Aspies For Freedom

I was just wondering, how does a single animator--we're talking hand-drawn stuff only, in this case--draw stuff at such a furious speed?  Don't they need to be mindful of details..?

I'm using my own experience with drawing as a comparison.  The way I usually work is I start with a vague idea for a single drawing (on an 8x11 piece of computer paper), and I work outward from there.  This is generally the "backwards" approach to drawing, a process they would tell you is "wrong" at art school.  But I note this slower, detail-to-global approach is common among Aspies, if I can use AFF as a reference.

Back to the point, it takes me sometimes beyond 8 hours to finish even one pen-and-pencil drawing on a piece of 8x11 computer paper.

I'd like to get going on my "amateur art" career and one of my critics--my brother--says my rate of production is so incredibly slow, it may not be worth the bother.  He mentioned "you could never be an animator--do you know how quickly they have to work?" etc.

Really, how DOES an animator do it?  How do they know how to convey what the storyboard says... does that not sound excruciatingly difficult?  Or am I missing something.. is this a very communal effort on their part... one animator to do the face on each cell, one to do the body/posture.. one to do the arms...?

Really, though, should I just "throw in the towel" on my artistic endeavors, because I am agonizingly slow...?

Quick-drawing animation cells is an entirely different skill to creative art - often artists can take several months to complete a piece.

Animators often work as quickly as they do because they become very familiar with drawing particular characters over and over again. Also, animators often use techniques such as blocking out the page with simple shapes, then filling in the details after the fact.

Just wanted to add, too, that as far as actual, fully complete art pieces go, 8 hours is very quick - I can spend nearly that long on just a flash art piece, so I imagine a pen & pencil project would take me days or weeks.

You'll have to post some of your art up here one of these days...

Oh no, Batman, you've mentioned one of my obsessions - drawn cel animation - so now you're going to get a thesis on it, you poor thing.  Please feel free to ignore this, it's the 'doesn't know when to stop talking because the other person's lost interest' thing in action.

What you see on the screen when you see a cartoon isn't all done by the animator, anyway - it's lots of images, all done on transparent material - laid over each other to build up the scene.  The background or base layer is done by a background artist, and this is a specialist gig in itself.  And then, the same background is usually used in many successive frames - say there's two characters talking in a room, the room won't change, unless the shot changes to a different angle, so it's the same background art for the whole scene.  Then, all the bits that do move go over the top as separate bits.  So, say there are two characters talking, and one's drinking a pint, you'd have separate layers for the first character's body, the first character's head (then, successive heads with the mouth in different speaking positions can be put over the same body), then the second character's body, his head, the pint on the table in front of him (the table might be part of the background, but the pint would have to be separate because it moves) and the second character's arm to lift the pint.  And, in a big studio, all those bits might have been drawn by different animators!

What never ceases to impress me is how they get all the different bits to be the right size in relation to each other, and the right position in relation to each other and the background.

Video that explains it all better than I did: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veNUQi4PHug

Sorry, back to the point, which was how long it takes to draw something.  Does it matter, as long as you're happy with what you're producing?

Bet they might resize 'em. Not that hard if it is on a computer. Still think motivation would be a problem if I was like going to "try it out".

... and then I have this big difficulty making the same face over again - don't think I've ever made it so that I'm content with it.

This was pre-computers, Erk, when it was all hand-done on paper and then photocopied onto transparent sheets and hand-painted.  What a job, just to make a Saturday Morning cartoon...

Dragging this even further OT (sorry Batman!) if you want to muck around with animation, GIMP (a free opensource PhotoShop type program) will let you make basic animations using the layers function.  I never got further than two seconds of a red ball bouncing up and down, but it might be worth a play if you're into that sort of thing.

I am in an animation class, and as far as hand-drawn, yes it takes a lot of work, which is why the animators would usually animate only one character each - or more, if they animated a character with a very small part, rather than a main character. For my project, since I was working alone instead of a group, I would find shortcuts - if it was at all possible for the scene, I'd have the character be still and just move the mouth. It was really necessary, considering that mine was several minutes long.

Also, since the storyboarders (usually a team) have already drawn out like a comic what the individual angles and motions are supposed to look like, the animators had only to reproduce that and add details (not an easy feat for most people, but animators have spent years just drawing stuff over and over again, so to copy a position and draw the in betweens is fairly simple for them by that time).

Also, animators have been trained to draw in the way that you draw basic shapes first, then fill in the details. So if that's not your style, it would probably take much more time to do the same animations.

I wouldn't be concerned with how long it takes, as long as you enjoy doing it.

My style for drawing a single piece is much the opposite of this.  I hardly place any basic shapes down before I get to the details.  The question is... could I *learn* to do things this way?  Does it take cognitive flexibility and intelligence to draw the right way, or just a lot of practice..?

I am concerned with how long it takes because I'll never get anywhere if I can't speed things up a bit.  Comparing my rate of speed to the average amateur artist, I'm sure I come up in last place, by far.

I've read your explanation, watched the YouTube video, and I still find the whole long process a bit complex and confusing...  I have trouble with anything that has a lot of steps to it...  gah...

Same here. So does my dad (who is on the spectrum as well).

A good drinking game, if you're into that sort of thing, is to watch Dangermouse and spot the many techniques they use to avoid unnecessary work - characters are so often shown from behind while they're speaking, for instance, or with a bit of scenery or a prop over their mouth to avoid having to lip-synch.  And they re-used bits of animation so heavily that some episodes are entirely made up of sequences from earlier shows, re-shot against different backgrounds with a new soundtrack.

Batman, don't be down for not following my explanation - it was rather jumbled and I was trying not to ramble on forever, so I probably left a few key ideas out!  

And don't worry about how fast/slow you're working.  I've got the beginnings of a papier mache owl in the shed that's been in progress for over a year now, and it's still just two round things on a stand.  And I haven't done anything else of note in the interim, either!  God knows when, if ever, I'll actually get it finished.

It's a surprising deficit for someone so academically proficient, to have...

I reckon this problem with "lots of steps" is at least 1/3 the reason I had so much trouble with school.

The question is, how do you define who the "better artist" is?  Someone who consistently produces interesting, still pen-and-ink drawings, or the assembly line animator who draws 200 cels per workday...?

Are we talking apples and oranges here?  Can you measure an artist's worth by how quickly they produce material, whether that be still drawings or animation cels?

I think 8 hours per still drawing on an 8x11 piece of computer paper was incorrectly estimated, before; I'm now thinking it's more like twice that.  Therefore, yes... it takes me 16 hours to complete one of my more detailed drawings.  A drawing where I leave a lot blank, more like 6-8 hours.  But a full drawing, at least 16 hours.

Pathetic, anyone?

Nope.  Sounds OK to me.  Girls at school who did art regularly spent a whole term doing one painting.