Introducing John the Animator Guy Celestri YouTube Trailer

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

Mission of My YouTube Channel

A young artist asked me, "What is the purpose of your YouTube channel?" My answer is simple...check out my channel's banner (seen below).

 

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!

Announcement: John the Animator Guy Store Opened at CafePress.com

The John the Animator Guy mug is perfect for coffee, tea, or pencils!

YES, I finally got my online store up and running at 

http://www.cafepress.com/johntheanimatorguy

I've kept my inventory basic, simple, and affordable. Besides mugs, you'll also find a wide variety of T-shirts for both women and men, tote bags, computer mousepads, and magnets.

Check it out...and if you've enjoyed (and found helpful) the information I've freely given you over the years here at my blog, please consider buying an item or two.

Thank you...and Keep Your Pencils Sharp!

My YouTube Channel

 

I'm prepping my first animation video to launch my "John Celestri" YouTube channel in a month's time. It'll be a mix of information and new personal animation projects I'm creating... I hope you will visit me weekly at my old school 2D animation desk.


I'll make a formal announcement here when I'm ready to launch!

Snuffy and Zoey Website

I've developed an independent animation-centric website (separate from this one); and created the first in a series of short whimsical 2D web cartoons starring my characters Snuffy and Zoey. The website (https://snuffyandzoey.com/) is now live. This "John The Animator Guy" blog will continue to be supported and I will be posting about the production process of my new cartoons.

The purpose of the new site is to freely share my knowledge and enthusiasm for classical 2D hand drawn animation with children ages 8 and under (and their young parents and/or grandparents); and, in so doing, present a positive way to express oneself creatively.

The limitations of Blogger forced me to launch a standalone website where I can have total control of the quality of the material I post...and also (perhaps) in the future have a small online store offering licensed merchandise of Snuffy and Zoey.

This is my contribution to helping keep the art of classical 2D animation alive. I guess I'm sort of an internet Johnny Appleseed of animation…you never where those scattered seeds will land or what kind of good fruit they will produce.

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!