I've been in such a comic-making frenzy lately, partially because the job and my class combined have made me super exhausted that drawing makes me relax... and partially because it's helped me understand the human condition that comes with animation!
It's what I learned in class a couple weeks ago. Animation is nothing without putting actions and feelings into your characters. Sometimes you can only do this with a few frames, and storyboarding your character into different facial expressions bring out the most subtle hints of characterization and personality.
Take this image for example. It's two characters, with two simple poses and two facial expressions. You don't need to know them personally or understand what's been going on in the story to get a hint of how they're feeling. Ranait is looking outward, her arm raised up nervously - clearly feeling out of her comfort zone - while the Bunny looks to her curiously, as if in a daze. That's what I love about comics & animation. You don't have to read much dialogue or exposition in order to feel a connection with these characters. Right now I'm working on mastering the art of lip-synching into animated faces, and that brings out a whole new level into the human condition. It's really tedious to match the mouths with the sounds in audio, but when you get the final result... it's so rewarding!
I've also been making one-shot comics about my job. =) Here's one I recently did about my girls in the residence hall:
(The one opening the door is me.) Can you guess how each of the girls are feeling?
