What I learned from the Gobelins Master Class on Animation pt3

This last section of "What I learned from the Gobelins Master Class on Animation" is gonna be much shorter than parts one and two because the tail end of the talk was very animation (ie frames of animation) focused, so there wasn't a lot of stuff for me to bring over to my illustration work.  However there were at least two things brought up during the talk that I think were very important.

What Leads Your Character?

In other words, the body part that the character chooses to lead their walk can give you an inkling about that character's personality.  To help explain this I sketched out the samples that were given to us above.  During the actual talk, Alexandre was actually miming these motions so they were even more impactful, but even these still images prove the point quite well.

What Questions Should You Ask Yourself?


The last thing I'm going to share with you sounds really simplistic and obvious, but I'm finding that knowing what questions to ask yourself when creating an artwork can be the most important thing of all.  When you're creating an artwork in isolation it's often hard to tell if you're doing a good job or not.  Some artists are good enough to just look at their artwork and instinctively "know" that something's wrong, but I'm not quite there yet. If you're in the same boat as me, here are some questions you can ask yourself when you want to self critique your work:

• have I brainstormed and chosen a story the feels right and clear and original?
• Do I have a clear idea how I will stage my scene and create an interesting composition?
• Do I like it?
• Am I communicating my ideas clearly?
• Is everything in the image there for a purpose?

I've already learned some of this stuff via Jason Manley's video tutorial on composition, but it's good to have a reminder from another source to help reinforce it.

That bring us to the end of this "What I Learned" series, which I hope some of you have found useful.  Please check out the links above for parts one and two and do drop me a line if you've found this useful or have any suggestions about how to make it better.