when you read through a storyboard, you look for scenes that use the same angle and same camera distance

http://jkcartoonstories.blogspot.com/2009/12/slabs-first-fist.html

when you find them, you try to design a layout that can use the same "setup" for all the scenes



In other words, one master Background that all the action can take place in

That means you have to plan how much space you need around the characters in order to be able to draw all the most extreme poses

Like all these images can use 1 setup:

This is a "long shot" That means the camera is far away enough to show the whole bodies of the characters.


so you have to plan all the drawings to work on the same background, and the sixes of the characters have to make sense from pose to pose

if they are on the bed they are smaller

if they are on the floor in the foreground they are bigger

if there are consecutive poses within a scene, the poses have to "flip" between each other

This lesson is to draw all these poses, so they use the same background, and that the consecutive poses flip.

You also of course have to remember everything from previous lessons - like negative space, style, not toning down the poses etc.

Questions?I went through all the scenes in the last setup and blocked out the spacing for all the poses and the background.

I haven't commited to any finished detailed drawings yet, because I wanted to make sure all the actions would fit into the scenes.
I had to push and pull shapes around to get the best possible positions.
all these poses have to register to the same BG as in the first pose.

The next step would be to start tightening up the drawings to make them look good.

I started to tighten up Ernie and add little stylistic crap in small doses. I don't do that until the whole layout is figured out - and the other layouts that use the same setups.

The stylistic stuff is only about 2% of the picture. The rest is story, character, function and guts.

Style means nothing if the picture already doesn't make sense or have a reason to exist.

I made this layout setup by looking at the various storyboard panels that all use the same setup.
Here are some storyboard panels from the first chapter of Slab's First Fist. These are all shots that use the same "setup". - In other words, the camera is at the same angle and distance from the same background and characters.
When I draw these storyboard panels, I am drawing fast and straight ahead, not worrying about the drawings being perfect, or the drawings flipping from pose to pose for animation. I am just telling the story. If I had to make perfect clean drawings that flip exactly and with detailed backgrounds, I would not have the time or mental energy to think about telling the story.
http://jkcartoonstories.blogspot.com/2009/12/slabs-first-fist.html


FIND THE FURTHEST POINTS OF ACTION IN THE SCENE: top, bottom, left, right.

You need to plan for your widest actions. The poses above and below use up the most space in the frame. If you can fit these into the paper, you'll be able to fit the rest of the poses that don't take as much space up. (I have a tendency to draw everything too big, and have to go back and resize things)
Side Note: WHY LAYOUT IS SO IMPORTANT

I have to tell you, that this use of layout is the most important ingredient of the so-called "creator-driven" revolution of cartoons that happened in the late 80s and early 90s. It's every bit as important as the creativity of the ideas behind the cartoons, probably even more so.

Without it, all the ideals of cartoons written by cartoonists, directors heading up units, individual artists' styles being recognizable and the input of each creative person's personality and ideas actually appearing on-screen could never have happened. Could never and would never have.

Animation itself, the kernel of what we are supposed to be doing was forever banished to far-away shores, away from the control of the few wanna-be cartoon creators. In television, using layouts to control what you see on screen was the only way possible to give cartoons back to the cartoonists.

It freed the story artists to once again concentrate on story, allowed the top artists, draftsmen and stylists an avenue for their creativity and brought back the job of "director" to cartoons. Not merely a "sheet-timer" as many people think of direction, but a true director who could follow the creativity of the film from beginning to the end of production and make the cartoon unique and filled with original specific ideas and drawings, not just another assembly line product.

The rest of the Spumco production system was built around this fundamental part of the creative process.


BTW, I added an overview of my ideal cartoon college curriculum:

http://johnkcurriculum.blogspot.com/2009/12/cartoon-college.html

Attempt 1: face has been pushed in. And it's cramped.
Kaspar is falling over because his feet aren't solidly planted.I made the silhouettes of his face and the underpants clearer. Also added perspective to his huge body.
Kali made another attempt and improved all those things. His face is now much more open and not cramped. It has a good silhouette too.
Feet are better planted.

As a last step I traced her drawing and pushed the contrasts a bit. After pushing and pulling the first drawing around a bit, we ended up with a more solid, clearer and more stylish drawing.

I love seeing how Jim thinks below...he's working out the basic shapes in the composition, before diving into the details. You can feel the attitudes of the characters just from their body poses.


to be continued...

PART 2

Ranger Smith has just recently been introduced to the sensitivity camp and has been issued his new less aggressive name. He is now known among his forest brethren as "Tamlyn" - a much kinder softer less pointy name. You could butter bread with such a loving blunt name as "Tamlyn". He still isn't quite used to these new sensitive caring ways, so the sensitivity counselor asks his loving male tribe to help teach Tam about "trust".

Tamlyn tries hard to grasp this New Age way of thinking. The citizens of the soil empathise with him. They shudder at his barbaric ugly common sense view of the world and ache to cure him. They yearn to envelop him in the warm dark quivering whole-earth-father's womb of spiritual maleness.
Maybe they should chant "We are all one-ball!" somewhere in the cartoon.
These are drawn by Vincent Waller, whose sensitive pencil cares deeply for his audience.



That's all you get.

Boy, can Jim draw funny back views

Once I have figured out the basic construction of a character and am comfortable with drawing him from different angles, and I know his basic personality, then I find it much easier to create poses and expressions if I have a story to tell.

This is the big difference between drawing random sketchbook doodles just for fun and drawing functional drawings in context. The functional drawings have a purpose, other than just floating on a page cluttered with more competing doodles. Functional drawings have to tell a story, and for me those are actually easier to draw than random sketches.



When I have a story playing in my head, then the drawings just pour out. I don't have to consciously think up an expression. I just feel them happening as I make drawing after drawing of a character acting out the scene he is in. People make fun of me when I am drawing storyboards or layouts, because my whole body convulses and my face distorts as I personally experience what the characters are feeling with each drawing. When they try to interrupt me to ask a question, I barely even know they are there. I don't want to stop the natural flow of the story I am drawing. I never knew I did that until people started laughing at me - or got mad!

I don't know if I am recommending that to anyone else, but it makes another point - it is important when doing continuity to be totally focused on your drawings and story. You have to immerse yourself into the scenes. Don't "multitask". Don't watch TV or rock out to your IPOD if you want your drawings to feel natural, alive and performing at their best.
Sketchbook virtuosos sometimes have trouble making the transition from the random to the purposeful and here's why.

When you first try to draw poses and expressions with backgrounds together on purpose, you stiffen up because you are not used to balancing so many requirements at once. But that's the name of the game. Luckily the more you do it, the quicker you lose the stiffness and soon a whole new world opens up with creative possibilities your random mind never would have dreamed of. You can't give up just because the stiffness discourages you. Suck it up and keep going until it becomes more natural to tell a story with drawings.
I've said it before, but I can't stress it enough: "Functional drawings" are what you need to make a cartoon. A functional drawing is a totally different animal than a sketchbook scribble.
Once you get used to doing drawings that have a purpose, other than just looking sorta keen floating on a page full of other doodles, you'll open a whole new wonderful world to yourself. You'll be performing instead of merely doodling, and performance is what entertainment is all about.Drawings on these comics were done by me, Jim Smith and Vincent Waller. Those guys also live their stories as you can see.

Take note of how George's expressions and poses move from one to the next. They connect from pose to pose in a logical way that tells the story and his emotional state at every important moment.

In the above pages, George is basically cocksure about his ability to outwit a stupid creature of nature. Most of the poses convey this, but the odd pose is an accent "That's a dirty mouth bass!"

Accents occur naturally in acting and not at random. They serve functions and tell us quick inspired emotions that burst from the characters.
If you have already become comfortable with George's construction, then the next step is to draw him performing a scene or 2 from a story.

Here are plenty of stories:

http://johnkpitch.blogspot.com/2007/10/george-liquors-cartoony-type-variety.html



Points to remember:

1) Learn how your characters are constructed first. Before you attempt to get creative with them. This is more important than anything. If you are still struggling with drawing a character even in his most basic generic state, then you won't be able to do functional drawings of him acting.

Learn the generic first, then the specific.

2) Learn the personality of the character by reading stories with him in it, or watching the cartoons.

3) Take a scene from a story that hasn't been drawn and rough out a sequence of the character (or characters) acting the scene.

I do this in rough first - storyboard style, straight ahead in continuity. I'm not trying to make finished cleaned-up drawings. I'm trying to stage the scenes and get a good performance out of the actors.