/ic/ - Artwork/Critique

The oldest you can get.
Or, you can just get stills of golden age-era cartoons and copy them.

>>3157315
As far as I'm aware there is only really the Bill Nolan book as an authentic 1930s cartooning book
https://archive.org/details/Nolan.zip/v2
He doesn't go into very much depth about form though. The Preston Blair book better covers that much better. He's 1940s style though which is a bit more sculpted and organic than 1930s stuff, the same rules basically apply though. Here's a very important lesson in head construction from it which is very applicable to 1930s cartooning.

Then watch real 1930s cartoons and see if you can figure out the construction of the characters. Most of them can be made with spheres and tubes, characters like Popeye or Betty Boop, use more specific shapes but their underlying structure still doesn't have anything more complex than an oval.

Since you used Cuphead as the OP image you might want to watch the talk one of the animators on the game gave. He touches on stuff like "what makes a 30's design?".
https://youtube.com/watch?v=RmGb-jU3uVQ

>>3157505
Whatever you do don't copy Cuphead guy. He gets a lot of stuff wrong with the style. These are his sketches. He copied the poses from other cartoons and even then he is still struggling with the style because he doesn't know proper construction. It's a miracle how he manged to get something that at surface glance looks like a classic cartoon despite him being unfamiliar with them, so props to him for that.

>>3157517
>Cuphead guy
Cuphead had like half a dozen different artists and animators working on it. What you linked is probably early concept art from one of the idea guys. The people who actually drew the assets in the game clearly know their shit.

>>3157505
kek, jake clark's following me on tumblr

>>3157266
Literally Loomis

If you want to gain some actual insights, this is their gdc talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmGb-jU3uVQ

>>3157527
nah man, it was just cuphead guy. cuphead guy single handedly made the cuphead game too. that's how the world works. I am poster guy and I make posts.

just study old 30s cartoons, break them down

>>3157266 >>3157315
yeah basically anything preston blair

>>3157517
>>3157527
I think the other anon is right in that you don't want to copy whomever did the sketches they posted, they're really stiff overall.

Copy assets from the game for a clean view of a 30s style of animation.

I'm glad Cuphead turned out good (and difficult) considering what garbage Bendy ended up being.

>>3159593
Way better than that Bendy crap but like I said still a lot of mistakes regarding solid drawing in Cuphead. Here's a quick redline of this really basic character an artist is having trouble getting solid.

>>3159702
Rubber Hose animation is not beholden to the 12 principles of animation because it predates them.

Personally I'm glad Cuphead's been a success just because of the fact it's 2D animation and because of its traditional animation workflow. The animation itself has its appeal but it's not spectacular or anything. I'm just happy it helped prove there's still a market for it as many other indie games have.

>>3159714
The principles were known before Disney put out their list. Rubber hose animators did make mistakes though but usually it wasn't with something simple like getting a sphere to look solid.

>>3159730
I think the sphere looks solid. You're just being autistic.

Certainly a lot more impressive than a lot of cartoon shows I see animated on TV nowadays.

>>3159702
dunning kruger

>>3159733
>I think the sphere looks solid
What about this one?

>>3159748
That's obviously an oval you nitpicking retard.

>>3159782
>I've been BTFO, I best change the subject.

>>3159787
I'm not even who you're replying to.

>>3159861
To you, you retard.

>>3159702
your redline worsened it

Don't forget about Ub Iwerks the guy who created Mickey mouse. His work and animations are during the era you are looking for. Other than that the only source material I can remember is merry melodies and the earliest Looney tunes stuff.

I personally would like to see hand drawn animation come back completely, even though the 3d work in the new Dragonball fighters game looks pretty convincing as far as nailing the 2d sprite work.

Anyway good luck anon

>>3159702
This is bad, I have corrected a few of the things you got wrong, (including forgetting the eyebrows). I recommend the Animator's Survival kit if you are serious about 1950s animation.

>>3159877
What the fuck are you talking about?

>>3159992
its slowly becoming calarts lol

>>3159992
>>3159702
>talk shit about professional artists
>redline
>is pure garbage and much worse than the guy they're critiqueing
>dunning kruger
classic /ic/

>>3161797
>>3161809
its so obviously bait or someone with brian-level intelligence. just let it go.

>>3157266
John K's blog.

>>3159730
No, they weren't. Everyone was doing rubber hose animation before the Disney guys got serious about it and developed techniques like squash and stretch. There were outliers like Winsor Mccay, but the majority of animation was Steamboat Willy level, because animation wasn't considered art, and it was cranked out as fast as possible, as cheaply as possibly, and very few put in much time to explore it.
I know it's meme to shit on Disney here, but those guys were some of the first to sit down and work it all out, which is why they're called the pioneers, and not all the others.

>>3161911
Silent cartoons were touching on many of the principles before Disney ever came along. They are very crude, but the principles are being figured out, by the mid-30s many studios had the principles down. No one needed Disney's help, in fact it was many of the animators from these older New York studios that brought their knowledge to Disney.

>>3159702
Your drawing does have more volume but it lessens the impact as an inbetween frame, even very polished mid-40s cartoons had either very distorted or "smeared" drawings in fast actions and it's definetely something you see in the Fleischer era

>>3159738
>>3159879
>>3159992
>>3161809
>>3161811
t. idiots who expect a quick redline to be a finished inked drawing

I like how a lot of people have fallen head over heels with the traditional animation of cuphead. I hope it incentivizes movies studios to produce good quality 2d western animation.

>>3162332
>t. idiots who expect a quick redline to be a finished inked drawing

I think they just expected the guy to at the very least understand the very basics of animation such as exaggeration and distortion of the shape in the anticipation frames. It's always funny when someone pretends he knows shit and then it turns out he's a complete beginner.