Path on Becoming an Animator...

[Redisque]

So I've been on drawing hiatus for almost 4 years due to the lost of inspiration and motivation to draw. I enjoy computers as well as drawing. I'm not much of a technical person (neither am I good at math). Thus, I decided to go into animation. However, now that I'm in college, I realized that art is what I really enjoy doing the most. Throughout high school, I was always certain that I will be majoring in something art-related and now the time has come. After the 4 years, I realized how much artists have improved and this made me frightened of entering the art field. I know that art is all about competition. Back then, I was more a hobbyist, but now, I'm going to dedicate myself to improving (in hopes of becoming a successful animator or anything else in the art field). Sometimes, I lose my confidence to all the great artists around on DeviantArt. I currently don't have any connections or friends with any artists either. One thing about me is that I don't like to draw anything else other than anime. As a soon-to-be animator, I would like to design video games and perhaps work on the character illustrations and/or maps.

My DeviantArt: http://kaitaya.deviantart.com/

I need confidence. I really do. I'm 19 years old and I've seen so much who're around my age who draw so much better. :/

I want to improve and become a better artist. Do you have any advice for me? Please feel free to leave comments and suggestions. Thank you for your patience and time.

[Ms Spook]

As a fellow animation student I'm going to tell you something...and its going to seem really harsh, but you need to hear it. I don't mean to break your confidence so don't think that.


You aren't going to make it drawing anime. At all. You won't survive in the field.

My school will NOT accept you into the animation program with a portfolio full of anime. Most art schools won't.

They DO NOT want to see it. No one will hire you in America drawing nothing but anime. And the chances of moving to Japan and drawing it are slim to none.

Now. Start drawing realism. Hardcore realism. Draw everything you see. If you are serious about become an animator. If you have any art classes available where you are at now, take them.


Practice every day. I haven't been able to take many classes myself but I draw at least ten pages of things a day. They don't have to be exactly perfect.

Observe everything and, when you apply to college, try to have. A good variety of realism and mixtures of your own styles in your application portfolio.

That is honestly the best advice I can give you right now.

It'll be a hard road. A very hard road. But if you're serious....and you work hard. You can do ot. C:


- Going to major in character animation and design and minor.in story boarding.

[Arvehz]

...Dude, your DA is nothing but animes.
If you want to think about going to any art school then you need to give up on shitty animes and actually learn how to draw. Read this and then this and damn, I seriously wish you luck.

[rane the insane]

Ms Spook

As a fellow animation student I'm going to tell you something...and its going to seem really harsh, but you need to hear it. I don't mean to break your confidence so don't think that.


You aren't going to make it drawing anime. At all. You won't survive in the field.

My school will NOT accept you into the animation program with a portfolio full of anime. Most art schools won't.

They DO NOT want to see it. No one will hire you in America drawing nothing but anime. And the chances of moving to Japan and drawing it are slim to none.

Now. Start drawing realism. Hardcore realism. Draw everything you see. If you are serious about become an animator. If you have any art classes available where you are at now, take them.


Practice every day. I haven't been able to take many classes myself but I draw at least ten pages of things a day. They don't have to be exactly perfect.

Observe everything and, when you apply to college, try to have. A good variety of realism and mixtures of your own styles in your application portfolio.

That is honestly the best advice I can give you right now.

It'll be a hard road. A very hard road. But if you're serious....and you work hard. You can do ot. C:


- Going to major in character animation and design and minor.in story boarding.

Im also an Animation student and i totally second this. The anime actually is holding you back. As you move away from that you'll see a large improvement.

Hey Spook do you have a blog? Im always up for keeping in contact with other people going into the field.


And for original poster, here is my current blog: BLOG <-
Im currently studying computer animation and as you prob know its a wide range of jobs within that single field. I used to be into character animation but i'm slowly becoming more of an environment artist also storyboarding and post production.

I would also research where your skills may lie within animation. Not everything is character animation, there are tonnes of other jobs going. But despite all these jobs, knowledge of form, anatomy and rules of perspective and physics is must for all within the industry.

[Neon Vash]

I'm about to say what another 100 people will say draw more then anime. Its cool that you like it but it will only be a hobby if u keep at it you wont progress professionally at all. Start studying human anatomy and go on from there disregarding the anime you have some problems in perspective and foreshadowing it looks like and composting. so you need to learn a lot if you want to be an animator.

[Ms Spook]

rane the insane

Ms Spook

As a fellow animation student I'm going to tell you something...and its going to seem really harsh, but you need to hear it. I don't mean to break your confidence so don't think that.


You aren't going to make it drawing anime. At all. You won't survive in the field.

My school will NOT accept you into the animation program with a portfolio full of anime. Most art schools won't.

They DO NOT want to see it. No one will hire you in America drawing nothing but anime. And the chances of moving to Japan and drawing it are slim to none.

Now. Start drawing realism. Hardcore realism. Draw everything you see. If you are serious about become an animator. If you have any art classes available where you are at now, take them.


Practice every day. I haven't been able to take many classes myself but I draw at least ten pages of things a day. They don't have to be exactly perfect.

Observe everything and, when you apply to college, try to have. A good variety of realism and mixtures of your own styles in your application portfolio.

That is honestly the best advice I can give you right now.

It'll be a hard road. A very hard road. But if you're serious....and you work hard. You can do ot. C:


- Going to major in character animation and design and minor.in story boarding.

Im also an Animation student and i totally second this. The anime actually is holding you back. As you move away from that you'll see a large improvement.

Hey Spook do you have a blog? Im always up for keeping in contact with other people going into the field.


And for original poster, here is my current blog: BLOG <-
Im currently studying computer animation and as you prob know its a wide range of jobs within that single field. I used to be into character animation but i'm slowly becoming more of an environment artist also storyboarding and post production.

I would also research where your skills may lie within animation. Not everything is character animation, there are tonnes of other jobs going. But despite all these jobs, knowledge of form, anatomy and rules of perspective and physics is must for all within the industry.

I don't actually. I need to though. D: It's just frustrating when so many people like to just rip off of other peoples hard work.

I'm pretty sure I do want to go into characters. I've tried to spread out into scenery and backgrounds but I'm so lost. The closest I've gotten recently was a wall and a window where I was working on angles.

I want to study both. I'm not sure which I'm going to focus on though. I was going to study at SAIC and transfer to Calarts or the Disney program. The latter seems more likely.

You can add me on here if you would like. C:

[Hiei the Epic]

Redisque

One thing about me is that I don't like to draw anything else other than anime.

your problem in a nutshell.

[Redisque]

Well I read all your replies and I have a question. When you're someone who started out drawing with anime, don't you think that it'll be hard to transition to realistic? This is because you view things in a cartoon-ish manner by default.

I've attempted to draw realism a couple of times and I noticed that they look cartoon-ish one way or the other. Do you have any suggestions on this? Is it just all practice?

[Hiei the Epic]

you don't view things in a cartoonish matter. that's the problem. the world around you is not anime.

anime is a heavily stylized version of realism, which is the base of any and all art.

if you cannot draw things that are real (the base) then how can you properly stylize it?

if your stuff is turning out cartoony then i imagine you're still trying to put anime into it.

[apiyo]

Redisque

Well I read all your replies and I have a question. When you're someone who started out drawing with anime, don't you think that it'll be hard to transition to realistic? This is because you view things in a cartoon-ish manner by default.

I've attempted to draw realism a couple of times and I noticed that they look cartoon-ish one way or the other. Do you have any suggestions on this? Is it just all practice?

Keep drawing realistically until you beat the cartoon out of it.

[Ms Spook]

Redisque

Well I read all your replies and I have a question. When you're someone who started out drawing with anime, don't you think that it'll be hard to transition to realistic? This is because you view things in a cartoon-ish manner by default.

I've attempted to draw realism a couple of times and I noticed that they look cartoon-ish one way or the other. Do you have any suggestions on this? Is it just all practice?

You need to completely retrain yourself.

Start completely over from the beginning. Start with realistic shading on shapes and then move to perspective.

[Otange Noobs]

Redisque

Well I read all your replies and I have a question. When you're someone who started out drawing with anime, don't you think that it'll be hard to transition to realistic? This is because you view things in a cartoon-ish manner by default.

I've attempted to draw realism a couple of times and I noticed that they look cartoon-ish one way or the other. Do you have any suggestions on this? Is it just all practice?

As an animation student who started off drawing anime first, it is kind of hard to break it IF you are not willing to. With life drawing it is harder because you automatically revert to bad habit like the nose or the eyes. What I found helped me was I stopped watching anime all together for ohhh a year or more and instead I immersed myself in Disney, Dreamworks, Looney Tunes, and all those fun stuff with massive squash and stretch action going on.

What you can do is start to observe people. Sit in a cafe or bus stop and just sketch the people there if you don't have a place to get life drawing classes. Life drawing classes are fantastic. Usually, the teacher will break your bad habits. There are also some figure drawing websites out there as well.

As for anime, it's not good to do. As much fun and cool as it can look, the acting in the characters is more often than not, horrible. The characters are stiff, they don't move freely and are restricted. They have limits with the squashing and stretching of the body and face and they are impractical to animate. Think about having to animate each tiny little hair on that long-haired pretty boy and realize that in doing so, you will want to kill yourself. This is why most anime's animation quality stinks and why I have a hard time watching it now.


If you live anywhere else but Japan, most likely chances you are going to be animating some kind of cartoon like Looney Tunes or those crappy little shows you see on the childrens channels or maybe if you are good enough, on a feature film at a large studio. None of these companies care if you draw anime. It's not the style of the studio.

Some people do get in with anime in their portfolio for the character portion, but they are one of the exceptional few. This means the rest of their portfolio consisted of great life drawing, studies, room and object studies, etc. Depending on the school you are applying to the requirements are different, but they will always ask for life drawing and should ask for perspective room studies as well. Play it safe and don't take the risk. I know my they drive my character design teacher up the wall and a half.

In short, an anime character is hard to animate, too flat to make for an interesting rotation, and too stiff to make any decent acting come out of them. There are, of course exceptions, but they are not what matters. Anime is more like guilty pleasure, kind of like porn for animation, but not actual porn....

[ninitan]

Redisque

Well I read all your replies and I have a question. When you're someone who started out drawing with anime, don't you think that it'll be hard to transition to realistic? This is because you view things in a cartoon-ish manner by default.

I've attempted to draw realism a couple of times and I noticed that they look cartoon-ish one way or the other. Do you have any suggestions on this? Is it just all practice?

"A couple of times"?

You need a lot more tries than that to break free from the anime now -- think a year, if you do it daily. This is why I and so many other people violently object to drawing anime or anything stylized until you have your basics down.

Basically if you want to do art as a professional you absolutely have to drop the anime. No one is going to hire you and no art school will take you if that's all you can draw. A professional artist -- especially an animator -- has to be very flexible and they have to be able to draw in any style. You can't specialize in a drawing style, that simply does not work.

For instance, I used to be a working professional and I can draw like this just as easily as I can draw like this and paint like this. That's just 3 of the many different styles that I've worked with. I can probably do hundreds more and I'm not even particularly good at drawing.

So if you're really serious, drop the anime -- go cold turkey -- do nothing but life drawing for 6 months to 1 year for at least an hour a day to break out of the habit. You can go back to drawing anime later, but right now you gotta drop it and focus on proper learning. Go back to the basics.

[Redisque]

Will do.

Do you guys have any websites that with great tips to start out?

[Spindlewick]

Betty Edward's Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain is perhaps your best starter book. It has literally chapters full of drawing exercises that will completely re-shape your cognitive observational skills.