Well, summer vacation is upon us! On Tuesday our family is leaving for a well deserved vacation after a tough year.

I won't be 'plugged in' for the duration but I will have some trusty sketch books and drawing utensils with me. During which time I hope to design a lot of things that still need some attention.

As a follow up to my post on proportion I thought I'd show you a breakdown of the Antagonist.

 

Also, I thought I'd show you how I start most stories. For me, this is the quickest way to crack a story.

Throw down your ideas quickly. This is the first draft and you want to get all your ideas down before you start editing. I try to write it out as it plays out in my mind's eye. If I get stumped, I make a note and move on. If the block keeps you from moving to the next part, try to move on. Brainstorm the problem later; get down your ideas now.

This will probably end up as two or three pages when it's done.

One the drawing front, besides being locked away in a campsite for four days, I'm beginning to animate as a way of exploring the characters before going to final designs. I want to see how they work and know them before I start production. There's a saying or rule or law or something; you know how to animate the character only when you're done the production. I hope I can temper that a bit.

The first thing I want to animate is this:

I'm doing it in Photoshop as it's the closest thing to a classical process that I have at my disposal. I want to do the film digitally but I want it to be really classical in the look. I think I can get that with Photoshop. It's animation tools have come a long way in the last two versions.

Have a happy holiday Canada! Talk to ya next week!