#This is just a little thumbnail for a video that I'm trying to gather things for

[north-winds1]

Gourmand!

[sleepy-pigeonn]

A Look Into My Hades Fan Animatic

I don't know to call this other than a collection of resources and reflections about the process of making the animatic. Hopefully it's interesting or helpful for someone. But feel free to ask questions if you'd like clarification/more info!

___

Inspiration (A non-exhaustive list)

It's possible that I've seen/read fan works that may have inspired me unconsciously, so there's no way I can possibly include references to them all. However, the ones I listed here are ones I recall looking back at repeatedly.

The fancomics "First Flight" and "Bonehead Boon" by Liana Sposto

Robbie Elliot Art's animation "Take Tonight"

Toastyglow's animation "Glitter & Gold" and PMV "This Year"

Storyboards posted by Paige Caldwell (@/papernewt) on Instagram

Zag admiring some of these beautiful fanworks.

The following sections are below the cut: References, Songs, Script and Thumbnails, Studies, Drawing, Editing, Random Facts

___

References

These were very helpful to creating the animatic!!

In-game references

Hades Wiki

3D Model of Zagreus by @/chunyou_ on Twitter

I also used screenshots I took while playing

General references

"How To Direct A Fight Scene" by Howard Wimshurst

Poses from the photo libraries of The Pose Archives and AdorkaStock

3D Model of Male and Female Heads by William Nguyen

I also just looked stuff up online or took videos of myself acting out some of the movements.

___

Songs

I thought of basing my animatic on any of the following songs:

"Icarus" by Bastille

"Dirty" by grandson

"Underworld" by CYPRSS *

"I'm Still Here (Jim's Theme)" by John Rzeznik

"I'm Gonna Win" by Rob Cantor **

"Could Have Been Me" by the Struts

They all have a varied degree of "Zagreus vibes" but I wanted a song that could be used to show as much of the game as possible. "Could Have Been Me" was the song that I could imagine more things for, so it is the one I ended up using.

* Look at this awesome Zagreus fan art based on this song

** Some of the lyrics for this song are so fitting for Zag but others are pretty ooc.

___

Script and Thumbnails

I've seen other artists annotate the lyrics to the song they are working with and attempted that here. But that process is a little confusing for me, so I kept these descriptions vague. It was helpful in keeping track of ideas, since some of them are faster to write down than draw. Especially for fight sequences.

I used Storyboarder for the thumbnails. I opted for this program because (1) it lets you add an audio file and (2) it has very basic tools. It can be used in a more nuanced way than I did. However, with 3 and a half minutes of frames to work out I needed something that helps me draft down ideas efficiently and without overwhelming me. And this was pretty good program for that.

The script and thumbnails happened in tandem a lot of the time. Think of it as brainstorming, both in vague writing and loose drawings. At this point I am trying to see if these ideas flow with the song, if they are readable, if they achieve what I had in mind.

___

Studies

Okay. So I am happy with my ideas. Now. How do I make sure the drawings are identifiable as taking place in the game?

This is where those in-game references came in handy. I looked back at my thumbnails and made a list of everything I would need. From characters to locations. Once I had these down, I made folders to make sure everything would be nice and organized.

I tend to avoid backgrounds like the plague. However, for some of these shots to work I need to give the viewer a sense of where the action is taking place. I know that I struggle imagining three-dimensional spaces while drawing digitally. So, using my thumbnails and the references I gathered, I did studies of all the locations I thought would be important using good old paper and ink. This also served to fine-tune shot compositions.

___

Drawing

The animatic itself was drawn using Krita. Usually, I worked on all the backgrounds using the studies as a base and then added the characters. My drawings started very rough for a couple of reasons. The main one was that with ~200 frames ahead of me I was afraid of letting my inner perfectionist get me stuck. I kept reminding myself that, being an animatic, the drawings could be rough as long as they are still readable. As I got more comfortable using Krita, I was able to create cleaner backgrounds.

Even so, I hit an art block around the two minute mark where I Could Not Draw. This is where I heavily relied on those References I Keep Talking About. They were my savior and are the main cause for the more "finished" look towards the end of the animatic. I think the best example of this was the shot featuring Thanatos. I was deep in the art block territory by the time I needed to go from thumbnail (top left) to final frame. No matter how much I redrew them, I didn't like how they turned out (top right). To work this out, I found references from The Pose Archives and used them as a guide (bottom left) to get a sketch that I liked (bottom right). I felt this look was more sketchy than I've would like so I ended up cleaning it. I followed a similar process for most of the frames following this one. As a result, the final frames of the video turned out cleaner.

___

Editing

Once I had all my frames ready to go, I imported them into HitFilm Express and made a composite shot where I basically just matched the timing of the frames to the music. Frames that have camera movements (like the very first frame) were made in their own composite shots. I ended up having to delete some frames so some sections didn't feel rushed. In the end, there's like 5 versions of the animatic because I kept making little changes. The biggest was adding Zag's dialogue at the beginning since I felt the video started up too quiet. I don't have any images for this stage. Please have this comparison instead.

___

Random Facts ���

Adding color was a last minute decision, it was mainly because I thought a colorful sunset would be prettier. My original plan was to shift the gray tones of the background into more yellowish tones once Zagreus reaches the surface, but keeping everything monochromatic.

If you pause quickly on the very last frame you'll see I accidentally made Zag's leggings black instead of red. I was on auto pilot at this point. Adding color was worth it overall but so time consuming. My respects to people who do fully colored animatics.

I wish I made Meg a pinker (or blue) hue rather than purple. In my mind I saved purple for characters related to Nyx (hence why Hypnos, Than, Chaos, and Charon have shades of purple). But I guess it is a sweet detail because of how Meg confides in Nyx in the game.

I kept a log of all my progress. Apparently getting the thumbnails done took about five months (August 2023 - January 2024)?? Anyways I leave you with these entries.

___

Thank you for reading! I hope it goes without saying but I really appreciate all the support this animatic has received. All the hearts and comments and tags, they mean a lot.

[artvaultz]

Hi just came here to ask you what should a beginner artist focus on. i currently have no money to afford an art education which means i have no structure to how I learn. So what should I do in self practice terms I feel like I am all over the place and when I draw I draw for three days and take weeks without drawing. what should I do please help 😌

Hello!! thank you for asking! I know I'm probably not the best resource or model, so anyone that is also seeing this: please feel free to chime in in the replies/reblogs if you have helpful/constructive advice as well!

(apologies in advance for the long post, and! really big apologies for the late reply!! ;o; I hope this is still helpful)

So, as far as learning resources, it depends on the type of things you wish to draw, but there are luckily tonnns of videos and tutorials online which are free, and which i feel have helped me and seem to help others! :D a few that come immediately to mind are tutorials and advice from proko, aaron blaise, toniko pantoja, eyecager, yen yen, lexin yuan, and ethan becker, who give really helpful breakdowns of the basics or insights or tools to study on one's own. if you are the type of person who enjoys learning from books, one that it seems to have helped some of my friends is michael hampton's figure drawing: design and invention textbook.

if you are more interested in drawing characters, perhaps trying to observe and practice drawing the structure of the body is a good place to start? likewise with character animation---for both, watching videos or observing in real life people doing things, and noticing how the body moves and how the different limbs connect. sakugabooru is a reeeeally awesome resource of animation clips, where one can step through frame-by-frame and see how the animators decided to handle different actions. and this video is a great starting point for understanding the basics of movement in animation. if backgrounds are more your thing, perhaps understanding perspective, and doing really simple black and white thumbnail studies of films can help get started, where you try to take note of the choices of composition, and where the eye is lead?

And as far as sticking to it, from what i've gathered based on what i hear from others and from my own experience, i feel that when getting started, trying to setup some sort of super easily accessible routine for drawing, and also drawing things that really interest you (as opposed to solely just grinding specific things that feel very tiresome and unamusing), are what seem to help get the ball rolling? i think it is important, especially if it is something you are trying to do on your own, that it should be at least a little bit enjoyable, right? then one would be more likely to continue. i think it can help a bit to carry around a small sketchbook of some sort, something easily portable, so that you can doodle whenever inspiration strikes! all one really needs is a writing tool and a piece of paper (don't worry about getting a super specific software!)

when I was sort of learning to draw growing up, i spent loads of time in middle school drawing fan art of naruto on random pieces of paper as i watched it, and i also drew silly caricatures of my classmates, and sketched while people-watching because strangers passing by look really cool and interesting to me. all of these also sort of helped my observation skills, as did life drawing classes in high school. but yeah, finding something that inspires you can be great! and i believe that fan art is one of the really great ways to learn haha, and there are so many different and exciting styles of shows/films and graphic novels/manga/etc.

i think also trying to find a community of people that are trying to do the same thing as you, or who have some people that are willing to offer advice or critique or mentorship in some way, might be helpful as well, and can provide an external source of motivation. discord seems to be a big place for those types of communities these days.

i was super lucky to have had a program that offered life drawing in high school, and i went to a uni that offered life drawing sessions that were also open to the public---right now it is safest to make use of online resources, but if things lighten up in the future with the pandemic, try to find someplace nearby like a school that offers open life drawing sessions, and try to make a habit of going there every week with a sketchbook. a couple online resources for now are line of action, and senshistock!

also please remember to take it easy, and don't stress! keep your hands relaxed. stretch your back. drink water. it is also totally okay to draw "crappy" sketches, just keep drawing and doodling! go go go! :D