Sunday, October 24, 2010

Squidoo Page- Setting up an inexpensive animation studio

Presently, I am working at a high school about 60 miles north of Laredo in southern Texas.

I approached the assistant superintendent with an idea for an after school animation club. I put some time into researching the equipment necessary, and figured I'd but it on line for anyone else who might be interested.


The Link:

How to set up an inexpensive home animation studio

A low-cost list of animation supplies, perfect for teens, beginners, or even professional artists who want to get their feet wet in 2D animation.

The Supply List

1) Camera- Canon Powershot A490
@ $100
Amazon link below
You will need a digital camera that can be used with a motion capture software. Canon's Powershot series comes with built in motion capture software. This is the under 100 dollar version. Many of these cameras require AA batteries, which would be a hassle. Use the power cable included with this model instead.

2) Copystand- Adorama RS CS305
@ $49.95
Amazon link below
You will need a copystand, which is a fancy tripod that can hold a camera at a 90 degree angle. This lets you photograph your drawings for the animation. This is a great stand at a really great price.

3) Lightbox- Artograph Lighttracer
@ $30
Amazon link below
When drawing, you will need to trace over previous drawings. To do these, you will need a lightbox. These can run into the hundreds of dollars, but the one below is great and extremely affordable.

4) 1/4" round 3-hole pegbars- Lightfoot Ltd Round Pegbar
@$4.75
Sold here: http://www.cartoonsupplies.com/product_info.php/products_id/90?osCsid=\\\\\\
Pegbars are used for keeping your drawings registered and in place while tracing. You will need two. One bar is used on your lightbox for tracing, and the other should be on your copystand for when you are shooting your animation. While there are animation pegbars that use a specialized set of pegs, buying the 3-hole pegbar allows you to use a 3-hole punch on regular copy paper as an alternative to expensive, specialized animation paper.

5)Three hole punch- 1/4"
@$10
All paper needs to be punched so it can be put on a peg bar, which keeps the drawings lined up while tracing. It has to be a 1/4 inch if you don't want your drawings to slide on the pegbars.

6) 3 ring binders
Keep your animation pages in order while working on projects. This is really important, because changes from drawing to drawing are subtle, and so it can get confusing.

7) Copy Paper
So you can draw on something.

8) Copy Safe Transparency paper
Link Below
After you have drawings you like, you can copy them onto transparency paper, and use acrylic or guache paint to color the panels.

9) Free Animation Software
http://www.pencil-animation.org/index.php?id=Home

10) Start Drawing!

The animation supplies mentioned above.

Artograph 10-Inch-by-12-Inch LightTracer Light Box

Amazon Price: $31.16 (as of 09/17/2011) Buy Now

Highland 901 Clear Transparency Film for Copiers

Amazon Price: $16.15 (as of 09/17/2011) Buy Now

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Speed Painting

So, I purposely don't have internet access in my studio. The idea behind this was to remove the time-wasting temptation of needless-internet browsing. In practice, this means I instead waste time re-reading lone wolf and cub comics, juxtapose magazines, and I never post anything online.

Lately, I have been a lot of speed figure painting. Here are a few 15 minute paintings in acrylic, which I painted at the Austin Visual Arts Association and at the United States Art Authority.



Sunday, June 20, 2010

Color Theory

I've been lucky enough to be pretty busy lately.

Between classes and new students, I have had to give several color theory demos in the past year, and so I wanted to take a minute and put them together for future reference.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

On Lake Travis

I dropped my wife off at her book group, which was at this cafe on Lake Travis, and ended up hanging around.

After tip, I somehow managed to spend six dollars on a coffee at this place. Still not quite sure how. Anyway, it was a very nice place to draw.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

New in '10

Ok, so I'm shooting for more blog updates in '10. Shouldn't be to hard. The bar's pretty low.




Step one is keeping the sketchbook with me all the time. Last weekend, I sketched this gorgeous woman at the DMV. She was only mildly amused, but was still nice enough to eat brunch with me later. This probably had something to do with how I married her last april.