Animation from America to Japan

Today's post will be a bit more of an intellectual one.  I have put together a term paper for one of my classes focusing on an aspect of animation I have been interested in learning more about, and will present it here as a post.  I hope you find it interested, and please feel free to contact me with questions or feedback.

Animation from America to Japan and Back

by David Hixon, © 2011

As early as 1915, Japan has been creating their own animations for public display.  However, despite these early films, animation in Japan didn't really come into its own until after WWII.  Anime as it is viewed today around the world really began with artists such as Osamu Tezuka, who created a series of manga which eventually became animated in a unique style.  However, if it wasn't for the animation from other countries and artists, in particular Walt Disney, he may never had inspired the anime genre as we know it.

I will explore the international influences that shaped anime into what it is today, and how that unique animation style has begun to affect mainstream media throughout the world.  Many people believe that the essence of anime has changed due to western influences, but I argue that western influences have always been strong in Japanese animation, and it is this clash of cultures that creates what is exciting and different.  I will begin by exploring how Western artists have influenced Japanese animators, focusing specifically on the works of Tezuka Osamu.  I will then explore the ongoing influences that go between eastern and Western artists, and how the cultures of these artists have begun to globalize.  I will finish by showing how the Japanese style of animation has invaded what we watch in theaters and on television today around the world.

The roots of anime really begin with early animators from America and Europe, such as Blackton and McCay.  In fact, by 1915, there were 21 foreign animations played nationally in Japan.  Both American and German artists, such as John R. Bray, the Fleischer brothers, and Lotte ReinigerIt, were strong inspirations for early Japanese animators.  A slew of animators emerged in Japan, including Shimokawa Oten, Kouchi Junichi, and Kitayama Seitaro, the earliest Japanese animators.  While they pioneered the techniques and genre, there was little they produced which was particularly worthwhile.  Shimokawa Oten was  trained as a caricaturist and cartoonist before being hired by Tenkatsu Studio to animate specifically in the style of Émile Cohl, while Kitayama Seitaro was particularly experienced with the Western style of painting.  Already, in the earliest years of anime, the Japanese style of animation was heavily influenced by the works of Western artists, not merely the techniques they pioneered.  These Western style influences were not limited to the origin of anime and continued into the 1930's.  Artists such as Ikuo Oishi broke away from other contemporary Japanese animators' styles, and modeled his characters after American animations such as Felix the Cat.  Yokoyama Ryuichi founded the Otogi Studio in Japan after having fallen in love with animation through Walt Disney's Skeleton Dance, which aired in Japan in 1930. He created several animations and manga, and would appear in the Mainichi newspaper.  He had the privilege to visit the Disney Studios in 1955, and met Walt Disney himself.

In the 1930's and 40's, the many Japanese animations were made as propaganda films during World War II, which probably caused a strain on the animators in terms of inspiration.  It seems likely that could they directly copy the styles of Western animators now that they were at war. And yet even during this troubling time, the animators would sometimes portray American soldiers as recognizable characters such as Bluto from Fleischer's Popeye as seen in Mitsuyo Seo's Momotaro, Eagle of the Sea released in 1943.  Political references like this continued throughout the war and beyond.  Even after the war, the government of Japan encouraged animators to make films that showed the possibilities of the West, such as the 1946 film by Masao Kumagawa, The Magic Pen.  However, this had little to do with the style of the animation, and more to do with propaganda.

It wasn't until a medical student decided in the 1950's to try his hand at manga and eventually anime that the modern style of anime was born.  Tezuka Osamu was privileged in his youth to have access to both manga and film, including animation.  Tezuka is said to have watched films like Felix the Cat in his youth, and was also influenced by Disney films, and French New Wave Cinema.  This lead to his unique way of looking at animation and manga as a cinematic experience in terms of film editing, camera work, and other cinematic devices.  His love of art and film from around the world gave him a unique viewpoint into the world of animation.  Even the character design of Astro Boy was an homage to the early Walt Disney character styles.

On the first day of 1963, Astro Boy (Tetsuwan Atomu) was aired in Japan, and in America soon after, which was during a time when there were limited channels and airtime on television.  One of the more interesting facts about this relationship between America and Japan was that Astro Boy would regularly mirror the civil rights struggles in America of the day, adding to the relations between the two countries and furthering the expansion of anime into the American market.  While Astro Boy started off roughly, it soon became a world famous show, spreading the art of Japanese animation early, and invading the homes of people around the world.  Tezuka produced several more series both before and after Astro Boy, which made big waves in America and abroad.  Of these, Kimba the White Lion (Jungle Emperor) was among the most popular on American television. 

In1967, Yoshida Tatsuo's Speed Racer (Mach Go Go Go) was aired in America as well.  It gained popularity on American television, and eventually the original manga it was based on was released to western audiences as well.  It became an icon of Japanese animation in its own right.

We can clearly see here that the Japanese styles used in animation were heavily influenced by their American and Western colleagues since the earliest days of Japanese produced animations.  These influences continued throughout the decades, culminating in the cinematic styles that Tezuka adopted.  While it is clear that the origins of anime were influenced as such, the American audience was also being slowly introduced to the phenomenon known as Anime, and despite the often controversial and bizarre shows, it became engrained in the minds of future American film makers and animators.

Astro Boy has been translated into over a dozen different languages, and Tezuka himself was one of the first Japanese artists to attend international festivals for comics and animations.  He not only pioneered airing his shows in America, but around the world, and was critically recognized for his work.  The influential styles of Japanese animation were not limited to Japan, and had already been seen by artists and future animators around the world.  One film which shows this obvious cross-pollination of story telling and visuals is Disney's 1994 hit movie The Lion King.  Many critics have pointed out the many similarities between this film and Tezuka's Kimba the White Lion.  Kimba aired on American television stations in the 60's and 70's, and many of the animators who worked on The Lion King would have grown up watching Kimba on television.  Critics have claimed Disney heavily “borrowed” from Tezuka, and controversy over the idea of homage versus plagiarism sparked.

While the films and animations of Japan continue to spread throughout the world, both the styles and culture of Japan spread with it.  Historically, Japan has been heavily influenced by Western cultures, and yet continues to hold onto their own unique perspective and cultural identity.  It is this mix of West meets East, tradition meeds modernization, that has shaped the very soul of modern day Japan.  Japan is becoming a country of a globalized culture, where they struggle to find their own identity and a place to fit within the world.  Anime is one way in which Japan has turned the tables, and allowed their art to influence other cultures more than their own, and yet it also conforms to many globalized standards.

Characters in anime productions are often depicted with large eyes, multiple colors of hair and eyes, and even skin.  While the characters are not always intended to be from another country, they are more often than not Western looking, copying the styles and appearance of Western cultures and people.  Characters often have blond, brown, or even red hair, as well as a slew of eye colors, which directly mimic these foreign people.  On the other hand, many anime characters also sport blue, green, purple, or even pink hair, as well as red or purple eyes, and even blue or green skin.  This seems bizarre, but is one of the defining characteristics of anime, and brings it out of any particular culture and into something all it's own.  By adopting a non-Japanese, or even “stateless” look in the characters is part of what makes anime so easily acceptable by cultures around the world.

Such mixing of ideas and styles goes both ways.  Several television shows and movies in America directly reflect the Japanese style, and even the anime characteristics that define it.  Avatar: The Last Airbender is one such show.  The directors and producers not only copied themes, styles, and designs as well as cultural references for their series from Japanese animation, but they also researched what studios to use, and chose a Korean studio that had previously worked on Japanese anime and were familiar with the style and demands of the process.  And it is not alone.  Several studios are adopting an anime style for certain shows, in order to reach the demographics they are looking for.  They are not just trying to mimic the look either, they are looking to emulate the style to a point where it is impossible to tell the difference between “Anime” produced in Japan versus America, at least in terms of quality and story-telling.  At the very least, studios are trying to take visual and stylistic cues, and leave the real anime style to the Japanese masters.

Many American and Japanese comics are already cross-pollinating, and both manga and anime are becoming less and less a product strictly of Japan, even if the primary demographic is Japanese.  The majority of Japanese anime with Western money backing it seems to be from making sequels and projects that did poorly in the Japanese market.  The West's desire to acquire or produce Eastern, and particularly Japanese art dates back to the 19^th Century.  Anime shows a mix of traditional Japanese art that was so fascinating to the people of the time, such as Kabuki and Woodblock Prints (Ukiyo-e), and modern and even experimental cinema and artistic tools.

While many American studios have shied away attempting to emulate the Japanese style, and others have tried to make it their own, there have been several projects developed that are joint-projects between Japanese and American groups.  Warner Brothers Studios  commissioned a series of short animations from various anime studios and producers in Japan on more than one occasion, each time with a different movie they are to be based on.  Animatrix, released to home video in 2003, is a collection of short animations, each with a different Japanese director, focusing on telling more of the story of the Wachowski Brother's Matrix.  Again in 2008, they released Batman Gotham Knight under the same pretense.

These collaborations have extended into full length films as well.  Several remakes and re-imaginings of different anime and manga stories have been produced in America, and several more are in production and planning.  In 2009, a mainly American produced version of Astro Boy was released to theaters, with some limited interaction and approval by Tezuka Productions.  This followed the 2008 release of Speed Racer, and several other anime-to-live-action remakes.  This trend, to turn anime into live-action films, tends to produce mixed results, and yet there are several more films in the works for the next few years.

Beyond remaking anime series and movies for a Western audience, either through live action or animation, the most notable influence of anime in western cinema is the style it inspires in original Western works.  Blockbuster films, such as 300, The Matrix, Kill Bill, and even Up, and Ratatouille, are directly inspired by the cinematic and visual styling of anime.  Kill Bill went so far as to include an animated sequence produced by a Japanese animation studio in the middle of the film.  However, the most interesting influences are those between anime and animation.

Hayao Miyazaki fell in love with animation in 1958, when he was in high school, and went on to create one of the most influential animation studios in the world.  His first major motion film, which was Castle Cagliostro, made way for his much more epic masterpieces, such as Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind, that defined his style and the studio he started, Studio Ghibli.  He was not a fan of Disney-style animation, in both the use of cinematography, and rotoscoping.  He wanted to create a truly Japanese style of animation which focused more on the essence of animation in expression and motion, rather than smoothness of motion.  However, he was still heavily influenced by western cartoonists such as McCay, Fleischer, Back, and Norstein.  Because of his unique way of looking at animation, from writing the telling the story to the art style and visuals, his animations have influenced artists world wide.

Many artists, including those at Pixar Studios, grew up watching Miyazaki's films as a children, and continue to draw inspiration from him in their movies.  Many have studied the drawings and animations Miyazaki made, and used what they could learn from him to his work in films like Up, and Ratatouille.  Miyazaki himself became friends with John Lasseter of Pixar, visiting him at Pixar Studios on what Lasseter announced was “Miyazaki Day at Pixar”.

This type of international relationship between East and West are becoming more commonplace, and as a result, the highly stylized art and often adult and mature themes of anime have begun to spread globally and permeate cultures around the world.  As a result, it can be said that Japan is losing its singular unique identity, but replacing it with a unique cultural identity of contrasting elements of society and art.  Japan is both traditional and modern, conservative and edgy, and this contrast is reflected in the animation they have produced.  As a result, it is easily accepted in many cultures around the world, and has influenced the artists, cartoonists, sequential artists, and filmmakers of tomorrow, and today.  While the rest of the world struggles to keep up with the style of anime, the Japanese artists have drawn on inspirations from other cultures to make their art more unique and universal.

The future for anime is bright, and with international collaborations, it will prove to be even brighter.  Anime was born from the unique perspective of Eastern artists studying Western art, while drawing upon their own past and experiences to support it.  Thanks to efforts from artists such as Tezuka and Miyazaki, anime will continue to be an international influence on film, pushing the envelope and advancing what is possible on film, by unleashing the imagination.

Bibliography

Cavallaro, Dani. (2006). The Anime Art of Hayao Miyazaki.  Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co.

Drazen, Patrick. (2003).  Anime Explosion!  The What? Why? & Wow! Of Japanese Animation.  Retrieved from

Kime, Chad. (n.d.).  American Anime: Blend or Bastardization?.  Accessed on October 9^th, 2011.  Retrieved from

Koyama-Richard, Brigitte. (2010). Japanese Animation: From Painted Scrolls to Pokémon. Paris, France: Flammarion.

Lamarre, Thomas. (2009). The Anime Machine. Minnesota, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

Lu, Amy Shirong. (2008).  “The many faces of Internationalization in Japanese Anime”.  Animation: An Interdisciplinary Journal.  Retrieved from

Miyazaki, Hayao.  (January 28^th, 1988).  “About Japanese Animation”. Course Japanese Movies 7: The Current Situation of Japanese Movies. Iwanami Shoten.  Translated by Ryoko Toyama.  Accessed on November 5^th, 2011.  Retrieved from

Napier, Susan J. (2005) Anime from Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle.  New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.

Sharp, Jasper.  (2004).  Pioneers of Japanese Animation at PIFan.  Accessed on November 5^th, 2011.  Retrieved from

Van der Lugt, Peter.  (n.d.).  Exclusive Interview with Pixar Storyboard Artist Enrico Casarosa.  Accessed on October 9^th, 2011.  Retrieved from

Zahed, Ramin. (November 2004). “Astro Boy's American Cousins”.  Animation Magazine, vol 18 (no. 11). 

Filmography

  Bender, Lawrence (Producer), Tarantino, Quentin (Director).  (2003).  Kill Bill Volume 1 [Motion Picture].  United States: Miramax.

Bird, Brad; Pinkava, Jan (Directors). (2007).  Ratatouille [Motion Picture]. United States: Walt Disney / Pixar Animation Studios.

Black, Christopher (Executive Producer), Somers, Karen I. (Director).  (2007).  Anime: Drawing a Revolution [Television Documentary].  United States: Starz Entertainment.

Bowers, David (Director).  (2009).  Astro Boy [Motion Picture]. United States: Imagi Animation Studios / Imagi Crystal / Tezuka Production Company.

DiMartino, Michael Dante; Konietzko, Bryan (Producers).  (2005).  Avatar: The Last Airbender [Television Series].  United States: Nickelodeon Animation Studios.

  Disney, Walt (Producer), Iwerks, Ub (Director).  (1929).  Skeleton Dance [Animated Short].  United States: Disney.

Docter, Pete; Peterson, Bob(Directors).  (2009).  Up [Motion Picture]. United States: Walt Disney / Pixar Animation Studios.

Fleischer, Max (Producer). (1933).  Popeye The Sailor [Animated Short].  United States: Fleischer Studios/Paramount Studios.

Hanh, Don (Producer), Allers, Roger; Minkoff, Rob (Directors).  (1994).  The Lion King [Motion Picture]. United States: Disney.

  Hidehiko, Takei; Yamamoto, Satoshi (Producers), Ishiguro, Noboru (Director).  (1963).  Tetsuwan Atomu (Astro Boy) [Television Series]. Japan: Mushi Productions.

Kumagawa, Masao (Director). (1946). Maho no Pen (The Magic Pen) [Animated Short]. Japan: Kyoto Eiga-sha.

Melniker, Benjamin; Thomas, Emma; Timm, Bruce W.; Uslan, Michael E. (Executive Producers).  (2008)  Batman: Gotham Knight [Animated Film]. United States: Warner Home Video.

Miyazaki, Hayao (Director).  Katayama, Tetsuo (Producer).  (1979).  Rupan sansei: Kariosutoro no shiro (Lupin III: Castle Cagliostro) [Motion Picture]. Japan: Tokyo Movie Shinsha (TMS)

Miyazaki, Hayao (Director), Takahata, Isao (Producer).  (1984).  Nausicaä Of The Valley Of The Wind [Motion Picture].  Japan: Studio Ghibli, Disney.

  Seo, Mitsuyo (Director). (1943).  Momotaro no Umiwashi (Momotaro, Eagle of the Sea)  [Animated Short] Japan: Geijutsu Eiga-sha / Zakka Films (USA distributor).

Tezuka, Osamu; Yamamoto, Eiichi (Producers).  (1965-67).  Janguru Taitei (Kimba the White Lion) [Television Series]. Japan: Mushi Productions / NBC Enterprises.

Tezuka, Osamu (Producer).  (1967).  Mach Go Go Go (Speed Racer) [Television Series].  Japan: Tatsunoko Productions Company.

  Wachowski, Larry and Andy (Producers).  (2003).  Animatrix [Motion Picture].  United States: Warner Brothers.

Wachowski, Larry and Andy (Producers).  (2008).  Speed Racer [Motion Picture].  United States: Warner Brothers.

Supplemental Material

Anderson, Craig. (November 2009). Kimba the White Lion's Corner of the Web.  Accessed on November 5^th 2011.  Retrieved from

Anime_Nanet.  (n.d.). The Anime History - origin and roots from 1900 to the 21st century.  Accessed on November 5^h 2011.  Retrieved from

New animation!

Well for all those interested, I have yet another new animation for you.  This one is coming to you a bit late because our teacher was out sick on Monday.  Actually, that's not why it is late.  It's late cause I procrastinated and then tried to make up for lost time but ended up only finishing one project, and not the other... Moral of the story... don't put off today what you can fail tomorrow.
LUCKILY for me, my teacher was sick.  Not that I think it is a good thing to be sick.  I hope he feels better in time for the next class, and wish him the best, he really is the coolest guy.  But God put his hand in when he saw I was working so hard to catch up for bad judgments, and I was able to finish the animation for the next class.  So here it is!  I call it... The Great Sack Escape!... not really...  It is about a sack of flour trying to escape the bakery, only to get... well...  watch and enjoy.

So there it is!  Hope you enjoyed it.  Short yes...  I am not satisfied with the truck... didn't plan out the movement well enough.  But the sack turned out great!

So what was the other project I finished?  A storyboard... which I may or may not be able to show you.  it is big and glued together...  We'll see what happens.

Other than that, I have a new toy, but I'll go into that one later.  I will be doing a new episode of 7th Row center with Alex "da movie guy".  Should be up this weekend.  Also, if you have any suggestions of movies or genres or anything else you want to talk about, let me know, and I'll gladly bring it up with Alex!

Till next time

CHEERIO!

Behold the animator's pencil!

Great Metallic Balls

I have been really busy this last week.  With the completion of the GENERATE challenge (of which the Patchwork Pirates got 5th place), I have had to work on a hand-drawn animation of a waving flag (not an easy one for students to figure out), as well as an animation that involves following various principles of screen design and focusing on showing Z-depth (which is really just depth on a 2 dimensional screen), not to mention a presentation for a proposal for a term paper.  Busy all around really.
The cool thing is there are now 3 new excellent animations finished for my classes, all of which look better than I thought they'd turn out.
Also, I figured out why the bob-omb animation looked so bad.  Apparently I uploaded the wrong file, although the final one still has compression issues, but it looks a zillion times better.

Besides the bob-omb animation, I have the others to show as well.  Here is the flag waving pencil test:

This is the flag wave animation.  It took me several hours to complete, and I had to essentially start over at one point when I suddenly realized what I was doing wrong.  I kept drawing the various keys and inbetweens wrong, and it suddenly clicked, and I figured out how to make it work.  This is the result.  It is short, but fluid.

Next up is the Screen Design Z-Dept project, or as I all it... Marble Maze:

This animation is intended to loop.  The point of the exercise is to show depth in a 2D screen.  There are several ways to do this including scale, overlap, perspective, and more.  I originally intended to draw this out in Photoshop and then bring it into After Effects and animate it there.  However, after struggling to make it look the way I wanted to, I started modeling it in Maya, and decided it turned out so well, I'd just do the entire thing in Maya, and proceeded to do just that.  I used Maya 2008 (and 2012 for rendering on campus), and only used basic shapes and methods, but with very effective rendering techniques.  All the lights use Ray Tracing and shadows, the wood surfaces use many layers of textures to make it work, the rendering used mental ray, and Final Gathering, in order to get such effective colors and lighting etc.  It took me about 12 hours or so to render the final version (and I had to render it twice... one scene once... cause they earlier ones didn't look good), but luckily I could use multiple computers on campus, and managed the entire thing in about 4 hours.

In other news, keep your ears open for the latest episode of 7thRowCenter, where we talk about the power of cheese.  These movies are so bad, they are Gouda!

Till next time,

GUTEN TAG!

Comics for beginners

Time for another update again!
Today, I will talk about the basics of web comic creation, from a beginner, to beginners.  As they say, there is no better way to learn than to teach.  So, I am going to go over a few books, and tools, that I find useful, as I try to figure out how best to tackle web comics.

If you have not already seen my post on drawing tools, check it out here.  I basically went over Paper, pencils, computers, tablets, Photoshop, and so on.  Here, I want to talk about drawing technique and style.
While I am no professional illustrator, I have taken several classes in college on drawing, including large format (such as 6 foot tall canvas drawings), and figure drawing.  I HIGHLY recommend to anyone who is even remotely interested in learning to draw, to draw from real life, especially figures.  Take a drawing class, and more importantly, take a figure drawing class!  This will teach you the basics of the human anatomy, the shapes and contours, as well as the weight, the movement, the form and function, and so on.  One class (as in a semester, not a single session) is really not enough, and I am actively seeking local figure drawing classes.  Even the great masters of our past learned to draw from life, and often used models for all their work.  In one amusing case, the artist could not find any female models, so he has to work from men, and the result?  Rather masculine looking women... with coconut shaped chests.
Regardless, learning to draw from real life, not just photographs, not just internet, not just books, is the best way to learn to draw people.

Now then, on to the books.
Currently, there are several books that are in print that are excellent for both comic art, and figure drawing.  There are many more that are very poor as well.  Finding the right book for you might be difficult, but there are a few things to look for.
Are you trying to learn a specific style, or just enhance your skills?  Are you trying to imitate someone, or develop your own style?  The best answers to these will be to enhance your own skill, and your own style.  Anyone can learn to draw like someone else, but to have your own flare, your own look, your own style with influences from many sources is what makes good art.  I am no master, and my style is still being developed, and still emerging, but I have seen it peak out from behind my pencil lines every so often, and I want to encourage it.
The best way to do this, is to study the classics, the style of art that best represents the human anatomy, and artistic schools of thought.  There are many different things to think about when it comes to drawing even a simple picture, including perspective, horizon lines, depth, weight, form, and so on.  Any good art book will show you all these things, and more, and integrate their study into what you are trying to learn to draw.
One such series of books are by the artist Burne Hogarth.  His series of books, which include Dynamic figure drawing, Dynamic Wrinkles and Drapery, Dynamic Anatomy, Dynamic Hands, and so on, are all excellent books that cover all these elements and more.  They teach you the relationship between each part of the body, the full range of motion, the reaction of cloth and clothing on the body, and so much more.  He is a true master artist, who has thoroughly studied the classical style and very accurately and effectively relayed his knowledge into these books.
While I own some of these books myself, there are a few more books that everyone should know about as well.  Unfortunately, these are no longer in print, but luckily they ARE available online, if you know where to look for them.  The artist that made these?  Andrew Loomis.
Loomis was an artist in the 30's, 40's, and 50's, even stretching into the 60's.  His books are hard to find, although some are available through Amazon.  However, luckily, a simple web search can reveal many (if not all) of his books in their entirety ready for download from various sources.  His method is very thorough, and covers all of the things that Hogarth discusses, and more.  His style is classical, but is also the influence of many other artists, and can be seen in such classic characters as Superman.

These are some excellent books for learning the classic art style, and for bettering yourself.  You must make sure, however, that you actually read these books, and don't just look at the pretty pictures.  Sure, they are full of pictures, but they also often discuss how to do variations of their technique, or how many times you should work on this specific problem they illustrate, and so on.  Yes, artists need to read, not just draw or look at art books and comics.

Speaking of comics, there are several more books, which also require a fair share of reading, that are absolutely perfect for comics, and web comics.  They discuss the more visual and theoretical aspects of comics versus drawing.  Anyone can use these Hogarth and Loomis books to learn to draw anything they want, but the books I will discuss next talk specifically about the art of the comic.

In fact, there are 4 of these books, all by the same artist, Scott McCloud.  McCloud is the creator of Zot!, a poplar comic from the late 80's and early 90's.  McCloud decided that he would fully explore the theory behind comics, in an attempt to better learn them himself.  Thus, he wrote a book all about them.  He discusses everything from the boxes that we limit our sequential story telling to, to the complex relationship between the elements within each frame.  He gives hints, tricks, and advice to all the major problems artists face, and provides excellent real-world knowledge of the comic making process.  It become so popular, he actually went on to write 3 more books, which discuss everything from understand and creating comics, to how the internet has changed the face of comics, and even a book on how to make a full issue comic in only one day.
These are truly invaluable sources for both the professional level artist, and for the aspiring artist.  In fact, I find these so interesting, I would suggest these to people who have no intent to every put pencil to paper, and only read comics.  Understanding the full art style of the comic is far more intriguing than one would imagine, and is actually more entertaining than many comics.

For people are interested in drawing in the very popular "anime" or "manga" style, there are a series of books that do an excellent job of showing how this style differs from classic study, and so on.  I highly recommend learning the classic art style first, as this is a specific variation that is best studied when you can already draw pretty well.  The "How to Draw Manga" books cover a huge variety of anime and manga topics and styles.  They include everything from how to get started, to how to draw specific costumes and genres.  There are also a variety of similar books, which are by different companies, and tend to range in quality as well.  I will say that, from my experience, learning to draw anime and manga is best left taught by those who are from the country of origin, Japan or Korea (Manwa is the Korean equivalent of the Japanese Manga, and follow the same rules).  One artist to avoid, who is actually quite good at drawing American style comics, is Christopher Hart.
I am not bad mouthing Hart, or saying he can't draw, cause he can, and many of his books are excellent, but he does not draw manga style effectively at all, even though he sells many books on the topic.  I highly recommend looking at his book Human Anatomy Made Amazingly Easy, it has amazingly simple and useful techniques for simplifying drawing people.  However, avoid his books that focus on manga and anime, as his style wreaks of Americanized copycat, which does not stay true to the Japanese form, and actually fails to accurately depict any sort of Japanese style.

Now aside from books like these, which teach you how to draw in various styles, there are also books that do not teach anything, but are just as useful to an artist.  These are reference books.  As I said before, working from a model is second to none, but when a live model is not available, which is most of the time, a book photo reference book is an acceptable replacement.

Next post, I will discuss reference books, and finding live model classes.

Update (About Time)

I know last post seemed like a complaint, and ever since then I haven't made any posts or updates.
Well that is simple.  I have been really busy, and haven't been working on any animation or drawing projects at all.

Well I am desperately trying now to get back into my creative mode at full force now.  About 2 weeks ago, I started picking up the guitar.  I have actually been learning to play both the classic acoustic guitar, and the electric bass guitar.  Since both work on a similar principal, I have slowly been teaching myself both.  I have also decided to start learning how to sight-read music, a skill that is most useful in the music world, and something which far too many people lack.  While many accomplished musicians never learned to read or write music, I find it is not that hard to do if you let your hands do the learning before your mind.  By that, I mean let your fingers figure out the muscle movements before you memorize what all the note names are.  Sure, knowing the names of the notes is important, but it comes second, in my opinion, to your ability to play the music you see.  Once you can play it, you can better understand the technical side as well, such as the note names.
So WHY am I talking about music in an animation blog?
Simple.  Music, just like drawing and animation, is an expressive art form that takes practice and determination, as well as skill, to master.  While I will never be a master guitarist, I find that getting my creative juices flowing again is a very good habit.  By thinking in a creative, and eager to learn way, I am readying myself for the next step in what I am trying to do.  Drawing.
My drawing skills have very much been a roller coaster.  At times, I can barely draw a person, even if they are standing in front of me.  At other times, I am able to draw very well, especially from a model.  I admit my weakness if drawing without a model, so I am constantly looking for reference shots to help aid my drawing.  But that only works so well.  Lately, being mainly out of practice for a long time, I find my skills are lacking, and I need to get them back to where they belong.  Drawing is not like riding a bike.  It takes constant practice, otherwise your skills decrease and you find yourself at square one again.
I am looking into a few books to help me out, as well as a few tutorials.  However, most importantly, I am back to drawing again.  The animation right now, "Weak 1", will be put on a temporary hold so I can work on the prologue to a web comic my brother and I have been working on.  It isn't up yet (obviously), and we want to have the first 8 or so pages finished before we go any further, but I am using this opportunity to get back in the habit of drawing.  I need to do a lot of drawing, in practice and study, as well as in real-world applications.  Here, I am going to using this project for both.  I am going to be setting up a deadline to finish so many pages a month, I am shooting for 1 entire drawn, inked, and colored image every week.  This is to allow for a timely and regular schedule on a web comic, something most people rely on if they like to read web comics.
So why web comics?  Again, it is part of my attempt to get myself back into my creative mode, and the best way is to do creative things.  Writing stories, playing music, drawing, all these are important creative processes, and all of them can help with animation.  The better you are at drawing, the better you will be at animation of any kind.  So I must start from the basics, and improve from there!  Besides, most of my readers enjoy web comics, and probably have found this site, if not directly through me, than through Tangent Artists, a web comic site that I am a part of.  In fact, this very comic, when it is ready to be uploaded, will be featured there, but I will be updating more on that in the future.

Now most comics will update at the very least once a week, but many update far more often.  I have seen ones from 1 or 2 a month, to one or 2 a day.  Sometimes they keep no schedule and update when they are ready, other times they have a regular update at a specific time which they stick to.  I find that those comics that update regularly have a better readership, and a lot more content to play with.  The artists also improve the most in their drawing style.  While many start simple and crude, some eventually become truly impressive as time goes on.  I am hoping that, by spending a week per page, I give myself plenty of time to practice, draw, ink, color, and finalize one page, while still leaving time for everything else I need to do.  I hope that this will help me improve draw better and faster fairly quickly.  Without a set deadline, I will slack off and not follow through.
For now, I am still in the process of drawing the first few pages.  I have been experimenting with inking and scanning techniques, and will be moving onto color soon after.  I have a few ideas on what I want to do, but this is really meant to be a learning experience for me, as well as a tool to help me practice and get better at drawing.
Of course this means the beginning will look rough, stiff, awkward, and even bad at times.  I am always hard on my own work, but every good artist is.  I hope that by using a few books, models, and (someday) classes, I will get significantly better.  This comic will help with that, and I hope that by the time the entire comic is complete, anyone who compares the first chapter and the last chapter will see a world of improvement in the art style and drawing.
Most comic artists improve their style of drawing, but they use a very stylized form, and often encourage that in their art as they develop.  Sometimes this works out wonderfully for them, other times they find they can only draw that style of character, and nothing else.  I plan to use characters that, while inspired by Japanese manga (comics), is clearly not mimicking them, and trying to use fairly accurate depictions of people, in such a way that I can apply the principals of figure drawing to this comic, despite the awkwardness and time consuming process this will create.  It may start hard, and I may never be as masterful an artist as many of my artist heroes, but with this knowledge, I plan to take a new look at my short animations, and start making quality work at a fast pace.

So, for now, my animations are on a short hold, while I work on this comic.  It will be called "A Twist of Feyt", which is a play on the Celtic inspired fey-realms and fairy creatures.  Once this comic is completed, I have plans to work on a sci-fi comic next.  I am hoping to write a story where I can combine cyber-punk and steam-punk, but that is still a long way off.  So for next time, I will be posting some drawings of my latest comic pages, with some of the techniques I will be using and some of the things I have learned.

Look forward to it!

Orlando trip

I am going to be going on a trip this weekend to Orlando, Florida.  I am planning to check out this aforementioned DAVE school (digital animation and visual effects) for myself.
I should be able to work on some more drawings when i get back.  I plan to have a big update next week.  I want to have all the backgrounds finished, and start work on the main character animation.
This will be the most time consuming part, but I plan to use a few tricks, such as recycled animation and cut-out animation, to get it done quickly.
I also plan to get some help this weekend and this week on coloring some of these backgrounds so that I can continue to work on the main drawings while the rest of finished.  Multi-tasking so to speak.  I suppose I'll have to ask someone to help with that.
So The next big update should be next weekend.  I will also let people know how my trip to the DAVE school turns out.

Weak 1 update, with pictures

Greetings!
It's about time I did another update on my progress relating to my Weak 1 animation.  So far, I have given you all a glimpse at the animation through a storyboard, which took enough time, but was well worth it.
Now, I would like to show some of the original sketches I have done.  These sketches are intended to be used in the final animation itself, and are merely elements of the scenes, but not all of them are up to par and will need to be re-worked, some from scratch, before they are ready to be put in the final animation.
I realize that these are very sketchy, and they don't have color and are probably not very accurate, but this wouldn't be "weakly animated" if everything was drawn really well now would it?
The first ones I will show are ones that will need the most reworking done, and the last one is a final image that is ready to be put into the production for coloring and masking, although it may need a better scan first.

Now these are intentionally kept in pencil with a sketchy feel to them.  I particularly like the last image, it has worked out the best so far and probably doesn't really need much more work, if any, to be ready for the rest of the production.  I will probably scan these all again at a later time, but for now these are good to get opinions and suggestions.

The hardest one of these will be the 4th one, as it will need to have animating wheels.  Since I have already drawn this, I will probably have to go back and draw the wheels again separately, in sequence to show the animation.  The traffic light will also need more done to it, to make sure the light sways back and forth as the little car flies past it.  I will be adding the bird, Adam, Marge (the little lady), and the cop at a later date, once the backgrounds and other elements are mostly completed.  Once I have these in place, figuring out how to get the characters in place should be easier since I will have a lot of reference to work with.

So, enjoy these images, and please please PLEASE give me your feedback and opinions.  I look forward to hearing from you about what you think of these images.  I am always striving to better myself and my art and animations.

Later this week, besides working on more of these images, I will probably write a review for the movie 9, a movie that really inspires me, since it is really the director's first major motion picture, based off his college thesis.  I want to achieve that kind of success, and that is what I am striving to do with the DAVE school, and my Weakly Animations.