Animation Advanced Strong Impact and Speed
GCC Academy
Hello
This is Kang Ji-Won, teaching action drawing
This time, you will learn how to draw gestures
Before that, let's learn about stylizing
You will learn how characters
are changed and exaggerated from the original material
and try applying that to an example
And finally, learn how to draw gestures
Stylization
Actions are movements, and movements have purposes
Purposes have a direction
In order to make the purpose clear in a drawing
it is important to make apparent
which direction the character is aiming the action at
In this lesson, you will learn
how to maximize motion, emotion and actions using stylization
You will also be able to try for yourself
how to effectively express the movement and flow of the human body, using gesture drawing
Using these two concepts
we can summarize the purpose of an action
and express it clearly in our drawings
First let's practice drawing flexibly
using transformation and exaggeration
which is also called stylization, or more often deformé in Korean
Stylization is a method where you change the fundamental shape of the character
The example character Link, from the Legend of Zelda video game series
Because the series has been around for so long
he's been expressed in many different stylizations
Some games
have him similar to actual humans
Some games have him in chibi form
In another game
he's made up of cubes
Like this, you can have different variations of the same character
according to purpose and point of view
You can make their form more simple or exaggerate their features
Or recreate them as a character
through reinterpretation, providing a different visual experience
Even if you're looking at the same shape
there's a difference between seeing it in 3D and seeing a flat image
Even when you're drawing a realistic human
you have to enlarge the eyes for them to give the same impression as they would in real life
and you have to omit the nose slightly as well
Those are all examples of stylization
The same applies to fire or water
Water is represented often like this
These kinds of objects that have no real shape
also have to be stylized in drawings
So, when drawing, especially with lines
alterations and simplifications are not a choice, but necessary
Now let's take a look at each of the aspects
that make up stylization
First is simplification
which is when you convert a more complex form
into geometric shapes such as circles, triangles or squares
For example, if there's a mountain like this
you would usually draw it as a triangle
And clouds that are spread out like this
you will often stylize
into a few ovalish curves
This can also be seen as a form of simplification
Getting rid of unnecessary details
and leaving only the minimum needed for the object to be recognized
that is the core of simplification
For example, when drawing machines
such as an excavator or a car
Parts like this vent here
or ridges and wires
will make the drawing very complex
Which is why stylized drawings will skip them
and in the case of cars, for example
draw just the body of the car, with the windows and wheels
In the case of this excavator as well
Leaving only the core parts, such as the body and some mechanisms
is a kind of simplification
Taking out details appropriately is the core of simplification
In the case of the human body
you could leave only the eyes, ears, mouth and nose to highlight the general impression
Leaving only the facial expression
is also a type of simplification
Next there is distortion
Distortion means twisting, stretching, or compressing
to alter it from the original shape
Do you remember the concept squashing & stretching
that we learned about before?
That is also a form of distortion
Another form of distortion is highlighting or minimizing
a certain aspect of the original design
A chibi character with shortened limbs
can be seen as having been distorted
And as I said that
squashing & stretching is also distortion
taking the the lines of the body
or movement and action lines
and stretching or squishing them is also distortion
As you can see very well
in animations such as Tom & Jerry
These types of animation
very often express movement
by stretching characters' bodies out
And if the character is hit by an object, in this case an iron
the character will stay squished in the shape of the object
If they drink a lot of water, to express that
the character's body will become bloated like a water balloon
These kinds of distortions
because the animation is a slapstick comedy
are used in order to maximize
the exaggerated movements that make slapstick funny
And this animation is the definition
of a work that actively uses distortion
Next we have reconstruction
Looking at the subject from another point of view
and taking the subject's characteristics that you want
to put them together in your point of view
can also be a kind of stylization
The characterization of animals and such that you can see often in Japanese comics
is a well-known example of reconstruction
For example, taking the eyes
and plumage color from this bird
and reconstructing it in the way you want
and changing the placement can also be seen as reconstruction
In the case of this character
the bird's characteristic beak is hanging from the character's head
This is an example of reconstruction
Next is exaggeration
Exaggeration is term for any time
when you maximize a certain aspect of the subject
The concept of distortion is a type of exaggeration as well
but this type of exaggeration is different
in that it leaves the original context
as it exaggerates
A good example of this is caricatures
You can see from the example
that the drawing and original person are certainly different
but they look somewhat similar
That is because the eyes, ears, mouth, nose and shape of the face
which decide the impression the person gives
has been altered to maximize the person's characteristics
This can look a bit silly
since caricatures are often used
as a part of comedy or satire
but exaggerating a person's features in a drawing
is a commonly used method of expression
You can also draw a tall person
to be incredibly thin, like a stick figure
or draw a short person so that their head is as tall as their body
Or you could take someone with large eyes
and make their eyes ridiculously large
This kind of enlarging or reducing physical characteristics
in order to highlight them
can be seen as exaggeration
Not only that, you can also exaggerate emotions
by exaggerating facial expressions or poses
and thus making emotions seem more dramatic
There are a few symbols
that we often use as special effects in comics
Characters sweat
when they are embarrassed
and when they're angry
they will often display this mark
This is an exaggeration of how blood vessels extrude
when people are angry in real life
And the same is true for the sweat drops, which may actually appear when people are embarrassed or bewildered
They are actual physical reactions that have been turned into symbols
Which is why the use of symbols can also be seen as stylization
through simplification and exaggeration
All of these concepts do not occur alone
but rather along with other types of stylization
Applying transformation and exaggeration
Next let's learn how to apply the transformation and exaggeration
that we just learned about on the human body
Stylization is often used
as a term for the exaggeration and transformation
of the human body
That is because the human body
is the very often the subject of stylization
The most important and often stylized aspect
of the human body is its proportions
First, what are body proportions?
It means how large the head is compared to the rest of the body
or in other words, how many heads equal the height of the whole body
Which means
that this character has a 1:4 body proportion
Because of this, what is most important when it comes to body proportions
is how large the head is
The smaller the head is, the larger the body proportion becomes
and the more model-like
and mature the character will look
The smaller the proportion is, on the other hand
Like this
for example, a 1:2.5 character
in order to fit the entire body into this space
it would have to look like this
How does it look? The character looks very cute, doesn't it?
This is about the actual body proportion of a baby
You can not only change the size of the head, but also make the legs shorter
which also makes the body proportion smaller
and the character will also lose details in the limbs, since if you draw too many details here
The character will look exaggerated and realistic at the same time which will probably be creepy
that is why simplification comes along naturally
and characters with smaller body proportions are usually simplified
And like I said, making the legs shorter or longer
is also a way to change the body proportions
or to be more exact, how the character feels
Now, a character with longer legs will have more dynamic movements
If this character moves its legs
the movement will be very apparent
This character as well, if I make the torso shorter
and the legs longer
will have long enough limbs to make its actions stand out
Then on the other hand
What would a character with shorter legs feel like?
It would look very stable
and will likely be even more simplified
The former character has body proportions
used in animations or video games with lots of action
and the latter, whom has shorter legs
is used mostly for characters you can see on stationery and such
Because simplified, almost symbol-like characters
are most appropriate as mascots
many such characters have simplified features and short legs
For example, Kakao Friends
or Lines Friends
all have body proportions like this
You can also adjust the width of the shoulders
To change how the character feels
This can't be called body proportions, to be exact
but with wider shoulders, the character feels more like a real human
and narrower shoulders
this character's shoulders are basically nonexistent
This will make the character look younger or more stylized
And the shorter they are vertically
they will also become nonexistent
The character down here already has its neck omitted
and the shorter the shoulders are, the more abbreviated the neck becomes as well
and the character will look more like a caricature
And the longer you make a character's proportions
the more distorted their features will become
The shorter the proportions are, as I already explained
the more simplified the character will become as well
Next we have exaggeration of form
and as I said before
you can either exaggerate the facial features
to make emotions more dramatic
or you can exaggerate physical features to visualize characteristics
Let's say for example there is a person
who is overall fat, but has less body fat at the legs
How could you express that?
To express that the person's body is bulky
you can make the torso round
and make the legs thin as sticks
That will highlight this person's physical characteristics
like this
Or drawing a muscular person with their upper body
completely in the shape of an inverted triangle
is also stylization through exaggeration of physical aspects
And in the case of simplification
simplifying characters' bodies into circles or triangles
can also be a form of simplification
This kind of radical simplification
used often in emoticons or pictograms
is also simplification of the human body
Simplifying the human body into circles or triangles and such
also helps when studying silhouettes
As I did before when explaining exaggeration
you turn the overall silhouette of the body into geometric shapes
For example, taking this almond shape
and using it to draw a person
with a potbelly
Or
the part that I saw as a potbelly
could be the person's thighs instead
Or again
even if someone is muscular
there is a big difference between how they would look
when their silhouette is an inverted triangle, and when it is a square
As you can see, using geometric shapes as a silhouette
is helpful for creating designs
that show the personality of a character even at a glance
Next are stylizations that focus on
transformation
The biggest thing that factors into someone's drawing style
is how consistent their expression is
of the human body
You could draw every character to be round with short limbs
Or you could make every character long and slender
This is what drawing style is
If the project you're working on is focused on action
then you could make every character be stylized like this
so that their designs are suitable for action scenes
If there's an action comic
and one person has long limbs
and the other has short limbs
with barely distinguishable arms, legs, and hands
the cast is certainly diverse in design
but it isn't appropriate for the theme
Which is why in a single piece of work
according to what genre or purpose it has
you can unify the way characters are stylized
and that becomes the drawing style of that work
And as I explained before
The larger the parts near the hands and feet are, the more highlighted the character's actions are
For example
You can enlarge
just the hands and feet
This character looks kind of like Mickey Mouse
Now the hands will stand out wherever they are placed
since they're so large
And whatever motion they make, it will be very noticeable
Or
you can also make the movement of the hands and feet
be linked to those of the arms and legs
So I would advise you to look for various examples of stylization
and find your own style
Movement can also be exaggerated
as well as character design
You already know that by making the arms and legs
longer, shorter, bigger, or smaller
you can maximize the flow of movement
and that is called squash & stretch
We have so far gone over some aspects
of transformation and exaggeration
Now let's try it out for ourselves
So, how to practice drawing with a silhouette
It's common to draw silhouettes
in plain lines like this when studying drawing
Lines are the thinnest method of drawing
If they are all you use, you become unable to see the bigger picture
and may end up obsessing too much on the details
Which is why trying, based on a typical human body
to create multiple silhouettes
in black
so that
it's impossible to add any details
will make it easy to get an idea of how the overall character looks
and creating variations of it as well
That is because unlike when you're using lines
even a small change is very apparent
You can create many variations of the same drawing
just by erasing or adding tiny bits
which makes it easy to apply it to other places
You can also use geometric shapes
Like in the first example of simplification
Practicing creating silhouettes using certain shapes
such as circles or triangles
will help you see how the character looks overall
and reinforce the impression you are intending to give the character
You can apply shapes to character design like this
Geometric shapes can either be the entire silhouette of the body
or it can be that of just the torso
Or you can apply just the curves and angles
that a geometric shape has
Maybe you could make a certain shape a concept
that is consistent along the entire character design
Drawing Gestures
The last thing you will learn about this time is how to draw gestures
Gesture drawing is drawing that focuses
on the movement or flow of people or objects
It's also called line of action
because the continuous movement of a subject is expressed in lines
For example, let's say these circles
are arranged
continuously in a curve
Now, then
how does the circle flow?
in a curvy way like this?
No
If you take the centers and connect them
This is flow of the circle's movement
The core of gesture drawing is movement and balance
And where was the center of gravity? It's in the middle of the object
Also, the direction the center of gravity is heading
will always be along this, the action line
That's one thing of note
Gestures are performed not only by people and animals
but also by plants or scenery
Gesture lines also exist in scenes like this
How would the gesture lines look in a situation like this?
First is the horizon, in the center of the scene
Or over here, the clouds are clumped together over here
and are spread out more over here
Which makes the line go like this
All of these are gesture lines
Finding the gesture lines are the basics
of observing and expressing subjects
That is because everything that you can see
you can understand by understanding their gestures
This can also be applied to the composition of paintings as well
You will realize that gesture drawing is also
a very effective skill for sketching
You could say that it constitutes the skeleton of drawings
because the action lines
often follow the vertebrae of humans
and skeletal structures
Before you get into the details, while you're still sketching
using gesture drawing to compress the overall flow
into clear and concise curves
allows details that are added later
to follow a single flow
rather than fly all over the place
For example
if this is the action line
On top of here
through gesture drawing
I can draw the body and legs
to follow a general flow
The legs might fall out
of the main action line
slightly
However, the overall flow of the body
is still based on this action line
Now I can begin giving on top of this
some details to the pants
or more accurately depict the body
For example
draw details like this
So this is how gesture drawing
and action lines work
Let's look at some more detailed methods of gesture drawing
Here's a human body
Firstly, when drawing a human body
you should never
depict every single muscle from the beginning
So not like this
But the major lines
that you can see at a glance
concisely in a single action line
If the head is here
What is the biggest flow of movement you can see here?
The tip of the foot
will connect to the head like this
Or rather, more like this
Also
when drawing the action line
you should skip any angles as much as possible
and minor curves like this
Do you remember the methods of drawing lines from before?
You should utilize the C, S, and I lines very aggressively
Because we have to focus on the overall movement right now
If the lines are too complex, the movement won't be noticeable
And by movement, right now I mean that
the direction the body is pointing has to be clear
Movement, therefore, should be stylized as much as possible
into one direction
or if the arms are in a different direction
at most two action lines
Another thing is that the line should be long and clear in order to highlight movement
The center of gravity is important as well
so you should use the lines to find the center of gravity, too
When you're beginning to draw
you should draw the overall flow
in a single line from the head to the feet
You can kind of think of it as drawing a stick figure
This drawing has two action lines, the other one connects the hands
Now we have to focus on catching
the lines of the limbs and body
The action line is longest axis of the body
so you have to be accurate when drawing it
And it ideally should be a C-curve
and should be at most a S-curve
I mean that you should have as few inflections
in the curve as possible
ideally a single curve
Also, the larger the action is, the clearer the action lines have to be
for the movement to be apparent
Now let's try drawing
based on the rules of gesture drawing
First draw the torso bent to the side, then the hands
just how the fingers are bent in general
The arm in a single curve, since it's flowing in one direction
The other arm is also curving in this direction
And here as well
I'll mark where the fingers are
On the way
to the feet, the knees are bent
And
depict the leg like this
Make sure the foot is also pointing along the action line
Now, details that are outside of the action line, like this leg
I will draw as concisely as possible
to just give an idea of its movement, and we're finished
This is the end of gesture drawing
and in the case of a rough drawing, this is enough detail
for you to gain drawing experience
Now, let's take a look at another example
This is the action lines as depicted using Tom and Jerry
Action lines, ideally, should follow the direction of the character's actions
For example, if the character is throwing a punch like this
The end of the line is not the head
but the line is rather connecting the fist and one foot
And to highlight the force of the punch
the action line of the character that is being hit
will curve at the point of impact like this
This drawing would have been drawn
beginning with these two action lines, and not with the body itself
As you can see, action lines
can make very clear the direction and amount of force
The examples below this
show you what happens
when you don't use action lines
Parts of the body will point everywhere
If the body spreads out in multiple directions like this
Force will end up being dispersing
making the movement seem weaker and without direction
So that is why we need to use gesture drawing
and lines of action
because they help make actions much clearer
Let's summarize what we learned this time
First we learned
about stylization, and drawing using transformation and exaggeration
Then we learned how to draw gestures
using exaggeration we just learned
Congratulations on finishing this lesson
The Concept of Stylization What is stylization? Altering the fundamental shape of the subject A character can be stylized differently as necessary
Types of stylization Simplification: Expressing complex forms as simple geometric shapes Distortion: Altering the subject from its original shape
Reconstruction: Taking certain aspects of the subject and rearranging them from a different point of view Exaggeration: Maximizing certain aspect
Applying transformation and exaggeration Changes in proportion Change human body proportion by adjusting head size, leg length, & shoulder breadth
Exaggerating form Exaggeration of facial features & body can help express character Simplification Bodies can be simplified into geometric shapes
Altering form Keeping the overall body consistent and altering certain parts to highlight movement
Exaggerating movement Elongating limbs or shortening them to change intensity of movement
Gesture Drawing What is gesture drawing? Drawing that focuses on the movement and flow of people or objects
How to draw in gestures Express curve of body using a single line Center the body at the line Draw the action line to be the longest axis of the body