Reddit reviews Cartoon Animation (Collector's Series)

(30+ years experience as a commercial artist, animator, broadcast designer and special effects designer speaking here. Plus I got into digital graphics back in the late '70s before anyone even knew what it was.)

The best place to start is to learn to draw. Anything else is a distraction and an attractive nuisance. Software is the least of your worries for quite some time. And even then, a cheap scanner or digital camera and some simple software are all you need to do a whole lot of learning.

And by drawing, I mean drawing from life. Find a life drawing class in your community if at all possible. I can not stress this enough. This may or may not be what your daughter has in mind, but it is like learning your scales to a musician. It's certainly possible to become a cartoonist without this type of training, but if you succeed you succeed in spite of the lack not because of it. I would say it is not possible to succeed as an animator without formal training. To become good enough to do this for a living, or even for fun, is a lot of work. But very satisfying.

Some books I recommend are:

• _Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain_ by Betty Edwards
  
  
• _The Natural Way To Draw_ by Nicolaides
  
  
• _Figure Drawing For All It's Worth_ by Andrew Loomis (and back in print after 30 years for a very reasonable price! $25 at Amazon!)
  
  
• Animation by Preston Blair. This is a Walter Foster How-To-Draw book and it is the best introduction to cartooning for animation. It is a very fun book, and very worth while, but don't neglect the other areas of study.
  
  When she gets a little farther along, get a copy of _The Animator's Survival Kit_ by Richard Williams.
  
  Edit: Your biggest expense isn't going to be software or computers, but time and paper and pencils. I recommend cheap printer paper, 8.5 x 11 and 11 x 17. Regular pencils work just fine. Get them at the office supply store. Better art supplies can make a difference when you are much farther along, but the main thing when starting out is to do lots of drawings, and make lots of mistakes. Ward Kimball, one of Disney's master animators used to joke that, "the first hundred thousand drawings are the hardest." And it's not really a joke.

Honestly, learning the software isn't going to teach you how to animate, you'll just know where the buttons are. I still have a raggedy copy of Preston Blair's book in my book case, which has been around for 40 years.

Another really great book is Tony White's Animator's Workbook. It has practical lessons and some good simple demonstrations of key frames, and exaggerated actions and setting up cycles.

And since you want to learn, you should also get a peg bar, some paper, some pencils, and buy or make a light box.

Now, all of this is if you wish to do animation traditionally on paper, scan the drawings, and finish them in the computer. If you want to draw directly into the software, you'll need to ask someone more knowledgeable than me on which tablet to buy. I understand the Cintique tablets are good, but they are basically a Windows tablet designed for drawing on.

Edit: Cintiq -ue. Told you. Don't know nothing about them.

OpenTOonz is more than an excellent choice for classic 2d frame-by-frame animation. Even better than Toonboom Harmony in my opinion. You must keep in mind that OT is very much studio production level oriented, and it shows in the way an animation project is handled. Be sure to read the first couple of chapters of the manual (see link below) to wrap your head around the concepts as used in OT.


For more painterly backgrounds Krita is a brilliant side-kick. It can also be helpful to use a 3d application such as Blender and/or Sketchup to assist you in creating quick perspective mockups for overpainting in Krita.

Get the latest and greatest release of OpenTOonz here:

https://github.com/opentoonz/opentoonz_nightlies/releases

First, a number of OpenTOonz related Youtube channels are available:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVLaNbnJtXu6j7o3Sy3eWIg

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-t3I3gSAsZWsCvsxUkBZRA

The manual can be downloaded here (Harlequin was/is the commercial version, and OT is 95% compatible):

http://www.toonz.com/cgi-shl/download/71H/Toonz%20Harlequin%2071%20User%20Guide.pdf

Two good (paper) tutorials explaining both the paperless digital and paper-based workflow can be found here (includes exercise files):

http://www.toonz.com/htm/support/suppw.htm

http://www.toonz.com/htm/support/supTWtut.htm

A more active "official" forum for questions and support is here: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!categories/opentoonz_en

As for your questions:

1. OT supports vector, "Toonz raster", and raster "levels" (the name used in OT for animated content). Bitmaps can be imported into frames. If you created animated assets in an external application (for example 3d animated backgrounds, or vehicles from Blender or a similar 3d app, or Krita background painted animations) these can be imported as a sequence of images using the following file name syntax: name.XXXX.ext (for example my3dcarAnim.0001.png, my3dcarAnim.0002.png, etc.). As long as you save your phone-shot photo sequences using this file name rule, you can directly import these in the timeline/Xsheet.
   
   
2. you can start an animation by sketching in a raster level, and then creating a vector level for inking/cleanup.
   
   
3. the latest beta version includes a quite flexible Camera Capture option: hook up a compatible webcam, and take reference shots (even entire sequences) with your web camera, and these shots are directly inserted as new frames in OpenTOonz. Useful for paper pencil tests, or reference shots. My Logitech webcam is directly supported in OpenTOonz. Super handy.
   
   
4. Importing QuickTime movies works for me. I have had little luck with AVI - too many variants of AVI out there. Do not expect stellar playback frame rates. It can be used for reference. I prefer to convert reference movies to PNG or jpg image sequences first myself, since playback is much faster.
   
   PS when you install Quicktime, PREVENT the player component from being installed. This is a known security risk. (I assume you will be working with Windows.)
   
   
5. Rotoscoping is supported (importing live footage as reference as explained in (4) and then increasing the opacity level of the reference footage. It is possible to draw over the reference footage this way.
   
   To learn more about traditional 2d animation techniques (timing, spacing, poses, inbetweening, and so on) I recommend getting the books by Preston Blair and Richard Williams, and Eric Goldberg. All three are/were masters of the craft.
   
   https://www.amazon.ca/Cartoon-Animation-Preston-Blair/dp/1560100842
   
   https://www.amazon.ca/Animators-Survival-Kit-Principles-Classical/dp/B00HTJZS48/ (get the expanded edition!)
   
   https://www.amazon.ca/Character-Animation-Crash-Course-Goldberg/dp/1879505975/
   
   Sites of interest for the beginning animator:
   
   http://animationresources.org/
   
   http://www.animatorisland.com/51-great-animation-exercises-to-master/
   
   http://johnkstuff.blogspot.ca/
   
   http://cartooncave.blogspot.ca/
   
   And most importantly, have fun learning!
   

If you want to get into animation, the best thing you can do for yourself is to jump right in.

Get this book

Want to go deeper? [Get this book too] (http://www.amazon.com/Animators-Survival-Kit-Richard-Williams/dp/0571202284/ref=la_B001H6GEXI_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1409836955&sr=1-2)

John K's online Curriculum is a series of FREE lessons and a good place to learn fundamentals

Grab yourself a pencil and a stack of paper and go. Even better, find yourself a copy of flash and get yourself a drawing tablet. This will speed up learning since you get an instant playback on your animation.

If you want to animate don't waste time sitting on your hands waiting for someone to let you learn. Get some pencil mileage under your belt. All the concepts in the world will mean nothing to you until you try them out, fail at them, re-read the learning material, and try again with a new perspective and better context to what your actually doing.

Not that I've mastered anything I'm going to tell you, but there's definitely some issues here. It appears you're drawing by contour, and not setting up your structure, gesture, and volume for the character. They are very flat, out of perspective, proportions are off, and anatomy is wobbly. There's also not a sense of weight and gravity to his punch. Forget line work and coloring for now. There's no point furnishing a house with beautiful furniture, curtains, landscaping, etc if the house itself is unstable and about ready to fall over. Basically, your fundamentals are lacking.

Books that have been recommend to me that I've been studying are:

Perspective Made Easy by Ernest Norling: http://www.amazon.com/Perspective-Made-Easy-Dover-Instruction/dp/0486404730

Cartoon Animation by Preston Blair: http://www.amazon.com/Cartoon-Animation-Collectors-Preston-Blair/dp/1560100842

These address all the issues that I've spoken of and believe me, it's my 2015 homework as well. This stuff isn't easy, but practice and repetition will get you the results you want. Keep drawing, and keep going. You'll get there. :D

EDIT: I'm going to give a shoutout to the artist Retehi and provide an example of what I'm talking about that is similar to your piece. The image below addresses many, if not all the issues I'm explaining so it's easier to see the results when you apply them. Notice the gesture (arch of the back), the 3d space in which he stands (volume and perspective), the proportions (structure and anatomy), and the weight / gravity as he's punching the bag. Try to disregard his coloring and production and focus on the character drawing itself. Hopefully this will help you in the future as a reference.

https://www.weasyl.com/submission/633588/fight-to-survive

Oh yeah, and since I seem to have written a couple other essays here, let me talk about the "how I learnt" part.

1. I was obsessed with cartoons when I was a kid. Watched a lot of them, read everything I could get my hands on about animation history and methods, drew a lot of flipbooks in the corners of my sketchbooks and notebooks.
   
2. I started analyzing cartoons by single-stepping the VCR. This was the eighties. It's a lot easier now.
   
3. I got a copy of the Preston Blair book and started trying to make sense of what he was saying in it.
   
4. I managed to cobble together a horrible, awkward animation toolchain involving drawing stuff on paper, a slow-scan-digitizer hooked up to a huge, clunky video camera, and two different software packages on my Amiga. I made all of one 30-second short with that.
   
5. I went to animation school, where they had a much better pencil-test rig that I could start to learn stuff on. Did a bunch of walk cycles. Walk cycles are really useful - they teach you a lot about the basic procedure of animating, and they're short things that you can crank out pretty quickly. Did other things too of course. Never did a personal short, I kinda regret that wasn't part of the curriculum at my school.
   
6. I started working in the industry and got regular critique from people better than me.
   
7. I burnt out and left animation to go live cheaply and draw my own comics instead. (THIS STEP IS OPTIONAL)
   
   So yeah, watch lots of well-animated cartoons, single-step them and think about what they're doing. Watch and analyze video too! Animate, critique your own work, find people to critique it, critique their work, learn to detach your own ego from your work so all this criticism doesn't leave you a sobbing/angry mess. Find keyframes from masters, try inbetweening them, compare to the actual inbetweens. Get involved in group projects.
   
   Flash really really tends to encourage a stiff paper-doll style of animation rather than providing useful tools to help you crank out the drawings. I've seen people do amazing things to work around it - a while back Pringle gave me a tour of the character setups he did for "Foster's" and my eyes popped out of my sockets - but it's a hell of a lot of work that requires arcane knowledge of Flash. Like I said, fool with Toon Boom or TVPaint instead. Or maybe
   
   Animating is a LOT EASIER than it used to be, you can buy a cheap Wacom tablet for less than a hundred bucks and get software for a few hundred more, or for nothing if you're willing to compromise your morals, and have animation capabilities I could only dream of when I was a kid.
   
   I mentioned the Preston Blair book above; it's still a major classic. I also highly recommend The Animator's Survival Kit; it's equally thorough. Both belong in any aspiring animator's library; what they teach you will help a ton in analyzing animation and making your own.
   
   AND ALSO.
   
   Here is a collection of the various exercises John Kricfalusi has given on his blog. THEY ARE AWESOME. He's bitched about being an unofficial school for the industry in the past, for good reason - he knows his stuff, and is passionate about passing it on. I learnt a lot hanging around his studio. You could do a lot worse than to start going down the list of drawing and animation exercises; they'll give you the mental tools to make stuff believably 3D.

Andrew Loomis' Figure Drawing for all it's worth
has some excellent breakdown of drawing the figure in perspective.

Michael Hampton [Figure Drawing: Design and Invention] (http://www.amazon.com/Figure-Drawing-Invention-Michael-Hampton/dp/0615272819) demonstrates an excellent constructive approach to anatomy of the human figure.

Preston Blairs Cartoon Animation isn't so much a book on figure drawing or anatomy, but a book on the process of drawing for animation. While a lot of the work might be outdated, the process can be an indispensable foundation for artists.

I would start literally with the basics. Get this book Cartoon Animation by Preston Blair. All animators will recommend this book.

There's basically two types of schools for character design for animation. There is the Preston Blair/Disney method where you simplify shapes. Then there is the DaVinci Machine/Skillful Huntsmen approach where you basically make random inkblots and fill out the rest of the character based off the strong lines that you see. Both give you a very strong silhouette. Both require going through many variations until you land on a strong design. Though without artistic skill you won't be pulling either off. Another side note, you may want to check r/design as well. Good graphic design generally also produces good character design regardless of the method you use.

Books to look for:

Preston Blair

Characters with Personality that is based off Preston Blair.

The Skillful Huntsman

Another book that utilizes the same DaVinci machine method.

Also you can find both approaches at The Gnomon Workshop with DVDs and web resources.

Get him [this] (http://www.amazon.com/Cartoon-Animation-The-Collectors-Series/dp/1560100842) which is full of this. Flash works well as a 2d animation program and is used by professionals.

This is great!

It seems she's practicing expression and posture. Might I recommend This book.

She seems to like the animation style and this is the holy grail of beginners learning how to draw in that style. I discovered it for my own use after reading this touching letter of instruction from legendary animator John Kricfalusi. You should read that letter.

Something you can contribute to your daughters hobby is helping her know the artists behind the things she loves.

Do you have a copy of Preston Blair's book? It's always been the most important entry-point bible (IMHO).

Okay, first thing to know is that you're not alone. Animation is a pretty time-consuming and daunting skill to try and learn at first, but everyone has to start somewhere - and honestly, drawing skills aside, I think that animation is one of those things where with enough practice you can get the hang of fairly quickly.

I'm guessing you probably aren't out to hear the typical "just keep practicing and you'll get better" so I'll try and stray away from that.

Speaking as a current animation student, the best thing you can do for yourself is to view as many animations from skilled and professional animators as you can.
And I'm not talking just "watching" animations; Sit down and try and critically analyze a piece of animation. Find something where the movement is interesting to you and try and reverse engineer how that animator may have constructed that scene.
After sitting through a bunch of those, find animations from more amateur or beginner animators, could be of your own animations or someone else's. Compare and contrast between what makes these professional animations work and look good, and why these other ones just don't seem to match up.

I've also taken a look at some of your animations and I don't think they're totally awful. It's clear that you're making an effort to show movement and life in the characters, despite your minimal technical understanding.

​

So, educate yourself on the technical side of things.

Read up on the principles of animation, essentially the core rulebook many industry professionals follow when creating animations. Here is a video which has a pretty thorough look at each concept, and here is a considerably shorter summary of each principle with short examples.

The Animator's Survival Kit is one of the most popular books people recommend to people just starting out in animation - it lays out a lot of the key parts of the 12 principles in deeper detail and focuses a considerable amount of the book to timing and walk cycles.
Here's also a playlist to the book in, more or less, a simplified video form.

Some other books you might want to look into are Cartoon Animation by Preston Blair, and The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation by Frank Thomas.

​

As for the program you're using, I found that Adobe is one of the more simpler and intuitive platforms to use when first learning animation that's still considered an industry standard.
Pushing through and learning the program will help you considerably if/when you decide to move on to a more advanced program.

However, if the difficulty of the software is what's keeping you from animating, I'd recommend using flipbooks and indulging in more traditional forms of animation.
Not only will you be developing a skill in an area of animation not many people today seem to be very skilled in, but it'll keep you from being distracted by all the flashy buttons and options on some digital programs.

​

Hang in there man, and keep animating.

Just get a tablet and jump in with Photoshop & Illustrator. In conjunction with After Effects, you have all you need to make animations.

If you have Photoshop extended, create some blank video layers and just start animating! It is very easy.

Buy this book and do some self taught lessons

PM if you need a tutor or further instructions.

Bouncing ball is a fantastic way to start.

these two books are the most common in schools and might be good overview:

https://www.amazon.ca/Animators-Survival-Kit-Principles-Classical/dp/086547897X/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=how+to+animate&qid=1572314270&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.ca/Cartoon-Animation-Preston-Blair/dp/1560100842/ref=sr_1_7?keywords=how+to+animate&qid=1572314270&sr=8-7

Beyond that I would practice becoming a good draftsmen, knowing how to draw basics will make it drastically easier to learn animation

This book is incredibly helpful and a great place to start
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1560100842/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_apa_i_u3X1DbK85M3GX

Yep! And really anything from Preston Blair.
http://www.amazon.com/Cartoon-Animation-Collectors-Series-Preston/dp/1560100842

Also, 'The Illusion of Life' is pretty much gospel for 2d animators.

I only realised what I wanted to do when I was 24 (Which was 3D Animation). I was rejected from 3 masters programs in 3D Animation, and then took up IAnimate last January. Since then I have worked on several paid projects, and am hoping to land my first full time industry gig soon. I did exactly what the other comments here recommended before joining IAnimate. Did some gesture drawing classes, and bought these books (1 2 3)

If you really want to do it, you will make it work. You absolutely will find a way.

I also recommend you check out cartoon animation by preston blair. even a google image search has tons of pages from the book as example

This or this
by
Preston Blair
:)

Know that there is going to be a shit-ton of work. But if the fleeting joy of seeing your creations come to life outweighs the pain of all the hard work then you might survive as an animator.

It won't really matter if you want to do 2d/3d since the principles will (should) still all be there. 3d gets a touch more technical but 2d is where you test your mettle.

First up - Absolutely w/o fail you must master the art of gesture drawings. constantly do 10sec-30sec quick renders/poses. is there life in those quick squiggles? Does it feel like the pose or motion? Good animators are some of the most phenomenal artists there are.

The rest will just be applying the fundamentals of animation (and art in general) to your creations.

Some places to start:

Animators Survival Kit - great great insights. tons of tips to watch out for, funny anecdotes about legends...

or this great intro to all the basics especially if you grew up watching classics (loony toons, wb)

Anything by Preston Blair.

Gnomon Workshop has some fun stuff too.