* Add to cart and keep shopping or checkout when you're ready

About the Course

When I was trained in the Disney Feature Animation program, we were taught that well-designed thumbnails are the best that your picture can be. It's essentially the picture. And after that, your goal is to get from the thumbnail to the finish without screwing it up. We learned by studying great movies.

Using acclaimed films as a source, students in The Art of the Thumbnail study exceptional film compositions to learn how they're achieved. They concurrently create film studies that mirror the conceptual and technical development of an excellent thumbnail sketch. Thumbnail sketching is taught progressively, through exercises that start simply and build to completed thumbnails. These thumbnails address drawing and perspective, and will clearly convey time of day, tone, atmosphere, and mood.

Students are prepared to design animated and live-action movie environments, or settings for visual art forms that require composition, such as landscape painting, graphic novels, or illustration.

SUPPLY LIST

Digital: A Cintiq tablet with Photoshop on a desktop or laptop works fine. An iPad works well too, but you'll need software compatible with it.

Traditional: A pad of white marker paper, 11x14 to 11x17 inches. Ten cool gray markers, Copic recommended (any brand works, but Copic is refillable; you'll refill some colors often and others rarely).

Fine-point felt-tip pens — several thicknesses are fine, but keep them thin overall.

WHAT YOU GET

6

Live Classes

Weekly

CRITIQUES

Open

CLASS FORUMS

Unlimited

REPLAY ACCESS

Student Work

COMMUNITY & ACCESS

Drawing America

Your home for drawing & painting

All members get access to the General Community Forum. Online Live Courses come with Access Groups for weekly homework and feedback from instructors and classmates.

Live Sessions

Review Feed

Join Jennifer Gennari, Will Weston

Important Information

Students may choose to work in Photoshop, Procreate or any drawing medium they prefer

About Your Instructor

Will Weston

Disney, Nickelodeon, Sony Feature Animation

Trained in Disney Studio's Feature Animation program, Will spent years as a layout artist, background painter, and visual development artist before turning to education. His workshops and courses are offered exclusively through Drawing America.