Wednesday, 28 March 2012

Finito Pictures

So I have completed drawing and adding a background to the drawings. I really enjoyed the layer feature on Photoshop. Thanks to Sarah I was able to add my drawings and manipulate them on to the photos I took in Weldon.  

 What I did…

  1. I opened both my drawing and the photo in Photoshop.
  2. I used the “magic wand” tool, and then clicked on the empty space on the image that I drew.
  3. Next, I went to select, and clicked inverse.
  4. Then I copied my drawing and pasted it on the photo.
  5. Then I used the “rectangle” tool and made it trace over my drawing that I pasted in the photo. I needed to do this because the image was always too small when I pasted.
  6. Next, I did “command T” to “transform” the image in my rectangle. At this point I could enlarge and move my drawing all over the photo. Sometimes, depending on the image, once I was done transforming the whole drawing I would go back and rectangle off certain parts so that I could alter only a section of a drawing. This was very affective for creating distance in the image. I used it to create space between the Octopus and the Ninja.
  7. Once I was done transforming the image I clicked on the “checkmark”. Then I went to select and clicked on deselect.

 For some images I would add more to the drawing. To do this, I would drag the image onto my tablet. The really nice thing about the layers is that when you want to erase something you have drawn, it does not erase the background.
See how I moved the ninja in the photo with the picture background to create distance.

You click on the layer you want to work on.


For my next step I am going to make a PDF with two pages side-by-side like a picture book, which people will be able to flip through. I think that the picture book format will better suit how I originally outlined my story, when I pictured it like a silent film with text and picture.

         

Wednesday, 21 March 2012

A few obstacles but back to progressing.

So I was originally planning on making my comic on Manga; however, it has decided not to open for me anymore. Now I am making my pictures on Photoshop which I am quite liking. Between the two programs I tried Adobe Illustrator but I found it VERY hard to draw with, it does not give the illustrator very much freedom with lines on the tablet.


After being frustrated with Illustrator because I had spent a few hours trying to draw a picture, but was not getting anywhere, I decided to switch to Photoshop. I was a tad panicked because I had never used it before, and my Professor was not on campus because it was a Thursday afternoon; so I could not bug him.  Probably the most important thing that I learned from this class is that you can google instructions and tutorials on line for pretty much everything. Thus, I decided to google how to use Photoshop and did a few tutorials.


Along with learning how to use new programs for this project I am also learning how to use a Mac. I am actually starting to like it; the only thing I tend to keep trying to do is Right click the mouse, which does not exist.


Another thing I keep doing because it’s hard to break natural reactions, is touching the button on the pen. The button is right where I naturally hold a pen, so I keep switching my grip without thinking. However, from this constant mistake, I learned that if you touch the pen button while having the tip to the screen a window pops up that allows you to manipulate the width of the pen line, which is very convenient.

 
To speed up the process of drawing, and to make things a tad more consistent from picture to picture,  I made an octopus outline that I saved, so I can use it for different screens.

Here are a few pictures that I drawn so far... However I have no clue how to combine the pictures with images on photoshop for the next phase.
The cover image



I drew the people in blue

Sunday, 11 March 2012

The Historian Hunch


Sometimes when I observe professors at the university I notice that many hunch. I have developed a theory that I shall dub “The Historian Hunch”, though it probably relates to all academics.


To obtain the knowledge needed to achieve a PhD, one is forced to sit at a desk numerous hours of the day, hunched over a book reading. Consequently, as the academic’s mind begins to develop (one may argue to a ‘superior’ state if they are Sheldon Cooper) their body begins to regress into a pre-homo sapien state, to when humans were still hunched over.  

Sunday, 4 March 2012

Story Board...

Story Board.
Some photos have arrows because I decided to change the order of image and words.






Wednesday, 29 February 2012

Planning ...

I think I will be taking a silent film approach to my animated short. I am currently trying to decide where to place the words and the images.

These are some photos I have taken of my work so far.


The beginning of my outline.



I took several photos of the book shelves on the fifth floor of Weldon where my comic takes place.
I am planning on using the images as the back drop because I find it hard to draw with dimensions.

Wednesday, 15 February 2012

First 3D Image of Ninja Historian vs. Octopus

What I did in class today on Google Sketchup. I would like to give a shout-out to Dave for all the help. THANKS!

MOUSE TRAP!

Pinky and the Brain may be my favourite two mice in history. Their show was one of my favourites as a kid. Pinky and Brain were two laboratory mice, who would break out of their cage at night and try to take over the world. Brain (the short one) was the mouse with the plan. He is like the Napoleon of the mice world. My favourite scheme of theirs, was when they tried to take over the world by having the last tea bag, they were convinced that Britain would crumble to their wants – I don’t think this was such a bad plan.



Using Google Stechup, I made the two a fun mouse trap. The first image in the picture is a full view of the mouse trap. In the next images (going left to right in the first row, then again in the second) I give close ups of the path they will take.

I enjoyed using a 3D model more than the Inkspace we did last week. I found that 3D images make better use of creating images on the computer. I really enjoyed the ability to move parts of an image inward or outward.