Why Animators Still Need to Draw

Fast sketches to capture a pose

In the old 2D days, life drawing was an essential skill for animators. Today, 3D animation is a blend of creative and technical skills, and life drawing is less important than it used to be.

However, it still helps to be able to draw to a basic level of skill, especially for creating thumbnail sketches which can be used to plan animation.

Nowadays there are many opportunities to learn animation online, at sites such as pixelovely and promo. You can also draw friends and family - models don't need to be nude, and gesture drawing clothed models is just as useful for animation, and in some ways more practical, as most animated characters tend to be wearing clothing.

So, how do animators learn the basics of life drawing?

Learn Gesture Drawing Online at Proko

Gesture drawing is an important skill for animators - it helps us learn how to capture a pose, and to master the art of visual storytelling. After all, planning your animation with quick thumbnail sketches that tell a story is still one of the core skills of the 3D animator - it's why we still need to know how to draw - at least just a little bit.  Here at Bucks we're recommending this series of videos by Proko, all hosted for free at his YouTube channel. There are lots of great videos but the particular playlist we're interested in is titled "Figure Drawing - How to Draw People". You can find it here.

More Free Life Drawing Classes For Our Students at Bucks

Calling all Bucks animators and digital artists! Today is the day to sign up with the Bucks Students' Union for their next round of life drawing classes, starting in March. We strongly recommend that everyone sign up. It's a great skill to acquire and will help all our animators become better artists. Drawing skills help with design, storyboards, thumbnails - all necessary parts of the animation process.  So how do you sign up?

Sign Up Now for Life Drawing at Bucks!

Calling all Bucks animators and digital artists! Today is the day to sign up with the Bucks Students' Union for their life drawing classes. We strongly recommend that everyone sign up. It's a great skill to acquire and will help all our animators become better artists. Drawing skills help with design, storyboards, thumbnails - all necessary parts of the animation process.  Sign up now and don't wait - these classes are popular and will fill up fast!

Typical errors when using perspective - and how to avoid them

the most common mistake

Traditional drawing skills still matter in animation, which is why we teach life drawing, storyboards, character design and visual development here at Bucks. The ability to express an idea simply and clearly on a piece of paper - or even on a napkin in a restaurant - is still one of the most powerful weapons in the animator's arsenal.

The ability to master the art of perspective, that most Renaissance of skills first developed in 15th Century Florence, is one of the more tricky parts of the designer's toolkit. Fail to learn perspective drawing and your designs will never speak with authority. Follow this link to a wonderful blog post that points to some of the most common errors in perspective drawing, and how to fix them.

http://electricalice.tumblr.com/post/68701008868/10-typical-perspective-errors

---Alex