#cartoon tutorial

[ninjadoodleduck]

I made a thing! :V this is my first attempt at a tutorial so I hope it is helpful! if anyone has any questions or suggestions for other tutorials feel free to leave them in the comments and I will do my best to answer them!

[giddlygoat]

idk if i ever posted this? quick notes on my thought process while drawing cartoon hands.

[miryel89]

«Somewhere lost in the clouded annals of history,

Lies a place that few have seen.

A mysterious place, called The Unknown.

Where long-forgotten stories are revealed to those who travel through the wood.»

(I followed a tutorial by this precious artist

https://instagram.com/derekdomnicdsouza?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== )

[i-really-like-phrogs]

Not sure if anyone needs this, but this is something I really could have used in the past. It’s also my very first tutorial… Hooray!

[vioyume]

Rendering practice. Cooler shades just happens to be easier for me to work with, that and I figured out how to do it in black and white first then play with layer filters.

This really allowed me to focus on shades rather than color, so getting in those extra details that I would've missed is refreshing.

Leif was also a good subject since I was already in the mood to draw bugs, he has a nice mixture of textures.

Progress GIF's undercut.

[barananduen]

Art Advice: The Misconception Behind "Study Realism"

Most people who draw anime/cartoons have, while asking for ways to improve, at one point or another been told to "study realism." A common response to this is, "But I don't want to draw realism!"

But, did you know that the purpose behind this suggestion is NOT so that you draw realism? They're not suggesting you change to a more realistic style. What, then?

Let's look at this through an analogy:

Say you don't know music yet and decide you want to learn how to play the Happy Birthday song. You're not interested in playing anything else, just the HB song, and you haven't started learning anything related to music at this point. OK, that's fine, and now we have our situation set up. Once you've decided this, you set yourself to learning the sequence of notes to the HB song. You practice and practice, and, after a while, you can play it really well without a hitch. After a few years, it starts feeling bland to you, and you ask, "How can I make my HB song better?" And someone tells you, "Learn all the other music notes," and "Study classical and other genres of music." And you reply, "But I don't want to play that type of music; I want to play the HB song!" (And that's FINE! It's valid; it's what you want to do.[*Footnote 1]) But without having learned all the other notes and other types of music, you can't make a remix of the HB song, or an "epic version," or a hip-hop-fusion version; you've capped at the end of the first paragraph of this story.

So drawing anime or cartoons is like playing the HB song, or any one song in our example.

And here's where our misunderstanding comes in:

"Study Realism" DOES NOT MEAN "Draw Realism"

Yes, you'll have to draw it to study it (not only your brain, but also your hand needs to learn the skill), but it doesn't mean that's what all your artwork will look like. It is meant to give you more tools to make your anime and cartoon work stronger, more appealing, and more unique.

How will it do that? The more music notes you know, the more types of music you understand and can play, the more original a remix /version of the Happy Birthday song you'll be able to make - and it will be unique. Because you will be able to take all that diverse knowledge and apply it to your song, making it stand out, and the next time you play the HB song, people will go, "Wow! This is a really cool version!"

So now we can be clear: There is a difference between learning something and performing it. You can perform whatever you choose, but by learning all the things, your performance of your "Thing of Choice" will be stronger.

What, Exactly, Will Studying Realism Teach You, Then?

I. VALUES

If you learn how to paint/shade with a full range of values (by learning realistic shading) that properly depict both volume and lighting, you will have no trouble simplifying that to cel-shading or gradient-shading in your anime or cartoon drawings, because you will at once spot when something is undershaded or the shadows are in the wrong spot.

On the other hand, if you try to do cel- or gradient-shading first, you are way more likely to a) undershade, and b) have an inconsistent light source. And when these things happen, you won't be able to tell *why* your drawing looks "off" or bland.

II. COLOR

By studying realistic coloring, you'll be able to learn how color varies across an item (say, a shirt) that is a "solid color." Example: you're drawing a character with a pink t-shirt, standing in the sun, at the end of the school day. The t-shirt is solid pink, however, the colors on it will vary from orange-ish to purple-gray, with some areas almost a bright red (and that's not even considering items around the shirt that would bounce light back onto the shirt and change its color). But you'll only know this (and how to do it) if you study realistic coloring.

Then you can apply that knowledge to your stylized artwork and make it stand out more.

Painting of a stylized pear, where I studied real pears to understand their coloring and texture. See how studying realism can enhance your cartoon work.

III. MAKE BETTER STYLIZED ANATOMY

By studying and learning realistic anatomy, you will be able to make stylized art that, for example, doesn't have one arm longer than the other, because you will have learned how to measure proportions, even if you don't draw realistic proportions. So that if you decide you want to draw unrealistically long legs (eg: Sailor Moon), you'll be able to make them look good and keep them consistent.

You will also be able to draw figures in any position, because you will have learned how body parts are made up and how they move, as well as foreshortening/perspective. Then, when you go to draw a pose you haven't drawn before, it will be WAY easier.

IV. UNDERLYING SHAPES

Although this is one of the least-mentioned aspects of art-learning, it is, in my opinion, one of the most important, because when you learn to see underlying shapes (the quasi-geometrical shapes that build up a figure), coupled with learning how to measure a form using other parts of the same form as reference (measuring the length of one body part by the number of times another body part fits in it, as mentioned in Section III, above), you will be able to DRAW. (Period.) You won't be able to draw just people. Or just wolves. Or just cats. You will be able to break down a new subject into its building blocks and come up with a very reasonable likeness. And whatever's different, you'll easily be able to make relative measurements to spot why and fix it.

Once you learn to identify underlying shapes and how to measure proportions in anything, you will also be able to pick up and reproduce any existing style without much trouble.

[link to Tumblr post with this artwork]

For example, this was my first time drawing anything Peanuts. I didn't have to do practice sketches for it (though there's nothing wrong with doing that). But I knew, from realism, that to achieve a good likeness, you need to measure body parts relative to other body parts, so I looked at Schulz's drawings and was able to determine: OK, Charlie Brown's head is roughly this shape, his body is so many heads tall, his eyes are this % of the head, the ears are this far in, the arms reach down to here, etc. I knew what to look for.

V. FOR THOSE WHO WANT SEMI-REALISM

If you want to do "semi-realism," you'll have a way easier time of it by learning realism and then stripping it down as much as you like, than by starting off with "100% anime" and trying to build it up without knowledge of realism. People think the latter is easier, because it *seems* less intimidating, but it's like trying to drive to a store you've never been to without knowing its address: you'll be driving around forever trying to find it, and it will be frustrating. What people call "semi-realism" is stylized realism, and you can't really hit it without knowing how realism works.

CLOSING NOTES

It also doesn't mean you should stop drawing anime/cartoons and focus solely on realism for X amount of time - you can do both concurrently. In fact, the most fun way to study realism is to do so on your favorite subjects; you can even turn your reference into your favorite character!

Studying realism is also one of the best ways to help develop your OWN, unique style; one which, when people look at it, say, "Oh, that's [your name]'s work!"

[*]Footnote 1: It is fine as long as you are drawing for yourself. As soon as art is a job and you're drawing for an employer, you have to draw in the style they tell you to. So, in this case, it's to your advantage to be flexible.

I hope this was helpful and helps clear up a common misunderstanding people go through when receiving feedback. 💞

MORE ART ADVICE ARTICLES

You can find the index to all Art Advice Articles [here] including:

How to Deal with Art Block

How to Have a Positive Outlook

How to Develop Your Own Style (coming soon!)

etc.

[fulcrum-97]

Drawing 101 !!!

Yes, there will be tutorials! The point here is making this genre accessible, well-catalogued and easily repeatable. I encourage each and every of my followers to try replicating it on your own. The spice must flow and the well-being of the genre oughtn't ever depend on a single individual!

In the first sheet, I touch upon the three distinct art styles developed in the original blog by the everlasting Dreamy-94, what made them work, and how can YOU incorporate them into your works. Good luck, have fun, and as usual, stay tuned for more~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[tellsfromninjago]

How I make comics

Plan Out The Comic

The first thing you want is an idea. Start with something simple. Write it down or sketch it out really fast. As long as you got your idea down somewhere to guide you. I recommend writing yourself a script. It you have dialogue (talking) in your comic, typing it up on a device will be a big help. This will help with spelling checks.

Script

Here is an example of how my scripts look. You can write yours in anyway you want as long as you understand it. This is just how I do mine.

_______________________________________________

Panel 1#

Nya tells Jay that Lloyd isn’t playing. We see a little mud monster figure jammed into a pipe.

Dialogue:

Nya: Um Jay Lloyd's out of the game. His character got sucked down the drain pipe of eternal woe, remember?

Jay: Oh yeah. Well it's his fault for picking to play a mud monster.

_______________________________________________

Paneling

Panels are the boxes that make up the comic. There are a lot of ways to do them. You’ll have to play around with them and see what you like. Starting out don’t worry about this too much. I encourage you to just make your comic and not worry about all the technical stuff yet. Just have fun with it. Be goofy and just let your imagination guide you.

A few things to keep in mind when planning paneling.

The average comic page has 5 to 6 panels. You can do less or more, it’s up to you. How many panels there are on a page effects how the comic reads.

1. More panels on a single page can make it feel Fast or Chaotic. Like a lot is happening very fast.

2. Fewer panels can make things feel slower. It also makes the things happening in the panels feel more important. These are things you want your readers to notice more.

3. A Splash page is when you fill a page with just one image. These are for really important maybe shocking things. These can also be used when there is a new location. This is called an establishing shot. You could use this for when a new character comes in too. Anything you really want to stand out, use a splash page.

Splash Page Examples

First one is Location aka the establishing shot. The next one is for a shocking moment.

Gather References

Now that you know what your going to be making you’ll need references. Images of the characters, backgrounds and or props you’ll be drawing. If you’ve made sketches or character sheets use them too. You can always jump right in without references if you know your subject really well but its a good idea to have them on hand if you need them.

Canvas size

You’ll want to decide your canvas size. Pick what ever works for you. The shape is more important. I normally use rectangle for mine. You can take a screen shot of your phone screen and use it for your canvas size. It should fit your screen nicely.

Boarders

You can add boarders to your canvas. You could have the boarders at the very edge of the canvas or in the middle. Like a big rectangle. This leaves you with some space outside your panels. If your drawing it out on real paper, this can give you some space for your hands to work. It can also give a place for your word balloons to spill out if you forgot to make space for them in your panels.

Examples

Border on the edge. Border in the middle.

Sketch it out

It’s time to draw your comic. I do this in a few difrant ways. One of the ways is what I call the brainstorm page. I’ll draw out the whole comic on one or two pieces of paper. This can be really rough and sketchy or pretty clean. It’s just the characters mostly. The backgrounds I leave out unless it’s important. I’ll then take a picture of them with my tablet. I’ll put it into my drawing program. I use ibispaint. I then use the select tool to drag the images where I want them. Remember when arranging them to make room for the wordballoons.

If I’m drawing the comic right on the paper, start to finish then I do things differently. I put the panel gutters down first. (The gutters are the lines that separate the panels.) I sketch it as cleanly and as close to the finish as possible. Basically with this I want to be looking at a pencil version of the comic.

Brainstorm pages examples

Messy: needs lots of clean up. Clean: ready to be inked.

Example of how it looks when I've arranged the sketches how I want them

Rendering

After you make sure you got things looking how you like them you can finally do your art. Color and do the line work just the same way you’d do any other drawing. However if your comic has more then one or two pages or has a lot of panels you’ll want to simplifie things. You may want to keep your shading very simple or leave it out altogether. The same with lighting. The point is so you don’t overburden yourselves with details and never finish your comic. If you just have one page or very few panels you can go a little crazy on the details.

Wordballoons

Make room for these at the very start. If possible add these balloons in your sketch. I’m still not too good at these but I’m getting better. You don’t want too much text in one balloon. You can brake up a longer text into two balloons or more. You can change how the balloon looks to show how the thing is being said. If the speaking is scary and threatening try making the balloon black. I do this with Garmadon sometimes when he’s using his evil voice. You can give the balloon spikes if someone is yelling. Just play around with it.

Fonts

You need to pick a font (text face) that is easy to read. You’ll also want to have it be big enough to read without zooming in. If you can get a font that looks a bit like handwriting do it. I use Walter Turncoat now. If you don’t have a font like that and can’t download one just use what you have already. Not the end of the world. If you have good handwriting you could just hand write it.

You can use different types of fonts for a different mood or voice. A drippy spooky looking font for something evil. You’ll want to make sure all your spelling is right before you add your text. If you got internet you can use quill bot for this. I also like to have something read it out loud for me so I know I got it right. I use google translate for this.

Word balloons and font examples

Black balloons with drippy white hand written front.

Walter Turncoat font with normal balloons. Spikey balloons with hand drawn lettering.

I hope this helped any of you looking to make your own comics. If you have questions ask me. I'll do my best to answer. I'm still learning myself though. Here are some links to good videos about comic makeing.

[discoholicmusic]

question mr disco. Do you like the way we even draw you? Is there any extra details we should add? Cheese?

this is all you need!

[miggsboson]

a VERY OLD storyboarding tutorial i made for a friend. Its not everything but hopefully it'll get the ball rolling :)

I really recommend Sherm Cohen's storyboarding secrets. It's how I got started and the free stuff on youtube is plenty to start with!

[shitfaced-ctrl]

do u guys see the vision

[thefrogsennaneverfound]

Beans!🥰

When I’m writing from the point of view of animals, they refer to us as ‘hoobeans’ so I love this!😊

hi, don't want to bother you, but i wonder if you could give some advices to someone who wants to learn how to draw some cute cartoon characters (not realistic, but the one like your doodles). love your art, you are awesome

Hi! I made a little drawing guide, hope it helps🥰

[deepdreamnights]

Vidu and the Quest to Make More Toons

So, a ways back I talked about Minmax, but I've been trying out basically all the video generators looking for the tools I need, and low and behold this week I find out I've been accepted into the Vidu Artists program now, wherein I get credits and access to access their cooler features in in exchange for... talking about the tech and how I use it.

Well twist my arm. I shall endeavor to be objective and informative despite free stuff (a challenge my spirit needs practice withstanding if anyone else wishes to test me)

So let's talk Vidu.

(outside of being converted to gif, no animations in this post have been cut or edited)

Also, everyone say hi to Maureen the Lizard Queen, every hero needs an evil queen that really wants in his pteruges, and she's that for TyrannoMax.

Vidu's got a bit more oomph under the hood than MinMax (no shade to MinMax, they're brand new and very promising) and it's way too early to be picking winners when it comes to video.

Anyhow, basic features that are nice include the options to upload start and end frames, options for a 4 or 8 second duration (more about that later), and a cleanup/upscale. Credits line up more or less with seconds. 4 credits for a 4 second clip, 8 for an 8 second, and again at upscale. It's straightforward in a way a lot of services aren't.

Apetomic Pyle, done on the fast settings. (not to shabby still, and it gave him monkey legs which a lot of systems balk at)

If you're on the $30/mo tier, you can choose to do a double-cost "quality" over "speed" option. Thankfully, the artist program gets me access. Since there's not yet a seed option it's hard to do a direct comparison, but the quality is going to be a must if you're doing anything that looks like cel. Much cleaner, much smoother.

(4 and 8 second quality gens)

One of the nicest features is the character reference feature. Basically it's like Midjourney's --cref, but with a very strict adherence to character details.

The above images used reference shots of Maureen and Dr. Underfang, and it got the stripes on Underfang's tie right in basically every gen. That's a ridiculous level of character model adherence and, for my purposes, all but essential.

It did misinterpret Maureen's undertail coloration for a sort of fin or drape, but the shot I used was oddly cropped, and sometimes stuff like that happens with gen AI. Given my measuring stick for errors is the era of animation I'm emulating, whatever does slip through is only going to make it more authentic.

There is a limitation in that character-reference and text-only prompts default to 16:9 presently with no options to adjust, but some room to pan is always handy and most people are going to be outputting for phone and not outdated CRT televisions, so, it's understandable it'd be a lower priority feature for the devs.

Walk cycles! By Saint Eniac it's a miracle!

On the left we have one prompted with TyrannoMax's control art, and on the right we have one using that art as the starting frame (4 and 8 seconds, respectively).

Way More details under the fold.

Vidu likes a hefty prompt.

A lot of detail and evocative language helps, and older prompting tricks like mojo-jojoing important concepts are back. For the Max walk cycles above I used:

1986 vintage cel-shaded cartoon character walk cycle. The orange dinosaur-anthro wearing blue gladiator armor walks toward screen right, the camera tracks him, holding him in center-frame. He completes a full, brisk walk cycles from the side view. He walks boldly, back straight, head high, heroic. His tail sways behind him as he moves. The whole clip has the look and feel of vintage 1986 action adventure cel-animated cartoons. The animation quality is high, with flawless motion and anatomy. animated by Tokyo Movie Shinsha, studio Ghibli, don bluth. BluRay remaster. flat chroma-key green screen background

The potential for use with my Filmation-inspired technique is readily apparent. Both versions are on-model as much as any two shots in a 1980s action-figure shilling cartoon would be, some minor blurring to clean up in post but nothing serious. It should be pretty easy to extract the needed frames for looping and compositing.

Some Extra Points

There are the usual issues with hands, though more often than not it corrects my four-fingered anthros to having a human five-fingered hand. Buzby Spurlock animation was known for those kinds of inconsistencies, though. So an opening credits video is much less far off than it was at the last post.

It's also generally impressive how well it does with my dinosaur characters. Non-humanoid dinosaurs are difficult for most image generators, much less anthrosaurs in a vintage aesthetic. Vidu has yet to override the character art to give Underfang or Max the Jurassic Park style t-rex jaw, which is something both MJ and Dall-E 3 have trouble with.

Human characters like Kitty Concolor here, much more stable.

As always, clips are curated. I didn't choose my absolute best ones (gotta have something for the videos), and I'm working on a fun series of jank reels across all the generators.

[avrilen]

💦🍇 My friend asked for a tutorial on drawing.. liquid stuff

I didn’t find any for a flat-coloring graphic styles so had to make one ✌️ I stopped using any layer effects years ago so this one doesn’t include any special software knowledge, just color theory

[i-really-like-phrogs]

For the next tutorial, Lydia Deetz won by a whopping 80% on the community poll! That’s more than fair, of course. After all- what’s a Toon-juice without his gothy little pal?

Surprisingly, I sometimes find Lydia harder to draw than Beejtlejuice since she’s got a LOT of little details- but she becomes easier the more you draw her! (It often takes me at least three or four tries before I feel like I got her correct, bur she’s definitely a loving challenge for me 😂💪)

[akisdoodles]

🤩 I’m so excited to finally show you what I’ve been working on for a while! My first-ever art guide: “Stylize Anyone from Reference: A Step-by-step Guide to Stylized Portraits of Different Ethnicities” 

I wrote this workbook after receiving your amazing feedback on my last YouTube short. I wanted to expand and complete the information in my videos in one place, so here we are! In the workbook, you'll learn how to study a reference, turn each facial feature into simple shapes, let go of unnecessary realistic details, study and draw different ethnicities, and understand the traits that define a person’s look. All are explained in simple steps.

🚀 It’s not all, I’m running a sale to celebrate the launch, get 30% OFF the workbook until the 20th of December!

If you’re interested and want to know more, here is the link to my store: www.aki-anyway.com

I hope this workbook will help you reach your stylization goals!