ESTABLISH A PROTAGONIST… Who are we? A squirrel? The sun? A red blood cell? America?
2. Need (but they want something)
SOMETHING AIN’T QUITE RIGHT… Something is wrong, the world is out of balance. This is the reason why a story is going to take place. The “you” from (1) is an alcoholic. There’s a dead body on the floor. A motorcycle gang rolls into town.
3. Go (they enter an unfamiliar situation)
CROSSING THE THRESHOLD… For (1) and (2), the “you” was in a certain situation, and now that situation changes. A hiker heads into the woods. Pearl Harbor’s been bombed. A mafia boss enters therapy.
4. Search (adapt to it)
THE ROAD OF TRIALS… Adapting, experimenting, getting shit together, being broken down. A detective questions suspects. A cowboy gathers his posse. A cheerleader takes a nerd shopping.
5. Find (find what they wanted)
MEETING WITH THE GODDESS… Whether it was the direct, conscious goal or not, the “need” from (2) is fulfilled. We found the princess. The suspect gives the location of the meth lab. A nerd achieves popularity.
6. Take (pay its price)
MEET YOUR MAKER… The hardest part (both for the characters and for anyone trying to describe it). On one hand, the price of the journey. The shark eats the boat. Jesus is crucified. The nice old man has a stroke. On the other hand, a goal achieved that we never even knew we had. The shark now has an oxygen tank in his mouth. Jesus is dead- oh, I get it, flesh doesn’t matter. The nice old man had a stroke, but before he died, he wanted you to take this belt buckle. Now go win that rodeo.
7. Return (and go back to where they started)
BRINGING IT HOME… It’s not a journey if you never come back. The car chase. The big rescue. Coming home to your girlfriend with a rose. Leaping off the roof as the skyscraper explodes.
8. Change (now capable of change)
MASTER OF BOTH WORLDS… The “you” from (1) is in charge of their situation again, but has now become a situation-changer. Life will never be the same. The Death Star is blown up. The couple is in love. Dr. Bloom’s Time Belt is completed. Lorraine Bracco heads into the jungle with Sean Connery to “find some of those ants.”
THAT’S why I NEVER throw out my copics. Like. Some of them already got refilled because I am a greedy bastard when it comes to money (I’ve got a kid and a cat and don’t have much money a month). So either you refill the color, or if your marker just is a little dried out, put some alcohol into them. It’s ABSOLUTELY worth it!
when are male celebs gonna stop wearing boring ass plain black and white tuxedos and suits to award shows like step it up they all look the same I don’t care who made it. I wanna see some hunger games Capitol style fashion
They need to take a page from John Boyega’s book. That purple suit. Hot damn.
Not forgetting the all red, and the one with the blue blazer…….
In case people missed the red suit and his blue look:
And then the gorgeous purple Decepticon one:
damn son
I see your John Boyega and would also like to add Michael B. Jordan
also, it’s not red carpet but I refuse to ignore these beauties:
A lot of times, asymmetry will bring energy and movement to a pose or composition. More specifically, I feel like breaking the symmetry of a character’s expression is key to bring interest to it. Of course, there’s always a situation where there’s a need for symmetry. On top of my head, I can think of depicting a character who has an authority role, or the “undefeated champion of something”, or the “cold stone killer”, etc. So, a symmetrical facial expression usually means the character is: supremely bored, supremely confident, has no emotions, has a poker face, or is dead. Did I miss one? Symmetry in framing is also quite rare, but when handled by a master (Kubrick, Anderson), it’s undeniable. (If you have time, watch this: http://vimeo.com/89302848)
Now, back to asymmetry in facial expressions. In general, it’s a great way to flesh out a character’s thought process. What is he/she thinking about? What’s their goal?
I’m just touching the tip of the iceberg here. Way more tips to come in the future. Maybe next time, I’ll start to cover GESTURES.
Completely unrelated to the subject, I recently read a list of tips from movie director Sam Mendes. Here’s my favorite: “Try to learn to make the familiar strange, and the strange familiar. …”
Anyway, while reading the tags and comments on said tutorial, I noticed a lot of people expressing a desire for a bat wing version. So here’s a little guide I whipped up on them!
Bat wings are simpler than bird wings in that there’s no feather structure to learn, but you do need to learn the bones. Once you get the hang of those though, they’re pretty easy!
Bat photos are all kinda same-y to be honest (likely due to them mostly being nocturnal), and don’t do a good job of showing how those babies work. So, slowmotionvideosarereallyhelpful!
I love this so much! I made a similar tutorial YEARS ago but it was hideous and poorly organized and I’m so happy this exists ;-; What wonderful wings! And that’s a great trick about the first digit!
This principle really helps to create shapes and characters with “points of interest”. The straights move the eye towards the areas of curves, bumps and details. I mostly focused on the silhouettes of the shapes/characters, but the same principles should also be applied to shapes and volumes inside the main shape/volume.
Izzie’s tumblr archive 