Final Assignment – The Comic Strip

For your final assignment you are to create a 3 or 4 panel comic strip.  You can sketch it and ink it on paper, sketch and scan in to edit in photoshop, or create it from beginning to end in photoshop.  Ultimately it just has to be readable.  Doing a comic strip seems relatively easy but it’s not.  You’ll see once you try to create one that it takes a considerable amount of time.  SO DO NOT PROCRASTINATE.  It won’t be any fun if you try to do it all in one night.  I thought after learning to draw that doing comic strips would be cake.  After failing miserably  time and time again  I shed many tears trying to figure out how something so easy looking could be so daunting.  Maybe it will be easier for you.  I hope it will be.

To get inspiration I suggest taking a look at the following comic strips,

www.penny-arcade.com

http://www.xypdz.com/

www.pvponline.com

www.sinfest.net

www.grieforglory.com

Calvin & Hobbes 

http://www.transmogrifier.org/ch/strips/index calvin and hobbes searchable database!

www.XKCD.com 

Boondocks, Garfield, Peanuts, Calvin & Hobbes, Marmeduke, Get Fuzzy, Opus, the list goes on and on.

There are 4 stages to creating a comic strip…

1. Write/script the dialogue action.

2. Layout – Make thumbnails of which characters will where on which panels and make room for their speech balloons. There is a lot of problem solving to be done here so no elaborate drawings in this stage! For instance, is the character who speaks first on the left side? You’ll want to read his speech balloon first so these kind of issues need to be worked out.

3. Render – Now that the layout is done you can add in the bod language, facial expressions, and hand gestures. Ink the letters, balloons, backgrounds, etc. You could also color it if you wanted.

Art Links

www.CharacterDesign.com

www.IntothePixel.com

http://www.IntothePixel.com

Storyboard template

Storyboard Template Here is a good storyboard template.

Research these Sites to Collect Reference

Here are some links to help you collect reference materials for your research (sketchbook). Please pay attention the compositions that the artists and photographers are using.

www.ConceptArt.org
Concept Art

http://characterdesign.blogspot.com
Professional Character Design. Find the artist you like and scroll down past their interview.

www.GriefOrGlory.com Article on how to Quick Sketch
Quick Sketch – How to Draw like a Pro

stock photography, please draw from nature and real photographs – not just other artists.

www.iphoto.com
www.gettyimages.com

First Assignment – 30 pages of animation

Your first assignment is to animate anything you want.

Must contain a sequence of 30 drawings.

The drawings are due by next Tuesday.  If you could have them all scanned into your computer that would be great, otherwise we’ll try to capture it with a digital camera setup.   The next step will be importing the images into Flash and timing them out so we can see your animation as a short movie clip.

I suggest you number your pages, draw something simple, and focus on the movement between the pages instead of focusing on each individual drawing.  I’ll teach you today how to roll the pages on your clipboard.

~Shaun

New Animation Class Syllabus

Syllabus Here is your syllabus for the Intro to Animation Class. Email me at shaunDmcmillan at gmail.com if you have any questions.

GLENN KEANE

THE ART OF GLENN KEANE This is a great website showing some the key scenes from one of the world’s greatest animators.  Study his animations over and over again.  You can also find some notes on thumbnailing in the “notes” > “Feature Animation” section at WWW.ANIMATIONMEAT.COM