Simple drawing

dueyftw · Post by **dueyftw** » Tue Nov 01, 2011 2:31 pm

Stopped animating for a while and just working on my drawing.

Dale

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Tue Nov 01, 2011 4:51 pm

Hm. I wonder how much this could be approved by thicker and variable outlines? Frankly, I'm a bit fed up with the thin default lines everybody uses.

SvenFoster · Post by **SvenFoster** » Tue Nov 01, 2011 5:52 pm

slowtiger wrote:Hm. I wonder how much this could be approved by thicker and variable outlines? Frankly, I'm a bit fed up with the thin default lines everybody uses.

I seem to spend more time in ASP trying to make the thing *not* look like vectors :'(

Here is a comic book character I have borrowed from a certain Jamie Smart (http://fumboo.com).
I've started to create chars and props to animate him (and then I was going to get permission but since I'm giving credit)

This image is created in ASP and its basically me spending ages adding extra points and changing widths and adding noise to positions... I much prefer the look of Jamies paint brush(real) and trying to mimic it.

I'm sure he would weep if he sees what I've done to estimate the look but it animates well and he can have it when I'm done

EDIT: apologies I wasnt trying to selfpromote, just slowtigers point resonated with me.

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Tue Nov 01, 2011 7:04 pm

I like that. I don't know the original, but this is "good enough" for me. Just the minimum amount of randomness.

Personally I'd add some textures to that as well:

(this is not a good one, just to show the idea)

SvenFoster · Post by **SvenFoster** » Tue Nov 01, 2011 7:30 pm

Its pretty faithful to the original but not traced.... I agree on textures but that is the kind of stuff that "winds me up" about ASP as it always seem like a real effort and typically unsatisfactory.

I'm evaluating flipbook and tvpaint at the moment as I crave a simpler life(although my own drawing skills will need to improve)

Dale I've tried to draw in ASP and I have to say I find it painful. sketching something and importing it works much better for me you may want to try that?

spoooze! · Post by **spoooze!** » Tue Nov 01, 2011 8:01 pm

Personally I'd add some textures to that as well:

What do you think about using the "Grain" setting in the "Project Settings" tab?

I've recently discovered this and I find that adding just a little bit of grain helps keep the "digital-ness" down and adds a bit of texture to it.

For some reason, I find it looks best with the grain setting on with a value of about "8".

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Tue Nov 01, 2011 8:06 pm

I believe it really depends on your drawing skills wether you can work with AS' drawing tools or not. I don't use them regularly, but when I do they work surprisingly well and not slower than others. I've used FreeHand daily for about 15 years, so maybe this makes the difference.

Another point: do you know what you want to draw before you draw? I'm one of those who need to see the image in their imagination first, additionally I scribble a lot on paper first. This way I've solved the general problems of the image before I start to draw in AS.

dueyftw · Post by **dueyftw** » Tue Nov 01, 2011 9:05 pm

Hm. I wonder how much this could be approved by thicker and variable outlines? Frankly, I'm a bit fed up with the thin default lines everybody uses.

First drawn on paper, then copied into AS. On a scale of 1 to 10. I think it is about a 2, maybe a 3. My skills need to improve, so I bought two stacks of paper and few mechanical pencil. The only way to get good at something is keep doing it.
I also bought some weights because I need the exercise. But I just keep looking at them hoping that they will lift themselves off the floor

Dale

kellz5460 · Post by **kellz5460** » Wed Nov 02, 2011 4:18 am

I've been thinking about it- thin lines vs a more organic line variation. Lines can give alot to style

As for drawing in AS, sometimes I find it easy to draw certain things better than I can on paper and vice versa

It seems you can really rough sketch something on paper than put it into AS and tighten it up- I really like that, since my drawings are far from perfect

SvenFoster · Post by **SvenFoster** » Wed Nov 02, 2011 8:18 am

dueyftw wrote:I bought two stacks of paper and few mechanical pencil. The only way to get good at something is keep doing it.
I also bought some weights because I need the exercise. But I just keep looking at them hoping that they will lift themselves off the floor

Dale

Haha classic trueisum

uddhava · Post by **uddhava** » Wed Nov 02, 2011 6:27 pm

slowtiger wrote:I believe it really depends on your drawing skills wether you can work with AS' drawing tools or not. I don't use them regularly, but when I do they work surprisingly well and not slower than others. I've used FreeHand daily for about 15 years, so maybe this makes the difference.

Another point: do you know what you want to draw before you draw? I'm one of those who need to see the image in their imagination first, additionally I scribble a lot on paper first. This way I've solved the general problems of the image before I start to draw in AS.

Slowtiger,

You mention that you have used Freehand daily for 15 years. However before that you don't use the AS tools regularly. So are you talking about the Freehand tool in AS?
Besides that confusion of mine, I was wondering do you use the freehand tool in AS more than the other drawing tools and also what settings do you use for the freehand tool?

I agree with your take on varying the width of the lines. My drawing teacher (we found an English drawing class here in Budapest ) is always telling us to vary the line width. And also observe where should the thickest line go? Where in the thinnest? Etc.
It makes the drawing a lot more interesting also.

I'm glad to see this topic on drawing dueyftw.

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Wed Nov 02, 2011 7:21 pm

Ah, sorry for the confusion!

I've used FreeHand - the software by Aldus which was later bought by Macromedia which was bought by Adobe to let it die, because it was better than Illustrator ...

I didn't change the default settings of the freehand tool in AS. Mostly I do a rough outline with it, then adjust and delete single points. I use the grid often, but switch it on and off the whole time. It's quite fast to work this way. Also don't forget the power of copy&paste! Once a line has colour, I duplicate it a lot, rotate and scale and mirror it, which is faster than creating every shape from scratch.

uddhava · Post by **uddhava** » Wed Nov 02, 2011 7:39 pm

Oh, that Freehand! I had an old copy of Freehand 6 and also Director 5 which got me interested in computer animation. I bought them cheap at Half-Price book store in Dallas TX when they used to sell used software. Now I can't get them to work on Windows 7.

Thanks for the reply and for the information on how you work in AS.

When you use the grid do you disable grid snapping?

udd

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Wed Nov 02, 2011 11:29 pm

No, I use the grid with snap, otherwise it makes no sense ...

sbtamu · Post by **sbtamu** » Thu Nov 03, 2011 12:02 am

slowtiger wrote:No, I use the grid with snap, otherwise it makes no sense ...

I also use the grid allot.
I hate to go off topic but I would like the Z plane and grid to have some kind of way to match up. For example, when I use the mouse wheel to move a plane back in Z I would like it to = the grid spacing. This would make getting the back wall of houses to fall right into place with out having to orbit around and eyeball where the wall should be.

I should make another thread for this.