Tutorial #1) How to concept a Slash

1 year ago by jasontomlee (@jasontomlee)

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Hello!

I'll be sharing my thought process as I create a new animation Slash FX set. These writings are literally hours after the work is done so Itll be as fresh as it gets. Polished versions of these writings will be posted on LearnIndie.

Concept

Before anything is drawn, have a generic motion, size, and shape style in mind.

The slashes in 4A were small in size and bubbly in shape. So for 4B, I wanted to go for something different. I decided to make the motion diagonal, the shapes sharper like fire, and larger to enhance the epicness of the overall animation.

Next, begin concepting the shapes. There's alot of fundimental knowledge I have to skip over for the sake of time. So Ill note the key variables that helped me concepted THESE animations.

Outlines help you Perceive Depth

Outlines help you perceive depth without having to use multiple colors.

Imagine the top examples with only a single color. How would you know where the shadow starts or ends? Exactly, it is impossible when everything is filled in!

This is why you must sketch using the bottom example's style. It helps you draw imaginary lines that intersect future colors.

Line thickness helps create the illusion of depth. Thick = closer. Thin = further away.

Clean up the Main Sketch

Yes, sketches are meant to be messy and incomplete. But having a bare minimum level of quality as a baseline allows you to animate without having to polish during the animation phase.

Why is this important? When you're Concepting, your mind should ONLY be focused on concepting the vague ideas. Anything else will distract you from that sole focus.

So by cleaning up a single frame of a sketch, you allow yourself to animate with the intention of ONLY animating what's infront of you. No line cleanup will distract you.