I am teaching myself how to make animation. Making this gave me so much appreciation for all the artists who created all the work that inspired me growing up! It's a humbling craft, and I gotta keep my head down and trek through its process, which is both very long and surprisingly soothing. I read that it takes ten years of animating daily to become sort of ok at it. 😗

rotating figure

This is a combination of a drawing exercise that then turned into an animation exercise. The purpose is to challenge and grow visual memory and speed. First, you are going to need to set a timer, a light colored pencil, and a darker one (I used Procreate on iPad here for both drawing and exporting the animation)

Drawing is an act of balance between the eye, the mind, and the hand! This will your skills to the test, and with patience and consistency, is bound to move you closer towards your full creative potential.

Observation

One Minute
PoseManiacs is an awesome resource for figure references, and its 360 turn models aided me in this animation exercise. Look at what the object you are drawing, memorizing as much as possible. If you find this difficult at first, don't worry, our focus and memory are skills, and they will get stronger with time and practice.

Draw from Memory

Two Minutes
Look away from your object, and with your lighter colored pencil, draw it from memory. This will strengthen your inner vision and memory, so don't cheat yourself by stealing looks! Once your two minute timer goes off, you're ready for the final step.

Draw from Observation

Two Minutes
Look at the object, and with a darker pen or pencil, draw over your memory drawing. This part is fun, and for me it was surprising how off my memory was at time. I also gave myself deserved kudos for being accurate sometimes, knowing that this is a pretty challenging exercise.

Repeat this process for as many drawings as your animation requires,
and hopefully you'll end up with something less wobbly than what I got 😅

Untitled_Artwork 2.gif