This is for my 2-D animation assignment. We are supposed to do head turns for any of the three Disney characters, Pinocchio, Wart and King Hubert, as well as make up a reason for their head turn. Our 2-D teacher is minkyu lee, a recent graduate of the school and currently works at Disney and created an award winning short for them which everyone in class is completely amped up to watch. yet he insists he was just like us when he was at school. 

Our first assignment was to traditionally animate a bouncing ball. and i may have under estimated how animating goes traditionally. but i completely botched that assignment and the worst thing about it was that i didn’t realize it at all and thought mine was at least decent until i went almost last and getting to see 28 bouncing balls (some done even in perspective) before yours really opens your eyes to the fuck ups ya did. and that thought is driven even further when minkyu lee does an audible “whoa” as a reaction to seeing my ill timed, ridiculously gratuitous amount of squash and stretch. i even put my papers down on the wrong side of the pegs and punched holes unevenly. 

so when minkyu said that king hubert was the most challenging character to draw i knew which one i’d pick. i learned a lot from drawing this fella. he’s definitely one of the best designed disney characters. as you go, you learn the relationship between each line such as if they’re close to another or if a beard’s outline indicates the fullness of a cheek. 

originally i thought to have him be an angry king and he turns around and softens up by someone (maybe his wife) making him laugh. i thought it to be a good opportunity to sum up his character with these emotions but in the end minkyu said he would probably take a few more frames to go from such extreme emotions and he basically just wants us to focus on making a solid head turn. so i thought about it some more. and realized i did just settle on the first idea i had (a bad habit for creative folks). so now the king is gonna catch of whiff of something yummy and be totally into it at the last frame. this is what i have so far.

since being here i feel i have to make a big effort into making my stuff look professional. everything i do here i look as a possible portfolio piece. i have to remind myself it’s okay that i spend a lot of time on something because i’m trying to upgrade my skills. while critiquing the key poses we sketched out to be approved by him, minkyu mentioned something about the struggle of drawing and how it’s necessary in order to grow. what the bottom line seems to be is, he wants us to learn the basics from the masters and holds us to a high and professional standard. i like that. I’m aiming for the best. well see how it goes.