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Inking For Animation

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Inking For Animation

Well, my own dissatisfaction with my inking has now been echoed on my gallery thread. My lines are kind of wobbly and don't convey the mood of the pencils I started with. To some extent, I'm sure this has to do with getting a good deal of practice in. But it seems like people generally pick up some tricks as they go along.

Up until now, I've been concentrating on a classic comic book style. Though I was initially drawn to the cross-hatching because of the way it looked, it's also a convenient way to hide mistakes. The clean lines of animation are brutally honest. Of course, you can do some photoshop fixes. But this is very time-consuming, and generally not something I want to have to rely on.

Right now, I'm using Rotring Rapidograph technical pens on typing paper. If possible, I'd like to stick with this, as it's A: Very cost-effective, which becomes an issue when you're doing your own stuff, and B: The tech pens give you consistant line weight, so my lines don't become jittery from one frame to the next. I have had regular ballpoint pens suggested, and they're not bad. But I prefer being able to vary line weight by switching pens.

So, are there any tips? Revelations? A way to hold the pen, or a particular pen you like? This is probably all pretty subjective, but I notice that not one book I have on animation really focuses on inking. It's reffered to as "clean up" and is done on cels-- which are ridiculously expensive, and pretty much out of the picture for us desktop studio clowns. Of course, I'll be working with cels at VFS, and doing pretty much what I'm told if I get a gig in a studio. But is all that expense really necessary?

So, any advice would at least be experimented with as I develop an animation style-- both at VFS and at home.

Thanks for all the input and encouragement, as usual.

I had a very important break-through about 2:30am last night, and am suddenly happy with my inked line. No one else here shared anything, so I won't, either.

Have you noticed how threads related to drawing will get maybe two or three responses, while flame wars will go on and on for pages around here? I have.

Wow, sorry to see that you haven't received much help. :(

I don't use pens to ink my work. Instead, I do it all digitally on the computer. I believe many others do as well, which could also explain why you haven't received a lot of responses. I prefer digital inking because I can adjust my lines easily with minimum effort. Flash and Illustrator are my programs of choice.

You're right in the sense that I don't think there are any books out there that deal with inking for animation specifically. But there are a ton that deal with inking for comic books that could offer some useful techniques and more insight into the process. The Art of Comic Book Inking comes to mind.

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Sorry, Specter.

When I was inking, I prefered a brush because I could vary the line weight in mid stroke. I believe I was using a red sable brush. Synthetic fibers don't do the job when it comes to ink.
Wash your brushes frequently to keep the hairs from spreading.

I think for animation most studios use a pencil for the final clean-up. I have seen several posts where people talk about inking their animation drawings though. I've personally only seen it done with artwork to be used for flash or toon boom.

Interesting question, How many of you have worked in a studio where they ink their clean-ups and if so on what type of show/film?

I Also went to V.F.S. and the clean-up classes were pretty thourough so don't worry, by the end of the course you should have a handle on it.

In the end you can really use whatever you want for your own work, Ink is just a lot harder to work with than pencil.

Have fun in school and don't worry about people not posting right away, Go ahead and show us the big breakthrough, I'm sure some people will take a look.

Interesting question, How many of you have worked in a studio where they ink their clean-ups and if so on what type of show/film?

I once did some clean-up for a show, "God, the Devil and Bob"

http://www.carseywerner.net/gdb_eng.htm.

We used a .5 felt tip pen. All the clean ups and inbetweens were done in pen. It was a very loose style, and I must admit doing clean ups in ink was quite liberating. And fast! We were being paid "per piece" for that show, so we really had a field day!

Blog

Inking tutorial - comics related but good info.

http://www.tomrichmond.com/blog/?p=181

Thanks for all the input and encouragement, as usual.
...
No one else here shared anything, so I won't, either.

Have you noticed how threads related to drawing will get maybe two or three responses, while flame wars will go on and on for pages around here? I have.

Maybe the reason people don't give advice often, is that they seldom get acknowledged, encouraged, or thanked when they [I]do.
[/I]

Well, my own dissatisfaction with my inking has now been echoed on my gallery thread. My lines are kind of wobbly and don't convey the mood of the pencils I started with. To some extent, I'm sure this has to do with getting a good deal of practice in. But it seems like people generally pick up some tricks as they go along.

Up until now, I've been concentrating on a classic comic book style. Though I was initially drawn to the cross-hatching because of the way it looked, it's also a convenient way to hide mistakes. The clean lines of animation are brutally honest. Of course, you can do some photoshop fixes. But this is very time-consuming, and generally not something I want to have to rely on.

Right now, I'm using Rotring Rapidograph technical pens on typing paper. If possible, I'd like to stick with this, as it's A: Very cost-effective, which becomes an issue when you're doing your own stuff, and B: The tech pens give you consistant line weight, so my lines don't become jittery from one frame to the next. I have had regular ballpoint pens suggested, and they're not bad. But I prefer being able to vary line weight by switching pens.

So, are there any tips? Revelations? A way to hold the pen, or a particular pen you like? This is probably all pretty subjective, but I notice that not one book I have on animation really focuses on inking. It's reffered to as "clean up" and is done on cels-- which are ridiculously expensive, and pretty much out of the picture for us desktop studio clowns. Of course, I'll be working with cels at VFS, and doing pretty much what I'm told if I get a gig in a studio. But is all that expense really necessary?

So, any advice would at least be experimented with as I develop an animation style-- both at VFS and at home.

Hi DrSpecter,

Have you tried one of those brush pens on paper? If you use non-photo blue or similar pencils for your animation, you can just go over the lines on the same piece of paper with a brush pen.I worked on a few jobs like that and had good results. The problem with rotring pen is that the lines get too even and my pen always get blocked up because I'm so bad at keeping everthing clean!

Another thing I tried was just cleaning up the animation drawings with good old black pencils on paper. Go over the lines and make them thick and thin. It's kind of cheating but if you look at the end credit of "Tank Girl", you can see what it looks like.

Are you really planning on using cels? No one seems to be doing that anymore.

There are different ways to tranfer drawings onto cels- In most cases animation get cleaned up on paper with pencils first and then sent to the ink and paint department. Dip pen or brush tracing were commen in the old days before xerox came along. You can also clean up and inbetween directly onto cel. Dick Williams used to do that a lot. Check out his book and you'll see loads of examples. They look like pencil drawings on paper with shading or cross hatching but they were drawn directly on to cel with grease pencils. I'm not sure if you can still get those pencils easily these days. The last time I drew on cel I was using "KOH-I-NOOR" pencils. You can drawing with them on cel as if you are using a soft pencil on paper. What I like about this method is that what you see in the final film are the original drawings done by the animators and the assistants.

Check out Tony White's book as well. You can see a lot of animation drawings there with different style of lines. (p144 the knight and the tiger again was a grease pencil on cel job.)

I am sure there's a way to scan your drawings and sort out the inking in the computer. I know every little about that and like to leave it to the experts to give you their input.

Enjoy your animaton!

-Paul

One of the less-fondly remembered jobs i remember doing was clean-up and inbetween on some animation using black prisma-color pencils.
Never experienced a more frustrating tool than those things, the cores were so soft that if you hadn't sharpened then just the right way, they snap on drawing and you'd have to toss that drawing.

Even on the last line of a heavy pencil mileage drawing--I'll mince no words in saying that was a bitch and a half.

I've used those, fine-tip Flairs and Pilot markers, ever pencil grade under the sun and those luscious, luscious Tambow Blackwings.
Most control I ever got on ANY kind of line was with a good B grade pencil.
Used properly you can get a line as good as ink and will more confidence.

Inking on animation paper is ALWAYS tough because if its not a really high rag-content, pressed kind of paper, the ink WILL bleed on the sheet.
Because the page needs transparency to work right, bleed issues are always going to be there.
Inking any kind of animation today, imo, means going to software. You get better control, a better line and a overall better product.
In some cases the technology has just outclassed anything else.

"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)

I never learned inking comic book-style and don't have the equipment for it. Right at the moment, I'm in love with colouring right into sketches because the rough-ish lines give everything such a nicely frayed and organic look. When I need very sharp and crisp lineart I use a .50 rotring inkpen but varying line thickness with those is hard work because you have to amplify lines by meticulously filling the broader areas; certainly not the best solution. Also, thin and even lines tend to look a little shaky. Right now I prefer TK lead holders with red lead for sketching and blue lead for tie-downs. The resulting lineart is thicker and squashier than medium pencil but not as messy as soft ones.