Blog

Let’s make an animated cartoon!

Mon, 01 Feb 2016 02:13:06 -0800

Creating an animated cartoon is a fun, exciting process. I’m going to illustrate and explain how I created a 2:18 minute animated cartoon in about 5 weeks for client John Arnold of Arnold Entertainment Partners. John has an extensive motion picture background and we have successfully completed a lot of animation together.

The first step in creating an animated cartoon is generally getting a written outline of some sort from you, the client, describing the content of what is to appear as animation. This can be in the form of a written script, a long or short list of key points, a short story, song lyrics, a couple of paragraphs or even just a couple of sentences. I will help you put your thoughts into words that will expedite the animation process.

All of the preliminary drawings and rough and final animation you will be seeing below (that I created- character models, storyboards, inbetweens and final animation)) are being drawn directly into my Imac desktop with the use of a digital drawing tablet. I’m using Adobe-based Flash CS5 for this particular project- it has robust vector- based drawing tools and is animation friendly. No paper or pencils are used at all.

How illustrations are created-

Fri, 15 Jan 2016 18:13:42 -0800

The first step in creating illustrations for your project is designing the characters that appear in your story. A “model sheet” is created for your approval. This is so you know, and approve, what your character will look like before I create illustrations featuring your characters. It’s a great, safe way to make sure we are all on the same page when it comes to your character designs. It insures that your character will look the same (staying “on model”) from one illustration to the next, as I will use the approved character model sheet as a reference every time I draw your character. You must approve and sign off on each character’s design before illustrations begin. Here’s an example of a model sheet created for one author’s work featuring her dog character. Model sheets are typically either created from imagination, or based on photos or a combination of the two- this one was based on photos:

Once the look of your character is developed to your satisfaction we determine how many illustrations you need. If you have a predetermined amount in mind, or specific ideas you wish to see illustrated, you let me know. Often times I will read your text and suggest passages that I think would benefit from an illustration. We will create a master text list of illustrations with a brief sentence or two describing the content of each illustration. Then the actual drawing begins.

I work late so you don’t have to.

Sat, 09 Jan 2016 18:03:45 -0800

Blog pages are a a good place to talk about, display, explain, advertise and update some of the interesting projects I help create.

There can be many questions potential clients have about how the process of creating illustrations or animation works.

Also, I do a ton of interesting freelance commercial art jobs that, sometimes, few people see.