Inkthinker sketches and thumbs -Update 030306

[Inkthinker]

This will be my first post here at CA... I've heard this place was popular, but I never realised until I actually checked it out. The quality of the work here is really excellent, so I hope I can keep up.

I don't do nearly enough color work, but I do a LOT of pencil work either as an animator or a freelance illustrator. Despite the name (long story), the pencil is generally my weapon of choice.

Being an old D&D fanboy and given that the majority of my freelancing is for RPG publishers, I tend to draw a lot of fantasy-themed work.

* * *

I'm a big advocate of thumbnails. Most of these (I think) came from a little-bitty Hemingway pad that I keep around as much as I can.

http://inkthinker.cryhavok.org/thumb_sketch/thumb02/thumb_book_nocrop_net.jpg

http://inkthinker.cryhavok.org/thumb_sketch/thumb02/thumbcollect_172205_net.jpg

http://inkthinker.cryhavok.org/thumb_sketch/thumb02/thumbs_001_net.jpg

http://inkthinker.cryhavok.org/thumb_sketch/thumb02/thumbs_002_net.jpg

http://inkthinker.cryhavok.org/Images/movingaction_net.jpg


And from time to time I clean thumbs up and take them a little farther

http://inkthinker.cryhavok.org/thumb_sketch/Gotrek.jpg

http://inkthinker.cryhavok.org/Images/92104/Flight_net.jpg

http://inkthinker.cryhavok.org/Images/smoker.jpg


And occasionally I even do something that might pass for clean, finished pencil work.

http://inkthinker.cryhavok.org/PJ/Bad_Hand_net.jpg

http://inkthinker.cryhavok.org/PJ/pencilS&Wschoffield_net.jpg

http://inkthinker.cryhavok.org/Images/121004/forest_blades.jpg


I don't get to do color much, but when I do it's usually in Photoshop, and it usually looks something like this:

http://inkthinker.cryhavok.org/PJ/Hector_Plasm_sk01.jpg


And of course, I animate. I've recently become very fond of Easytoon as a platform for building "thumbnail animation", allowing me to develop sequences roughly but quickly. Here's part of one:

http://inkthinker.cryhavok.org/HTF/Ronin2_loop.gif (please note that while that appears to loop, it's not really meant to... it's 22 frames from a larger sequence that just happen to loop well enough to show off.)

* * *

And of course, none of that is really "finished work". I wish I had more of that to show, but I'll try and bring in what I can.

I really love designing things... characters, costumes, accesories, details. I revel in that sort of thing, so I hope I'll fit in well here at ConceptArt!

:teeth:

[Inkthinker]

Persistence!

I don't aspire much towards superhero comics, but I'd never turn down a job on Spider-Man.

http://inkthinker.cryhavok.org/PJ/Spidey_sketches_net.jpg

and

http://inkthinker.cryhavok.org/PJ/spidey_swing.gif

A while back one of my online buddies hit up a bunch of us for some fanart of his character, and while gearing up for the final piece I produced these:

http://inkthinker.cryhavok.org/PJ/Hector_thumbnails.jpg

(yeah, same character as the color rough above).

http://inkthinker.cryhavok.org/PJ/Hector_sk02.jpg

Aaaaannndd.. a little more western action.

http://inkthinker.cryhavok.org/PJ/Bushwhacked_net.jpg

[sly's hand]

Wow that is pretty darn cool. Really strong with pencils, I like the animations Post the fullones if you can I havent had anywhere near enough time to animate I would love to get the chance to Animate, The smoker and the cowboy fight is badass, keep it up and enjoy you look like you are having fun

Cheers. :)

Sly
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

There is nothing more satisfying than knowing your enemy missed.
Murphy's Law and a tester's mentality

[Inkthinker]

Here's a bit of a longer piece.

http://inkthinker.cryhavok.org/PJ/samurai_skirmish_02.gif

[Inkthinker]

Another scratch animation done in Easytoon... this was actually first time I had really gotten into the program and tried to do something with it, so it's a little more restrained than the others I've done. It's ends a little abruptly because I suddenly got swamped with studio work and there was no more time for this, so I just capped it off.

http://inkthinker.cryhavok.org/HTF/woostyle_done.gif

I really ought to go back and fix his death animation, it's kinda weak I think, but then again, I could be spending that time working on something new...

[Xpose]

I can't tell you enough how much I love these animations. You're pretty damn good!

[purb36]

welcome to the .org! :yayca:

really like your style. your work is very dynamic, your finished stuff is very clean and your swords are cool; awesome. love the animations, especially as big a samurai fan as i am. :ninja: schwey. keep on posting dude, and good luck with the work. see you around...

[sly's hand]

Hey hey thanks for the more animations dude. May I ask where you work or how long you have been working profesionally, if you arent you really look like you do. I will be giving that a try, and last question I promise, where do you get the animations hosted from. Anyways I really like the stuff.

Later,
sly
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"I hate the world just not all the people in it."
-me-

[Inkthinker]

I've been an animator for about five years, and an illustrator for ten.

I've been drawing for as long as I can remember (I'm 29), but I started getting paid for it about ten years ago.

I host all my work on a corner of my buddy's server. These were built in Easytoon, which is freeware, and exports GIF animations, which is what you're seeing here.

[Gilead]

Your western scenes are the best.
Those sword designs are pretty sweet too. And I like the planes... it's all good...except the anime, you're way to good to be wasting your skills on anime.

[Inkthinker]

Your western scenes are the best.
Those sword designs are pretty sweet too. And I like the planes... it's all good...except the anime, you're way to good to be wasting your skills on anime.

Do you mean the animated gifs, or the anime-style illustrations?

[Gloominati]

There is some awesome energy goin on in your drawings and especially in your animations! I could watch them on and on, this is amazing!!!!! More please I will keep on watching this thread man, your stuff is great!!!

[Aether]

those westerns are just plain great and the samurai animation is awesome ( so very natural looking )

[Inkthinker]

Thumbnails! I'm just CRAAAaaaAAAzy for thumbnails.


I left that very top one nearly untouched from the scan. I think it's interesting that this new thumb book I just got (I actually filled up my last one, which is a new development for me... I'm terrible about filling sketchbooks) has very warm-toned paper as opposed to the other one, which scanned almost blue it was so cool. This newer one I got is supposed to be very high-quality, "Moleskine" is the brand name...

http://inkthinker.cryhavok.org/thumb_sketch/thumb03/thumbcollage01_netsize.jpg


At any rate, I added the highlights to her hair and arm, and that's about it. All the other thumbs here came from this book or the last pages of the previous one, or from doodles scraped together from here and there.

Another batch:

http://inkthinker.cryhavok.org/thumb_sketch/thumb03/thumbcollage02_netsize.jpg

I sometimes think that if I can doodle out enough pages, eventually I'll be able to string them together into something that vaguely resembles a story...

Don't hesitate to ask if you find any of these incomprehensible. None of them is larger than a couple inches, so they're really just raw ideas in loose form.

[thirdeye]

Dude, that last animation is awesome - i'd love to see more of them. Sketches are quite alright too :)

[Steve-I]

What can I say that you haven't already heard? I love the action in your sketches and drawings, I did notice very little underdrawings except in your most rough sketches. Do you just surpass that? I suppose it happens as skill increases.
Great animations. How many frames can a gif animation take? Is there a limit?

-Steve-

[johnny78]

I´m not very much an anime-fan (with some exceptions like Blame) but your animations rock. Even as sketches! :muscle:

How do you create one of these? I think it would be interesting to see your workflow.

[fuzzylogic]

The samurai animation is fabulous. The pacing is great and the poses are awesome. Your stuff makes me feel really inspired to animate something LOL

Can I ask how long it took you to make?

[solorpower]

Wow. Good artwork and nicely done animations! Would like to see more posted in color!!!

[spicy meatballs]

ENERGY! You definetly have it in your artwork! I love all your work but for some reason that little sketch thumbnail you did on your earlier set, where the dude does a super upper cut kick, is my favorite!!!
I know a lot of people are not big on anime here (me neither for that matter.) but if that is what you are comfortable at, just do it. Whatever works right?
Great set of sketches, I definetly will have to check back!

[Vyper]

Dude, you're still my hero.

[sly's hand]

The guy holding the pole is my new favorite. I really wanna see him hit someone across the face with it.

sly

[OleOlsen]

that animations are so supercool!!! can't get enough of them....did u study animation or something?

[Inkthinker]

What can I say that you haven't already heard? I love the action in your sketches and drawings, I did notice very little underdrawings except in your most rough sketches. Do you just surpass that? I suppose it happens as skill increases.
Great animations. How many frames can a gif animation take? Is there a limit?

-Steve-


No, I actually remove a lot of the underdrawing from the cleaned version. When I do seriously , full-blown work I usually draw in red or very, very light pencil, and then remove the rougher lines in Photoshop with either a Hue/Saturation strip or when adjusting the Levels of the final piece.

I don't know any artist who really "surpasses" the need for the rough sketch layer... that's often an illusion that people have because the finals look clean, but creating that rough underlying substructure to the image is an essential step in the process. The best artists I know actually do MORE underlying sketch work, not less.

For instance, most everything I do now gets several thumb runs before I take the thumbnail I like best and draw a slightly larger sketch, which is used for concept approval if I need to go through that. Then I'll draw a very rough version of the same image at the full size (usually 1.5 or 2 times the final print size) and work on that until I'm fully satisfied with the way it all lays out... THEN I draw the final piece over the top of the sketch.

The sketch steps usually are done pretty quickly, so it's worth a little extra time to get it just right.

On the subject of GIFs... I have no idea. I do know that if they get very large, it can slow down their playback which can ruin your motion. I also know that when I get a sequence with more than 100-150 frames in Easytoon, it tends to crash on renders.


Can I ask how long it took you to make?

Ummm... I think about 12 hours total time?

The animations here were made in Easytoon, which is a piece of Korean freeware (I believe). You can find it easily enough on Google, but for learning how to use it you're pretty much on your own, folks.

[Inkthinker]

How do you create one of these? I think it would be interesting to see your workflow.

If you can suffer the quirks of DeviantArt, I have some process and breakdown stuff on my animations in the Scraps and in the comment notes on individual pieces.

I just realized that I haven't bothered to assemble a sig. >_<

I'll fix that, and then there'll be links.

[Inkthinker]

What I do for a living:
Humouring The Fates, Inc. (www.fates.com)

What I do for myself:
Inkthinker.DeviantArt (inkthinker.deviantart.com)

[Inkthinker]

I know a lot of people are not big on anime here (me neither for that matter.) but if that is what you are comfortable at, just do it. Whatever works right?


I don't much bother with making style distinctions, "anime style", "comics style", whatever... I make illustrations, and my work is influenced by what I like. I read a lot of comics (mostly American and Japanese) and it shows in the way that I draw.

But I don't actively think of myself as being part of one style or another. I just try to do what I like as best as I can.

[Steve-I]

Thanks, that was a very informative reply. Drawing in red, Hue/Saturation strip, the best artists I know actually do MORE underlying sketch work, not less; I think these points are worth taking into practice.

-Steve-

[Inkthinker]

Sorry I haven't been back in so long... things got very hectic since September, even more so in the last three months.

On the plus side, that means I can upload a bunch of stuff that, unless you see my work on DA or Penciljack, you might not have seen before.

To start, more animation:

http://inkthinker.cryhavok.org/HTF/Move/moves002_2.gif

I recently got to see how much faster those GIFs run on a hefty machine... they might be a bit out of control for some, though you would think that the programmed time interval would be consistent regardless of the machine's processing speed, unless it was running slower... anyhow, I digress. There's still some work to do on that... and it's a grenade he throws at the end, not a piece of fruit.

http://inkthinker.cryhavok.org/PJ/011706/SwiftMove_net2.jpg

Toned it a little in Photoshop, but otherwise that's just pencil... I've been giving my pencil sketches a little sepia tweak quite often, lately. I like the look of it, beats plain old grey.

http://inkthinker.cryhavok.org/PJ/011706/Manners_red_net.jpg

Red pencil. Almost everything I do on paper now looks like this, first. Even the sketch above was done in red, but it was stripped out, there.

That's a little something, anyhow... I'll probably put some more in here later.

[talbot]

Wow, your animations are amazing! Great job. I really love the Spiderman animation. Also, it looks like your drafting skills have improved from the top of the post to your recent pics. A noticeable improvement in only a few months.

Good luck and I hope you'll keep posting updates!

P.S. Are you the same 'Inkthinker' from Penciljack?

[purb36]

yo, ink!
good to see you back man; glad things have gotten less hectic for you. nice animat's. you said you like comics; what comics do you usually read (eng and jap)? take care man, and more drawings. ;)

[Shikaru]

You are totally awsome man.
I've seen some of your animations before, and you are partly the reason why i started to animate.

Cudos to you.

[Inkthinker]

P.S. Are you the same 'Inkthinker' from Penciljack?


Yep... so far as I know, I'm the only Inkthinker anywhere. I've been using the name for well past five years now, and never met another.

[Inkthinker]

yo, ink!
good to see you back man; glad things have gotten less hectic for you. nice animat's. you said you like comics; what comics do you usually read (eng and jap)?

Thanks! Things are still pretty crazy, but I'm trying to find some spare time here and there to do things.

Let's see, comics...

Well, for English I'm pretty into Paul Grist, Dave Sim (mostly for the lettering), Eduardo Risso, Stan Sakai, Matt Howarth, Frank Miller, Mignola, and of course the old masters like Walt Kelly, Will Eisner, George Herriman, Winsor McKay and so forth, I cut my babyteeth on those guys.

For Japanese stuff, my top favorite right now is Ogure Ito (aka Oh! Great)... it's a goddamn shame what CMX has done to the English language version of Tenjho Tenge, and I won't buy that, but Air Gear is coming from Del Rey this summer, and it's pretty excellent too.

Yukito Kishiro, Takehiko Inoue, Hiroaki Samura, Miwa Shirow, Kubo, Kishimoto, Kentaro Miura, my favorites are guys who can either depict intense action or incredible detail (or both, in many cases).

[Inkthinker]

Whoop, almost forgot... drawrings, right?

Let's see, most of this stuff goes back a ways... you know how it is, most everything I do lately won't be out from under NDA for months. Very frustrating.

Plus, this thread is just for sketchbook stuff, which is a little limiting in some ways.

But I digress:


http://inkthinker.cryhavok.org/thumb_sketch/thumb02/Spearrunner_net.jpg

http://inkthinker.cryhavok.org/thumb_sketch/speargirl_net.jpg
(that girl's design is reoccuring, as you might notice)

http://inkthinker.cryhavok.org/thumb_sketch/gutted_dude.jpg

http://inkthinker.cryhavok.org/thumb_sketch/lil_sketch02.jpg
(I actually did much cleaner layout versions of those pages)

[Inkthinker]

Just so y'all don't think ALL that I can do is swords-n-sorcery crap:

http://inkthinker.cryhavok.org/PJ/091005/Chainguns-n-hotbuns_net.jpg

http://inkthinker.cryhavok.org/PJ/091005/Benito_Brand_net.jpg
(a gift for a buddy, not my design)

http://inkthinker.cryhavok.org/PJ/Western_me.jpg
(Self portrait with TERRIBLE proportions)

Now, back to the swords-n-sorcery crap... :D

http://inkthinker.cryhavok.org/PJ/duellist_armor_rear_netsize.jpg
(there's a finished version for that one)

http://inkthinker.cryhavok.org/PJ/091005/TheGirl_smallnet.jpg

design for "watchman" armor, like police, needs to look mass-produced and uniform

http://inkthinker.cryhavok.org/thumb_sketch/thumb04/infantry_armor_net.jpg

And finally, some dudes getting hurt:

http://inkthinker.cryhavok.org/thumb_sketch/thumb02/thumbs_003_net.jpg

http://inkthinker.cryhavok.org/thumb_sketch/thumb02/thumbs_004_net.jpg

[Ganbat-Bad]

Good works.Last one is :).
Ow I have presently seen анимацию, this - SUPER(movement and dynamik)
keep post MORE.

[Cordy]

I've been following your deviant art posts for a while now--and I'm glad that you found this place. The samurai animation pretty much sums up all of the reasons I like putting pencils on paper.

you know what to do: keep charging.

[athazagoraphobia]

The sketches are great! really nice style and it is visible that you experiment and research a lot
the animations are AMAZING! :jawdrop:
really complicated but exact, I love them~!

[Inkthinker]

Thanks, everyone!

lately I don't get to animate as much as I'd like... seems more and more like there's no need for American animators, at least not one's interested in doing action material. All the work gets shipped overseas, and we're lucky if they want to pay us to do keyframe layouts, much less animation itself.

Oh, well, I've always got my home work (the stuff here) to play with, I suppose.

[t.m0]

Hey there, nice sketchbook and it might already have been mentioned, but those animations kick bad ass!! Very cool indeed.

Would love to see more of your "homework"-animations ;)

cheers.t