Facial Expressions Tutorial by Tracy J. Butler

Comics artist Tracy J. Butler  ("Lackadaisy") has posted a great tutorial on Facial Expressions:

NOTES ON EXPRESSIONS - Click Here -

Here are a couple of samples from the tutorial, including some things NOT to do : 

(oh, yes, let us all banish the chronic "C-Mouth" ,  "Smarm Brow" (aka  "'tude" ) and "Flounderface Disorder"  , all bad habits.)

(while there also check out her tutorials on "How to Paint in Photoshop"  ,  "How to Draw"   .)


(click images to see larger)

More Animation Tutorials - Tony White's Desktop Academy

Seems like everywhere I look these days people are posting tutorials and training videos for classical hand-drawn animation .

The latest tutorial website to go up is Tony White's Desktop Academy of Traditional Animation.

He has the first free tutorial up on the subject of Keys, Extremes, and Inbetweening:

Desktop Academy Tutorial 01 - Inbetweening

For those of you who don't know about him, Tony is the author of the excellent books

"The Animator's Workbook",

"Animation from Pencils to Pixels ~ Classical Techniques for Digital Animators"


and the new book

"How to Make Animated Films" (to be released in June, 2009)

Don Bluth Animation Tips

I like to use this blog to post links to inspirational material or practical resources wherever they may be found. You can never read enough or practice enough when it comes to animation, so I see this blog as a supplement to what we're teaching you in your online classes.

I recently became aware that Don Bluth has been making a series of Animation Tutorials on DVD.

Don has generously posted some sample videos for free on his web site DonBluthAnimation.com .

Obviously the sample videos are to whet your appetite to purchase the full-length tutorials on DVD, but even the samples have some great "nuts & bolts" basic info. on animation. I suggest you check them out , especially if you are new to hand-drawn animation:


Basic Tutorial on Doing a Character Turn-around, Pegging, and Labeling drawings

Animating a Walk Cycle

Animating a small Bird in Flight

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Mark Chong's TEN-MINUTE DRAWING TUTORIALS

One of the amazing artists I've met through the TVPaint User Forum is Toronto-based conceptual artist and teacher , Mark Chong. Mark has a real passion for teaching (specifically teaching Online , utilizing video tutorials) and I am very happy that he is now teaching for the Academy of Art Animation Dept. Online. (he's also going to be building a new course on visual development and concept art , ANM 475 - Inspirational Art for Animation . During the Spring '09 semester at AAU Mark will be teaching ANM 611 Visual Elements of Story and ANM 633 Character Design and Drawing for Animators online.

Mark has generously posted some wonderful FREE tutorials on his blog TEN-MINUTE DRAWING TECHNIQUES (but if you benefit from Mark's tutorials then drop a few dollars in his tip jar now and then, folks !)

Click on the link to go to view the tutorials.

Here's a sample of Mark's work (drawn in TVP Animation) :