Announcing: John Celestri Comics

 

Check out my new online shop! It has something for all types of comic book readers and fans of animation! I'm building my online store to offer my comics and prints of my Boba Fett Star Wars Holiday Special animation poses.

https://johncelestricomics.square.site/

Boba Fett's First Appearance

 

My First Kickstarter Campaign Is Now Fully Funded!

 

Ruff Sketch!

An Animation & Comic Book Portfolio

Do you want full size copies of my animation drawings? I launched a Kickstarter campaign to publish a softcover book containing rare animation drawings and short accounts about being a young animator back in the 1970s & early 1980s.

Check out this link: http://kck.st/2nrqrnX

How to Draw Batman - The Classic Version

I posted a tutorial on how to draw the classic Batman.

Introducing John the Animator Guy Celestri YouTube Trailer

I'm busy editing together the first episode...it should be ready next week!

John the Animator Guy Celestri Animation

Check out my YouTube playlist of some of my favorite animation clips!
If you like what you see, please leave your thoughts in the comment section below the video.

Thanks!

Old School Field Guide Area & Basic Scanner

Old School 12Field Guide scanned on basic home scanner

As part of my mission to keep old school animation alive, I want to point out inexpensive ways to create it.

One of the biggest expenses in creating animation electronically is buying a Cintiq or some such tablet. The mistake is to think that having the latest equipment will make your art better.

Getting the largest Cintiq to draw on doesn't mean you'll be able to draw better, it just means you'll have the ability to draw more complex designs. But since most modern day animation is being watched on small devices like iPhone, iPads and computer screens, I suggest character designs should be simple in order for facial expressions to be legible.

And if you want to draw those simple characters on paper, you can use 8.5 x 11 inch paper, scan it on a basic home scanner/printer, and import those JPEG files into a basic animation/coloring program.

Let me point out to you that all those classic Warner Brothers, Disney, Max Fleischer, MGM, and Terrytoons theatrical short cartoons were drawn on a maximum 12 field area...and projected onto screens at least 15 feet  high and 45 feet wide.

My 16-year-old Epson scanner

One of my rough poses scanned on my old scanner

The following three Popeye animation poses appear to be drawn on 8.5 x 11 inch paper.

Here's a scan of some Batman and The Joker animation poses I drew on 8.5 x 11 inch paper for that series of Zeller's Batman TV commercials run in Canada back in 1988.

I want to encourage you to think simple...you can get great results with basic tools!

The Joker Running Away In Perspective

Animating a figure moving away from camera into the distance is not as easy as it looks.

Here are the drawings, rough background, and x-sheet for the Joker running away in perspective. The final color version in the commercial was tilted counterclockwise approximately 15 to 20%. It was also a little shorter at the end, cutting just before the Joker lands after he clicks his heels. (see the Joker commercial clip in my post from Saturday, July 30, 2011 "Batman Zellers Commercial Series")

Study the x-sheet. You'll note that the original timing had the Joker taking 8 frame running steps. However, that was too slow and the Joker could not possibly cover much distance at that jogging speed for the time allotted in the scene. So, I animated him running at twice that speed (4 frame steps).


Note that I originally timed him to kick his heels together on drawing 40 & 41. I changed that in the animation to heels clicking together on drawing 38 and seeing him "float" in the air with drawings 39 to 44. The heel clicking is a passing "squash" into the "stretching" of the legs apart for 6 frames, which is what sells the action.

An interesting timing exercise is to:
1) expose all the drawings on 2 frames (doubling the scene duration);
2) expose the drawings in combinations of 1 frame and 2 frame exposures. You can expose all the drawings where the Joker lands on the ground for 2 frames and also do the same for the "floating" drawings.


You will see how the action will feel different with these varied timings. How you expose the drawings will have a subtle but definite effect on the scene.

Forced Perspective on Physical Action: Batman Swinging on Rope and Landing

Here is an example where the forced perspective of the scene setup will make your individual animation drawings look strange. The proportions of the elements of the character's body will look wrong frame by frame, but not in motion.

Background with extreme upshot perspective.

Batman's body in normal proportions.

Left leg swings forward.

Extreme perspective as Batman is coming down for landing.

Batman's foot touches down. Impetus of forward motion forces upper torso to bend forward at the waist. The body "squashes" as Batman hits the ground.

Lower torso has lost forward momentum due to foot touch-down. Upper portion of body moving ahead of lower portion. Body into "stretch".

Upper torso at its most forward. Combination of holding on to rope and second foot touch-down about to cause shift in impetus in opposite direction.

Batman lands on third foot touch-down and...

...brings trailing foot to stop position.

The rest of this short scene consists of Batman on multiple levels for cape overlapping action and mouth positions for dialogue. There is also a quick bit of animation of Batman tossing the rope aside to accent a word.