I would like to make my own drawings and animations. Can someone give me some advice on starting out?

[Zyre]

Hey everyone,

 

Lately I've been interested in making my own drawings and even try out animation. Seeing I'm new I wanted to ask some people in this profession for advice.

I'm not super good at drawing. Will this stop me from making fun animations or drawings?

 

I've looked into getting a tablet. The one that suits my budget is: http://www.wacom.com/en-us/products/pen-tablets/intuos-art I'm able to get the small model for €89,- here in the Netherlands. The medium sizes model is €189,-

Will the small tablet have any impact on my starting out? 

 

Hope this is the right place to ask. I'm quite exited to try this as I always loved making this my job one day.

 

[minibois]

I'm not in the profession, just a hobbyist.

 

Anyways, being not super good at drawing wont stop you from making animations, just keep practicing and you will improve. Doing specific exercises will also get you better. Just sketch the frames and draw over them to get a final animation.

Pencil2D, Adobe Flash, Adobe Animate and Toonboom Harmony are good animation programs.

 

I have the 2015 version of the tablet you mentioned (there's a review in my signature. TL;DR: it's good, the drivers are just not perfect. I have gotten used to it though) and must say I like the tablet a lot. The size of the tablet won't hinder you, although having a bigger tablet surface does allow you a bigger degree of control over what you're drawing on screen. The small version is a good starting point though.

Just a heads, the Intuos Art is on sale at the Dutch store 'Informatique' now, at 79 euros. Might be a good deal for you  

[Zodiark1593]

Download Blender. Start doing stuff now. Blender is free and open source, not only a great hobbyist tool, but competitive enough to use professionally as well. 

[Nuluvius]

Whatever happened to pencils and paper...

[minibois]

13 hours ago, Nuluvius said:

Whatever happened to pencils and paper...

Not much, which is the opposite of what happened to digital; that actually had some evolution in the last years

[Nuluvius]

1 hour ago, Minibois said:

Not much, which is the opposite of what happened to digital; that actually had some evolution in the last years

[Ithanul]

Hobbyist drawer myself.

 

Even if you not good at drawing yet, everyone had to start off somewhere.  A lot of practice and even just doing some simple sketching can help improve drawing skills.

 

Don't have a whole lot of experience with digital drawing, but the Wacom tablets are nice with the few I have messed with on occasions.  Think I got a Intuos Art laying about here somewhere.

[Animancy]

Professional animator here (that sounds dumb tho). Sorry for awful english, I'm not a native eng speaker.

 

First of all - animation and drawing are two different things. I know animators who cant even properly draw a stick figure and they make amazing animations in 2d and 3d. Animation is about the movement. As an animator you analyze your surroundings, study the physics of objects, their weight, how they interact with each other. I found about that the hard way few years ago when i started working in animation studio. I knew how to draw (at least i thought i knew) but I sucked as an animator. It was like a proper bang in the face. Took me 2 years to get to a tv production lvl - working 8h a day 5 days a week for 2 years.

Drawing is a different piece of bread  I would say, you dont need a tablet. I'm not saying you need to draw naked people (even tho it helps) or fruit baskets, but focus on drawing stuff around. Sadly, with tablet in front of your desk, its hard to get outside. Get a pencil, and some paper. Check stuff like https://www.youtube.com/user/ProkoTV or https://www.youtube.com/user/Sycra/videos . These guys are great teachers  Plenty of usefull stuff for beginners. Regarding animation - start yer adventure here http://www.animatorisland.com/ . Helpful tips

 

Second of all - ye need to know how to learn from other people mistakes. I think that's the most important thing as you're not discovering a new planet but only drawing in a way that milions of other people did before you. Always stay open minded and ready for critique. There's no better way to improve yourself than by analyzing what other people say about your work. If someone laughs at your drawings, thats even better  It might be a hint for you, ask them what was funny about it and take notes. It can be helpful later on when you start your own funny animations. But remember, show your work to other people than your family. If someone says your work is OK or amazing, they're right, but they also may say that cause youre their family. Like I said, be ready for critique and always ask for more. It'll only help you. If youre working on your animations, you can always put it on site like youanimator.com where other (mostly pros) can tell you frame by frame what needs to be improved etc. Great website

 

Thrid of all - That funny part - depends on your sense of humor  (and IMO in 95% on timing and spacing of your animations).

 

Last part - doesnt matter what equipment you have, it wont help you in drawing. Wacom Bamboo will do the job for you perfectly  Maybe consider looking for used tablets online, ye can save some bucks for a good pencil and paper.

 

Sorry for that mess - if anything, can always help.

Cheers

[MANIDY inc]

On 11/19/2016 at 0:46 AM, Nuluvius said:

Whatever happened to pencils and paper...

Becase thats easier for animation then using flash