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Description
These are the Mentor notes and drawings I did for the Assignment #4 (part 2) by Brad Ulanoski. Brad, send me a note if you have any problems with my notes as this is the unedited text that will be included in my book.

First off, I want it to be clear that there are many, many different ways to thumbnail out any action. Thousands, in fact. For each of the sketch suggestions I have given as my Mentor notes for these two talented artists, I could have made so many subtle changes and variations- with each change creating a domino effect of changes to each subsequent thumbnail pose. Because of this, the way I approached reviewing these thumbnail submissions was to 1) try and work with the idea the artist has come up with (hopefully not losing the story or emotions they are trying to show) and 2) going with the first ideas I see that will strengthen what the artist has created.

Example Submission #2 is drawn by Brad Ulanoski.

Brad, like Alexandria, created clearly drawn poses of Tommy and it was very easy for me to see what was happening- except for the cereal bowl drop in Poses #3 and #4. By having Tommy turn with his arm holding the bowl out in front of him, we can clearly see the bowl fall when he straightens from shock of whatever he sees. The second challenge that I saw in Brad’s poses is a bigger animation principle that is a common mistake made by beginning animators. I have done it, we ALL have done it. And that problem is having too many “anticipations” for an action. One of the basic principals of animation is that for every action- say, an arm reaching forward to pick up a soda can- you must anticipate that action by moving in the opposite direction first. If you look at Brad’s Poses #5, #6, and #7, he has three anticipation drawings in a row. After Tommy’s reaction in Pose #4, Brad has him fling his body back, throwing his legs in the air (in Pose #5), then slamming them down on the floor and crunching down (Pose #6), then (Pose #7) going into a big, Hanna Barbara style anticipation (not that there’s anything wrong with that) to his run off screen in Pose #8. You just don’t need all those poses and stops to the action. So, I had him “move through” the action a bit more by combining a few actions to overlap the movement a bit more. In my Pose #5, he is jumping off the chair, landing in a squash but his leg is still up so that he feels like he is still in mid-movement. Next, I had him start to move forward in Pose #6 but had his head go back to offset his feet moving forward. In Pose #7, I threw his arms forward to accent his frantic feeling toward whatever is off screen. I see this as a cartoon scramble of his feet sliding a bit, then his body catches up. Hilarity ensues.

Description
These are the Mentor notes and drawings I did for the Assignment #4 (part 2) by Brad Ulanoski. Brad, send me a note if you have any problems with my notes as this is the unedited text that will be included in my book.

First off, I want it to be clear that there are many, many different ways to thumbnail out any action. Thousands, in fact. For each of the sketch suggestions I have given as my Mentor notes for these two talented artists, I could have made so many subtle changes and variations- with each change creating a domino effect of changes to each subsequent thumbnail pose. Because of this, the way I approached reviewing these thumbnail submissions was to 1) try and work with the idea the artist has come up with (hopefully not losing the story or emotions they are trying to show) and 2) going with the first ideas I see that will strengthen what the artist has created.

Example Submission #2 is drawn by Brad Ulanoski.

Brad, like Alexandria, created clearly drawn poses of Tommy and it was very easy for me to see what was happening- except for the cereal bowl drop in Poses #3 and #4. By having Tommy turn with his arm holding the bowl out in front of him, we can clearly see the bowl fall when he straightens from shock of whatever he sees. The second challenge that I saw in Brad’s poses is a bigger animation principle that is a common mistake made by beginning animators. I have done it, we ALL have done it. And that problem is having too many “anticipations” for an action. One of the basic principals of animation is that for every action- say, an arm reaching forward to pick up a soda can- you must anticipate that action by moving in the opposite direction first. If you look at Brad’s Poses #5, #6, and #7, he has three anticipation drawings in a row. After Tommy’s reaction in Pose #4, Brad has him fling his body back, throwing his legs in the air (in Pose #5), then slamming them down on the floor and crunching down (Pose #6), then (Pose #7) going into a big, Hanna Barbara style anticipation (not that there’s anything wrong with that) to his run off screen in Pose #8. You just don’t need all those poses and stops to the action. So, I had him “move through” the action a bit more by combining a few actions to overlap the movement a bit more. In my Pose #5, he is jumping off the chair, landing in a squash but his leg is still up so that he feels like he is still in mid-movement. Next, I had him start to move forward in Pose #6 but had his head go back to offset his feet moving forward. In Pose #7, I threw his arms forward to accent his frantic feeling toward whatever is off screen. I see this as a cartoon scramble of his feet sliding a bit, then his body catches up. Hilarity ensues.