Zoo sketching

Coypus (ger: Biberratte) at the Berlin Zoo

Caricatures

With digital drawing in Photoshop I always use a range of colors that I want to draw with. In this case black, white and different kinds of grey tones.

A first I capture the silhouettes to get the right proportions.

Roughly I draw the dark parts oft the photo, shadows and later on the light ones.

After that I start sketching the details. The eyes and glasses...the hair...the wrinkles...adding more shadows and more lights...that way I go on until the sketch is done.

It is indispensable to use various brush sizes: thick ones for the rude sketching and thin ones for the details. It is also wise to zoom in when you are going for the details. 

Try and enjoy it!

 

The Revenge

In this project I combined clay animation with 2D animation to tell a short story. There is also some live action happening… well check it out:
The Revenge from Sandra Thieme on Vimeo.

traumFIGUR

These are some excerpts from my first animated short film "traumFIGUR" (literally translated "dream figure"= perfect body) from 2012. 

It's about a model dreaming about cupcakes while getting prepared for a fashion show.

The film is a mix of an animatic and short animated sequences. It was a great opportunity to try out After Effects.

With the music selected at the beginning, the images followed all by themselves.

You can watch the video on VIMEO:


traumFIGUR from Sandra Thieme on Vimeo.

This story came up during my previous studies in fashion design. I saw many women and girls who had to constantly pay attention to their weight. Just no sugar and definitely no carbs! 

I noticed that even more on the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week, behind the scenes, where almost every model just looked whacked and starving.
It always has been hard for me to accept the fact that so many women restrict their lives to such an extent only to land on the runway or in fashion magazines.

Review of 2012

Some scribbles and drawings...

 

 Well…let's try something…:)))

Some digital work…

Silhouette technique
Have a look on a professional silhouette animation of legendary Lotte Reiniger from Germany.

The human figure

Every Monday I visit life drawing classes which is extremely helpful! The problem that I had with drawing figures was that the body looked overbalanced or floating in the air.
I learned to use blocks and pipes to design the body in the right perspective. The geometrical shapes are flexible, bending on the spinal axis and agile in the hinge points. This helps to imagine the body in the third dimension and this way you can visualize and draw the body in any position.

The HAND

At the moment I'm planning to animate a single hand grabbing something.

But I have to deal with it's anatomy and shape first...

This was my first try:

Well... there are some things I'd like to change! I think the hand should lead directly to the string. At the moment it looks as if the hand will give the bulb a slap. Also I want the closing of the hand to be more elegant by furling the fingers one by one with the little one at the very end...



It's still too stiff... I think there should be more arcs and a pause before the hand grabs the string. Maybe like this: