The guy from BluishDot
The guy from BluishDot
The guy from BluishDot
Here’s the first attempt at level 1. It was quite a tricky exercise. Some of them ended up being completely off. Luckily the checking method from the proportions project works here as well. This was really helpful for finding patterns in my mistakes. In any case, a lot more practice is necessary. Any additional critique is always welcome.
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The guy from BluishDot
Great video! I always enjoy watching these. It’s always really useful to compare the critiques to my own work and see what applies. Here are also a couple more attempts after checking some of the lines with a colored pencil. (I’m not sure what I was going for with the table in the second one… I wanted to try something “modern” that’s mounted to the wall, but it ended up looking like the back panel from a basketball hoop :D)
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Steve Lenze
The second one looks a little "rubber hose" in the arms, and the head should move in an arch, not up and down, it looks like a bouncing ball. The legs look good, but the main action is always easier than the secondary movements like the head and arms. Also, the top of the arm is just sliding across the torso, you should indicate a shoulder to give the character structure. Even cartoon characters have bones and structure, the lack of it is why the arms look "rubber hose." Also the torso is a little stiff, find away to have it be part of the walk. The timing is good and your volumes are consistent, the body tilting right to left is also nice. Keep at it :)
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The guy from BluishDot
Hello again @Steve Lenze! I hope you are doing well. I was hoping to get your thoughts on another walk cycle I did.  For this one I also attached the reference I took from The Animator's Survival Kit. That unconventional passing position really caught my eye and I wanted to see where I could go with it. Overall, I quite like how it turned out and the process for this was a lot more fun than I anticipated. I tried to give the head a slight arc motion and thanks to the reference pose from the book, the body ended up being a lot more dynamic. Still, something feels a bit off in the head and body. Maybe I could have fine tuned the spacing in the bending of the body and also exaggerated the arc of the head more. I also kept your notes regarding the shoulder in mind. However, since my anatomy knowledge is pretty basic (working on improving that) this part felt mostly like stumbling in the dark, hoping to come across something that looks right. If you’ve got a couple of minutes to spare I would really appreciate your feedback on this. Thank you!
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The guy from BluishDot
These are some very useful pointers – exactly what I was hoping for! Thank you Steve!
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The guy from BluishDot
A new attempt at level 1. This time I gave the grid a try.
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The guy from BluishDot
Here’s my attempt at level two. I rushed the overhead lights a bit. I not quite sure what I was going for and they ended up looking quite messy.
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The guy from BluishDot
Here is my first attempt. I messed up the left side in the beginning and only realized it at the end. Luckily with this project it’s quite easy to check yourself and see what went wrong.  
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The guy from BluishDot
 All right. I’m excited for the new chapter. Here we go!
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@anhhong
Not totally happy with the drawings but I'm so glad I spent time for it.
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The guy from BluishDot
Hi there! I think these drawings turned out really nice!   I would say that the best thing to do right now is to go ahead and watch the demo. After that, make sure to give the project another try. This type of exercise can be a bit uncomfortable if you’ve never done it before (at least that’s how it was for me). However, once you get more familiar with being in this state of exploration, practicing drawing from imagination becomes really fun.  I also noticed that your lines show some really nice confidence, but after multiple passes they end up looking a bit scratchy. What really helped me was to give the colored pencil a try. The waxy texture really allows you to be more loose with your lines and it’s much easier to control the pressure. This is especially useful in situations like these, where you have to explore a lot and where the first line you draw might not be the one you were looking for. For me it made a really big difference and I would encourage you to at least give it a try. :D I hope this helps. Good luck!
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The guy from BluishDot
Hello everyone! A while back, as part of an animation fundamentals course, I had to do a simple walk cycle from the side (first attached image sequence; design of the character is referenced from the example of the teacher). The result was an exaggerated walk with a really wide stride (which is in line with the requirements of that particular exercise). Overall, I was happy with the result except for the arms. With the arms I was going for a more relaxed feel but they ended up being way to stiff. With that in mind I had another go at it (this time using the character design from The Animator's Survival Kit). I’m much happier with this result (second and third image sequences). It looks a bit silly but for a cartoon character I think it fits quite nicely. Still, I am looking for ideas on how on improve it or any mistakes that my inexperienced eyes missed. So, if anyone has any critique to offer I would highly appreciate it. Thank you! (The first and second image sequences are on 4s without inbetweens. The third image sequence has inbetweens a well.)
The guy from BluishDot
I did another set after watching the demo. This time I tried to be more mindful of ignoring the details and finding the flow, capture accurate proportions and also be mindful of line quality. These are some examples side by side (first before the demo, then after the demo). The results seem to me mostly hit or miss (not happy at all with the line quality) but it’s nice to see some progress overall. Any critique is appreciated.
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The guy from BluishDot
Hi everyone, I attempted the set before watching the demo. Here are just of couple of the results. I'm not really happy with how they turned out. I think I focused too much on details and individual bumps. However, after going over the eBook and watching the first demo I'm ready for another go. In any case, I think it’s a really fun exercise. I’m also curious to try and see how this method translates to drawing animals. Should be interesting. :D
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The guy from BluishDot
Since my first attempt turned to be very challenging, I decided to come back and redo this project at least once per month. Here are some of the results:
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The guy from BluishDot
Here’s another batch after watching the second demo. I did 5 drawings from reference and then 5 from memory/imagination (last two images). Any critique is appreciated.
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The guy from BluishDot
Here's another batch after watching this demo. I find the "subtle ones" to be the most challenging. For example, I’m not at all happy with the first image in the bottom right corner (among others). Any critique is appreciated. Thank you!
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The guy from BluishDot
Hello everyone! Here’s my submission for this project (before watching the demo). I was very excited to try this one, but the execution turned out to be way more complicated than I imagined. I did the drawings in batches of 10. After each 10 I tried the level 2 assignment and did a page from memory/imagination. I’ve paired the drawings with their corresponding reference image to make it easier to follow which one is witch (I'll add the rest of them in the comment section since I've hit the 20 images limit in this post). Any critique is highly appreciated. Thank you.
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The guy from BluishDot
(Sorry for the mess. I didn't realize there were so many.)
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@jmbouman
Went ahead and tried this assignment out with a fish called a mudskipper. Chose mudskippers because they are rather expressive (as far as fish go) and they just seem a bit proud and showy. The drawing is what I came up with. Any critique is appreciated.
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The guy from BluishDot
Hi there! The subject you chose looks really interesting. You made me curious to learn more about mudskippers. :D As far as critique goes. The one thing that stands out the most to me is the line quality. It looks a bit shaky and “unsure.” Maybe you could do a couple more practice pages of drawing confident, tapered lines (don’t forget to use your whole arm). Maybe even watch Proko’s previous videos again - “How to Draw Confident Lines - The Tapered Stroke“ and “Searching Lines.” It always helps me to rewatch some of the older lessons. Even though I think I understood everything, I always find that there are a couple of things I missed or just forgot. This is normal and having the lessons in video format is a big advantage since we can rewatch them whenever needed. After practicing your confident strokes you could maybe take one of the reference photos of the mudskipper and do a “mini CSI” exercise with it. Just like you did with the snail or the boots. Think only in terms of simple CSI lines and focus on drawing them as confidently as you can. Afterwards, if you want, you can give this project another try and see how it goes. I hope this helps. Take care and don’t give up!
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The guy from BluishDot
Here's a new attempt at this project. It took me a while to realize that I was making the eyes completely flat. :D Any critique is appreciated.
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The guy from BluishDot
Another attempt at this exercise – study after Oleg Yurkov. For the first drawing I started with a colored pencil sketch. I wanted to be able to focus on studying the actual line quality and not worry about proportions. After that I did 2 sections from the explorer spider with the gun (the head and the gun). I also really liked the pirate murloc illustration. Since this one didn’t have any clear outlines, I decided to take some sections from it (frog and “spyglass”) and I tried to apply what I learned in my previous attempts. Very insightful and fun exercise. I decided to make a habit out of doing one of these at least once a month. Any feedback is appreciated.
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The guy from BluishDot
Some new attempts at practicing these concepts:
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The guy from BluishDot
Hello James, Thank you for the course! I found it very useful and I always come back to it whenever I’m practicing walk cycles. In another animation basics course I’m working through, I had to do a simple side view of a walk cycle. The point of the exercise was to familiarize myself with the structure and main poses of a walk cycle (not make anything polished). I ended up making three versions – arms bent, arms loose, and carrying a box (there are no inbetweens and the animation is on 4s). At the end of the exercise, I did some self-analysis (the best I could) and came up with some notes for myself. Since I value your expertise on this subject, I was hoping you could offer some additional guidance: 1. At first, I was confused by the extreme height difference between the “Down” and “Up” pose (I measured everything a bunch of times to make sure that it wasn’t me not keeping things consistent). Later I realized that the wide stride is in fact really exaggerated compared to a normal walk (I tried to walk this way around the house and it was pretty difficult :D). In any case, the extremely wide stride seems to be the cause for the height difference between the poses (please let me know if I missed something). 2. Out of the three variations for the arms, I think the first one with the bent arms fits best. I don’t really like how the second one turned out. I was going for a more relaxed feel but to me it just looks completely off. If I were to try this version again I would probably have the tilt of the body be in the other directions, so that he’s leaning backwards a bit, and work from there (and of course have the steps be narrower). 3. The third version also seems a bit off. The way I made the box move up and down seems to imply that it has a bit of weight to it. However, if that were the case, holding it with the palms from the side doesn’t really make sense. If the box were to be empty, so that the way the character is holding it would make more sense, then I think the animation of the arms would have to be adjusted (I would really like to know your thoughts on this). Any additional feedback is highly appreciated. Thank you!
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