Here's where Salty 'Ham Cartooneestas (cartoonist-types in middle-Alabama) can post some art, discuss collaborations, and just keep each other informed on their own projects.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Inking in Flash
. . . still improving . . .
5 comments:
Anonymous
said...
That would probably fool me. I can only see a few small things that might be suspicious. Maybe if I drew with Flash some I'd be more aware of its quirks.
What is that a rat? Do you think of these before hand, or do they develop as you draw them? Why didn't you ink his nose to follow your sketch? Also what do those lines on his eyelids indicate and why did they change in the inking?
What's the story behind that pig-snouted super-villain(?) below? -Tim
Tim, you don't usually comment anonymously. Did you forget your password? Or maybe this is Tim Spinosi, instead of Tim Rocks?
Yeah, it's a rat, but he doesn't look very natural, crouching that way. I think maybe he normally stands on two legs, but right now he's mocking the animals that go 'round on four legs. "Durrrh, looka me, I'm a AA-NII-MUULLL."
With most of the drawings in my sketchbook, I don't think ahead. I start by drawing an oval or something, add a nose, or eyes, or a jet engine. I never know which way I'm going with each addition, until the instance before.
The rat's nose? It looks pretty accurate, to me. There's lots of stuff that's off, from the sketch. That's something I anticipate about inking in Illustrator; I think I'll be able to get the lines to sit more accurately where I want them. This Flash inking can be fun, but accuracy is an issue. There are a lot of things that are further off kilter than the nose. I moved that back leg on purpose, to get it out from behind the arm.
The eyelids are shiny, like those of the characters in lots of old-timey cartoons. The light parts down the centers are highlights, and the adjacent lines are shading. They're different in the inking because, presumably, I would color the eyelids, I don't know, let's say purple, in Photoshop. Then the center-stripe highlights could be lavender-white.
The pig-snouted super-villain is another random doodle. As usual, he just invented himself while I was drawing him. To my thinking, his snout isn't a pig snout, really. It's like an air filter that he breathes through or something. Having two slits in the front does make it look snoutish, but . . . I'm picturing that maybe his pointed klan-hood is red, and the snoot-part is dark red . . . or yellow. So maybe then it wouldn't read so piggishly.
I like him a lot, though. It makes me want to build a universe around him, or inject him into some universe I've already got lying around. I guess he could be a good second-in-command to the main villain in an epic Ptooey & Loogie adventure, eh? General Something-or-Other.
Well, more time consuming than interesting in my case, actually. Honestly, it wasn't long before I just started free-handing them completely. Sure, it's pretty much twice the work; but it's still less than perfectly plotting each section/curve via the pen-tool and still having to do both sides of *every* line.
There's always using the stroke for inking, though...hahahahahaha.
It's just easier to be anonymous than going through several screens to sign in (maybe I could have Firefox "remember me", I'm not necessarily the most intuitive/efficient computer user.)
On the rat's nose.. I meant you didn't *shade* it in or darken it as in the sketch.. leaves the inked version feeling a little airy/light compared to the sketch IMO.
I think if you had at least three slits in the air filter it would be less ambiguous.. Of course I kind of like the idea of a pig-snouted villain. Snouts are great, it goes back to a long tradition in comics (Peter Porker.) -Tim
Perry, when inking in Flash, here's what I've been doing: I use the brush tool, repeatedly undoing and redoing until I get a line that's okay or nearly okay. Then I use the select arrow or the lasso tool to select any parts of the line that have kinks or nits, and I hit the smooth button once or twice to try and smooth them out. Then I move on to the next line.
Getting into all the beziers with the pen tool can turn into a world of hassles, so I've decided that, when inking in Flash, 100% accuracy shouldn't be the goal.
Tim, the rat's nose would presumably be nice and dark again, if I went to the trouble to color him.
Salty 'Ham, as in BirmingHAM, Alabama. Salty 'Ham Cartooneestas are cartoonists based in the upper-middle section of Alabama. To learn about our members and see a bunch of their work, go to SaltyHam.org.
5 comments:
That would probably fool me. I can only see a few small things that might be suspicious. Maybe if I drew with Flash some I'd be more aware of its quirks.
What is that a rat? Do you think of these before hand, or do they develop as you draw them? Why didn't you ink his nose to follow your sketch? Also what do those lines on his eyelids indicate and why did they change in the inking?
What's the story behind that pig-snouted super-villain(?) below?
-Tim
Tim, you don't usually comment anonymously. Did you forget your password? Or maybe this is Tim Spinosi, instead of Tim Rocks?
Yeah, it's a rat, but he doesn't look very natural, crouching that way. I think maybe he normally stands on two legs, but right now he's mocking the animals that go 'round on four legs. "Durrrh, looka me, I'm a AA-NII-MUULLL."
With most of the drawings in my sketchbook, I don't think ahead. I start by drawing an oval or something, add a nose, or eyes, or a jet engine. I never know which way I'm going with each addition, until the instance before.
The rat's nose? It looks pretty accurate, to me. There's lots of stuff that's off, from the sketch. That's something I anticipate about inking in Illustrator; I think I'll be able to get the lines to sit more accurately where I want them. This Flash inking can be fun, but accuracy is an issue. There are a lot of things that are further off kilter than the nose. I moved that back leg on purpose, to get it out from behind the arm.
The eyelids are shiny, like those of the characters in lots of old-timey cartoons. The light parts down the centers are highlights, and the adjacent lines are shading. They're different in the inking because, presumably, I would color the eyelids, I don't know, let's say purple, in Photoshop. Then the center-stripe highlights could be lavender-white.
The pig-snouted super-villain is another random doodle. As usual, he just invented himself while I was drawing him. To my thinking, his snout isn't a pig snout, really. It's like an air filter that he breathes through or something. Having two slits in the front does make it look snoutish, but . . . I'm picturing that maybe his pointed klan-hood is red, and the snoot-part is dark red . . . or yellow. So maybe then it wouldn't read so piggishly.
I like him a lot, though. It makes me want to build a universe around him, or inject him into some universe I've already got lying around. I guess he could be a good second-in-command to the main villain in an epic Ptooey & Loogie adventure, eh? General Something-or-Other.
Inking in vector is definitely... interesting.
Well, more time consuming than interesting in my case, actually. Honestly, it wasn't long before I just started free-handing them completely. Sure, it's pretty much twice the work; but it's still less than perfectly plotting each section/curve via the pen-tool and still having to do both sides of *every* line.
There's always using the stroke for inking, though...hahahahahaha.
- Perry
It's just easier to be anonymous than going through several screens to sign in (maybe I could have Firefox "remember me", I'm not necessarily the most intuitive/efficient computer user.)
On the rat's nose.. I meant you didn't *shade* it in or darken it as in the sketch.. leaves the inked version feeling a little airy/light compared to the sketch IMO.
I think if you had at least three slits in the air filter it would be less ambiguous.. Of course I kind of like the idea of a pig-snouted villain. Snouts are great, it goes back to a long tradition in comics (Peter Porker.)
-Tim
Perry, when inking in Flash, here's what I've been doing: I use the brush tool, repeatedly undoing and redoing until I get a line that's okay or nearly okay. Then I use the select arrow or the lasso tool to select any parts of the line that have kinks or nits, and I hit the smooth button once or twice to try and smooth them out. Then I move on to the next line.
Getting into all the beziers with the pen tool can turn into a world of hassles, so I've decided that, when inking in Flash, 100% accuracy shouldn't be the goal.
Tim, the rat's nose would presumably be nice and dark again, if I went to the trouble to color him.
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