Lesson 4: The Basics of GIMP

Welcome back to HiMAP everyone! Though this is technically the fourth lesson, it can be completed before completing the previous lessons. I do recommend, however, that you at least glance through previous lessons before starting lesson 5 next time. This blog will always be available, so feel free to reference past lessons.

Anyway...GIMP!

The program that we will initially be using to create small animation projects is called GIMP. This acronym stands for "GNU Image Manipulation Program". As you can see, even that explanation of the acronym has an acronym. Actually, when an acronym is a word you cannot pronounce (GNU, PBS, BBC, etc.), we call these 'initialisms', NOT acronyms. The initialism GNU stands for "GNU's Not Unix".

That's right. The definition of the initialism is the initialism itself. This sort of play on language is called a 'recursive acronym', or a 'recursive initialism' in this case. When you spend years creating a program as complex as GIMP, you are allowed to have a strange sense of humor.

In any case, the GNU Project's main aim is to develop "a sufficient body of free software [...] to get along without any software that is not free." What this means is that the GIMP you will be using is NOT the trial version. It is NOT a reduced version. The GIMP you will be using is the full product, brought to you free of charge thanks to the Open Source movement.

Now that you are armed with this bit of history, we can move on to the actual program.

GIMP makes creating simple GIF animations very, very simple. If you are able to create GIF animations (silent animations that are usually only a few seconds long and looped), then higher quality animations become much more manageable. 

This is a small animated GIF I made in GIMP in about ten minutes from start to finish. It's simple, and somewhat crude, but it gets the job done and it helps to illustrate the basics of animation: frames. (Also, yes, I like Harry Potter, so expect to see it crop up in examples from time to time!)

But before you can begin using GIMP to create even the most bare-bones of animations...it stands to reason that you should probably learn how the program is set up! 

When you first open up GIMP, you should see a screen that looks something like the image below. Clicking on the images will enlarge them. 

• GNU Image Manipulation Program: This area will remain relatively in the background once you actually start creating images. You can think of it as the newspaper that house painters set up.
  
• Toolbox: This box is pretty self explanatory. If you have ever experimented with MS Paint, you should be familiar with quite a lot of the tools. But, GIMP Is much more advanced than MS Paint. We will be examining these advanced tools later.
  
• Layers: This is one main advantage that GIMP has over MS Paint. What layers allow you to do is break up an image. For instance, you draw the outline of a head on layer 0. Then, on layer 1, you draw the face. On layer 2 you draw the hair. On layer 3 you draw a cap. If later on you decide you would rather have a bow on layer 3 instead of the cap, erasing the cap will have NO EFFECT on the other layers. 

Once you have opened up the program, you are going to want to open up a new document. 

Once you have clicked OK, your window should look like this: 

As you can see, once you have a file open, a lot more options become available to you in the layer window. Below, I will show you the steps I took to create a small drawing. I will not show you every single tool in action. Instead, I will show you what tools I used to get what result. I want you all to experiment with the tools yourself! 

• First thing I decided to do was draw some line art. For this picture I decided to draw Sgt. Frog, one of my favorite cartoon characters.
  
• As you can see, I added an extra layer. To create an extra layer, you click on the small icon in the bottom corner of the layer window. A dialog box will open up. In this dialog window, I changed the name to 'line art' and clicked OK.
  
• Then, it was just a matter of painting with the paint brush tool and erasing with the eraser. In the picture, it is obvious that I used multiple sized brushes. You can change the size and shape of your brush in the Brush section of the Toolbox.

Coloring is a very similar process. 

• First you create a second layer and call it colors (or whatever you want to call it). Make sure that the color layer is UNDER the 'line art' layer, or else your colors will go over your line art, which you may or may not want.
  
• In addition to the normal paint and eraser functions, I used the color changer box to pick multiple colors. Unlike in MS Paint that only offers limited ability to select custom colors, GIMP offers multiple sliders to help you fine tune the color you want to pick!

• For this particular picture, I didn't just want normal coloring. To give the illusion of light, I had to make sure that the yellow of the UFO's beam looked like it was glowing.
  
• To do this, I created a new layer, moving it between the color and line art layers.
  
• Then, I colored the beam. For this particular tractor beam, I chose yellow.
  
• Then, in the layer window, making sure the layer of my beam was selected, I adjusted the opacity. 'Opacity' refers to "the degree to which light is NOT allowed to travel through" something. That means the higher the opacity, the more opaque an object, and the less transparent that object is. 

• Another advantage GIMP has over MS Paint is the ability to transform objects. Transform, as the name implies, means to change the shape or dimensions of an object.
  
• For the last step of this picture I drew a tree and put it on a layer.
  
• I then highlighted the tree with the select tool.
  
• I copy and pasted a second tree and move it to the other side of the screen.
  
• Using the transform tools I have high lighted, I made a pretty fat pine tree into a much skinnier one.
  
• Then, I copied this new skinny tree and moved it to the middle of the image. 

And this is the result of a few minutes of playing around on GIMP! Much nicer than MS Paint, I think! 

Keep in mind that this was just a very simple image to get you started on using GIMP. Just how powerful of a program is GIMP? Well, here are two artworks from other artists who use GIMP. 

You can find these and many more examples of GIMP artwork HERE.

Now that you've been introduced to some of the tools that this program has to offer, go on and experiment! If you find yourself hitting road blocks with no idea of how to fix your problem, try to break your problem into smaller parts. Think about what you DO know how to do and see if you can use a combination of tricks to achieve the result you want. Learning how to turn a problem you DON'T know how to solve into a problem you DO know how to solve is a skill that will get you far in life. 

If, however, you have given the problem your best effort but still have no idea what to do, raise your hand and I will come by as soon as I can. 

Good luck!

** All images are copyright their respective owners and are used here for educational purposes only.

Lesson 3: A Basic Walk Cycle

The basic walk cycle of a character has four main components: Contact, Recoil, Passing, and High-point. 

The Contact is the starting point of the action. In the walk cycle, the Contact refers to the initial moment that the foot touches the ground.

The Recoil is the natural reaction to the Contact. Just like the Couch in the jump cycle, the recoil creates a tension in the body. The pattern of tension-and-release is how movement is created.

The Passing component is pretty self-explanatory. In this component, one leg passes in front of the other.

The High-point component entails the leg moving to it's highest point before beginning its descent back to the ground. 

Finally, when the foot comes back down to the ground, the body is back in the Contact position, though with the other foot. The body goes through the cycle again, but with the other foot. 

This is what the full walk cycle looks like. Make note of the Contact-Recoil-Passing-High Point cycle. 

ACTIVITY ONE: Creating a walk cycle 

Based on the character you designed in Lessons 1 & 2 as well as the diagram above, draw a similar cycle for your own character. Take note that the first Contact and the last Contact frame are exactly the same pose. This means that you only need to actually draw it once. In total, you should have eight drawings of your characters. 

If your character is too complicated, why don't you try drawing a walking cycle with a stick figure first! Good luck! 

Lesson 2: The Basics of Character Movement

If you have not done so already, please complete the activities mentioned in the PREVIOUS lesson.

This focus of this lesson is learning more about the character you yourself have designed. These activities may be done in any order, so feel to do whichever one you want! 

ACTIVITY ONE: Character Expressions

Take a piece of paper and fold it into four squares. On the bottom of each square, write a different emotion. For example, Happy, Sad, Angry, Surprised. Then, draw your character making those expressions. If your character is very animated, exaggerate the features. If your characters is more reserved, do not make the expressions too energetic. 

Once you have done that, you may choose to either show the same expressions in multiple angles (like a Turn-Around, but for the face), or you can experiment with other emotions. 

ACTIVITY TWO: Character Jump Movement

Take a piece of paper and fold it into sections. In each section, draw two horizontal lines. One line will represent the top of head of your characters, the second line will represent the bottom of the "fee". By setting these boundaries, you can make sure that your character stays the same size throughout the whole jump cycle. 

1. In the first box, draw your character standing naturally. 
2. In the second box, draw your character crouching. 
3. In the third box, draw your character mid jump. 

The Jump cycle is actually made up of five basic steps (standing, crouching, lift off, landing, standing), but as  you may have noticed, the last two steps look similar to the first two frames. This demonstrates an important aspect of animation: repetition. If you have already drawing something once, there is little need to draw it multiple times. 

Lesson 1: The Basics of Character Design, Part ONE

So, you think you've got what it takes to make amazing characters?

Of course you do! With a little knowledge of the basics, anyone with a pencil and a bit of imagine can learn to create memorable characters! 


That being said, it is important to realize that while anyone can design a character, it takes a certain bit of knowledge to design a GREAT character. To illustrate this point...

Can you recognize these characters?

Chances are, if you have had even a little bit of exposure to Micky Mouse, Spongebob Squarepants, or Stewie Griffin, then you can recognize these characters instantly. What this exercise demonstrates is the benefits of a strong SILHOUETTE. 


A silhouette is generally defined as "the outline or general shape of something." The term silhouette is actually a reference to a historical figure -- Étienne de Silhouette, a French politician. 

One story goes that de Silhouette practiced such bad economics while in office during the Seven Years' War that when an art technique was developed that would allow for portraits to be rendered quickly and cheaply, it was named after him. So, Silhouette's name lives on, though probably not in the way he would have hoped! 


The silhouette is a very powerful tool that a designer can use to create some very amazing, very memorable characters. This technique can be used when designing all sorts of characters, from small cute animals to more  realistic human characters. 

See what I mean? 

From Pikachu to Batman, the silhouette technique can be used to see if your character design is one destined to make an impact. As you've seen up to this point, the characters with the strongest silhouettes are not necessarily the most complicated characters. 

Complicated =/= Memorable

Keep that little equation in mind when you go forth and create your own characters! Sometimes, it is the most simple of characters that are remembered for years. 

But you might be asking yourselves at this point if the only purpose of the silhouette is to see if the character design makes an impression. While this is a big reason to check a character's silhouette, it is not the only reason. By checking a character's silhouette, you can see if the overall character displays the emotions you are trying to get across. For example, the character may be smiling, but if the silhouette reveals a very tense, agitated body, then people look at the character will actually feel the agitation more than the smile. 

Essentially, the silhouette reveals to the designer what they are saying about the character...without saying a word. 

Which of these characters is in the better mood? 

Even without knowing anything about the character's personalities, their expressions, or even the situation, the silhouette reveals the emotional impression any average viewer will have of the characters.

ACTIVITY ONE

Before you can start using this silhouette technique to check the effectiveness of your character design, you have to have a character first! If you have never drawn before and would like some some help getting started, check out the diagrams below. 

Despite what the final products look like, once you deconstruct the images, it is easy to see them as just basic shapes. 

Once you have a character design you like, test the silhouette! The outline of the character should be simple enough to be arresting while being unique enough to be memorable. 

ACTIVITY TWO 

Once you have a character design chosen, it is time to create what animators like to call a Turn-Around. As the name would imply, a Turn-Around is a reference sheet containing the character in multiple angles. At this stage, the design must answer questions such as how thin a character is, how the limbs (if there are any) are connected, how the character stands (does the character have military baring or does it slouch?), and many others. 

The Turn-Around is one of the most important reference images an animator has, so take your time on it and, when it is finished, keep it somewhere safe! 

-To Be Continued In Lesson 2