A Note on Using Reference

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Maybe most of you can relate to this story:
         5th grade, and all your classmates know you are the kid that can 'draw'. You have a little sketch book of drawings of Pokemon and other random things you think are cool. You take pride in your drawings and you kinda let yourself feel like: "hell yea, you know what? I CAN draw" Then one day you are put on the spot, someone asks you if you can draw them a Tiger. You try to say you don't draw in front of people but everyone crowds around because they want to see how you draw a tiger. So you try to draw a tiger and the damn drawing ends up looking like freakin kitty cat.

          Why is it that when you are at home laying stomach down and you have a ripped page from a magazine to look at and copy from, you can draw anything! But when you try to draw from your mind and have nothing for reference all your drawing skills disappear?

WHY?
          Well in my opinion: When one hasn't developed a photographic memory, their mind usually defaults to cliches and generic drawing solutions. While developing as artist, free style drawing is usually their weakest area. People like drawings that breath life and remind them of the real thing. Even if the drawing isn't perfectly photo-realistic, if it has enough detail from your reference, people will accept it. This is probably why life/figure drawings or copied drawings usually get a lot of wow's, ooo's, and Ah's. They were drawn from life/something real and they have details in them that regular people wouldn't think of including into a drawing. Even caricatures and portraits are specific enough where the viewer accepts the drawing enough where they start to invent personalities and feelings to associate with the image.

         Every artist uses reference in one way or another. Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Norman Rockwell and even Disney artists! They all use reference. (they actually used live models, they would sketch them and then use their sketches as reference while working on their final painting) But using reference doesn't mean 'to copy', reference is to be used as a starting point and it should always be improved upon.

IMPROVE UPON?
           Here are a few images from the 1950's I found on the internet. You will see the reference in black and white and the finished painting on the right. You can see the photo the artist used for their foundation and if you study it closely you can see the specific changes the artist made in the final piece of art. Use this chance to test your observational skills and see how many changes you can spot between the reference and the final painting. If you want a greater challenge: Try to figure out WHY the artist made each change.

ARMS: The artist chose to switch the girls arms so that the other one held up the sheet.

LEGS: are more vertical up and down than in the photo. Forces the legs to line up with the vertical arm above them. which makes a line that leads you to the face of the girl. And the face in turn, leads your gaze to the mirror. You might think I'm over thinking it but these are just some of the elements that make a drawing stand out from the rest.

LEANING towards the mirror rather than away. 

EYES: in the reflection her eyes were changed to look down to bring focus on the tan line.

MIRROR: shape is changed. A square is too masculine! A circle is a much more 'softer' shape to compliment the female.

HEAD:Turning the head screen right forces a twist in the body/neck that is visually more interesting than having all the main body parts orientated in the same direction.

LEGS: Are tucked in to simplify the silhouette 

ARMS: Are changed so that the object's silhouette do not compete with the woman's silhouette. The box top is brought in closer to the body.
PILLOW: It's a better decision to tuck it in behind her so that she 'leans forward' more towards the viewer 

Very little difference here

         Sometimes the artist will really like their reference and literally copy it. *GASP* ...and it's not a bad thing! *DOUBLE GASP* Your audience will never see your reference so all they know is that these drawings/paintings have come straight out from your imagination. It might feel like cheating but it's not. When all is said and done it is still your work and your decisions that we see. Keep in mind this is not the right and only way to use reference. I urge you to find your own (but similar) process for using reference. Stay away from stiff character designs and generic poses!! 

Self Education

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More on Self education in my WORKSHOPS tab ^^        

I've always been about making education if not affordable, well at least free. "But Danny now you are teaching for a hefty price... what gives?"

         -Yes, I thought about that and that's why I'm writing this post. There's a lot of people out there who can't afford colleges, animations schools or workshops. They lose hope and don't know Self teaching is an option. It's hard but IT IS POSSIBLE. I came across many students trying to teach themselves how to animate as I did research on this topic. Some had the self taught route under control and knew what they were doing. I'm passing along what I found so that it may be a guide to those who want to become animators but are lost because they can not afford higher education.  

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       Personally I can relate to the self-taught route because growing up all I did was study on my own and teach myself to draw. Even though teaching yourself how to animate and teaching yourself how to draw are very different, they share a lot of the same hurdles and issues. Self Education is not easier than going to college, in fact it is harder because you are doing this on your own with no teachers or mentors. Many people try to go the self taught route and fail (True Story)

IT TAKES TIME

       - Yourself is not a walk in the park, teach at your own pace, smooth merry go round full of fun. It's as much work as a full time job. The amount of effort you put into your self education is equal to the results you should expect to receive from it. If you spend 5 hours a week self teaching while there are students in colleges spending 6 hour days, 5 days a week taking classes, what do you think your chances are when it's time to hire you or them? 

IS YOUR DRIVE BOTTOMLESS

       -You have to want your goal really bad, but your WANT can not be more than what you are physically willing to do. Example: You want to be an animator but you didn't realize it was so tedious to create animation. You must have patience and foresight to keep the light at the end of the tunnel with in reach. 

REALIZE YOU ARE NOT A PRODIGY

        -Surround yourself with people who do better than you, work harder than you and want their dreams just as bad, they just might rub off on you in a good way

We aren't all just destined for greatness - it takes hard work to get there!

Here are some Idea's I compiled from online sources of things to do for experience:

1. Make your own animated film, even if you have no budget. It doesn't matter if it's very bad,  stop motion with Lego figures, or an experiment with Post it notes. Making a film will show you exactly how much work goes into everything and help develop perspective and respect for the business. (though making a film should not count as practicing working on your skills - PRACTICE ROUTINE)
2. Watch a lot of movies, take notes, and listen to the director commentary tracks. The commentary can be a gold mine of information on why directors made the choices they made, the challenges they faced, etc. Sometimes they'll call out things you never even noticed.
3. Learn a lot about story structure, and what makes something engaging, entertaining, satisfying. Here are book I found people mention
   • Invisible Ink and The Golden Theme by Brian McDonald
   • Save the Cat by Blake Snyder
   • Francis Glebas' blog (especially his "Ride the Dragon" story structure)
   • The Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell
4. Once you've figured out story, then learn about Visual storytelling. It's is an awesome tool for your 'mental toolbox'. In any film, but especially animation, you want to say as much as possible with the visuals, and use as few shots as possible to get it across. Watch really good movies, do sketches of the key moment in each shot or a whole scene and take note of all the different shots there are, and put them together in a reverse-engineered storyboard, so you can see how they were constructed and why the director and story artists made those decisions. There are a few books that have been recommended to me on this subject, but that I have yet to read:
   • The Visual Story: Creating the Visual Structure of Film, TV and Digital Media by Bruce Block
   • Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative by Will Eisner
   • Prepare to Board! Creating Story and Characters for Animated Features and Shorts by Nancy Beiman
   • DREAM WORLDS - Hans Bacher
   There are also plenty of video tutorials on Vimeo and YouTube, if you search for them. One great video lecture I read that was recommended Sherm Cohen on Vimeo, about the 7 Hidden Patterns of Successful Storyboards.
5. Take a look and see if there are any workshops, classes, or other resources you can tap into to help inform and build your knowledge to create your own curriculum. Skillshare is popular, and it's very affordable as well. there are courses from Sarah Zucker that teach a bit about story structure with the added benefit of valuable feedback from peers. The course was Screenwriting: Writing the 10-minute Short. Daniel Gonzales, an animator at Disney, is also teaching a course called Constructing a Story: Advanced Visual Storytelling, and his lectures have been invaluable from the visual storytelling perspective. Another resource that you may be very interested in is a new book by Tony Bancroft, who directed Mulan. The book is Directing for Animation: Everything You Didn't Learn in Art School.
6. Learn how to make decisions. There is an interview once with Brad Bird, where he compared being a director to being one of the grasshoppers who get pummeled with seeds in that scene from A Bug's Life, when Hopper makes a point to his gang. The seeds are questions, and as a director, you are buried in them every day - you have more than you can possibly ever answer. But as director, you can never say "I don't know..." you always have to know, because you are the #1 decision maker, and there is no one else for you to go to. So figure out how to look like you know what you're doing, so your crew can trust that they can come to you and get an answer.
7. Aim to make your work compete with the quality of the work of someone who has a job you want! Aim high and never settle
8. LEARN FROM ALL ARTS: straight from Lips of Brad Bird (Director of the 'Incredibles')

        So those are some things to do. I know the reality right now is that you'd love to go to a school and have a mentor, work with peers, and get all the benefits that a study course would offer... but you can't. I hope this post is a little beacon that gives you a little more guidance than you'd have other wise if you are thinking about taking this scary journey on your own. 

Why is it great to be an animator. Here is Steven Spielberg saying why