BEFORE MERMAY ENDS!! Just wanna say I made (fish)scale brushes because scales are a pain to draw by hand. The set also includes brushes for fins.

May not be much but I plan to have this revamped for Mermay 2019 and add more scale shape variations. :>!!  Just for being a $1 pledger, you can download it at my Patreon (post includes a mini gif tutorial) (Plus access to past posts since Feburary…..ʸᵒᵘ ᵍᵉᵗ ᵃ ˡᵒᵗ ᶠᵒʳ $¹ ʰᵒⁿᵉˢᵗˡʸ ʰᵏʲᵈᵃᵇʰᵛᵃᵈⁿᵏʲ.)

Hi all! I have opened 6 Mentorship slots on Gumroad! They will fill up quick, so if you are an artist who’s feeling stuck, or want some career advice, sign up soon!

Here’s the link!

Quick Tip to Draw Straight Lines & Avoid Shaky Hand Lettering by Sean McCabe

Scale, hierarchy, impacts

From image 1 to 5 we have 5 different scales of different impacts, notice how the shapes of the smoke are all different from small to huge, this is very important in order to communicate the force of the impact.

We have a very small transparent round shaped smoke for image 2 vs a very dense with shadows and lots of little details for image 5. If you want to animate a very big explosion you have to keep in mind that the bigger it gets the more details you have to draw (debris, fire, lights and shadows, etc.), also, massive smokes are more dense and move slower. We are always trying to avoid these huge epic smokes because they are very time consuming, so it’s better to think about ways of showing big scale without actually having to draw it all. For example on image 5 the camera is following julith for a couple of seconds so all the big smokes on the bottom doesn’t need to be animated because they are out of the frame. 

this question was asked by @maginpanic:

can you advice how to handle epic scenes? (Like tsunami flooding the city, or village in fire).

If you want to communicate effectively that something is huge you need to: draw tons of details, they have to move slow, you need something small so the audience can compare and tell how big is the thing you are showing. And I recommend that the scenes don’t last too long, unless you want to spend all your life in front of the computer drawing tiny slow lines… We actually avoid this scenes at Ankama because we are a small team, so I can’t really tell you anything more useful.

Sorry about the late response! 

!!!!

My current process for drawing Undine’s water in Sleepless Domain, from the third panel of today’s page.

I’ve definitely learned a lot about bullshitting magical water since starting this comic! I hate looking back at the water in chapter 3 already D; But still lots to learn!

Nsio explains: Perspective by Nsio

Lighting tutorial (ENGLISH) by sadiek

These are good notes.

I get asked about this almost every day, and it’s always impossible to respond as an ask, so here you go .3. This is how I scan and clean my stuffs.

now everyone can STFU

Some animated running by Yoh Yoshinari (吉成曜)

Amazing!!!

Just a heads up that we’ve posted a few free mini-resources on our patreon: https://www.patreon.com/twofancyowls feel free to come grab them! No sign up for anything required :) Requests for future tutorials/projects/videos are open to patrons.

Male vs Female Torso / Body Types. (from August2016 + September2016 Patreon tutorial rewards) **Thank you for Pixiv Daily Ranking number #1 on this tutorial!! — Full version: HERE Youtube speedpaint of Male torso: HERE

Dear artist

You hate what you’ve created.

You hate how it’s somewhat lopsided. How that eye doesn’t quite line up with the other one, and how the hair looks fake, fabricated. You hate how the colors clash and how the light source is GOD knows where. You hate how your knowledge of anatomy is constantly holding you back, teasing you with a carrot at the end of the long stick; you’re so close to being what you think is pro, but you don’t know QUITE ENOUGH to keep that pose from looking wonky. You hate how everyone you admire turns out to be younger than you, or marginally older than you, because that’s when you feel the obligation, the pull of the race to be THE BEST, weighing down your reason.

But before you picked up your paint brush, your tablet pen, your pencil - what was there? A blank canvas, a blank paper, a blank, forbidding photoshop file, and the “responsibility” to get better at art as soon as physically possible.

There was nothing before you put your pencil down. Nothing before you made that first stroke. Every time you think that work is shit, I want you to look at it and remember: before you made that move, before you imagined, created this IDEA, there was nothing. Just a smattering of pixels. A blank page. What remains after you have RECREATED YOUR IDEA, moving it by use of your anatomy studies, your lighting studies, incorporating every single thing you have ever learned about art to make what you see REAL, is the result of you. It is the result of your efforts, and when it comes down to your art, it’s about you. Stop comparing yourself to others. Stop thinking there is a race to win. You can do it - you’ve made it this far. Every thing you create is a culmination of your talents, your will to create. That’s powerful. You’re powerful, and fully capable of creating anything you set your mind to.

THE END good night

Guess where this reference came from? I will say that Mad March has some of the most beautiful hands I’ve seen in years. And I know that comes off as creeper-ish but I DO mean that from a purely aesthetic point of view. He has amazing hands. The kinda hands where I could drag him into my old life drawing classes at school and other art students would be fawning over his hands. Which seems obvious now that I think about it, a bass player’s hands would be a work of art. Why have I never studied them before?

I don’t even care if this comes off as creepy. He has gorgeous hands and I had to draw them.

A few tips everybody should consider. I’ve experienced all those and some more. I’m not good at english but I hope you get it. Go and support some artists out there and let them draw you nice shit. Not as nice as FairyNekoDesu but still will be cool so give them a chance and you’ll be surprised.

THIIIIS.

All of these things.

Especially the deadline. If you don’t have a deadline thats way in advanced it’s not gonna get done by then. I am almost always taking on a ton of projects at once and sometimes need a break from it to: work on stuff for me, work on stuff for friends, search for jobs, be the work slave of parents, actually relax and try to relief stress, technical difficulties, researching on how to do stuff, ect.

Sometimes it’s done in a day. Sometimes it’s done literally a year later. But I always update the people I work with so they know I haven’t forgotten.

Do NOT rush your commissioner. Let them work at their pace and it will be worth it. Rushing them insures a rush job which will very likely make the quality decline.

All this is true. Also, ref sheets are the most important thing ever. I can’t stress that enough. They make the job A LOT easier (instead of having to compare 10 different pics between each other and see that everything fits, you just look at 1!!)  If you plan in commissioning your character a lot, or even if its not yours (like from an anime or something) Either commission one or look for ref sheets of the show (because there are!).

Also i strongly suggest not using Instant Messaging. Information can be lost pretty easily there and it’s hard to come back to it. Use emails instead. The info stays there, and it’s easy to search for it. It’s also an excellent way to keep track of the descriptions, so if either the client or artist made a mistake, you can see the email threads and see who’s right straight away. also pushy clients LOVE instant messaging. Pls no.

This post is really nice! :D

I’ve completed a few more shots from my Naruto vs Sasuke animation and figured it was about time to post another little gif of some of what I’m doing!  This time, I decided to show some of my process, for those that’re interested…

As you can see above, I have 3 separate animations at different stages of the process.  Here’s a breakdown:

[1] I always start out with a scribble test to get the general idea of what I’m doing.  It’s ugly, it’s dirty, but it’s a very important first step!  You never want to start out straight in to detailed drawings with animation.  Make sure you’re happy with the motion first, then worry about good drawings.

[2] I then did up a naked mannequin rough to figure out what I’m doing with the body.  No details on the face or clothes yet, just want to make sure I have my general proportions and anatomy where I want them.  I also worked out a lot more of the motion.  I made tweaks in the final, but I’m setting things in stone here.

[3] Finally, I dress it up, tie it down.  If you look closely, different parts of Naruto’s body are different colors.  This is because I worked in passes.  In cases with this many moving parts, it’s best to focus on one thing at a time for the best motion.  First,  I started out with his clothes.  This allowed me to experiment with how I had the cloth flapping around in the wind without worrying about the rest of what’s going on.  After that, I worked out the hands and face.  Getting the volumes of the face right can be a bit tricky when turning it in space, but there’s a few tricks I might do another little tutorial gif on in the future. Finally, I did the hair then bandana in a similar fashion as the clothes.

Hope that’s helpful to some folks out there!  I’ll be posting more of my progress in the near future.  :)

My Life as a Cartoon Network Intern (and how I think you can Intern in Animation too!) (Reblog for artists everywhere!)

Over this past summer, I was given the amazing opportunity to be a Production Intern at Cartoon Network (I worked on Clarence; woo!)

Every once in a while I get people who either come up to me in person, or who message me on Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram etc. and ask me how I got the opportunity, and how they can intern in animation as well. Recently (Over the course of the last week or so) I’ve been asked a bunch, so I decided to create this massive master post in an attempt to get the information out to as many artists (and non-artists) as possible! 

I know a lot of people who feel like getting into the animation industry is completely impossible, (I should know, I felt the exact same way not too long ago) and I also know just how LITTLE references there actually are on finding an internship, and beyond that, the type of experiences that people who gotten the chance to intern have had. I told myself that if I got the internship, I would try to change that, and here we are! (A little late, but I really want to make this as helpful as possible)

If you all could please Reblog this to your followers I would love it! You never know who’s looking and hopefully, I can help people with my experiences! 

So to make it easier for people who don’t have the time to read all of my ramblings, AND for the sake of ease/reference; I’m going to break this post up into different sections: My Internship search - My initial excitement/rejections - How I got the internship - My experience as an Intern and How Interning has helped me as an artist

My Internship search: 

Halfway through last year (My Sophomore year of college) I had decided that I would take a leap of faith and apply for some internships. I didn’t expect much of it, but my hopes were high because I thought I had at least a halfway decent portfolio, and my resume had some pretty okay animation experience on it (I’m the head of the only Animation organization on campus) and I’m majoring in animation so I had some 3D experience and 2D experience (which I’ve worked on on my own time, since it’s what I want to do) 

One of my biggest worries was the fact that I go to a state school: Southern Illinois University. The school is great, and I love it there, but I couldn’t afford art school, so I was very worried about how many opportunities there would be for me in Southern Illinois. Especially with the amount of amazing art that I see coming from people who go to schools like CalArs, Sheridan and the like. I was frustrated because I wasn’t there and felt like I would never get the opportunity to work in animation, which has been my dream since I could hold a pencil. Cartoons have changed my life, and they still do; but I was genuinely afraid that because I couldn’t afford a more art-related education, that I wouldn’t get the opportunity to tell stories like I’ve always dreamed. (But I digress) 

As I was saying: I was doing all of your standard (I want/need a job) searches to try to find something in animation: Glassdoor, Internships.com, JOBS.com; stuff like that. FUN FACT: I’ve read every single Glassdoor review for both Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon. Every Job. All of them.

Some internships are a lot easier to find: Nickelodeon, Disney, Titmouse

While some are WAAAAAY more elusive: Cartoon Network… 

This narrowed my search down from a bunch of animation studios.. to a handful. My candidates were: Nickelodeon, Dreamworks and Titmouse. (All wonderful animation studios!) Now here’s where it gets interesting:

 My initial excitement/Rejections:

I didn’t hear back from any of them! NOT ONE. Which I learned after a very long, VERY stressful waiting period. (At this time it was early to mid April) Now; I knew that I was really too young to be applying for the internships, (I’m young for my grade so I was 19 at the time) And I knew that all of these internships specified that they wanted a Junior or above, but I figured since the year was almost over and I had good grades that MAYBE, they would let me slide. But I had no real experience working in animation, and although my hopes were high, they were also reeeeeeeal low. 

After waiting for the few weeks that I did, and not hearing a peep, I was dejected, frustrated, and I felt like there was no hope for me… Which leads us to…

HOW I GOT THE INTERNSHIP: 

When it comes to how I actually GOT the job: The answer I want to give you guys is that it was complete luck, and that by a series of random occurrences, somehow I was offered the position…. BUT, that’s only half true. Honestly, I worked really hard on making sure that I had as good a résumé as I possibly could: 

By that, I mean that I’ve worked really hard in school to get good grades/dean’s list/honors program, etc.; and I also started an animation organization on campus. (There’s a major, but there was a huge lack of enthusiasm and community within the program at SIU so I wanted to help to bring other artists and myself closer, and make great art while we’re at it) 

On top of that, I wrote (what I think was) a really good cover letter. But… Even with all three of those things, I don’t know if I would have gotten the position if it wasn’t for the internship coordinator at my school. I go to Southern Illinois University, and she pointed me in the direction of the Cartoon Network internship. (The Turner website isn’t like Nickelodeon, they only post internships when there’s a position to be filled)

LUCKILY for me, the Producer of Clarence (The wonderful Keith Mack) is an alum from SIU, so he connected with the internship coordinator (bless her heart) and I learned exactly when the position opened up. My resume and things got sent straight to him. I got a Skype interview a couple of weeks later, and I got accepted the day of the interview!

So I mean… Looking back, it was half luck, half hard work. 

It’s not like the grades and stuff really matter outside of college; Grades are just arbitrary letters, after all. But, I say that to say that I’ve tried to work hard in college even though I’m not at an art school, and that if you’re focused, it doesn’t really matter WHAT you’re good at; but how hard you work and the type of person you are. You can never go to college but be an amazing artist and an amazing person, and if you meet that ONE right person, or if you’re at that ONE correct place at the correct time; amazing things can happen; and I FIRMLY believe that. 

While I was at CN I was talking to someone (I don’t know if it’s best to call her out by name?..) But anyway she was telling me about how some of the artists are found at CN and she told me that Tumblr, YES TUMBLR. Is a HUUUUUUUUGE factor in the hiring of some people! So if you can… POST POST POST! Putting your art out there is the absolute best way to get seen. You NEVER know who’s looking at your artwork, and this website is an amazing platform for sharing, and learning about art. (And as a shameless plug: The blog Artists-Everyday is actually meant for just that ;) check it ouuuuut)

But moving forward; let’s talk about: 

THE INTERVIEW:

The interview to be an intern at CN was both really intimidating, and really comfortable at the same time. I love animation pretty much more than anything, so the idea that a single interview could determine whether or not I got a life-changing opportunity was pretty much one of the most daunting things that I could think of. The fact that I was in southern Illinois RIGHT at the time that I would have had to interview really didn’t help either… It was really scary to me, because it meant that I wasn’t going to be able to interview in person. It was a Skype interview, (a group one at that) and it was my first time ever interviewing for a position online. 

Once I got past all of the initial fear, the interview was smooth sailing. They had already seen my resume and cover letter; so we really just spent a lot of time talking about casual things: my favorite animated movie, what my favorite episode of Clarence was, etc. It wasn’t like your usual interview where they ask “why would we hire you” or “what is your greatest weakness” and I really appreciated that. They weren’t robots, they weren’t the ANIMATION GODS like I was imagining in my head – they were actual people, who happen to love animation, and the interview reflected that. 

I learned that I had gotten the position the day that I interviewed, and I’m SO GLAD I didn’t have to wait any more days, because at that point I was on fire on the inside. II don’t know what the hiring process was like for interns on different shows, so don’t take my word for how long it’ll take if you make it this far) 

MY EXPERIENCE AS AN INTERN/HOW IT’S HELPED ME AS AN ARTIST:

There is no one word to describe how amazing it is to work at Cartoon Network. A lot of CN stuff is “hush hush” high security, and they don’t allow you to take pictures of the inside of the buildings - So I’m not going to say much, other than: It’s magic. Pure magic. But I will say one thing: Free food. AT ALL TIMES. EVERY DAY. 

Working there is one of the most creatively satisfying things I’ve ever done in my life. The people, the atmosphere… it was all so inspiring. I’ve learned more in those past three months than I have in the last two years, and It’s all because I was surrounded by so many people who are better than me. People, who I might add, are some of the greatest, nicest, and most helpful people I’ve met in a long time. Plus, Cartoon Network really goes out on a limb to take care of their employees. 

I got to sit in on voice actors doing their recordings, I got to see storyboard pitches, I got to see animatics and assets for episodes that were unaired, and it was all being created right in front of me by such PASSIONATE people. 

I EVEN GOT TO MEET TOM KENNY. He remembered my name… 

As a production intern you get to see the logistic side of things: and you really grow to appreciate Production and that side of the industry, because without the production team, there would be no show! Even though I want to be a storyboard artist, I now know more about the industry and Cartoon Network as a whole, and it makes me feel much more connected to the shows that I watch on television.

One of the other biggest things about the program is the fact that I got to take storyboard/character design tests for practice, and I got the chance to pitch a show to the studio, in front of the Clarence Crew and even some really important executives! which was an AMAZING opportunity that I learned a TON from. I got amazing feedback, and I had to push myself harder than I’ve ever pushed myself before. Mentally, artistically, and personally. 

IN CONCLUSION. 

It’s possible. Being an intern at an animation studio is possible. Getting a job in animation is possible. Making friends in animation, and actually feeling like you belong to something you’ve dreamed about since you were a child is POSSIBLE. It doesn’t matter where you go to school, it doesn’t matter if you’re afraid, and it doesn’t matter what you look like. People are drawn to people who are genuine; and if you love animation, or production, or storyboarding or character design, and you work hard and try to really open yourself up artistically; you CAN do it. Take it from the 20 year old black guy who loves anime, video games and cartoons. You can do it. 

I don’t know how many people will see this or how helpful it actually is; but PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE feel free to share this info with your followers, and on top of that if you guys EVER have any questions about my experiences or need me to clarify anything for ANY reason you’re absolutely welcome to contact me! 

I know how many people would love to intern, and I know (from experience) how DREADFUL It is to find conducive information about how the process works and how YOU can get an internship. 

Hope you guys stuck with this post till the end, and like I said if you ever have any more questions, (hell, or if you even want to share YOUR art with me… I’m always open!) 

TL;DR:                  This Gif Sums it Up 

-Sean