Drawing the Human Body - The One Thing You Need To Know

In order to draw the human figure well, you need to have a good knowledge of human anatomy. Yet many artists today still hang on to the myth that good figure drawing does not involve studying anatomy. Perhaps the reason so many artists feel this way is because they never saw first hand what a big difference a little anatomical detail can make to their sketches.

In this article, I'd like to give you some quick but important points about the human body and how they pertains to your figure drawing.

Of all the aspects of human anatomy, the muscles will undoubtedly have the most impact on how your drawings look, as it is at the very surface. One thing to remember about muscles is that they always pull; every movement that you make is the direct result of one or more muscles contracting and pulling on your bones. What this means is that when the figure you are drawing is engaged in dynamic action, you must pay attention to the muscles involved and depict them accordingly.

For example, if you are drawing a boxer who is throwing a right hook, you must ask yourself, "Which muscles are pulling in order to make this action possible?" Then you would draw those muscles as flexing. In this case, the flexing muscles would be the pectoralis major, the deltoid, and the biceps, to name a few. In most cases, a particular movement will involve multiple muscle groups and the more muscles you can depict, the more convincing your drawings will be. Without this, your drawings will look static and lifeless.

Your ability to recognize and draw these muscles will improve as your knowledge of anatomy increases. As a beginner, you might only be able to draw big muscles like the bicep or shoulder, but as you progress in your study of anatomy, you'll be able to add in finer details like the supinator longus and the anconeus. This will give your drawing an extra dimension of realism.

Just a light knowledge of anatomy can do wonders for your drawing. For example, there are many muscles in the neck but there is one particular muscle that artists should pay attention to. It is the sternocleidomastoid. It connects behind the ear and attaches to the collar bone. This muscle is very prominent and can be seen on almost everyone. Simply by adding this one muscle to your drawings of the neck, you can instantly make it ten times more realistic. This should show you how useful human anatomy is to the figure drawing artist.

3D Computer Graphics And How To Make Them

There are a number of ways to generate or make 3D computer graphics. Before we discuss how to make 3D computer graphics let us consider what they are and their beginnings. 3D animation has been around since the beginning of motion pictures. They were first used in the early films as "King Kong" and even earlier films such as The Humpty Dumpty Circus (1897). The movie King Kong (1933) is distinguished for its stop-motion animation. This is a form of 3D animation. When creating this type of animation the objects or characters that appear in the motion picture are moved in small increments. Each increment is photographed. each increment represents a frame in the film, and when played in a continuous sequence the illusion of motion is achieved. Clay figures were often used in this early 3D animation technique. This was often called "clay-mation".

3D Computer graphics like any 3D animation, gives the illusion that characters are in a three 3D world, which is how we view our world. They look like they are in a space which includes length, width and depth. When being generated by a computer program, geometric data is used to produce the effect of three dimensions. Of course earlier 3D animation such as stop-motion, did not use computers to produce this effect. They relied on the clay figures to produce the 3D effect.

Today animators use 3D computer animation software to produce many of the special effects we see in movies. In fact there are many movies that have been produced they have been completely generated by various computer animation programs. One such example is the film "Ice Age". This was a highly successful film and was released in 2002 by 20th Century Fox.

3D computer graphics are created by using 3D animation software. This is how these graphics are created in today's world. There are many software packages to choose from. There are many commercial packages available, as well as free packages you can use. Each of these software packages will offer their our unique features and many will have common features found in other packages. If you are interested in creating 3D animation there are many ways to start. If you are new to the animation process it is recommended you begin with a program that is easy to learn and can generate basic, but high-end graphics. You don't have to spend thousands of dollars to create high-end 3D animation. You just need to get access to the software that is affordable and can produce the results you are looking for.

Learning to Animate - Step by Step Guide to Animation

Becoming a full-blown animator is a long, arduous process that most won't ever make it even halfway through. This is not to discourage you, but rather, to state the obvious: art is difficult to create. Even if you're lucky enough to have all the true assets required to be successful in the field (i.e. artistic talent, drawing capabilities, production efficiency, etc.), that doesn't mean those factors will mesh together and set afire a glorious road to success for you. Instead, you'll have to rely on your current talents, continue to build on those talents while adding new ones, and hone those skills while you wait for just a bit of luck to cross you by (OK, maybe a whole hoard of luck).

Now that I've sufficiently depressed you, let's get back on a positive note. This is not, I repeat, NOT impossible. Laying out an effective game plan for your approach to success is key to making this all work out for you in the end, however, so let's begin with the first step. Though not the most exciting part of becoming an animator by any means, laying out your vision for the animation you want to create can help you identify what remaining needs you have. Once identified, you can start working towards acquiring the tools and skill sets you require to overcome or accomplish those needs.

The most essential thing to remember about animation is that it amplifies any problems that you may already have with still images. Even though a still picture often tells a story, story doesn't play the same crucial role as it does in animation. Motions need motivation to make sense, so laying out a story line is absolutely the first thing you want to do. If your animation idea is primarily visual at this point, setting up a blackboard or easel and drawing out parallel visual and story elements can be very useful.

One of those easels with multiple sheets of paper that you can fold back, similar to those easels your elementary school teachers used, is probably your most useful tool. Start by drawing a simplified version of the first 10 seconds of the story you want to animate. Now, turn each second into 3 pictures, so you can show some of the minute motions happening during those three seconds. Remember, each second will eventually contain 24 separate pictures, or frames, so if this process is already becoming tedious for you, now may be the time to reconsider becoming an animator. Continue drawing until you have those first 10 seconds sketched out. What have you accomplished? A lot more than you'd initially think. You've created your first crude animation, and in the next article, we'll talk about filling in those missing elements. If instead you've decided to give up, I still insist that you keep on drawing. The animation world is vivid and complex, and though we're approaching the whole process here, you would never be hand animating a motion picture by yourself, so don't stress yourself out too early.

You've been there before. Face to face with a friend. You ask her how she's doing. She says "fine." But you know she's lying.

How is this relevant to creating animations? It's extraordinarily relevant!

The reason you know she's lying, despite her words directing you to the contrary conclusion, is that her facial expression is telling you. Sure, words can speak the truth, but they are also the most easily manipulated form of communication people rely on. Facial expressions, on the other hand, rarely lie. Even the most practiced people in the art of deception have difficulty getting away with false expressions forever.
As you begin to animate, you'll need to be able to draw convincing expressions on the faces you're drawing. Characters brought to life require human qualities to be mentally and emotionally resonant with your audience. Many people are quick to identify a disconnect between the story you're trying to tell and the visuals they're actually seeing. That disconnect can be a huge burden on you, especially if you've worked so hard to get everything else right. Below, we'll go over some critical tips designed to help you create animations with authentic expressions of emotion. Technique at this stage is less crucial than the need to convey the correct emotion or feeling.

Step 1: Find a place to draw where you can easily erase parts of your work and refill the missing spaces. A pad of paper and a pencil with an eraser can work, but is less than ideal, as eraser marks can become problematic with relentless erasing. A dry erase marker board is the most useful tool, as it's easy to wipe away mistakes, so you can quickly correct a facial expression you've drawn that isn't quite perfect.

Step 2: Attempt to draw three of the most basic emotions portrayed on human face. Start with 'happiness,' then move on to 'anger' and 'sadness.' This part of the process can be a bit tedious, but keep drawing faces with these emotions, over and over again. What you're doing is building up versatility. After you've drawn two hundred angry faces, you'll have drawn enough variations of them to always be able to pull the 'right' angry face out of your pocket and use it in an animation.

Step 3: Now that's you've gotten the basics of the three major emotions down, attempt to transition from one to the other. Being able to accurately portray a transformation from a happy face to a sad one can help you convey deeper emotions underlying your overarching story. Moving from happy to sad can be poignant, and this can help set your animation apart.

Step 4: Expand. Move on past the basic three emotional expressions, and draw everything from an insane face to a depressed face. The minute details here, such as the small variation between a sad face and a depressed face, can help you capture in your art even the most detailed facial expressions. Limiting yourself to sad, angry, and happy won't get you very far in the end.

Learn How To Draw Step By Step - Getting Started Sketching Cartoons

Should you intend to learn how to draw step by step one of the most illustrious and favorite form of sketches to learn would be cartoons. These are extremely amusing to watch or read. If you like to be taught to illustrate cartoons, hereunder are the straightforward issues you ought to be familiar with for you to be able to begin producing your own.

1) Pick Your Medium: Still Or Moving?
The medium that you will be using is incredibly important. When you learn how to draw step by step you will recognize this will have an effect on the overall impact and appearance of your work. What do you want to do? Do you want to go for single cartoons or else cartoon strips like the types you get to see on the comic page of your newspaper or else do you plan to achieve a full size movie? Selecting one will influence how you start. However, for novices, it may be best to keep the movie for later!

2) Who is The Major Character?
When you learn how to draw step by step and cartoons are what you have chosen to understand you would need to settle on a main character. Is it a male or female? Is it human or an animal, or else maybe a vegetable? What are its central aspects? Usually, cartoons end up with exaggerated points.

3) Begin With Planning And Illustrating
If you have looked at a movie storyboard, you'll see it is just a rough and ready outline and overview of what will be happening on a particular scene. It doesn't have full explicit particulars on it. If you be looking to sketch a strip, it would be best for you to sketch out what would be happening in each one of your frames. Get the summary of what you need your final cartoon to look like.

When you learn how to draw step by step please make sure that you're still having just as much joy from it all or else it will almost not be worth it. Sketching cartoons is entertaining, they were initially created for entertainment consequently it is only appropriate that people must get just as much happiness out of creating them as individuals do in reading or watching them. When you learn how to draw step by step the above information will help you get started in illustrating the cartoon of your choice.