Animation Source Forums

Dear Community,

Congratulations on showing such brave support and love for this wonderful animated world! Having only just joined the fun, I've been dying to find something to do to help this project truly take off.

After talking with Steet and taking a moment to get acquainted with where your project is, I believe I can help you all by producing illustrated content designed to support Animatics and other productions related to final animation of episodes. I propose producing a reverse-engineered Model Sheet Set for all characters involved in the show.

Most of you are aware that the Model Sheets, the objects animators use to get a large number of individual artists to reliably draw the same character the right way, have experienced partial distribution throughout the internet. Some bits and pieces have been found but much of the Tale Spin Series' Intellectual Property remains lost or held by a small number of people who either can't or won't make them available to the community. This limitation is where I think I can help you the most by rendering a proper Model Sheet Set for all characters standard to the show plus all additional characters created for the Pilot.

I am a graduate from the Art Institute of Portland Oregon and while the school didn't really want to teach anyone how to properly animate in 2D with pencil, pen and paint; resources abound on the internet and I intend to self-teach everything my college was deficient in. To start, I am using a fusion of actual stills from the show and what model sheets I've been able to collect over the years. I will submit what I have found to Steet and work back from there. For your benefit, allow me to submit a list of proper rules I will be following during this content creation process so others may assist in keeping me on task.

Each Character Model Set will include pages representing the following necessary images:
1. A Head Height Construction Chart. This is a 'by number of head balls high' reference image to help
2. A Character Turn-around showing what the character looks like from the typical angles. Front, 3/4ths Right, Side, 3/4ths Back Right and Back.
3. A Head Detail and turn around showing what features the characters face has for close up shots and acting.
4. A Clothing Diagram of the most typical clothing worn on the character. Special costumes will be part of a separate sheet.
5. Facial Mouth Shapes. This is, after all, 2D animation and each character will have different ways of forming the basic consonants. These will be diagrammed on three sheets, one apiece for the head facing Front, 3/4ths Right and Side.
6. A Hand Detail sheet to show both gestures and object manipulation as well as typical at-rest positions.
7. Emotive Headshots and Bodyshots to show what the character typically looks like when in an emotional state. This provides the ground work for wild takes and complex emotive acting since you typically combine two basic emotes to get more complex ones.
8. Special Additions. These are like the pages of the Dark Wing Duck Model sheets posted here: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Hbcn71xGQz0/T ... eet_02.jpg All the pages found at this level of the set are to define special outfits, special character interactions or some pose and action images to complement the characters personality.

It's going to be a lot of drawing but starting here should help the community more than anything else I can currently supply. At the end of it, it's good exercise and above all: plenty of practice. Starting out slowly is the key to ensuring that this project will succeed. Wish me luck and definitely post a reply if you think there is anything I missed.

Kit Cloud Kicker
Head Height Construction Sheet
Rebecca Cunningham
Head Height Construction Sheet
Baloo the Pilot
Head Height Construction Sheet

Vehicles

Sea Duck
Plane Isometric
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This sounds good. I'm thinking of joining back as an artist soon because I've been practicing a whole lot, except with the Teen Titans, DW Duck, anime, etc. style.

Aku, have you worked on any animated series before? Also, any word of advice to people who wanna get involved in the animated world/comic book world?

Dear JerRocks,

I have yet to make my break into animation. I graduated in 2007 and we all know what happened to the economy in 2008... still I am in high spirits. Despite not having any experience, I try to keep my skills sharp and practice as much as I can. I've recently moved and now have a dedicated spot in my home for art since I now live in a single. I did, for class, once animate 40 seconds of film with two characters. I have all of the un-shot frames in a bag in my safe where they are kept unmolested. Shooting at 30 Frames a Second on "2's" means a total of 600+ illustrations to be furnished in 2 months. I may not have gotten an A on the assignment but I was part of the only group to finish it!

Words of advice? Well, there are a lot of things I could say but in the end it all boils down to one thing: what do you WANT to get out of this? If you want to learn to draw pretty pictures to periodically break up a daily boredom, you can find out how to do that kind of art on the internet fairly easily. If you want to resurrect 2D Animation for the Big Screen and new HD TV, well there's more to do for that and I don't have all of those answers.

If you want to be an artist, all you have to do is three easy steps.

1. Sit your butt in the chair.
2. Sit your butt in the chair.
3. Sit your butt in the chair.

You can't get to any kind of skill without practice. You can't get to mastery without practicing the right things. And you can't get anywhere without finishing the things you start. I recommend four pages filled with sketches a day as a good starting point. If you want to know anything else specifically, I will help as best as I can or point you to someone smarter than me to help you further.

Come with me! I'm going to a place where nifty things happen!

Hi Aku,

If you're interested in joining the team, please check out the "VS Organization" thread in the VS management forum. We'll need to add your name to the list. Thanks!

Thanks for the heads up, Aku.

Yeah, I've been told the key to great artwork is constant practice. I even talked with a character designer of Hellboy animated, and he's said that art education is important, but the degree is useless. It's also important to become knowledgable in all forms of art, if you wanna draw better.

If you can critique my work (if it's alright with you), here's my link:
http://jerrocks2day.deviantart.com/

Wow! I actually didn't know that! Makes me even more impatient to see your work (no stress though! )

Well, I forgot to mention that we did some quick modelsheets for some characters (especially Opus) :









But they're not as complete as what you're mentioning. The more's the better! So if you can do some of your own, that would be greatly appreciated!


I wish you the BESTEST luck, but do tell us if you've got some problems or if you want some of us to help doing the model sheets!

The official character modelsheets (the ones Disney actually used for the series) are linked below.

http://animationarchive.net/TV/Series/TaleSpin/Model%20Sheets/index.php

We can create our own modelsheets, but I think we should definitely be using these as a reference.

Yes, they're great, but these ones are hardly complete (some of them are even from Jungle Book and not Talespin...)

staying true to the model can be very difficult. It's hard not to let your own drawing habits get in the way.

I wish there were some way I could help... What (free) programs would you suggest?
I might try and create a few turn around models based on scenes from the show.

If it helps, I have a pen tablet

The focus of this activity is to get within 90% similarity of the actual style of art used for the show. What I am using to get to that skill level is a free, online class of exercises proposed by the most unlikely of animators: John Kricfalusi.

http://johnkcurriculum.blogspot.com/

Those of you who know him are likely groaning already, but his exercises and his theories aught to help teach me the things that AIPDX could not. John K, like him or hate him, does make arguments as to how a person goes out to become a great cartoonist. He has documented what constitutes proper cartooning fundamentals and, if practiced, will eventually get you to produce passable work that can then be honed into raw skill. The objective of a cartoonist is to be without style and personal flare, to function as a machine that takes the abstract ideas in our minds and fashions suitable 2D renderings of those complex thoughts that are immediately recognizable as so and so. This is what John K is all about and despite becoming somewhat of a caricature of himself, he has done us the kindness of offering these very simple and effective means of achieving just that end; for free. If you want to get good at doing cartoons just for cartooning's sake, check him out.

I've recently moved from a 2Bed 2Bath with a roommate to a Single all on my lonesome. After I get my house in order, (how much crap can a guy honestly collect over a short period of three years?) I will get underway in filling out the missing model sheets and getting the fan characters made out as well. When this is at last complete, well, we can do anything we want. But the foundation of our ambitions must be laid here before we get on to doing anything else. That is what should be, in my humble textbook experience, accomplished first. Lets see what we can do?

Yes! But I admit I want to know what YOU can do, fcurrently

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I never have enough time at work to do much while sitting on my hands. I hope to change that. Having the Animation Blocking for Kit printed out and mobile, I took it with me to work and doodled these. When I got back home that night, I belted this sketch out in about 20 mins.



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Technically, I lied. I uploaded these at around 0003 so I did not do the one a day that I wanted. But, using the model sheets makes this work out very well. Once I get savvy enough to really turn this material out, I will supplant all the missing Model Sheet portions to the set. Then we can really get cracking! To bed now! Oh so late for me...

Looks very very close to on-model. Something seems a teeny tiny bit off, It's not big enough for me to know what it is though Maybe not enough forward cheek on the last image.
Otherwise it's excellent!

I look forward to getting a hold of the complete construct sheets so I can give a hand somehow.

For final frames, do you want scanned-in artwork, or digital?

I like the one with him running, and the one with him sitting. Good job.

Same thing to me, maybe the eyes? (it's very difficult to get on-model eyes) Or the muzzle.
Apart from that, it's looking very good!!!