(JoaG Ep 05) The Sins of the Father

...keeps on getting better.

And this is done without a camera you say?

I haven't had the time to study "adobe" and learn that, I've  been busy with all this elephant meat, however, my friend from work is busily drawing my characters and they are looking great.

Tell me this... from his sketch pad to...What is the next step for (just) the drawings!

I can't consider dialogue, or music, or sound effects just yet.  Right now I need to know the next step from sketch pad to...

btb:  You ever thought of writing a book (a how-to-guide of sorts)?  I know I would buy one and I'm pretty sure Davonie would.  There you go, you got yourself a FAN CLUB.

Like a Stallion... 

 Wow, I've never thought of it :)

But hey, I can help you and Davonie all I can in the now, versus goodness knows how long it would take me to write a book, with my procrastinating self. Unless its a dare, then I'll do it in a weekend. But I hate it when that happens. Sometimes. I digress!!

Sketches are good for you and your artist to agree on what the characters will look like. But once that is set, the next step is to follow the script.

There's two options here... one, is to go the storyboard route, which is what I do, which means creating a panel (kinda like a comic book, just without the speech balloons) for your script. You'd be amazed at how much do comics and films have in common in terms of framing, pacing, and such. So, in Sins of the Father, we have Byron laying on the table, with Lazaro standing over him holding the syringe. That was just one illustration, but if you notice, I zoomed in and panned about from Byron's feet to his head, then down from Lazaro's head to his hand holding the needle, etc. I even used the background corners in some of the "drug haze" shots :)

The other option is to draw the backgrounds separatedly from the character... this is what disney used to do, is more like traditional animation. If you do this, then you can "tween" the characters over the backgrounds and it would seem as if they're moving in them, either walking or whatever the case may be. In my opinion, this is more difficult, because usually the artists has to make more than one frame for the characters, to give real animation.. for instance, a walking loop has something like 6 frames, thats six drawings of a character moving his feet. For drama, I think the first option is better. But the second option can allow you to build a library of animations over time and reuse them, kinda like South Park does.

Its a tough choice, though I'm happy with the one I took :)

Jackie, I'm so  glad you're liking this stuff, thank you!