Drawing the head for animation

[ Music ]

>> Hey, guys.

It's Toniko Pantoja and today
I'd like to talk about how I go

about drawing the human head for animation.

Whether you're doing character design,
hand drawn animation, or story boarding,

we all know that there are many
different styles for animation ranging

from realism to the stylized to the cartoony.

In this video I'm going to talk about how
I go about drawing the head for animation

and how to adapt it to different styles.

There are many ways in going about
drawing the human head and they all come

from different schools of drawing
and they're all really good.

One great drawing method I'd like to talk
about, and the one that's most commonly used,

is the Andrew Loomis method which
I encourage you guys to look up.

YouTube channel Proko does some great
examples of using the Loomis method

to draw the human head as well as exploring
detailed head drawings afterwards using the

same technique.

I also learned about the Loomis method

from Mark Brunet's ultimate anatomy
video course which I highly recommend.

It's really good.

There's also looking at the books
written by Andrew Loomis himself.

They do a much better job at explaining
how to use these methods than I would.

So I'm going to link you guys
to them in the video description

if you want a more detailed
look about the method.

The only thing I'm going to do is
demonstrate it for my line of work

and what I think about when I do draw the head.

First let's go through a general
run through of the Loomis method.

And we're going to go for
something that's not specific.

It's just very general.

It's really just building the foundation.

I would draw two center lines, horizontal and
vertical, the horizontal lines being roughly

where the eyebrows sit and the vertical
line being the center of the face

and where the nose and mouth sits.

Then you're going to trim the sides slightly
as if you're cutting them with a blade.

This will be the side of our head
and roughly where the temple sits.

Now at the bottom edge of
your U cut sides you're going

to draw another horizontal line across.

This is where the nose will sit.

If I'm going to draw the ears which will be
much later on the ears sit right in between

where the brow line and the nose line sits.

Next we're going to indicate
our chin and draw the jaw.

Now remember different designs or different
human beings have different proportions,

but for this case we're just
going to keep everything average.

So I'm just going to grab the proportional
spacing between the eyebrows and the nose

and apply that same proportion of
spacing from the nose to the chin.

Right in between the nose and the chin.

So if we're going to do an even
half we'll just indicate our mouth.

Now we're going to create a jaw.

It can be smooth, sharp, or blocky.

That's really up to you.

One thing you want to think about is
the jaw in relationship with the mouth.

So you could put the angle change in
the jaw or the hinge of the jaw close

to where the mouth is elevation wise.

If we want to apply a bit of surface information
we're going to create a line from the top

of the side circles towards the
chin or the sides of the chin.

At this point we're defining a bit of the
forehead, the brow, and possibly the cheekbones.

We can add another line from the side of
our head where the brow line sits or the top

of our ear towards the side of the chin.

This will help indicate that indent
between the brow and the cheekbone.

And I would say try drawing this in a
three-fourth angle or even a side angle.

The great thing about, let's
say, the three-fourth angle

or the side angle is now you're going to be able

to see what's happening in
the sides of the head.

On the front view you can't really see it
because it's more flat, but on the three-fourth

and the side views you can actually see the
sides of the head that are slightly cut.

Again use your cross section
lines to help guide you

in where the face is facing
or the overall angle.

As you can see here, I'm not really adding
any specific features like eyes, nose,

and lips and anything like that or hair lines.

Something like this is a good
start at least for a foundation.

So now we have a rough foundation for the head.

From here I would recommend you to
try this out in different angles

and I would also reference
different types of heads.

Some heads have different proportions and sizes.

Try and practice this method until it becomes a
bit familiar including the cross section lines

to help guide you in terms of the angle, the
dimension, and the direction it's facing.

The great thing about this method is that it
teaches you how to use lines as placeholders

and measurement such as trying
to figure out proportions

which is important for animation consistency.

I know when I storyboard or do rough drawings
I indicate shorthands for the eyes, nose,

and ears sitting within these lines.

Different designs again call for
different types of shorthands.

Depending on the style you're
going for, these parts can change.

As you can see in the demo that I'm doing
right now I'm really just indicating the eyes,

the lips, and the nose, not really putting
detail but just indicating it like a mark.

And when I story board this is kind of close

to how I draw my story boards
and the characters in them.

More importantly it gets a point across, but
if I want to go back and clean up the drawings

at least I have a foundation, I've placed my
marks, and have the freedom and choice to do so.

So after getting used to the Loomis method of
drawing the head structure or a rough foundation

of it try drawing the ears, the nose,
the lips, the eyes, and the mouth.

And this is where you're probably going
to want to look up references of the eyes

that you're going for, the
nose that you're going for,

or the nibblelicous kissy
lips that you're going for.

Now if we're doing a really average looking
human head everything would be very equal

and average meaning that the spacing and
proportions from each other are very even.

The size of things are pretty even too.

So, like I said earlier, the top and bottom
of the ear would match the horizontal lines

of where the brows and the nose sit.

Some people have tiny ears like myself.

Some people have big ears.

But for this case we're just
doing everything by the books.

For this one the width of the nose
would be similar to the size of one eye.

And I'm going to use the same width
as the spacing between both eyes.

Again this is just an example of how I'm
just using very even proportions based

on what's already there.

The Loomis method does talk about detailed
measurements about how to go about this,

like how the tear duct should fall in line
vertically with each nostril, how the top of one

of the cut sides of the human head can
be used as a landmark for the hair line.

The good thing about the Loomis method, what
it's teaching, is it's teaching the usage

of land marking and making proportional notes.

And that's going to be pretty important for
characters with very specific proportions.

You should try referencing different
types of heads because there's just

so many different types of faces and shapes.

Some would require eyes more
narrow towards the nose.

Some would have small ears.

Some would have bigger noses.

Some would have wider jaws, wider cheeks.

Some would have big chins.

Some would have really tiny sharp chins.

And that's why the first foundation of
the Loomis method is great as a tool

because it's also a pretty good tool that
allows you to make changes if you need it to.

You could just grab random pictures of
people's faces, portraits or whatever.

I like to grab different screen grabs from
characters of my favorite TV show, for example,

kind of study what makes
all of them so different

from each other, what makes them so distinct.

And how I would redraw them if I
let's say want to do fan art of them.

And what's great with all of these is that
you can start with a very rough foundation

of the Loomis method that's very generic, but
then as you add more details or more aspects

to make it more specific you
can add those along the way.

However is it applicable for animation designs
where things are more stylized and exaggerated?

I think it has its places,
but good drawing skills

and technique should allow you
to adapt to different styles.

Things that are closer to life would do well
with the Loomis method of drawing the head,

but some do require changes to make
the method work but in a different way.

So I tried experimenting with this by
drawing or tracing over existing characters.

From what I've experimented with,

Disney characters also somewhat
match the Loomis method,

albeit with more stylized
shapes and exaggerated features.

But the brow line, the nose line, the ear,
they all kind of sit in place and sort

of match each other and it's relatively simple

to use this method to keep
proportions consistent.

But it doesn't always line up
to your cross section lines,

but still drawing those cross section lines will
help me indicate oh actually the lines sit right

in between the ear or three-fourths
of the ear, for example.

So it really does change depending
on style and character design.

Like for some character designs the top
of the ears would be a halfway point

for the character's eyes like this "Mega
Man Legends" example I'm drawing over.

So yeah. I would recommend you do some
practices and studies where you draw

over existing characters using a bit of the
Loomis method to make your own notes on how

to redraw these designs using somewhat
of a version of a Loomis method

because the Loomis method after all is a
tool to help you make your own language.

Now let's talk about drawing
and animating the human head.

You can get very technical
with how head anatomy works,

but in most cases it's really
divided in to two major parts.

You have your cranium or the sphere
of the head and then you have the jaw.

I had a teacher that used to work for
Disney animation and one rule of thumb

that he had was the sphere or the cranium of
the head does not squash and stretch as much

or as compared to the jaw, for example.

It's really the jaw that does most of
the squash and stretch for the head

because it's the most expressive fart.

I mean expressive part for things like animating
lip sync and mouths opening and closing,

stretching open, shutting tight, and when
it's shut tight the cheeks are also going

to puff up or squash.

The jaw is going to squash if the mouth is
more closed or puckered and stretch open

if the character is let's say
yawning or screaming or gasping

or saying something loud
or have dramatic vowels.

But again that's just a very
general rule of thumb.

This will definitely change
depending on the animation style.

One of my former TD animation
teachers also talked

about a quick shorthand for drawing heads.

Of course you can do everything by the books
with the Loomis method, but there's also a way

where you just draw a horizon line where the
eye sits one-third at the bottom of the sphere.

This is where the eye will actually sit.

This skips a step of having to draw the brow
line half of the circle in the side view.

Oh, and in a side view the
cranium is more stretched.

So it's not really a sphere.

It's more like a blimp.

But remember this also depends on the design
since this was using Disney style characters

in mind, specifically the Glen
Keane style of princesses.

Now as for the notes of a character
having their mouth open like "Ah,"

there's this common mistake that the jaw must
match the spacing of the open mouth verbatim

and if you do this exactly in the front view
what happens is that you get a puppet effect

where it just feels like the jaw
and chin are just sliding down.

And the trick here is really to think about
perspective and the mechanics of the jaw.

If I were to draw this in a side profile or
in a different angle where we can see more

of the sides notice how the
jaw by the ear acts as a hinge.

It's opening in an angle.

If we were looking at this
from the front view parts

of the chin will actually be
hidden away because of perspective.

The chin is tilting and facing
downwards instead of facing forward.

So when a mouth opens wide the bottom of
the mouth and the chin the spacing narrows.

Again you want to practice your shorthand so you
can draw the head in many and multiple angles.

Use your cross section lines to help you
define the form and the perspective depending

on the angle, especially for difficult angles
where the head is looking extreme downwards

or upwards at an extreme level where you're
drawing under the chin at that point.

Another way to look at it too is that
the head is really a construction

of three different forms, a sphere for the
cranium, a curved plane or side of a cylinder

for the face, and a cylinder for the neck.

Combining these and deforming parts of
them will help you get closer to the head.

Being able to master the idea that these shapes
are really just meshed together like clay

and deformed can help you come
up with a faster shorthand,

especially if you've done
this way multiple times.

In these examples I'm not drawing the
sphere and then the cylinder or a plane.

I'm thinking about these shapes in one
uniform piece like one general shape

to represent the whole shape of the head
kind of like a ball with a shield or a shell.

I don't know how to describe it.

If I feel like I am dealing with something
that's really difficult like a difficult angle

or something that I'm not really familiar
with and I'm struggling, I'm frustrated,

I would revert back to drawing
each step one at a time.

Before animation and story
boarding I tend to keep things clear

and readable for a first pass at least.

But hey. Different priorities
call for different shorthands.

The priorities for animation story boarding
is different from drawing for design.

For design you're really aiming for
specificity in the design, the shapes, the form.

And if it's with multiple characters
the contrast and the diversity.

When it comes to animation story boarding
I'm not really drawing everything specific.

Sometimes I'll do a really rough
lollipop head with facial expressions

because for me the performance, the acting,
and the expressions are the main priority first

and once I have that done
then I can do a second pass

where I start doing everything
more detailed, more technical,

more structurally where I start defining the
technical aspect, the constructional side

of drawing on top of this very rough pass.

Again when I animate I tend to
draw things with a lollipop head

with facial expressions on top of it.

Very crude.

Very clear.

Nothing too detailed.

I'm not too worried about
keeping things on model at first.

I'm maybe worried about the proportions, but
not really about keeping things specifically

and tight on model since I know that can
be fixed on another pass on top of it.

I'm also not super worried about
the consistency of the shapes

and making sure everything stays super solid.

That's not really an issue for me yet.

The priority is the idea and the performance.

The next pass is where I start putting
things more on model and adding more detail

to the drawing making it
look like the character.

This is where I would apply the constructional
drawing like the Loomis method, for example.

And again just remember a good step of avoiding
same face syndrome is to apply different variety

to your head designs for
your heads, the proportions.

Just keep changing it up.

Even if you are using the same
method for different heads remember

by just changing the size
and shapes of certain parts

of the head it will give
you enough variety already.

There is a lot to talk about when it comes to
drawing the head for illustration or animation.

It is best to study different
types of techniques.

What I would recommend you to do is to try and
take your own existing designs or drawings,

draw over them, draw over their heads,
and apply the Loomis method on top of it

or something loosely inspired by it or maybe
something else to see if it's something

that benefits you because everyone has to
come up with their own language for drawing.

Anyways, that's all.

Bye.

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