hey! i’ve been out of the loop for a bit! i’ve been experimenting with this sweet new software i just got! it makes drawing so easy and if you plan stuff right you can make some totally sick stuff!

here, i took a screen cap:

i’ve been exploring some different features. i’ll split it up into two posts because there’s a bit to talk about!

first let’s talk about “paper.”

you can draw on this program’s “desk” with different kinds of “paper.” it’s really intuitive! i never really considered there being different qualities of paper in regards to animation, i just took computer paper punched it and scanned it. i generally do bulk scans using duane palyka’s scan fix program to align the pegs. but now that i don’t have a hole punch readily available, when i was animating the rochester, ny high falls laser lightshow and ran out of punched paper, i decided i’d take an opportunity to experiment. so i ordered the 10 field paper sampler pack from these guys: lightfoot ltd and thought i’d see how they stacked up against each other.

here’s what they send you in their sampler pack. “student bond,” “mohawk bond,” and “ingram bond” animation paper, all 20lb paper.

ok great. 3 kinds of paper. what does that even mean? well the student bond looks to be very similar to my standard computer paper i was used to. and i could notice that the ingram and the mohawk were slightly different colors. they’re varying in smoothness too. i’m used to drawing on the moleskine journal paper which is a smoother cream/off white colored paper. but it’s still thick enough to deal with my scribbles not newsprint or anything like that.

ok well great, they’re different colors? do i look like i care? how does this stuff work? why would i pay money when i can just go to the staples and buy half a rainforest in a box for 4 bucks and punch it at some local college or something?

well check this out…

when the lights go out, the magic happens.

here’s the rundown: top left: INGRAM top right: COMPUTER PAPER bottom left: MOHAWK bottom right: STUDENT BOND

and now that we know what we’re looking at let’s zoom the heck in

so here’s something that i’ve never thought about AT ALL. sure the feel and color of the paper are all something you think about when drawing but the makeup of the paper? let’s call it MURKYNESS! so check out how murky the two entrants on the right are? this “student bond” that came in the sampler and my 20lb hammermill computer paper. even with my crummy camera you can see they’re all sorts of murky. all the little fibers become crazy visible when they’re backlit, which is HUGE if you’re going to be animating. you want to be able to draw with reasonable pressure and still be able to see a couple drawings deep on your light table. but if the paper is too murky it will keep you from seeing between more than a couple sheets! that can be a real pain.

but scope out the mohawk and ingram paper! the mohawk is a lot more clear than either of the contenders on the right, but dang, the ingram? that’s just nuts! it looks like tracing paper! there’s definitely a reason this stuff has a pricetag. 34 bucks for 500 sheets? REALLY? but hey i could do that 70 times and still have spent less than i would on a cintiq! i tried looking into buying just straight sheets of this stuff and it looks like they don’t really make reams of it that a normal paper distro like xpedx or something similar would carry. it’s also rather difficult to find lighter weight computer paper like 16lb [though i'd imagine it wouldn't be much less murky if you did]

the ingram paper is also really smooth too [as is the mohawk don't get me wrong] check out how they stack up next to my moleskine sketchbook:

this time the ingram’s on the bottom, mohawk on top. they both stack up well against the texture of the moleskine journal, but the ingram is silky smooth compared to the murkyness of the book’s paper!

this blew my mind!

what you need to know?

INGRAM ANIMATION PAPER IS AWESOME!!!

if i continue in this odd experimental vein i might do tests to see how far visibility goes through a stack of paper and stuff like that…

next time i’ll talk about this program’s sweet drawing tool!