Part 3 - Animation Character Tutorial

Corel® Painter™ X Curriculum – Part 3 Animation Character tutorial by Stephanie Reese

This tutorial contains five lessons, each requiring approximately 45 minutes to complete. Some of the steps can be finished in a matter of seconds, others will require several minutes to complete.

In part three of the Corel® Painter™ X Curriculum, you’ll build on the knowledge gained from the Seascape and Portrait tutorials, get introduced to the body styles of animation characters, explore some basic principles of shadow and light, ink and paint a character sketch, and create your own animation characters.

Lesson One The industry has undergone a sea change since the days when Disney, Warner Brothers, and Hanna-Barbera were the kings of animation and Saturday morning cartoons. The newest trends are realistic animated action, sci-fi, and Asian martial arts. While the style of action has evolved, so too have the body styles of characters.

Examining Animation Character Styles Before creating your own animation characters, let’s examine some typical proportions for different types of characters. Although realistic, lifelike proportions are often used as a reference, cartoon proportions are generally more exaggerated than humans.

To examine animation character styles 1 Open Scale.RIF in Corel Painter X.

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A sample of four typical cartoon character types appears on the screen.

The following images for character body styles are provided courtesy of Caytlin Reese, also known as Amber Foxwing. You can visit her online gallery at: http://amberfoxwing.deviantart.com/ gallery/

Characters with Baby Proportions The first character type on the left has baby proportions. Baby proportions are typically used for “cute” characters. The larger the head in relation to the body, the younger the appearance of the character.

The baby also has large eyes compared to the head size and the eyes are slightly below the midline of the face, rather than halfway between the top of the head and the chin.

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The following are guidelines for creating a “cute” cartoon character with baby proportions: • the head is large in proportion to the body • the forehead is large in proportion to the rest of the face • the eyes are large and positioned below the midline of the head • the cheeks are rounded and chubby • the body has short, stubby limbs with pudgy feet and hands • the torso is rounded and plump

Take some time to research different cartoon characters that have a similar body type.

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Characters with Adolescent Proportions The second character type in Scale.RIF is an adolescent. This body type is used for many Manga or Japanese anime characters. Large eyes are used with this body type to give the appearance of innocence.

The following are guidelines for creating a cartoon character with adolescent proportions: • the head is of normal size in proportion to the body • the forehead is large in proportion to the face • the eyes are large and positioned below the midline of the head • other facial features, such as nose, lips, cheeks, chin, and neck, are svelte • arms, legs, hands, and feet are lean and normally proportioned • the torso is curvaceous

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Characters with Adult Female Proportions The third character type in Scale.RIF is the heroine. This figure is slightly taller than realistic proportions as you can see on the layout guide. The character is slender and curvy.

The following are guidelines for creating a heroine cartoon character with adult female proportions: • the head is slightly larger than realistic • the facial features are normally proportioned • legs, arms, feet, and hands are long and lean These character types are introduced as guidelines for discussion and evaluation purposes. There are no hard and fast rules for creating animation characters. Remember to use your imagination when creating your own characters.

• the body is slightly elongated and voluptuous • the character may combine animal and human features, such as a tail, ears, whiskers, or other

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Characters with Adult Male Proportions The last character type in Scale.RIF is a super hero. Predominantly, the super hero is muscular with a prominent, square jaw, such as Mr. Incredible from The Incredibles.

The following are guidelines for creating a super hero cartoon character with adult male proportions: • the head is large in proportion to the body • the forehead is normally proportioned to the face • the chin is large and square • other facial features are normally proportioned • the body is muscular

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Characters with Villian Proportions The last body type to examine is the villain. Typically, villain characters are very angular. They feature 45-degree angles for the chin, brow, eyes, and mouth. The bodies for villian characters can also be thin with sharp features. Jafar in Disney’s Aladdin is a good example.

The following are guidelines for creating a villian cartoon character, which may combine animal and human features: • the head is angular, with elongated facial features • the forehead is large • the ears, nose, mouth, and chin are V-shaped to appear menacing • hair or facial hair is often jagged • the torso and limbs may also be angular or elongated

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Creating Your Own Characters Now, using the body types discussed, take some time to create your own characters.

To create your own characters 1 On the Layers palette, add a new layer. 2 On the Brush Selector bar, choose a variant of the Pencils brush

category. 3 Sketch your own characters by using the five discussed body

types as a reference.

Lesson Two During the first lesson, you looked at different body types typically used in character animation. Next, you’ll explore some of the tools and features provided by Corel Painter X that will help you ink and color a character sketch. For lesson two, students will • darken a faint character sketch by using the Equalize effect • use Liquid Ink brushes to ink a character sketch • add color to a character sketch

Working with the Equalize effect The Equalize effect improves contrast, adjusting black and white points, and distributing the brightness levels throughout the entire range of available levels. Corel Painter lets you equalize an image by creating a histogram showing the number of pixels for each brightness level value and then allowing you to adjust those values.

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To darken a faint character sketch 1 Open Bride.RIF.

2 On the Layers palette, click Layer 1. 3 Click Effects menu ` Tonal Control ` Equalize. 4 In the Equalize dialog box, click OK to accept the default

settings. The image should appear darker and more even. 5 On the Layers palette, adjust the Opacity slider to 50%.

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The sketch now appears more gray but still even.

Working with Liquid Inks Next, you’ll trace the sketch with Liquid Ink brushes to prepare the character for coloring. Liquid Ink brushes in Corel Painter create liquid paint effects that simulate traditional ink-based media.

To trace the drawing with Liquid Inks 1 Click Layers menu ` New Liquid Ink Layer. 2 On the Layers palette, double-click Liquid Ink Layer 1. 3 In the Liquid Ink Layer Attributes dialog box, type Outline in

the Name box and click OK. 4 On the Brush Selector bar, choose Liquid Ink from the Brush

Category selector and Fine Point from the Brush Variant selector. 5 On the Colors palette, choose black and trace with smooth

continuous lines over the entire sketch, except for the hair. When inking a character, it’s always a good idea to zoom in on your image.

Make sure there are no breaks in your lines so that later it will be easier to select areas for painting.

Using the Layers palette, you can periodically toggle the sketch layer on and off to view your progress.

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6 On the Layers palette, add a new layer for the hair outline and

rename it Hair.

Adding Color to the Bride Character Now, you’ll start to add color to the character. You’ll use several layers, painting a flat base color for each character part on each layer.

To add color to the bride character 1 On the Layers palette, add a new layer and rename it Skin.

On this layer you will start to add the base skin color of the character. 2 On the Colors palette, choose a light skin tone. 3 On the Layers palette, click the new Skin layer. 4 In the toolbox, click the Brush

tool and paint a flat layer of

skin color on the character. 5 Repeat this technique until all of the bride character’s skin is

painted with a flat base color.

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Continue to add layers and paint flat colors over each part of the sketch. For example, you should have a layer for hair, color, dress, skin, etc.

6 When you are finished coloring the character, save your work as

Bridecolor.rif.

Lesson Three During lesson two, you used the Equalize effect to darken a faint character sketch, used Liquid Ink brushes to ink the character, and added several layers of color. For lesson three, students will • explore the principles of shadow and light • create objects with different shadows and light sources

Shadows To create realistic shadows, you first need to visualize your character as a three-dimensional object. Here are some basic principles to remember: • There are no flat surfaces on the body; everything is rounded or curved.

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• Shadows are produced when an object blocks or partially blocks a light source, such as the sun, or a bright lamp. • Despite striking and illuminating curved surfaces, light travels in straight lines. Therefore, light strikes the object’s plane, not individual lines. • A shadow will move if either the light source or the object moves. • More often than not, shadows appear in large blobs not tiny slivers. • To create shadows, you should always start by choosing the direction of your light source. The lighter areas are closer to the light, darker areas farther away from the light.

Light Sources Look at the space around you. Find an object that’s illuminated by a bright light. Shine a flashlight from a single direction and note what happens to the lights and shadow. Try moving the flashlight and study the resultant shadow. Take a look at yourself in a mirror while standing in a direct source of light. Now, consider the following questions: • Do all things have shadows? Why would they not? • Does a transparent object have a shadow? How is it different than a solid object? • Are all shadows the same color? • What makes a shadow disappear? • Do objects have shadows at night?

Practice with Everyday Objects Next, grab a few objects from around the room. Anything will work; balls, erasers, pencils, backpacks, or even classmates. One by one, place the objects in the path of a light source. Sunlight coming through the window is ideal. Try drawing the object, including highlights and shadows. Now, try placing the object on the ground. Move the same object closer to and further from the ground. How does the shadow change?

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If you have access to a projector in your classroom, try making shadow puppets on the wall in front of the light. How does the shadow change as you get closer to the light source? How about closer to the wall? Spend the rest of this lesson drawing objects with shadows that use different light sources.

Lesson Four During the third lesson, you explored some basic principles of light and shadow, and created some objects with different shadows and light sources. For lesson four, students will • add shadows/shade by working with light/shade principles • add highlights • work with the Blenders brush category • use Erasers to clean up the finished character

Creating Shadow Now we will use what you’ve learned about light and shadow to shade your character.

To add shade to your character 1 Open Bridecolor.RIF. 2 On the Layers palette, add a new layer and rename it Shadow. 3 On the Colors palette, choose a darker skin tone to create the

shadows. 4 Remember to choose the direction the light is coming from and

how it will lay on the surface of your character. In the example on the next page, the light is coming from the front left.

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Adding Highlights The next step is to add highlights to the image.

To add highlights to your character 1 On the Layers palette, select the Dress layer. 2 On the Brush Selector bar, choose Eraser from the Brush

Category selector and Gentle Bleach from the Brush Variant selector. 3 Paint white highlights where the strongest light strikes the

character. 4 Repeat this technique for the hair and skin. 5 On the Layers palette, select the Hair outline layer and delete it.

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Working with Blenders You can make the lines between highlight, shadow, and base color blend together by using the Blender brush category. Blenders affect underlying pixels by moving and mixing them. The variants can reproduce the effects of blending paint by applying water or oil. You can also smooth drawing lines and create shading just as you would on a pencil sketch or charcoal drawing. However, you must first drop all your color layers to one. If you don’t drop all layers, white areas in the individual layer will blend with the color instead of the other colors of the image.

To use Blenders 1 Press Shift and on the Layers palette, select all color layers. 2 Click Layers menu ` Collapse.

All selected layers collapse into one layer. 3 On the Brush Selector bar, choose Blenders from the Brush

Category selector and Soft Blender Stump 10 from the Brush Variant selector. 4 Blend edges of light and shadow to smudge the edges so a

distinct line does not appear on your character. The only time you want a sharp edge is when your character is lit by a single bright light causing harsh shadows.

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Working with Erasers If you color outside the character’s outline while blending, you can erase the overflow.

To erase overflow color 1 In the toolbox, click the Magic Wand

tool.

2 On the Layers palette, click the Outline layer and select the

affected area of the character. 3 Click Select menu ` Invert.

Now all areas except the one selected are active. 4 On the Layers palette, select the collapsed color layer. 5 On the Brush Selector bar, choose Erasers from the Brush

Category selector and Eraser from the Brush Variant selector. 6 Erase any color that flows outside the character’s sketch lines.

Lesson Five During the past four days, you have looked at some types of characters, explored some basic principles of light and shadow, and inked and colored a character sketch. For lesson five, students will use what they’ve learned to sketch, ink, and color their own animation characters.

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