i think they should plant these trees in cemeteries

so i thought it could be good to do like an anatomy of a comic type blog post. so here’s how i went about doing a comic i did a couple of months ago.
okay…it started as just a bit of a side thing to fill up some empty space in my sketchbook:

(click these to see them bigger)
then later on i thought this would maybe be good to do up proper. so i marked out some boxes in photoshop and drew some pictures in them.

techy people might be interested to know that when i’m doing computer drawings i used a Wacom Bamboo MTE-450A – which means nothing to me except that it’s a mouse that is shaped like a pen and has blue lights which i assume is indication of the magical properties it holds to allow me to draw pictures on a computer!!!
so next i did some colouring…all in photoshop…

then it’s just a case of adding finishing bits…

and hey presto! comic! ready to post on tumblr….or whatever…

so yeah…it was about here that i realised that there’s not much of a process to making a comic other than 1. thinking of a comic. 2. drawing a comic. but when i’m working in photoshop i tend to draw and colour things on separate layers a lot so as not to disturb stuff, and i really like the look of things like this when you omit certain layers from the finished piece. so when i was doing the mock up images of the comic in its progressive stages, i also saved a couple of extras of it with different layers left out. i guess it’s these that really give the anatomy of the comic and not how it’s made at all…

my tumblr is http://boxrocketcomics.tumblr.com if you haven’t already had a nosey. Trollhunter’s final installments should be done and up in the next couple of days and keep peeled for more news on the exciting thing. i’ll probably blurt it out on twitter soon anyway..

i think that’s something that would be worth doing.
…and…erm…if you think so too and you happen to have a ton of money lying around that could fund it…you know……

“There was method in these seemingly nonsensical statements: by the time we’d grasped their total idiocy, our thoughts had strayed in every conceivable direction.” – Walter Moers

i get asked this quite a bit and i’ve answered it a few times on various platforms but i don’t think i’ve answered it on this blog so i thought i’d give a kind of step by step thing here for anyone who’s interested in making animation of their own.

so first off, the program i use is called MSPaint and actually comes free with all windows computers. (start menu > all programs > accessories > MSPaint ) the version i use is the windows 7 edition…but you can use anything from XP upwards really.

STEP ONE: DRAW A CHARACTER.

you can draw with which ever tool you feel comfortable. here i’ve used the brush…but why not try using the spray can?

STEP TWO: SELECT THE CHARACTER

use the marquee tool to select a box round your character. if you character is way to complicated fit in a box, you can use the free form marquee tool – it has the same effect.

STEP THREE: ANIMATE SELECTION

go to the select menu that can be accessed via the tool box bit, then simply choose the option to animate selection.
once you do that you should see you character start to move similar to this:

and that’s pretty much how you do it. easy
you should try experimenting with the process to see the results. for example try only selecting a small portion of the character and a large amount of empty space:

and how about animated background? if you right click your selected character and choose selected inverse from the drop down menu, then animate selection from the selection menu (exactly as before), you can get some fantastic results:

STEP FOUR: SAVING

saving can be tricky. the export is all down to naming the file. it doesn’t actually matter what you decide to call it but you MUST REMEMBER TO SAVE IT WITH THE FILE EXTENSION .animatedvideo
and then your video should end up looking something like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CG8zHqx3pHg

i hope that’s answered that question once and for all.
have fun animating guys

i use photoshop and moviemaker. i made a video on how i do it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VE63fGKhE4

but i don’t like answering this because it’s different for different people and things. the program isn’t what’s important.
animation is, essentially, a series of photographs played together very fast to give the illusion of movement. and that’s all you really need to know. how you take those photos and how you play them back, is entirely up to you…and i don’t really want to be responsible for denying you the experience of experimenting and playing around with stuff to try and find out what works out best for you. cause that, for me at least, is the best part of making a video….or making anything really.

but i’m happy for people to ask questions and stuff, cause finding out how other people do things is all part of it. it’s just i’ve answered this question a number of times…and i still don’t really know how to answer it.
i use a mixture of whatever i have available to me, feel comfortable using and, ultimately, need, to get the result of the final thing. it’s not an exact science, and it’s not the same for every video.

now go outside and play.

i really like drawing portraits from photographs…but i never manage to get them right. i either squash the face up too much or stretch it out and make them look diseased or malnourished.
i’m thinking of maybe collecting these pictures together and doing a book called portraits of people that don’t quite look like the people.

so i wanted to do it again.
this time i was looking back and trying to think of some the people who, i guess in a way, i’ve wanted to be (or at least partially be) throughout my life. and, because this was the focus, i ended up not so much making an influence map as an influence face..

as with before…points awarded to anyone who can correctly guess any of these influences (include a grid reference with your answers please. use an HB pencil only). anyone who can name them ALL correctly will win the title of SUPER KING/QUEEN forever!

i’ve been properly thinking about the future recently…i think it’s going to be okay.