Thanks Brett!

I get the acme punched bond from Cartoon Colour, 12 inch.

Awesome!!! It looks really beautiful, Tim!! I'm so glad to hear you've gone back to paper :)

I recently started drawing on paper myself, and I love it.

I'm not scanning, though- using a DV camera and iStopMotion, which makes shooting really fast. The quality isn't as good as scans, though. I've got the cheap version, so it only does NTSC resolution.

Where do you get your paper?

Yay for drawing with real stuff!

Thanks Jake, hope all's well in California.

Christen: I'm going to post about it more extensively later this week, but I usually:

1) memorize the track reading for a small portion

2) create a 6 fps dialogue chart

3) thumb it out with the keys on the biggest syllables (where the emphasis or stress of the voice is)

5) from those, I make in-betweens ... but the whole thing is 6 frames/sec so each drawing often requires a unique design consideration.

Once I have two or three seconds of work, I scan and playback the footage, making sure it works. Often, I have to rethink a scene once or twice, even six or seven attempts might be made. But the footage that makes it is used as originally scanned, colored in layers in Photoshop and composited through AfterEffects. I try to draw cleanly enough the first time and shooting at 6 fps allows me more forgiveness on the consistency of the model.

You ask about deciding to "go back to pencils". So far, we've been using the same process each time.

Thanks for taking a look!

Hi Tim and brother, great pencil test! I have a question about your process. How do you test your pencil tests? Do you scan in your rough drawings? Do you have a camera feed set up? I assume you're using other digital technology even though you decided to go back to pencils, and I was curious how you were implementing it! Thanks.

tim, that is some seriously good animation.

i kind-of agree with the digital thing. there are a lot of hoops to jump through either way though.

regardless, keep doing what you're doing, it looks great!

Distracted by the internet??? Never!

Nice test! I did a project on pencil a year ago for fun. I enjoyed the process, but it was a lot slower than I remembered. It was mostly the scanning/coloring/compositing part though. I do think working on paper forces you to make decisions earlier in the process, which usually leads to stronger work.

I like my cintiq, but it still doesn't feel as natural as drawing on paper. It also makes it easier to look at things on the internet instead of working :0

yeah man! i found a tabloid sized bulk scanner/printer/all in one jam that was about 230 bucks on amazon. generally for the big epsons it's 2 grand WITHOUT the auto feeder. it'd be great for scanning backgrounds on the flatbed too! it's just huge and my apartment is not. i'll let you know how it goes though! and you can come check it out if you're around greenpoint. i used scanfix to line up pegholes: http://people.rit.edu/dpalyka/ScanFix.html

it was made by a professor at my college and i'm still technically a beta tester so i am in touch with him about it if there's any features you'd like to see. he made an adjustment for it to take 12f for the company cecropia.

here's info on the scanner: http://animation-studio-stuff.blogspot.com/2009/05/inexpensive-large-format-scanner-for.html

Thanks, smo! FYI, Tim works on 12 field always. A bulk scanner would probably be a great investment for us. Right now, we're working with an old scanner with a peg bar taped to it.

DUDES! i had no idea we were brothers at arms! i've been steadily becoming an animation luddite and experimenting with different papers and pencils. i did a lil writing about paper, though it's nothing earthshattering. really more my reaction to the toon boom promotional event i went to:

http://www.smomotion.com/2009/10/28/new_software_pt1/

i've been getting super into pencils too and i'm going to have to write about them soon. PLUS i just bought a bulk scanner that can handle 12 field paper. i've never worked that big but i wanted to have the option. i'm a bit more caught up in materials and process than actually making anything right now, but that's in part because i just moved and nothing is set up yet.

either way, i'm really glad you're working on paper! your work looks awesome too! i feel like i get stuck on a fixed plane too much, i really love the depth going on here! keep it up! paper is where it's at!

Agreed Bob.

Tim has also worked this way for a while and found efficiencies in the process. For example, the drawings above are majority first round drawings. One, clean, confident line the first time is generally the way he works. That saves a lot of time when it comes to clean up (or lack thereof) etc. Also, if I remember correctly, this animation is all on 4's, which Tim has learned to use to maximum effect. It doesn't work for every scene, but he still manages to maintain fluid movement with a minimum of drawing.

Each production and each artist will have an ideal set of tools for the work required. There will be industry standards, but there is no one tool that should be considered superior. It's all about the job at hand. Would a Bic pen be a more appropriate tool to draw a comic book, or a Micron? I guess it would probably depend on the specifics of the project at hand and the artist holding the tool.

The pencil test looks great. Whatever tools get the job done best is always the way you should go. Since when does speed and efficiency have anything to do with making good art (making money, perhaps...) I think you either love the Cintiqs or hate them. Maybe as technology gets better the gap will close.

Your animation & stories require a human touch, too...which takes a while to wrangle in the digital world.