Project Firelight: final rendering

Well, if the object was to produce one of those artistically simple but gawd-that's-awesome! compositions... I didn't even budge the needle.

It's the same thing I always do... overblown, overwrought, too much hoping the complexity will cover for essentially a blah design.

But it is Hokey and Ding roasting marshmallows... at least give me that.

Too much reliance on Photoshop wound up with highlighting in illogical places.  But...

Project Firelight: a better idea for the background

Here I've added the foreground foliage, top and bottom:

... and if you ask me, this makes the scene a little friendlier.  A little less likely for Druids to appear coercing a virgin for sacrifice and instead, a nicer place to kick back and roast some marshmallows.

I added a few bore holes in the trunk... woodpeckers, probably... and highlighted the overhanging foliage a bit as if they were capturing the firelight.  Unfortunately Venus, Jupitar and Mars got obscured a bit, hanging low by the horizon as they were.

Firelight in the forest can be incredibly scary or warm and inviting.  Just depends on your perspective.

More to come.  Stay tuned.

Project Firelight: One idea for the background

Well, somehow the "cartoony-ness" always seems to evade me.  Anyway, here's one possibility as to the background.

The fire is a trick I learned in Photoshop.  Later we'll compare the pros and cons of Photoshop flames versus painted flames... I could very well be wrong about this decision.

Compare to the blue pencil layout.  Some changes have been made, no doubt, but overall it's still the same composition.

Only thing is... what I've got here isn't spooky.  It's downright horrifying.  It looks like some type of sacrificial ritual is about to be performed in this little copse of trees.

Because the flames look as if they're being blown around in the wind this picture isn't saying "Summer" to me.  It's saying: cold and crisp, as in late Fall.  One of those clear, freezing nights of the sort you get in the mountains.  So as I say, I could very well be making a mistake with the Photoshop flames.

Also, I didn't include the foreground foliage... neither the weeds from the ground level or leaves from above... because that type of cutsi-wootsiness doesn't seem to suit the background.  Again, I could be wrong about that.  But forground foliage would serve to miniaturize the scene making it safe and cartooney.  So maybe that would be a good thing.

We shall see.

Project Firelight: first blue pencil

Here's how I visualize the basic layout:

Hokey to the left: Ding to the right.  Kickin' back and roasting marshmallows. 

A few thoughts:

1. The thin line across the midpoint suggests where the "foliage" will stop and the night sky will begin.  There's not enough room for a lot of detail... like a full moon partially covered by clouds (that'd be great!)... so I'm thinking midnight blue highlighted by some bright stars.  A clear night... maybe no moon to explain the brightness of the stars (gotta think of this stuff).
2. The sky is always lightest at the horizon and gets progressively deeper in color the further up you go.  Since the horizon in our picture is obscured by foliage, the gradient representing the darkening sky will be in fairly advanced mode where we see it at the midpoint.
3. There will be foreground foliage both from the ground level (weeds) and above (leaves)... just as in Arriaga's picture.  Things too close to the camera appear out of focus.  So, too, will our foreground foliage appear softened.
4. The furthest foliage points between the tree trunks will be absolutely jet black.  Our guys aren't camping at 6:00 in the evening... it's gettin' on midnight!  The sky by contrast will be a very deep... and I visualize, a very satisfying... indigo blue.  Stars will be so bright as to be almost be white.
5. Light cast by the fire will of course greatly highlight our guys, the rocks (with sharply contrasting shadows) and the nearest tree trunk.  The trunks further away, though, will have their lower areas illuminated by fading orange light that can't climb very high.  Firelight is very bright in proximity, very faint as you get further away.
6. The nearest highlights will be accented by bright, bright, edges.  That again is the nature of firelight.  Intense in proximity, very soft and faint at a distance.

 I want the light to say, "late Spring, early Summer... where the air holds the warmth and there is little to no haze in the distance.  Good night for a fire because you can kick back; warmth isn't an issue.  Don't huddle around the fire; lay back and lose yourself to your thoughts."

Project Firelight

Quite frankly I'm disappointed in those last 2 posts.  Ignore them.

Here's what we're gonna do.  I really enjoy the pictures from this blog: Daniel Arriaga.  This guy works for Disney and he really knows his stuff.

I like all his pictures but I love the lighting to this one:

 I'll be honest with you, though, not too crazy about the rabbit and the owl.  I'm sure I could learn to love these characters if I got familiar with them... but I don't see that happening soon.

So I got to thinking: I love the contrast and the lighting to this picture; I'd like to see it done with other characters.  But who... who would be a better casting choice?

And then it occurred to me... it's so obvious.  Why, none other than Hokey Wolf and his lil' buddy Ding-a-ling, of course:

Right? Right??!! I mean, riiiiiiiighhhhhtttt!!!!???? Hokey and Ding-a-ling oughta be nice and comfortable around that fire cooking marshmallows.


Well, OK, at least that's what I think.

So here's the game plan:

1. We draw and paint the background, including the fire.
2. We draw, paint and insert the 2 characters.
3. We then shade and highlight to capture the mood of a fire in the dark woods.

This is a mood exercise, people.  We're after that dark, spooky, but fun vibe of camping out in the woods and enjoying a fire and one another's company.  The fun keeps the strange sounds at bay.  Don't even think about bears, or mountain lions, or wolves.... wait a minute!
Stay tuned for Phase 1.

Simplicity: Drawing a Kitty Cat

In looking over some of the very excellent animators' blogs I continue to be impressed at the essence of simplicity in design.  I'll try imitating that simplicity.

For instance, to draw a cat start with a very simple shape, like so:

Add a blocky kind of head with big ears...

Fill in the eyes, mouth, nose, whiskers...

...and add a little tail.  One kitty!

Here's a side view.  Start with very simple shapes:

Choose your colors and color it in.  Add some shading... actually, I'm not sure what I'm doing with this...

I guess if you slap out hundreds of these simple little drawings it becomes a way of life.

Simplicity

Well, it's been about a month and a half.  I got real busy at work.  I had a bad cold.  I had several things I had to take care of.

But mostly, I lost my direction and I'm only now picking back up the thread.

Something I notice about most the great cartoonists' blogs... none of them are afraid of simplicity.  Quite the reverse, they thrive on it.  So I thought: here's a good way to back into learning.  Learn to simplify.

Now, this is the type of "squiggle" I used to do back in high school (many, many, many years ago).  I never thought too much of them because they were "easy" and "quick."  Quite the opposite - or so I thought - of what "real" cartooning ought to be.

I used to do thousands of these "squiggles" when I was a kid. 

But what many of the great cartoonists seem to do is to take very simple ideas like this one and run with it.  Imagine, you can color it in:

... you can really tweak the colors:

...you can shade it if you're so inclined and give it a 3-D effect:

OK, maybe I overdid it on the shading...

... slap on a background and viola!... not a half bad lil' cartoon.

This whole exercise took maybe half an hour... and that was mostly fiddling around with the colors.

Any bean or kidney shape can be a swell cartoon character.  Although it feels like a return to bad habits... well, what can I say.  Maybe somewhere it says cartooning should be quick and fun.

I am inexperienced enough to admit: I have absolutely no clue.  Just draw.  Don't fixate.  Draw!

Well, I guess it's back to my squiggles.  By the tens, the hundreds... the thousands.

Moral of story, don't be afraid to simplify.