My Character Development

[CartoonSkits]

Hi all. I'm a newbie and I am looking for any critiques that will help me be a better animator and. I don't know how to draw, but this program makes me feel like I can. I've only been at this for 2 months now (purchased Anime Studio Pro then) and have been trying to get use to all the tools. The character below is a project I'm working on for a client for an animation series. They believe I can animate and draw so I'll give it my best! Please let me know what do you think of the character, or how I can make it look better. I know the left hand looks a little weird. I just got lazy at the end and copied and paste the from the right hand. Besides that, I would really like your input. Your comments are appreciated regardless if they're good ones or not. Thanks!

[aleXean]

Nice! How did you make the gloves flame effect? I really like it bro, interested to see where it goes from here.

[CartoonSkits]

@aleXean Thanks for the encouragement! The Flaming Gloves Effect was actually pretty simple once I started playing with it. The black you see is a layer (ranked lowest) then the orange (ranked higher). The glove is on it's own layer. I add a blur and opacity on both fire layers and added a shadow effect on the black fire to make it stand out. The orange (top layer) has an opacity of 45 to make the black fire stand out more. The real key after doing that was playing with the noise settings. I turned on noisy outlines, fills, animated noise and extra sketchy. When I did that it made the flames look realistic on the hand layer.

[fracturedray]

It is a good start for someone who doesn't know how to draw. I like the design of the character

With cartoons it is all about style so it is hard to tell if you made the mistake or if it is intended.

Anatomy comments

http://fineart.sk/show.php?w=914

If you go to the link above you will see some simple drawings of a male anatomy.

A few things stand out to me. Keep in mind that I know this may have been an artist choice. The legs a very long on your character. This makes his torso seem to short.
His neck seems to short and the right shoulder (his right) could come out to the left a bit more.
You mentioned the hand but did you notice that the muscles on his left forearm are bulging out on the wrong side?

last thing, it may be my computer but it looks like he has red-ish colored lips. My anime men don't have colored lips. But as I said it is all an art choice.

[CartoonSkits]

@fracturedray Thank you for the resource! I took a look at the website and I think that's gonna help me out a lot. After taking a look at my character again, you're right about the left forearm bulging the wrong way. I definitely need to fix that.

As far as the neck goes, do you think I should make the shirt collar shorter or his neck longer? Like I said this is my 1st character that I've drawn and I'm just getting use to it (and I don't really draw).

As far as the lips goes, it's not really his lips. For some reason when I render the image his mouth looks different from when I'm in the program. His mouth is actually opened and kinda giving a disgusted look, but when I save the image it looks different.

The only reason I made his legs longer was my client wanted him to look like a Japanese shonen character, which a lot of them have longer legs. Does it look too awkward?

Like I said, I really do appreciate any help I can get. I don't want to start the animation process if the character needs to be changed later.

[fracturedray]

the shirt collar is fine it is his neck that could be a little longer.

No worries about the mouth then, perhaps it is just so small it is getting blurry pixels.

I'm not very familiar with the shonen style so I looked it up. I think the character is close to that so Kudos. Had a feeling is was a style choice.

The last thing I'd suggest is look at this image of the 1/4 view character. http://fineart.sk/show.php?w=915

His crotch is a bit in front of the hip farther from the camera and the buttocks stick out a bit. Your character is not standing at the same angle but I thing is would help to add a little bit of curve to the lower crotch area and then have it go up to the belt. Then add a little definition to the buttocks.

It it good work though. Hope to see the animation when you are done.

[CartoonSkits]

@fracturedray Once again, thanks for your critiques. I'm in the process of fixing his neck and forearms. Now that you mention the crotch, it is at a wierd angle. I need to fix that too.

I have a question. That site you gave me for a reference had perspectives in it. Is there a tool in Anime Studio that has perspectives in it, or can you guide me to a way to keep my drawings in perspective? I really need that. Thanks.

[fracturedray]

for some reason the forum doesn't let me know of any new post.

The program won't help you make better perspective characters. Just lot's of practice.

The site I linked has plenty more picture to help you with perspective for anatomy and scenery. Just look around.

Here some anatomy help on that same site.
http://fineart.sk/index.php?s=16&cat=12

[Víctor Paredes]

for some reason the forum doesn't let me know of any new post.

Go to Profile>Always notify me of replies