Weekly Study Prompts
How to use this page
These study prompts are numerous and extremely varied in subject. They are designed to give you something to continually work on when you’ve either finished your regular homework and want to continue learning, or are eager to just keep up a consistent schedule of creating artwork, but don’t know what to draw. For those that have signed up for the one hour feedback sessions, you’ll find that most course work can be reviewed in the first half-hour (in general, in some cases we’ll need the full hour) so these prompts can be a source of additional work to have critiqued. The ideas for these prompts come from professional animation work that I’ve observed through the many “Art Of…” books, animation how-to books, online browsing, and successful portfolios I’ve studied in the past.
If you want to improve at a particular subject, then you can practice from the various prompts provided in that category. If you’re applying to some of the super competitive schools such as Sheridan College, Seneca, CalArts, SVA, RISD, Gobelins, The Animation Workshop, and others, you should keep a very active schedule of working on these prompts for at least one year prior to applying.
The most successful students I’ve seen have been diligent about continually working and improving their skills.
Good luck, I hope they serve you well!
Most important - Highly Recommended Frequent Practice
For these specific exercises in this Most Important category, we recommend weekly practice sessions, and you can cycle through them week by week. This is as well as whatever other prompts you’re tackling on this page.
Keep up a regular life drawing schedule. This can’t be overvalued! So many of my past successful students cite this as being a huge determiner of their overall success. For resources on how to best do this, see the Resources page.
Observational drawing of people, places, vehicles, objects, nature, buildings, etc.. Same importance for life drawing, but of the world around you. Always keep a sketchbook nearby. Bonus points for the analog artists!
Hand, feet, and specific anatomy area focus, especially with the assist of anatomy textbooks / resources.
Draw a room or environment from observation (freehand, not measured perspective), can be loose, but must be clear, expressive line drawings. Can add watercolour / copic markers for colour.
To improve your character design, practice copying the pros’ character designs using a reference like Living Lines Library or Character Design References. After you’ve practiced this, for an added challenge, invent your own pose of an existing character. (Obviously, this is just for your own study and improvement, not for handing in for a portfolio since you’re using existing designs.)
Layout-related prompts, create your own designs of…
An old hut in the forest
A forest the communicates a particular mood or feeling (dark, spacious, wild, tame, scary, happy, etc.)
A wealthy old palace on a hilltop
The palace courtyard with hedges and sculptures
The palace gate entrance
Birds eye view of a town on a mountain side or top
An old windmill
An old hearth / fireplace in large room - exposed roof beams
A street scene of Mexican alleyway at night lit by lanterns
A doctor’s office (infused with a similar adjective as the ones listed for the forest above)
An entrance (street view) of a secret cantina
Trees - use a variety of types, shapes, and ages
Plants
Flowers
Different rooms of abandoned or neglected house
An earthen cottage in the forest (interior too)
A treehouse fit for large gatherings
A big evil factory (and the inside)
A magical landscape
A magical factory
A magical cottage
A gem cave
Scenes to depict
Woman hanging clothing out to dry on line from window of apartment building
Group of people hanging out on hot day in public square
Group of kids playing in public street (something like tic tack toe)
Little girl petting a street cat
Little girl selling flowers to people on a street
Upper class gentry scorning lower class people
Escape through dark forest on moonlit night
Animation
Character walk cycle (with some secondary action)
Character walk towards camera
Character sneaking (page 167 of The Animator’s Survival Kit (ASK))
Older character walking
Large character vs light character comparative animation
Angry walk cycle
Drunk character walking (page 162 of ASK)
For fun challenge, a horse sneaking! (Page 171 of ASK)
Run cycle 9 page 200 of ASK
Our recommended animation software:
Anatomy
Study anatomy regularly from great anatomy textbooks. If you’ve signed up for a Bundle, chances are you have some great ones already.
Study from George Bridgman’s textbooks, and while you’re at it check out ModernDayJames’s wonderful Deciphering Bridgman’s Anatomy video.
Draw animals! All different kinds, with different textures, and different paws, hoofs, tales, etc. (Check out the Weatherly Guide to Drawing Animals for assistance with this and the next one)
Draw animal anatomy. Break down the various complex forms of animals - doesn’t have to overly-detailed, just the basics.
Draw out some sequences of movement of people or animals in your sketchbook, as if to later animate them.
Props, create designs of…
Old swords - Spanish, Egyptian, Mongolian, pirate, etc.
Old clothing
Containers / vessel design - Old barrels, vases, pitchers, chairs, large water vessel
Masquerade outfits / masks
Victorian outfits
Woven basket for farmer’s market
Warrior cloak
Design a warrior melee weapon
Objects in the cozy cottage in the forest
Character design
Head shape variation exercise - make characters out of a wide variety of head shapes (you can make these shapes in advance prior to having a set idea of what the face will look like)
19th Century House Maid
Design a giant (consider the different elements that a giant could be)
Design a doctor - with chosen adjective*
Design a mad scientist
Design a bartender - with chosen adjective*
Anthropomorphosized character
Character facial expressions - variety of angles (not just from the front!)
* - Whenever I mention “with chosen adjective”, this just refers to that you need to come up with your own adjective to help give personality to the otherwise template-like character. So a doctor can be evil, good, unhappy, ecstatic, crazed, calming, etc. Each adjective can add a world of difference to how it will influence your design.
Colour Theory / Painting
Painting studies from film stills (great source: FilmGrab.com)
Painting master studies from master painters / illustrators (list TBD)
Painting from photo references (list TBD)
Obviously, this list is not exhaustive. It is a continual work in progress of extra assignments that I add to regularly when I observe good ideas for animation! If you have any exercises or prompts you’d like to suggest, please let me know below!
Videos
In this section, we’ll add videos that we’ve made as well as videos we recommend from others.
Handpicked recommendations tailored to aspiring animators.
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