Is Drawing in Animation Industry is Necessary ?

All right , I assume that you reading this one because you are passionate about Animation but don’t have drawing skills at all.

You might have heard that, drawing not at all will matter in 3D animation as it have ready models and all. But let me tell you one thing, if you wanted to be the studio Animator (one,who makes animation films or series)  you need to learn drawing skills and it is very much necessary for your career to progress.

Don’t loose your hope because, I wanna tell you something about me that, I was the worst in drawing in my school. After that when I joined engineering college, my engineering drawing made me habit of scale and pencil and from then I thought it would be impossible to draw free hand for cartoons. But then I came to know the some books of masters which taught me some basic fundamentals and tricks in drawing which made my drawing possible. In just 2-3 days of reading and practicing  my skills in drawing increased dramatically. And you know what ? – I am sure you’re better than me.

But, where do We need it in 3-D ?

Well, Its not about 2D or 3D or any other dimensional graphic, its about expressing your visualizations to communicate. Drawing is language to animators where they can share their ideas and improve it on paper first then it goes to computer graphics. Your visualization can’t directly drafted in computers, it needs to be drawn on paper first.

For 2 D artists, it takes 1440 drawing frames for a one minute scene in the classical animation, but now these softwares like flash creates automated in betweens which reduces tons of drawings in computer graphics.

For 3 D artists, also they don’t need to draw  each scene, just to express your visualization first on paper, makes it best and improved one in computers. You need to draw very few times, but keep in mind that even a rough drawing skill will improve your ability to visualize and produce best of your work.  Also modelers in 3D needs drawing frequently, not the animators.

Okkkaaayee, So where to begin now ?

Oh, come on don’t be afraid that, you have to draw, You’ll have fun, trust me.(You can kill me if you would not enjoy it !!!)

So you have to begin with following books :

How to draw New Style Retro Characters – by Christopher Hart

This is a small book which teaches you some of the basics and advance drawings in Retro style cartoons (e.g. Kimpossible, and Ben Ten ) which are mostly used in computer drafted 2D animation.

How To Draw Anime For Beginners (Muto – Anime )- by Le Trung

another outstanding book which teaches you to draw Japanese named Muto Anime or Magna cartoons  (e.g Dragonball Z) which are very famous for their actions and detailed drawings. You can even learn advanced techniques for drawing in it.

For Classical Animation of Disney : You can refer ‘Animators Workbook’ by Tony White , and best Animation book ever – ‘Disney  Illusion of Life’. These books also have some principles of animation and drawing which increases your theoretical knowledge too.

But first I suggest You to go through the above two books, which increases your drawing quality and confidence. After that if you wish you can refer these for Disney books.

So that’s how the way leads for you and drawing is your next task to do, to  reach the Hollywood Studios’.

Visualize -> Draw -> Create ->Animate – And this where the complete joy of Animation resides.