Issue 245: what's your sign?

[JBruce]

I've read several other "How To" tutorials for various web comics, and many of them mention that they ink all of the seperate characters in seperate layers , so that when it comes time to add speech bubbles, they can move each person in order to make extra room.  (They also ink in photoshop, although after trying it in flash, I have to agree that it's easier)  Using your one layer method, have you ever run out of room while adding the text?

If you plan your steps and dialogue ahead you do not need to be able to add extra room. However, I know it works pretty well. Some comics even put their divisions on a seperate layer so they can stack it on top of the work.

J

[Hawk]

I've read several other "How To" tutorials for various web comics, and many of them mention that they ink all of the seperate characters in seperate layers , so that when it comes time to add speech bubbles, they can move each person in order to make extra room.  (They also ink in photoshop, although after trying it in flash, I have to agree that it's easier)  Using your one layer method, have you ever run out of room while adding the text?

so far no.

[craigeth]

i remember i asked a while back whether hawk uses cut and paste techniques and ananth replied and said that he had encouraged you to. but from this tutorial its seems obvious that you no longer cut and paste things?

http://www.applegeeks.com/sm/index.php/topic,670.0.html here's the thread.

and heres my post.

http://www.applegeeks.com/sm/index.php/topic,670.msg42565.html#msg42565

[Jetryl]

also any basic art class explains about lighting.

Would be bloody nice if that were true.  I think a better way of saying that would be "any basic art class that's worth its own salt explains about lighting."  Unfortunately, most of the ones I've seen cop out with some handwaving, and end up explaining nothing; if they even touch on the subject.

The good news is that shading is one of the few areas of art that is not an art, but rather a pure, mathematically rigorous science.  As hawk alluded to, it is something that you can program your intuition to calculate for you, and very quickly.  Some people, like Hawk, pick it up very quickly, so quickly they might not realize precisely what their intuition is doing for them when it calculates what "looks right".  Others, fortunately, can use the math behind it to inform their work until their intuition pulls up to speed.

Realize that computers CAN be programmed to do shading (c.f. 3d renderers), and thus that if you imitate how they do it, you can do it as well as they can (which is sometimes indistinguishable from reality).  If you can't figure shading out, study how a 3d renderer works, and pretend you are one.

[Gamble]

i was doing the inking on an immage like you do in flash and i had a question.

Due to the percent ur zoomed in on the brush changes shape from smaller or bigger, when set on pressure. do you work on a certain zoom so that all your lines are basicly within the same viscinaty of size or do you zoom in and out depending which lines you ar einking at the time?

[pogues]

i scanned through all the post and didn't see an answer to my question, if i missed it i am sorry.

i am confused by the set before all the others. i just started using photoshop and i don't understand how you make the template layer. i tried to do it and the text for copyright and logo comes out to hard to read. i am also not sure how one adds the folders you had already made. i am just not sure how to have a ready made template for the strip which is something i would like to look into. i am sure this is an easy question to get answered and i am to stupid to figure it out on my own. any help would be appreciated.

the steps for the text and bubbles were nice. i am looking forward to trying it and getting rid of my horrible hand lettering which is almost illegible. thanks for the tutorial.

[Azrael_Adross]

Aw man, photoshop does great wonders for the mortal artist, I just hope I could artistically come at least one hundredth of what you could do with photoshop using only flash. I have Paint.Net but....damn this webcomic things is too complicated. Maybe you could like, have downloadable tutorials?

[alke]

also how is it that u color the character's eyes??

[darklordofdarkness]

also how is it that u color the character's eyes??

Look in Hawk's tutorials.  They should be somewhere around here.

Also, please don't necropost.

[contro]

I have a question:  After importing the image into Flash, is there a way to resize the image to where it might fill the entire space on the stage?  Or do I just need to resize it when I export the image after I'm done inking?

[AI_Joe]

when I drop work into Flash from Photoshop, I usually click into the "Size" button in the document properties panel and then "Match - Contents" which will make the stage whatever size the image is. I resize the final ink (dimension and resolution) on export.

[Knightslugger]

This is not the place to be speaking about such things.

look to the artist's Corner, or use the search button.  otherwise make a new post.  this is about the comic and nothing more.

[contro]

This is not the place to be speaking about such things.

look to the artist's Corner, or use the search button.  otherwise make a new post.  this is about the comic and nothing more.

I understand, only reason why I asked in this particular one is because the topic was taking about steps that Hawk did in Flash, and pretty much everyone else was asking questions. 

[Knightslugger]

In that case there's this:

http://www.applegeeks.com/sm/index.php/board,14.0.html

[miguel6]

Hi, i already wrote u, but may be u won't read it, so i'll post my question here, if u already answer me by e-mail just forget about it, ok my question is:
Hi hawk, my name is Miguel Palacio, i am 15 years old, and i am learning photoshop and graphic desing, i don't really speak english, so if i sound wierd it is beacuase i am from latinoamerica, well, i am writing because i wanna know a couple of things, i wanna color like you do, and i saw the video on youtube ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmH-gRy8AHk&mode=related&search= ) about how u color a bear, but i couldn't understand some things, when you make the highlight, do u make it on another layer? and the shadows on another layer too? but if u do so, why do the highlight and the shadows remain inside the siluet of the bear, i mean, why doesn't the highlight lights outside the bear? and which mode of layer is it? which opacity? what is a flat and what r they 4? and the last thing, why do u  the drawers use to use a dark color over the draw when coloring? it barely lets us see the draw, what is it for?

Ok that's all, i know it could be a lot, but i really want to know all those things, so thanks a lot for your time and if posible answer me to miguelpa6@hotmail.com Again thanks a lot i wait for your answer.

Oh and the LAST thing, which is the best program? photoshop? painter maybe? thanks, please answer me or i'll think u didn't get my message, obvislly i'll wait some days, thanks

By the way, i got a digital tablet, i mean it doesn't show any image but it works as paper for the pc, is it good enoughoh, and if the color layer is on multiply, why doesn't it allows us see the layer flats under it?
thanks