Polygons and whatnot (mostly polygons)

[Morin0]

Do people who have an education on human anatomy tend to have an easier time transitioning to more cartoon human anatomy (e.g., anime)?

 

[Chronodiver Lokii]

Yes
You need to know the basics of anatomy before you can distort it correctly

 

[PsychoIncarnate]

I've tried to study human anatomy on my own. I got fairly good with men.

I did ONE good picture of a woman, but never before or after

 

[choknater]

just get really good at figure drawing and u can do anything

 

[Geist]

Okay

Here's my stuff.


How do i make faces

Spoiler

Guidelines are definitely your friend.
These have been posted, but I'll post them again for double emphasis.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EPNYWeEf1U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4ZLkyTuX_w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS6R2l8t8wo

Spoiler

triple emphasis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EPNYWeEf1U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4ZLkyTuX_w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS6R2l8t8wo

Mirroring your canvas or flipping it upside down can help a lot in pointing out mistakes that you didn't catch before. It's an easy and extremely useful trick to help make your faces in more accurate perspective.

just get really good at figure drawing and u can do anything

This. After 2 years of life drawing I developed the ability to fly

 

[Chronodiver Lokii]

Rule one of AE is listen to Bren and Neon cuz they are always right

 

[PsychoIncarnate]

I don't like drawing humans.

Is there any drawing guides for sheep heads?

 

[global-wolf]

Just draw more animal things and you'll get better at all of them :]

 

[PsychoIncarnate]

I really wish I could go to a college that offered a drawing class. The drawing teachers here are makeshift and just thrown into the position because the course required a drawing class

 

[Morin0]

I took an art class and the professor assigned a sketchbook and he told us what to draw for every page. Redundant much? He once told us to draw a gay performer. What? The professor was really ****ty, imo, so I think I should've researched the professor before signing up for the class now that I think of it. XD

 

[Oneupsalesman]

^Ew, that's just...ugh.

I had an art class when I was younger, in which one day, when we had a substitute teacher, we had to to pop-art, which, apparently, meant we needed to do cans of soup because some pop-artist did that.

I asked if we could, basically, be a bit more creative with it, and it was acted like we had to try and get it as exactly like the can we had as possible.

So I rebelled and drew a hand coming out of the top.

In my opinion, art class deserves freedom. Of course, it's necessary to provide a certain amount of instruction, but not where you don't allow any d such, but don't tell the students EXACTLY what to draw.

Art IS creativity.

 

[z00ted]

yeah, man!!!!!!!!!

 

[Chronodiver Lokii]

For the sketchbook thing, that's far from redundant - that's a great exercise. It forces you to draw and improve, even when you don't feel like drawing. A few of our intro teachers at Aip assign stuff like that and it's so cool to see the progressions people make

Yes, art is about creativity and freedom, but when you make a job out of it, it's also about structure, deadlines, and being efficient, even if it means sacrificing your own ideals or working through art blocks.

 

[choknater]

wacom cintiq 22hd ORDERED

should be coming in two weeks

i had 1700 saved up but my mother said she'd cover the rest

how nice

 

[Morin0]

For the sketchbook thing, that's far from redundant - that's a great exercise. It forces you to draw and improve, even when you don't feel like drawing. A few of our intro teachers at Aip assign stuff like that and it's so cool to see the progressions people make

Yes, art is about creativity and freedom, but when you make a job out of it, it's also about structure, deadlines, and being efficient, even if it means sacrificing your own ideals or working through art blocks.

Well, why not make it into suggested subjects? I don't know. At least for me, I can think of a lot to sketch. If I run out of ideas, I can always fall back on the suggested sketch ideas. I don't really like that we're forced to sketch a specific thing because then that's not sketching. I see your point, though. I'm not really one to talk either because I'm incredibly lazy when it comes to drawing.

 

[Chronodiver Lokii]

Haha I know that feel
I'm a total bum, but manage to find effort for projects

That's just how art classes go xD gotta draw stuff you don't wanna draw. Helps ya in the long run

 

[Geist]

yo people
starting my (final?) semester up wednesdaaayyy awww yeah
I also might be getting my stuff animated by my buddy who just graduated while I was on break who got best in show. extra hype :3

Well, why not make it into suggested subjects? I don't know. At least for me, I can think of a lot to sketch. If I run out of ideas, I can always fall back on the suggested sketch ideas. I don't really like that we're forced to sketch a specific thing because then that's not sketching. I see your point, though. I'm not really one to talk either because I'm incredibly lazy when it comes to drawing.

Well you said so yourself, you commonly took creative liberties with other projects, imo something even as specific as your example of a 'gay performer' can be taken in a huge multitude of ways. People usually neglect to consider that creativity doesn't necessarily mean 'no boundaries', but often times comes from just that - using what you're given to its best extent. Creativity is really a subset of infinite possibilities upon subsets and subsets.

That being said, I don't think an art course should be realistically set around 'hey now draw this'. That's lame.

wacom cintiq 22hd ORDERED

should be coming in two weeks

i had 1700 saved up but my mother said she'd cover the rest

how nice

waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat


EDIT: dudes and dudettes check out this guy, he's got a bunch of fan made animated series-esque comps of indiana jones
also some cartoony noods so warning to you young fellas
http://patrickschoenmaker.deviantart.com/
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

 

[cannedbread]

guys i really want a creative career. it really doesn't matter if i'm creating logos or making models for video games or designing furniture or what have you. if i don't spend the rest of my life creating i'm probably going to be unhappy for the rest of my life.

so with that said, what should i major in? because i don't have an honest clue. some of the people i've talked to said a degree in art is worthless. i'm kind of interested in psychology and sociology. should i just major in that?

sorry if this doesn't belong in here. maybe i should copypaste this to the unhappy thread...?

 

[Chronodiver Lokii]

You could do art therapy : o I'm thinking of getting my masters in game design with concentrations in psychology and concept art.....so i know the feels of wanting to do psych stuff x3

Honestly, art having to do with animation/games/vfx can get you a job if you are talented and know people.

What kind of stuff do you like to do? What skillsets do you have? etc

 

[Geoberos]

I wonder if I could relate being creative with computer science programming.

Otherwise the rest lays with hobbies in drawing, coloring, and video editing.

 

[PsychoIncarnate]

I wonder if I could relate being creative with computer science programming.

Otherwise the rest lays with hobbies in drawing, coloring, and video editing.

No, being creative is limited to one medium and if you don't conform to the standard you aren't being creative

 

[cannedbread]

hmmm... well i like drawing. like cartoons and stuff. i can do still-life and stuff but it's not my favorite kind of thing to make.

i don't really have to much of a privilege/opportunity to do things outside of what i already do. i've never used a tablet, i never paint (i thoroughly dislike painting anyway) i never use a computer to make art (i would LOVE to). i've never used the fancy stuff ;_;

i'm pretty good with computers, like troubleshooting and stuff. umm... what else... i can draw from observation pretty well. i dunno what else to say.

what's art therapy?

 

[Chronodiver Lokii]

Just as it sounds c: a form of therapy that uses art instead of regular means to help patients

It's helpful with kids and people who have trouble expressing themselves through words

 

[Geist]

guys i really want a creative career. it really doesn't matter if i'm creating logos or making models for video games or designing furniture or what have you. if i don't spend the rest of my life creating i'm probably going to be unhappy for the rest of my life.

so with that said, what should i major in? because i don't have an honest clue. some of the people i've talked to said a degree in art is worthless. i'm kind of interested in psychology and sociology. should i just major in that?

sorry if this doesn't belong in here. maybe i should copypaste this to the unhappy thread...?

Many private art schools don't have degrees just for that reason - art degrees are stupid and artists are barely ever hired simply because of a piece of paper. A lot of private art schools, however, are also money grubbing scams, so you have to be careful. A good art school can rocket you ahead of your competition, even though they're pretty expensive, because of the competitiveness of the art/graphic design/animation/video game industries in general it usually ends up being worth it. Some schools can practically guarantee you a job within less than a year before after you grad.
Reputable art schools commonly have programs that allow you to pay a decent fee to test a bunch of classes before you enroll in the school, so I'd recommend trying something you find interesting for sure.


If you're interested in psychology, game designs might interest you. It's not generally creative as in drawing, but it melds very psychologically based ideas into something pretty creative. Basically game design is the 'director's seat' of video games, and can involve everything from interface design, to game balance, programming, etc, all of which have unique creative properties in their own rights.
I actually had a teacher who went from game designer in epic games making UT3, and he went to university to get a psych degree and he now owns his own games studio.

 

[choknater]

mad hype for geist, man u always kno what u are talking about

not me i just draw pictures :|

 

[cannedbread]

thanks so much for the advice guys (:

 

[choknater]

i love your name and avatar, cannedbread

 

[cannedbread]

haha thanks

do you read/watch one piece? i tried once but it's so long and i'm way out of the loop with those manga. i only usually read finished manga because it's hard to commit myself to keep up with it. i wish i did because i really like it

 

[Morin0]

LOL. Yeah, I love your avatar as well.

 

[choknater]

one piece is

the -BEST-

manga

 

[PsychoIncarnate]

Anyone think a degree in 3D animation would be good? I don't think I'll find much a job though. It's the reason I started going to this college and now I'm in a different degree that doesn't even do anything artistic

 

[choknater]

u gotta be really excellent

and a specialist

like will u do water effects
or lighting
or special effects like fire and sparks or robots and metal
or character animation for kids movies
or character animation of big buff men for video games

stuff like that

or maybe

u can be so good and understand everything about it and aim for a higher position in the future? like a director?

whatever u choose just gotta work hard, develop your own style and specialties, and make connections

 

[Chronodiver Lokii]

Psycho, that would def be something to ask Geist about.
His degree is...well...dependent on modeling and the like xD

I'd help give advice too but I'm not too far along on the game design track yet/my focus is concept art and im really blehhhh at 3D atm

----------

Today in my first zbrush class i decided to make a rock as the class was going on.
......I'm having fun.

 

[Geist]

That is a majestic rock alyssa

Anyone think a degree in 3D animation would be good? I don't think I'll find much a job though. It's the reason I started going to this college and now I'm in a different degree that doesn't even do anything artistic

A degree in mostly any art major is much less important than they are in other majors like english/math/whatever. Since you'd be putting together a demo reel during an animation course, which is what actually gets you hired, it's more important to have a physical display of your work ready rather than a resume and a degree. Don't get me wrong, sometimes, especially if you want work out of country, a degree can at least show that you have more experience than most 2 year students who grad with a diploma.

As for finding a job, animation is still large in the US and as long as you have a good education there's always studios looking for students (cheaper labor), even though the technical art industry is gradually moving out to the far east of the world, like india, singapore and the like. Id say that if you're talented and you have a demo reel that's good, you'll pretty much get hired regardless. You might have to look around and be willing to move to different states, but I imagine it wouldn't be a challenge.

As for some insight to how the animation industry hires, (this also applies to other technical art jobs like modeling and vfx and stuff as well) there's generally multiple fluctuations a year depending on the projects of large companies. Artists commonly jump around from studio to studio when a movie or project is finished so at certain times of the year it becomes very easy to get a job because a whole bunch of studios are taking people in, students and all.
Another trend is the demand of artists that are specialized vs general artists. During times when animation is growing as an industry, the large amount of artists floating around means that there are a lot of people that can be used for a lot of specified jobs. Studios no longer need 5 guys to do everything, rather they can have 30 people do very specific things.
In contrast, whenever the industry begins to decline, or outsource, or move to different areas of the country (for example the massive movement in canada that has animation studios packing up and moving west) they can't afford a large number of animators, so generalists become more and more popular again.

 

[Chronodiver Lokii]

Thanks Bren c: I like Zbrushhhh

Remind me to give you my class list....I'm finally in super core classes xD

 

[PsychoIncarnate]

Well, it's not so much the degree I care about, I just want to get the classes in it and you have to lock yourself into the degree to get the classes at my school.

I'm going to at least start taking classes for it. It was part of my old degree so I already have classes toward it.

How my school works is you pick a general subject for a degree than a specialization. 3D would be a specialization in the degree I was getting, though it was a different specialization than I was getting at the time

It's not exactly a "Go to" school for the subject but it's what I can do NOW

 

[Geist]

Yeah all that matters is your end product, so I wouldn't worry about, unless animation demo reels coming out of your school look poor quality.

 

[PsychoIncarnate]

Last time I went to the school was 2006. It's 6 years later and the entire course has changed, including the instructor so I have no idea how everyone's stuff looks now.

-

My dad said that people think I'm disturbing because I take my sketch book with me to places. Does that sound disturbing to anyone else?

 

[Chronodiver Lokii]

Not disturbing....but I got grief for it back in high school cus parents thought it was anti social of me

Because it was

But drawing gets impulsive
It's like drugs - you NEED your fix of art.
Like, if I don't have access to some form of art supply for long periods of time to at least doodle with, I actually get anxious
Drawing calms me

Now that I'm in art school, it's deemed less anti social and more 'WOW LEMME SEE THAT SKETCHBOOK CAN YOU DRAW ME WHAT DO YOU DO OMGGGGG'
'hi lemme draw in peace do I even know you?'

 

[HondaFoo]

I wish I wasn't too self-conscious to bring a sketchbook around hah, it's actually one of the best things you can do as an artist