Animation is COMPLETE!!

It's done, it's over, finally! This was an...interesting experiment to say the least. I will be the first one to admit that digital mediums, even though I'm practicing with them far more and have become more adept than before, still eludes me from time to time. Let alone a full blown animation. Even though there were time that I just wanted to give up and let this rot, I finished it. I've defiantly learned a lot from this whole process. Not sure if I will ever do it again, but I have picked up some nifty tricks.

Busy, at the moment...

It's finals here at DAAP and UC. So, if I'm not posting, it's because I'm being a good studious student and preparing for the end of the quarter.


Don't believe me? LOOK AT THESE HANDS.

After finals, I shall post what I'm proud of enough to go on the internet. Let's just hope finals don't kill me first...

A Very Happy Birthday

A good friend of mine isn't have the best of weeks, and to top it all off today is his birthday! So I decided to make him a drawing that will, hopefully, cheer him up. It was a quick, 45 minute little diddy but I think it turned out fairly well.

I've heard that flaming Playstation 3 controller rainbows are manliest things ever. Manlier than anything in the world.

Hourlies

Ahh, it's spring again! Around this time weather gets warmer, snow turns to rain, and I do my hourlies. What are hourlies you ask? They are comics, done every hour, on the hour for twenty-four hours that you are awake. Don't worry if you fall asleep during this time there is no obligation to set your alarm for every hour to wake up and do a comic. That's just silly. I, myself, have tried to do this every spring for the past four years. This spring break I plan on doing it again. There's actually an official date that comic artist the world over do them, but I'm always busy on that day... Oh, well. At least I'm still doing it.

Anyways, spring break is in a few weeks and I'm super pumped about it. Until then, here are some from last years edition.

HOW TO: Coloring and other things.

In my last how to, I showed how I scan and do my line work. Not too complicated of stuff, which is why I wanted to share it. Photoshop can be complicated, but at the same time it can be so easy to use it's laughable. That's what I feel what turns most people off from it, is that they feel as though they should know how to use it but really don't. So, they feel dumb and don't really do anything with it. I can only hope that my tutorials help ease the frustration.

Anyhow, back to the "how to"

So when we last left off, we had just gotten done with doing the line work. After this, I make a new layer. Yea, yet another layer. Get used to it. After you've done this, make sure to go to the layer options like we did selecting "overlay". This time select "multiply".

 

This does exactly like it says, it "multiplys" the layer so it's almost as if you working in the same layer, BUT NOT. Crazy, right? After all that nonsense, I usually pick a neutral tone as my base layer. By doing this you can keep a coherent tone within the piece, plus you get rid of some the edges from when you were fixing the piece.

Then it's time for base colors! Aw yeah! Actually it's really not that exciting... but you are getting one step closer to it being done, so that's exciting, right? Anyways, try to pick neutral colors again. Not necessarily browns and tans, but something between the lightest light and darkest dark you want. Oh, heads up that all layers, unless specified, are all on the multiply layer mode.

Then it's shading time. Lots of shading. I didn't do too much for the sake of time, but I generally do a bit more than this. These are just the simple shadows. Make another layer for this process, since if you do, and you use the exact same color for the area you did before, because of the multiply mode that shade will automatically become darker when you apply it on your painting. This process usually has a lot of new layers depending how much shading you want to have.

Textures! I put a texture on the metal work in this next layer. I usually use pictures or textures i have scanned in, but you can find others on the internet. You just, again, make a new layer, place your texture, erase what you do not want, and set the opacity.

 

Ok at this point I'm fairly happy with all my textures and shading. Now its time for lighting! My favorite part since its usually the last one for me. Create a new layer and set it to "overlay" mode. Choose two colors for a gradient...

Tadaa! Instant light source! There is usually one last step, though. Just to add details like shiney eyes and other stuff. This layer is in "normal" mode by the way, so I generally set my brush to a lower opacity.

And now your really done!

Hope these tutorials were helpful, but most of all, HAVE FUN!

More Digetal Nonsense

The quick speed paint I did the other day really boosted my confidence. So, I decided to try more. A friend of mine requested that I do a character of hers from a story that she is writing. Not only was i confident enough to start one, but two! Yes! Two digital drawings! The second one, was sorta just me screwing around with composition and practicing drawing other things besides people (cat, elf, or otherwise).

Anyhow, here they are for all of your viewing pleasure!

Speed Painting

 I don't feel at times that I have enough confidence within Photoshop at times to actually do a drawing completely in it. This means sketch and everything else. So the other day I decided "what the hell, no time like the present" and did a quick forty-five minute drawing to pass the time.

She's a witch of some sort I guess..

I haven't completely decided if I have the hang of or am not quite as off put by it, but it's defiantly a step in the right direction. Perhaps.