how much I look at references and how many questions I'll ask, but that's pretty much how I start. Even if it's for personal stuff that I'm not writing a script for I still just get the ideas down on paper first and ask my friends to roast me haha. It doesn't really matter if I make the most perfect drawings because if it doesn't work, if it doesn't flow well, if the visual storytelling isn't solid, then doing all that embellishment I did is wasted. That's why I always tell myself it doesn't need to be perfect, it just needs to work. After that, I go into doing actual roughs in Storyboard Pro and might change shots to enhance the shot flow or start adding character acting. But again, it's not clean or very good drawings. I draw mannequins and make sure the heights/proportions are right for composition reasons and get everything down so my director can edit my work and provide feedback. But yeah, a lot of my process in the beginning is getting the ideas down on paper first and making sure it works before embellishing it. It can be very easy to wanna make one beautiful shot and not distribute that energy equally across a whole sequence. I want the whole sequence to be good, not just that one shot. Once that's all said and done (meaning I've gotten my director's feedback and such), that's when I clean up and make the boards more presentable for the final pitch. For me, storyboarding is a marathon and matter of making a good shot flow rather than flashy boards. Get it down on paper, edit out what does and doesn't work (asking for feedback helps with this step), embellish once I have the foundation down. Not every board artist does this but this is pretty much my process haha. I hope that answered your question!
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xuune · 8 months
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what did you use to make the bkdk animatic? and well, how long did it take you to make it? it flows so well with the song. it’s,, so cute. my heart, the way baku looks at deku.
ty!! glad you enjoyed watching it and i'm happy that it successfully conveyed the romance between them :]
programs i used were clip studio paint, storyboard pro, and premiere pro. i don't know the exact hours spent, but i finished it roughly within a day. storyboarding didn't take as long since i had enough references for poses (i.e. photos of my hands) to help me get thru it. and also bc i wanted my boards to be clear, not clean. most tedious part was compositing/editing the audio and effects like the blur.
here's my whole process if you wanted to know the specifics:
did my initial thumbnails in clip studio paint since i work better getting main ideas down first. i expanded on a few thumbnails later on:
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then i used storyboard pro to draw the storyboards, added more panels in between the key moments, and did camera moves. i imported the song in the timeline to check for the timing i wanted:
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since the animatic was already timed within storyboard pro, i just needed to composite subtitles, audio effects, and the blur vfx in premiere pro. my timeline looked like this:
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for the audio transition from hearing it faintly thru their earphones to hearing it in clarity, i was inspired by this clip of baby driver. its a simple but neat audio transition of starting the song at a lower volume to raising it once you want to show BEING in the song with them rather than SEEING them listen to the song. originally, i was only gonna edit in the faint speaker/radio effect without transitioning into the volume raising + removing the radio effect, but watching it on playback made it feel very lackluster.
only minor tedious thing about adding blurs was just for this part since i had to mask around a specific area, rather than applying it on the entire thing like in the first scene with dk's vision blurring:
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but thats pretty much it. its a very basic animatic, so it wasn't that labor intensive :]
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galoogamelady · 1 year
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would you ever go more into the process of how you made your music videos? like... i saw your "what i use to animate" in the faqs, but i'm insanely interested in any behind the scenes commentary you might have on the whole production of that. do you have anything you care to share about it all? like if there were certain programs you had to learn for them, or certain programs you COULDN'T use for them? i'd love to hear it all!
I didn't learn any programs specifically for Mixed Messages. That one started out as a funny little project for my own entertainment - that's why the line quality was so sketch and shitty, especially in the original half that I posted by itself. Had I known it'll be an official vid, I would have definitely tried to keep it cleaner from the get-go! I started Red Flags with the intent of drawing every character in vector so that if I decide to animate anything else (or have time) I can do it without destroying quality.
I did have to learn to use ToonBoom Harmony for RF, and I wanted to for years so YAY! Obviously I'm no pro and I'm sure there were better ways of doing certain things but at least I have a grip on it now. I also used it a little for the dancing animation in MM, you can probably tell by the difference in line quality. I learned some Blender from @cameronaugust last year, but most of the 3D assets for RF were made by him. It's really useful to know at least basic hard surface modeling though!! Beside that, I almost always have to look up tutorials or plugins for certain effects I want to produce in AE. Particles, simulations, scripted stuff, etc.
Oh and I didn't make storyboards because TIME, I just put all my shitty storyboard doodles in an animatic from scratch. They look like trash and I changed at least 3 scenes entirely to save production time or make it more interesting.
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kicktwine · 1 year
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wanted to ask, could we get a look in to how you put together your animatics?? I've been toying with the idea of trying to make one of my own, but I've got no idea where to start
oh yeah totally
though to be fair, a HUGE chunk of my time is spent listening to about 20 seconds of a song and imagining how the images move around like a little movie, and I refine a ton of stuff in my head before starting to actually put scenes down on paper. This happens with non-music boarding too, imagining different versions of how the scenes line up with dialogue/music. So step one: put a song on repeat and daydream for at least two hours. But, if you aren’t sure how to do this, I’d suggest looking at animatics, MAP projects, AMVs, animated musicals, fight scenes, etc. what do they do that’s cool? Imitate them.
after that, I have most of the main images with some blank spots im not sure how to fill until I put them down. I make something like this and get the compositions of each main image looking more or less okay in this form. This is also the stage I figure out the in between blank spots. I try not to have weird camera moves or other storyboarding don’ts, but some storyboarding donts are completely valid to break if you know what you want aesthetically. As usual. This one was actually pretty clean, but check out all the framing edits. i always have to make the frame bigger
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If you really don’t know what goes in between things, don’t be afraid to focus on some little details of the scene, pull out and show us the setting, put some flowery symbolism on screen, give us some fun little comedic anime inserts, or do what cowboy standoffs do and build tension. What we used to do was draw paws stepping across the screen or eyes blinking, lol
next comes audio sync! I like to get the timing extant on copies of these rough thumbnails before moving on. It helps my brain work through smaller more animated movements + testing if the things I came up with for the blank spots work. and also just makes it happy. And also, most importantly, it tests if the compositions work. If you can see it, the whole sequence with mom was a blank spot until I sketched it. I usually do this step in roughanimator even if i don’t finish it in roughanimator. Keeps it very rough.
after this is just a lot of polishing and layers! For lots of small animatics, I just use roughanimator and leave it like that. It’s surprisingly good for a very basic program. But, for things that need tweens or lots of camera movement, I use toon boom harmony. It’s more powerful and is actually supposed to be used for animation, which. Yknow. I do. I tried storyboard pro, it wasn’t my favorite.
Here are some, I guess, miscellaneous more technical tips for making your animatics feel nice!
If you’re going for lots of movement, try out timing it so big movements or scene transitions line up with the spikes in the audio WAV. If it doesn’t feel right, move it a few frames BEFORE the spike/audio beat. Your brain usually wants to see something move barely before it hears it - this works for dialogue especially. BUT! Don’t feel like you have to do this for every beat. unless you want to feel like Wes Anderson, which you can do and I will not stop you.
If you’re going for something slower with not that much movement, try motion tweening! or adjusting something very slowly so we don’t linger on one still image for forever.
you don’t need crazy camera angles for everything, but put a few in there for spice. This all depends on your mood you want to cultivate. Slow = flatter, spacious, details; fast = lots of moves, weird angles, perspective; disorienting = slow/jerky weird angles etc etc. the camera has emotions built into it. Because the camera is you! surprise!
watch storyboarding tutorials. lots of people zoom in too much when they draw and I am not excluded. Also, keep in mind the eyesight rule. It’s hard for me to explain concisely but… you as the artist are always leading the viewers eye somewhere, with every shot you make. Don’t make them dizzy by having the center of attention jump around to six different spots for six shots straight - if you find yourself unhappy with a sequence, especially a fast one, see if your line of sight is going all over the place and try moving the subject of a shot or two somewhere else or having them move/gesture towards the new shot’s focal point so the viewers eye moves there naturally. I’m actually not great at doing this when words/lyrics are involved, pmv makers have my respect.
contrast is your friend. If you want to emphasize a big fast move or big bright image, put little slow moves or simple images right before/after it. and vice versa! this counts for camera too!
easy camera shakes are just 3-4 frames of cam down/up/down less/up less, a blank tween or two (easing back into normal), and then a key for your desired normal camera location. Or left/right, whichever.
your brain needs about six frames to fully register an object as being an object. If you want someone to see and really See it, rather than just get a glimpse of it and go "What was that!" It needs more than six frames.
don’t be afraid to experiment!!!!!! And don’t get overwhelmed! Everything I just described I MOSTLY do off instinct, which you’ll get a sense for after you make one. Or like…. Ten. Does it feel good in your heart? Then that’s what’s important. Find an idea you want to make move, figure out your limits (programs, attention span, drawing capability, make sure not to commit to a minute long amv if you dont KNOW you wanna do a minute long amv), and plan around that. When I was A Child, people on youtube were just making like three amvs per second and cringe hadn’t been invented yet so they were all mostly untrained unpolished and so so important and based to me. Stop thinking so hard about it. You gotta get that animatic out there into the world or it’ll start fermenting in your brain and make you sick. So what if it doesn’t turn out exactly the way you imagined it? You’ll have another idea tomorrow. And if it matters that much, you can always do it again. Go make! Good luck!
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spacedlexi · 6 months
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Tag 9 People You Want to Get to Know Better!
i dont usually do tag games but i'll take any excuse to have a reason to post wips lmao tagged by @foibles-fables
Favorite color: pink and purple baybee!! (my original fave colors ive come back to you im sorry i ever left...) green yellow and red are also nice (sorry i love colors)
Currently reading: nothing 😭 i keep trying to read books but i cant do it anymore the internet has brain broken me my attention span is non existent. tried rereading and then there were none last. couldnt find my murder on the orient express (i love mysteries)
Last song: shes not there - neko case
Last series: the walking dead but i had to give up i cant do it anymore 💀the games are better than the show im saying it. i got to S10E7 but i just cant go back i wont. currently mentally preparing myself to watch utena for the first time
Last movie: the lost boys :) its halloween time. been meaning to watch bound tho ive had the link up for a couple weeks now
Sweet/savory/spicy: savory > sweet > spicy honestly just depends on my mood. i like sour more than any of these tho wheres sour and salty >:( i eat lemons for fun
Currently working on: SOOOOO MUCH ALWAYS HELP ME heres just a small selection of my wips from the past month or so. i already want to re-draw half of them. dont be like me 😭
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half of those notes are board scripts (other half comics) and that doesnt even include my unfinished fic (that ive been writing on the train i promise!!!!). started boarding the tower but we're about to learn storyboard pro in class so im gonna use it to help me get used to the program (no way i'll finish in time for clems bday 😔)
No-pressure tags: calling any and all mutuals who would like to play a little game feel free to say i tagged you :)
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catnippackets · 1 year
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Hi! I had a question about being a storyboarder; do you think one needs to go to school to become one or is it possible to get into the industry even if you’re just self taught?
it is entirely possible to teach yourself any form of art. it's always easier with someone actively teaching you, and in a space where you have most of your time entirely dedicated to learning, but it isn't required for you to learn the skill. now more than ever there's so many tutorials and advice you can find online and if you put in the time and effort of course you can teach yourself! it'll be hard to do but it's not impossible at all. study the way your favourite movies compose shots, look at tutorials people have put on youtube, and get crankin!! I couldn't recommend any specific storyboarding software unfortunately bc I couldn't find any free or affordable programs that I personally vibed with (I use storyboard pro bc that's what most studios use but it's criminally expensive), but you don't really need a fancy program, just your standard drawing software will work. the job used to fully be done on paper after all so you don't need to get TOO fancy with it. storyboards and animation are NOT the same thing, so if any place tells you that your boards should be smooth enough that it looks like they're animated, you're being overworked and shouldn't work there lol
that being said, actually getting into the industry might be tricky if you don't have the connections you'll get by going to school. the sucky thing abt jobs is that so much of it is built on networking and knowing people you can email, so sometimes (SOMETIMES) the most likely way you'll find new gigs is by reaching out to your former coworkers or bosses and asking if they know of any opportunities and if they could recommend you. it's not impossible though!! make sure you have a nice portfolio that's varied but still geared towards the kind of work you wanna do (ie if you don't want to work on a show about cars but you still want people to know you can draw cars then maybe don't put a lot of cars in your portfolio) and you'll still have a good chance of finding something. I definitely know people who didn't have any formal training who ended up getting industry jobs and still have a great career going to this day! all this is to say don't be discouraged if it's hard for you to find work at first, because it's not gonna be bc your portfolio isn't good enough. just that you're out of the networking loop so it'll be a bit harder.
good luck, and I believe in you!!
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hackedmotionsensors · 4 months
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I've been crying over this freelance project for the past hour bc I'm so stressed about it and I was supposed to be done last week but they kept me on bc they wanted more from the scene but I don't even know if I'm getting paid for the extra time and they split my earlier pay in half bc they also rushed up the deadline and now its 8p and Im so burnt out on this project and I'm going through the notes and I keep getting more and more scenes added to this and its so technically a difficult thing to draw bc they also made me work on this in photoshop instead of storyboard pro so I can't change things easily with vectors or transfer panels over normally I have to create whole new groups and its getting really overwhelming bc I have to finish merch work or it won't get sent out to the manus in time and I haven't even started holiday stuff for my family
My dad had eye surgery today and it slipped my mind because of this and I'm just.....I've never felt like I wanted to quit doing professional art so much. I also don't know what this project is FOR and
I'll probably delete this later for safety so please don't reblog this I just need to vent so I can stop crying. I don't know who to talk to professionally bc I don't want to bother anyone and I'm also at the point where I think ~I'M~ the probelm because I can't get this done.
Like I don't know when I'll get paid if this keeps getting pushed back and I was counting on the rest of the pay to pay my student loans but if this goes on even longer I won't have moeny for that LET ALONE christmas stuff or even getting stuff shipped to manu or paying my credit card and other bills like......
I hate this so much I feel like shit.
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inkforhumanhands · 4 months
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What do you use to make your comic edits? I really like them!! And is there like a process you follow? Like do you storyboard the rough idea first? Sorry if you've answered this somewhere before
Ohhhh man this is going to have to go under a cut due to pictures. Luckily whenever I make an edit I tend to DM my friend process pics while screaming about how horrible they look and how I can't figure out how to fix them. 💀 So some of the record exists!
I use a mix of three different programs. To be honest even though it's free, Photopea.com is my go-to for most functions, especially since they have a large pool of fonts to choose from which means I don't have to go into the font mines and download 500 different ones just to see what's going to look best. I also use Paint Shop Pro, which is the program I learned how to make edits (icons, back in the day) on when I was like 14. I have a newer version now since I finally had to retire the 15-year-old one on my broken laptop, and I still don't really know my way around it that well. It's not the most user-friendly software, but it is a lot better than Photopea at resizing images to make them larger. I also use Clip Studio Paint whenever I need to draw anything for an edit.
When I need resources, I often use dafont.com for fonts. I have a bunch of texture packs from various places on the internet, but my go-to nowadays for new stuff is pexels.com where you can get stuff with a royalty-free license. I also occasionally use my own photos for textures (took a bunch of wall photos in Italy- my dad thought I'd lost my mind). I don't use brushes all that often but there are other free resource spots.
As for process, I usually start with comic panels that I like visually and cut out the characters, then figure out what I want to do with them. For Kill Krew, I knew I wanted to use a bunch of the tiny Foggies, but I didn't know that I wanted to make it a story per se until I finished the first section of the edit where Foggy's holding a bunch of papers and I decided to make it kind of like he was authoring his own memoir. Then I just followed the events in the comic. For my volume 5 edits I did have more of an idea for the story I wanted to tell from the start and looked for comic panels that would fit it. (By the way: never forgiving the volume 5 editors for allowing so many different artists. It pained me to have to use a couple different artists in one edit.)
Anyway though kind of like when I'm writing fic, I just start with pretty much a blank canvas, plop the characters on, and hope they arrange themselves into something that looks cool. This is a very early draft of one of them next to a slightly more advanced draft:
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A lot of the work honestly goes into choosing the background and marrying it to other elements such as the text and the cutouts. I use a lot of rectangles for this, as you can see in this Kill Krew one next to a near-final draft below. This is also the phase where elements get resized, whether for story-telling reasons or design reasons.
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I also fool around a lot with layers and coloring. An unexpected layering choice can totally make or break an edit. See the original comic coloring (left) versus my coloring change (right):
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Or this original panel (left) versus a combination of a picture of a starry sky and a coloring layer (right):
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Font is also hugely important to me. I try to find ones that fit thematically AND also look great on the image. Like bad coloring or a bad background, an ugly font can also kill an edit. Choose wisely lmao.
Another thing to watch out for in an edit that's multiple images is to make sure they all look nice together and like they're part of one set. I find this probably the hardest, since different source images (comic panels in this case) often have different coloring requirements, but you want the colors to mesh well between different images. It's tough! And if you make extremely long edits like I do occasionally it's hard to even see what they look like together. Sometimes when I'm looking at them stacked in Photopea it looks like a tiny, tiny photostrip and I have to figure out what's working and what isn't. It's tough out there!
Anyway I think that's all I got! Hope that gave you some insight lol I'm glad I had these process pics because I usually just kind of go into a fugue state while making them and come out covered in blood!
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alkalinefrog · 2 years
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Wow!! Your fanwork on OTNWAS is incredible! If I wasn’t mistaken, your storyboards look like you were making the story into a movie adaptation!
If you don’t mind me asking, how do you create your backgrounds? I noticed in your version of Hiccup catching Jack and Jamie stowaway-ing there was a very careful (and wonderful!) use of perspective and dimension. Is it just purely perspective lining or some use of 3-D modeling for reference?
I’m going on about this whoops… I guess what I’m asking is how do you like to make your backgrounds?
Ahhh thank you so much!! Dude, if I could board the entire fic to feature film level I would!
It's just perspective lining in Storyboard Pro! Basically, think of how you draw the backgrounds as how you indicate where you've placed your camera. A lot of drawing programs now have an auto-perspective feature, so I pick the type (1-point, 2-point, 3-point, etc), set my vanishing points and off we go! Here’s a screenshot from my OTNWAS boards with the perspective guide turned on:
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This shot could have been put into 1-point, but I chose 2-point to give it more depth--- as if we were using a wider-lens camera. I didn’t want the perspective to be too drastic though, so here’s where I put the second vanishing point.
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The way the horizontal lines seem to bend towards the second point is subtle a difference but I find it really adds to the feeling of a real space.
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Then I use the same guide to track the size comps of all the characters.
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(I cheated Jack’s height here though, he should be shorter than Hiccup. Too late to fix now lol)
Things get super interesting once you go into 3-point and do birds-eye/worms-eye views, but that’s a topic for another day.
I typically just draw everything in 2D instead of bothering with CG models unless I'm already given an asset to play with (if I gotta model my own then nahhhhh)
Remember that your background isn’t just a flat landscape to slap behind your characters--- it should feel like the characters are inhabiting the space! (eg: Vikings sitting there rowing, and Jack and Jamie were previously hiding behind those crates in an earlier shot).
Hope this helps!
-Alka
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A Secret Leak: Storyboards, Scripts, and Spirits.
There were pros and cons to working on 'the Joey Doodles Hobby' at her workplace; nobody suspected that the book and story boards inside the book were anything unusual or extraordinary, she could work in peace in a place that was comfortable and was easy for her to get information on the past workers in Joey Drew Studios. And the people who noticed her side-projects might have pointed out that a few story boards were a little dark for a family show while others didn't make sense, but Audrey was quick to explain away that they were just concepts put on paper, nothing too big or serious.
The cons? It was easy to mix up "Ink Studio" work with "Archgate Studio" work. While the information on Joey Drew Studios workers itself was easy to find, there was still very little surviving information on the people (aside from Joey himself) at Archgate so there wasn't a lot she could use for them. And while many dismissed what Audrey was doing as just a hobby, unfortunately, some people also got interested in said hobby.
"The little devil looks pretty good in that suit," Audrey froze like a deer in headlights when she heard the Art Director's voice behind her. "What special occasion is that for?"
"O-oh nothing!" she closed the sketchbook "I'm just practicing drawing pinstripe clothes and figured he'd look cute in them..."
"Fair enough, he'd look adorable in anything!" the Director chuckled. "But Audrey, there's something I want to talk to you about regarding other things you've drawn that I've been told about... the unsettling things that... bear a striking resemblance to what was found in the storyboards that were uncovered from Joey Drew's home."
"I guess I've found his concepts fascinating to think about." She shrugged. "They might be a lot gorier than what Bendy's known for, but it's not like it comes out of nowhere. Alice's temper can get the better of her, so her going too far isn't out of the realm of possibilities Bendy might be a timid demon who only pulls small pranks in the show, but he's still a demon at the end of the day, he can be capable of a lot more than what meets the eye."
The Director raised an eyebrow.
"I mean, obviously I don't recommend broadcasting this to the public, but taking his final works and expanding on them in private would've been something he liked to see..."
"...And it's in the same vein as Archgate Pictures itself being a labor of love made in his memory?"
"Yes! Exactly!"
"Fascinating, I'll go talk with Mr. Arch about that and see how he feels, who knows, maybe we can use one or two of those ideas in a Halloween special if we tone them down."
"He does love a good Halloween episode." Audrey nodded in agreement.
"And I'll go ask our animator Wilson to see if he can work his magic. He might not be the most talkative or social person, but he has a real knack for subtly uncanny features as well as detailed designs. They might not work the best with that sailor boy character he's trying to push, but maybe he can help with designing a one-off villain."
"Greeaaat..."
Audrey held onto a fake smile while cursing under her breath. She can't believe she forgot about Wilson! She was so caught up trying to handle the balancing acts of work, the Ink Studio, and trying to help Bendy adjust to the real world that the lying, creepy, son of a gun who sent her to the studio in the first place and wanted to murder her to bring his stupid sailor boy to life was just an afterthought!
How does she explain what happened to him without sounding like she completely lost her mind? That he was dead? That he died in the ink world and his body would most likely never be found? Worse yet, what if he didn't die? Or rather, he didn't stay dead..?
"Mind if I borrow your sketchbook?"
"Yes, I do mind, there's still a lot of stuff that hasn't been finished yet." She hid the book behind her back and took a small step back. "Maybe later."
"I see, well I hope we get to talk about this more often. There's some interesting ideas in there."
"Only time can tell. Now if you excuse me, I really need to... ...go grab some lunch! I was planning on meeting someone for it and I really can't miss it."
"...It's five o'clock."
"Better late than never!" She chuckled while heading for the door. "It's a... very long lunch."
Not caring whether the Art Director believed her or not anymore, she went to clock out. Breathing a sigh of relief when she was alone yet taking a glance behind her just in case she wasn't being followed.
"Audrey...."
She flinched and her blood ran cold when she heard him. Turning back to the machine to check out quicker, she was mentally making a plan on what to do; She was no stranger to ghosts in the studio, but they were pretty much harmless for the most part, only scaring people if they bugged them. But Wilson? Wilson was a different case. Oh the stupid machine! Why won't it work?!
"Auuuudreeeeey...."
He wasn't an unlucky lingering specter who stuck around because he had nowhere else to go, he wanted her soul, that was the last thing he wanted in life. It wasn't too far of a stretch to assume that in the afterlife, he'd want her dead. She didn't know how close he was to her right now, what he was capable of as a member of the undead who had been fused with magic ink, or even what he looked like now... Yes! Finally, the damn thing let her clock out! Now she can leave-
"Auuuuuuuuuudreeeeeeeeeey...."
The voice was right behind her now! She could practically feel his breath on her ears!
She felt an ice-cold, four fingered hand on her shoulder and smacked it off while turning to face what Wilson had become-
-Which was a cartoon version of himself but with a halo over his head, most likely to indicate that he is in fact dead as he is the LAST PERSON who deserved to go to heaven. His missing eye wasn't even ominous, it looked more like somebody forgot to draw it on him. He wasn't even an uncanny mesh of human and toonish features like his Wilson-esc form was.
That was... a *lot* less intimidating than she expected. She would've burst out loud laughing if she didn't know what he was capable of. Her mental image of what he was turned into was that of a mangled corpse with globs of ink instead of guts or blood.
"Okay then." She stated without a hint of fear in her voice. "I'm just gonna go now. I have errands to run, see you on Monday unless others can see you like that."
The cartoon man's expression soured as he watched her go from scared to an unreadable (yet obviously not scared expression) just carrying on like nothing happened.
"...My dear, you do realize that I am going to kill you, right?"
"No, you're going to try to kill me." Audrey corrected while heading to her desk to get her stuff, not caring if Wilson followed her or not. "There's a big difference."
"And what makes you so sure I won't succeed...?"
"Past experience, you don't have your Keepers, the Ink Machine's nowhere in the studio..." she listed off. "And Bendy-"
"Wait! What did you say about the Ink Machine?!"
"According to Nathan, it was taken in by the GENT company for repairs."
"...And did he get a deadline for when he'd get it back?"
"Not to my knowledge."
"That stupid old man..." Wilson shook his head as he cursed under his breath. "Doesn't he know any better?!"
"If he knows what it can do, then he wouldn't want it to break when he doesn't know how to fix it. And if he doesn't know what it can do, then it's still important to him and he wants it maintained." She shrugged as she double checked her bag. "If something you put in a museum broke, where would you send it if you wanted to get it fixed?"
The toon opened his mouth to retort but shut it as he couldn't think of a proper comeback.
"Now if you excuse me, I have a train to catch..." Audrey took her bag and left the office, leaving the toon man to stew in his bitterness.
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38sr · 2 years
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What do you think are some absolutely necessary skills/knowledge those hoping to work in the animation industry should have?
Oh absolutely necessary skills...hmmmmm...... I think it's very obvious that the hard skills are definite (ie, fundamental/foundation drawing skills). But something I think a lot of artists who want to work in animation should learn....I'll say softish (?)skills.
Everything I list below are things I wished I learned beforehand (or I did learn and it was immense help for me in the long run).
• Time management: Besides foundation drawing skills, time management is the one thing I will always suggest young emerging artists to develop as soon as possible. Planners, bulletin journals, white boards, Google calendar, use whatever fits you to manage your time in order to get work done (and also to make sure you are resting properly). I have a planner that has hour intervals where I block out chunks of time for multiple tasks in a day (ie. from 8AM-9AM I Breakfast, 10AM-12AM Clean up boards for Seq 12). I know that sounds insane but it works for me haha. I also make it a point to do daily/weekly quotas so that I'm not trying to overwhelm myself to finish all the work in one day. Pace yourself accordingly and make sure to treat yourself when you reach stretch goals.
• Learn the software used by industry professionals: I feel like this is self-explanatory but I had no idea that Storyboard Pro existed until after college haha. So the sooner you can learn the industry standard programs, the more of an advantage you have when you start applying for jobs. • Communication: I will admit this was hard for me to get comfortable with (hell even now I still struggle a bit) but learning how to communicate your needs and questions to your coworkers, teammates, director, etc. It's okay to ask questions. It's okay to ask for help. I know that artists tend to be introverted and it's hard to approach others when you don't want to be a bother. But I learned that it's so much easy to communicate with others when you need help or don't understand something instead of trying to figure it yourself (and you might get it wrong by doing that).
• Taking breaks: Yes! Taking breaks and knowing when to rest is important to learn! Take it from me, a person who draws almost everyday and needs to stop to take a break. It's okay to touch grass, hang out with friends, and take a breather. Those are the moments that can help refuel creative energy for your work, personal projects, etc.
• Critique/Feedback: This is more so about receiving critique about your work (which will happen a lot when you work in animation). It took me a while to learn that being critiqued or told something doesn't work wasn't a personal attack on me (or my skills as an artist). It might not just work for the bigger picture and will require change. Especially as a board artist, it's more about throwing multiple ideas at the wall and seeing what sticks best. Not all your ideas will make it through, and that's okay. That doesn't mean you're a bad artist.
• Being uniquely and unapologetically you: I know this one sounds a bit chessy/cliche (or really a skill) but this is something I really wish I did sooner when I was in school haha. I spent most of my artistic journey being told what I should be doing, what should be making, what kind of artist I should be and just....it made me unhappy. It wasn't until after I graduated from college that I realized it's okay to make art that makes me happy (and also that there are people who also enjoy the art that makes me happy). I hope that was helpful and answered your question!
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floralcrematorium · 4 months
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I always find character playlists and character theme songs.so interesting, mostly cause I want to compare them. Like, how does the song pave the difference between how we see the character.
!!!! Yes it's so much fun to see how people interpret things differently and Apply
I know in my case... I mean I listen to music wrong (i.e. lyrics are the last thing that matter to me because i value melody, the quality of the vocals, the integration of the vocals with the melody, the general vibe, and then the meaning of the lyrics)
BUT ANYWAY
I've really enjoyed making my character playlists even though the way I perceive Hetalia characters is always changing because I like to associate music to things I like. I mean, RWBY is my favorite show for a reason (so... many... songs...). I like to imagine illustrations I could make or potential animatics that'll never happen because I no longer have storyboard pro and wasn't... great at boarding to begin with.
I think the ultimate reason that I like to collect songs that remind me of characters is nostalgia? A lot of my current music tastes stem from the music I was introduced to age ~13/14 watching "Hetalia Character Theme Song" videos with iMovie level editing of stolen fanart on the screen. I would loop those videos while I played minecraft, so some songs are just integrated into my brain with certain characters, even if I don't think they necessarily fit anymore
Anyway all that nonsense to say, I like to see the different draws people can get from the same song or the same character. No France, no China, or no Norway playlist are ever the same
When I make my playlists, I have either a certain genre or thematic words that help guide my thoughts on what song to put on the playlist. Some examples:
• Ukraine, I think my guiding words were "prairie," "strength/edge," "eldest daughter syndrome," "feminine rage," "hope," and "vulnerability."
• Poland it was "2000's girliepop (sparkle emoji)," "strength," "energy," and for some reason "surprise" comes to mind.
• Romano my words were "indifference," "pretty," "bold," "misunderstood," "underestimated," and probably "hope" as well.
• Norway was the first one I did and so they were more focused on setting rather than characterization, but I'm still happy with the playlist. We've got "mist," "forest," "ocean," and "quiet."
Strength and resilience are common themes. A lot of the genres are intertwined because I am... forever going to be stuck in my pop punk niche.
There are some characters whose playlists I'm not sure I'll ever be able to finish either because I don't have a good grip on their character in my head (Estonia; I do have a playlist for him, but it's all like... songs adjacent to Buddy Holly by Weezer and I don't want to do him or Estonia fans dirty like that) or my music taste just doesn't align with the character (Liechtenstein and N.Italy, though I forced myself to finish Veneziano because I want to try and get the main 8 + Canada done).
Sorry I kinda rambled!!!
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qugre · 9 months
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Hey just wanted to shout out how much I love RUNAWAY! Your sense of movement is so great and I wanna know more about this lil world ngl. Still watch it once and awhile for inspo. Love your other character designs too! Have a great one!
aw... hahah, thanks so much..! i was thinking about it again just yesterday, I'm still pretty happy with how it turned out.. idunno if my student license for storyboard pro still works, but if it does maybe i'll adjust some of the timing near the end, cuz i feel like it's a bit fast..
either way i'm glad you liked it! i kinda wish i coulda posted the whole thing on twitter just as a video, but it's too long without blue and i am noooot buyin that.. sighh.. i feel like not many people ended up checking it out cuz it doesn't embed properly on mobile twitter and a proper twitter video woulda looked nicer.. ahh well
either way i had a lotta fun drawing and actually sorta animating for once, it's something i'd like to try again when i get the brain energy to.. we'll see!
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