Tuesday, August 18, 2009 14 Comments
I’ve been sorely absent from this site for a large part of the last year, but I haven’t dropped off the hairy back of the internet. Pinched with little time to spare, I’ve fallen for the ease and short form of the tweet. I make a point not to tweet my life, so you won’t hear that I’m out of milk. But I do tweet about animation, which leads me to the best part…
I started a hashtag (a way to mark topics) on Twitter called #animtip.
Click this search and you’ll see what it is.
PLUS, every Tuesday is now Animtip Tuesday where tons of animation fanatics post their animation tips on animation. It’s fun and inspiring. Share an animtip on Twitter any day of the week, but especially on Animtip Tuesday.
I’ve added an icon at the top of the site to find me on Twitter. My username is AnimPodcast. If you follow me, send me a tweet to let me know who you are.
I’m really enjoying #AnimTip Tuesdays, as are other animators I know. I hope it’s a tradition with long legs! You should also do a quick podcast, only a few minutes long, to explain this new hashtag. It need only be as long as it takes to read what you just posted above. That’s all. You’ll read an even larger audience that way, those that listen but don’t read this site.
Thanks for starting #AnimTip Tuesdays!
@spike1201
Thanks for keeping the animation twitter community alive and together Clay!! I love that there’s now an instant source of inspiration whenever I need it… It’s like a wall of super sticky notes 😛
There’s such a wealth of good tips there already! And since I’m starting animation classes in three weeks (!!), it’ll all come in very handy.
Problem is, I despise Twitter. Is there any way I can put it into my RSS feed or something?
Why despise Twitter? You can make it into whatever you want. You pick who to follow. You have all the power. You could use Twitter to just follow one user only. Use a Twitter client to save a search string and only view that. LOTS of flexibility to be soooooo useful.
Anyway, that being said, here’s a raw feed of a #animtip search:
feed://search.twitter.com/search.atom?q=%23animtip
Thanks very much for the feed, I do appreciate it. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to work for my reader, so I guess I’m going to have to bite the bullet and install yet another client on my machine. Oh, well, could be worse.
Hey Kelseigh, you don’t need to install anything with twitter, and you don’t even need to sign up to enjoy this. Just go to twitter.com and search #animtip whenever you want a does of inspiration/guidance.
It has been a very useful resource. I love Animtip Tuesdays!
Thanks Mark. I also have that search as a link in the original post above. I edited the paragraph to make it more visible.
Hey Clay, I had a question. I’m 15 years old and I’d love to work as an animator at Disney Animation Studios. The problem is that I am not great at drawing and in your bio you said the same about yourself. I was wondering how you improved enough to get a job at Disney and I’d like advice on how I can do the same. Also, if there are any specific books you recommend for this, it would be much appreciated. Thanks.
Derek – I still struggle with drawing, but I remind myself that no one started as a great artist. Even the greats knew nothing at some point. The good news is that you’re still fairly young and you have time (an entire lifetime) to improve.
I suggest taking some figure drawing classes to learn about anatomy. They should be easy for anyone to find since there are artists everywhere.
Second, carry a sketchbook and use it! Make goals to fill them up as fast as you can. I’m actually very slow at this, but I keep about ten of them stashed all over the place – in the car, in my closet, at work – so that I can always grab one and go.
Draw all the time. It is the repeated practice that will get you there.
Then get some feedback on your work from people you respect and take their advice! Work on the things they suggest. I can’t stress how important it is to find mentors. Their advice will drive you forward much faster than working alone.
Find artists you admire and emulate (copy) their work, but do it in an analytic way. Ask yourself why they made their choices. Don’t just copy like a machine. Eventually, you will develop your own style – your language for how you want to present things.
Funny you should ask about books. I just updated the “Shop” link in the menubar at the top. In there, you’ll find my real recommendations for all types of books. Look under the “Art” section and you’ll find my favorites:
– The Walt Stanchfield books are a goldmine of information. They are a must have.
– For straight up “start from zero” drawing, I recommend “Drawing from the Right Side of the Brain” or “The Natural Way to Draw” (those are on page 2 of the Art books).
– The Bridgeman book is a great way to look at drawing human figures structurally.
– “The Art of Animal Drawing” is a very good overview of drawing animals by a former Disney animator.
– Although his books seem to be popular, I don’t like Burne Hogarth’s books. I think his drawing style is pretty gross and so I don’t list any in my recommendations. Only look at good stuff, I say!
My method to improve was to draw EVERY DAY! Honestly, that’s what I did. I found every drawing class I could take and I did lots of animation tests on paper. Draw, draw, DRAW! And get critique from people who know what they’re talking about.
animatin
animation
hey clay how are you i have been listening to all of your podcast’s over and over and over they are great, sometimes i cannot fall asleep because is just so interesting to listen to the masters talk about animation, i hope to hear some more pod casts soon. i was reading through one of your posts and you recommend to seek out a mentor or to have one’s work critiqued by someone you really respect…. but how exactly do you do that? i am a pharmacy technician by trade but i love animation, i took a weekend animation class at the union and loved it and i have bought all the great animation books but my only critique at home is my wife and of course she thinks all my work is great. well i know you have heard this a bagillion times but keep up the good work. thanks
omg.. not freaking twitter. why? WHY??
Any new interviews Clay? It’s been a while! I missed the podcast.