Articles & Thumbnails by, Dr.Jayadev Babu, M.Sc.,Ph.D., Cartoonist and 2D Animator.
A thumbnail is a rough, un-detailed brief, compact and a concise sketch according to the dictionary.
Story writers, artists and computer experts doodle with a pen, a pencil or mouse. Usually thumbnails are drawn in small spiral notebooks or scribble pads. Doodling stretches imagination. As noted by Oliver Wendell Holmes, “Man’s mind once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.” Thumbnails are manifestations of creative thought process. However rough they may be, scribbles or doodles can be interpreted in a myriad ways.
In animation, thumbnails are the precursors of character design, story-board, scene planning and shot division. Thumbnails drawn on paper or board with pencil, charcoal or sketch pens are later modified before final drawings are made. Computer artists make thumbnails with tools. They are later retrieved at leisure and final models are created.
Thumbnail sketching is an integral part in animation. The essentials of character designing are attitudes and posing. These are based on the story. The artist, reads the story, imagines the characters and gives shape through thumbnail sketching (Refer Sketch). Story boards are initially worked with thumbnails before elaborate scenes are planned that consist of camera movements, action and composition of characters, back-ground lay outs and special effects.
Thumbnails by definition are not complete sketches. They are rough strokes of circles, boxes or symbols. No separate artistic talent is required for executing the thumbnails. The learner is advised to study the appended thumbnail sketches that are drawn for the story, “Slow and steady wins the race” and create a story-board.
The learner is also instructed to copy the sketches and use them as models for his own creation of characters. Thumbnails need not be artistic and technically correct. It is enough the rough sketches convey the idea in general and the story in particular.
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