Penny Farthing: Paper Animation How-to

Now that I'm all done making things for and vending at Wild Wild West Con II, I'm going to put a couple of art tutorials on here. It's not specifically steampunk, but one of the animations I did this way was, so it counts. This will be a series (we know how that goes, but this one at least has a natural progression to keep me on task). For starters, here are my two actually good animations.

First, the models. I like to make mine out of paper. It is much easier to work with than clay, especially under hot lights, and it is much much cheaper than proper machined armatures with rubber skins. You can make them look exactly how you want. I also like how it looks like moving illustrations in a way that other models don't. That fits my style a lot better, since my background is in drawing.

Actually no! First, the storyboards. You don't want to start anything else without a storyboard, or you will do lots of extra work. So do your storyboards. They don't have to be fancy. The main disadvantage of paper characters is that you have to make one model for each angel you see them from, sometimes up to 8 just for the full body. If you make extra models for closeups, it gets even more out of hand. There are several spots in Ghost Train where I made large models for just one shot. This madness can be kept to a minimum with the clever use of storyboards. If you never see the back of a character, for example, don't make the back view model.

Anyway, once you have planned your story out, select the character and angle that appears most. Draw the character in a neutral pose, using the simplest design you can. Then trace or copy it. Never ever ever mark, color, or cut your original drawing. On the copy, break the design down into simple shapes, and draw a dotted line where there they will overlap. Like this:

The numbers will be important for gluing all the parts in the right spot when they are cut out. Then trace each part onto heavy paper, like Bristol or watercolor paper. If your models are small, like under 4 inches, normal cardstock or even index cards will do, but they are too floppy for bigger models. It is hard to trace on thick paper - you need a light behind it. They make light tables specifically for this purpose, and you can get them at most art supply stores, or you can just use the flashlight app on an iPad, or an actual flashlight under the glass from a picture frame.

Make sure you get enough overlap on your parts, and number them as you go. You'll end up with a little exploded version of your character, like a kit, waiting to be painted and assembled.