sorry for lag in process- but now I try to draw initial shadow shapes- I got this process from Matt Khor's  rendering tutorial- using masking layers created by shapes in the flatting process- I try to identify how shadow will work with the different areas- this is the side i need to keep working and discovering- I put the light source behind the character and above- so shadows are in lower right of forms...

quik sketch- flats away

okay I am going step by step with this piece for instruction for me and others.. Once the line work is done even roughly we can go to the flat color stage... the point of this stage is to define certain color areas for further rendering- or least that's my story- with some pieces- this may be the next to the last step- if cel shading is appropriate- for a more gradient shading- more steps are needed- so I have colored misty's suit, hair and skin-tone at the flats stage- from here I can go one of several directions-

quiky sketch- WIP

I wanted to do a color piece so I mocked up this sketch- hopefully the next few posts will step through this piece of  a fan piece of Misty Knight-this prelim sketch was done in sketchbook pro- I usually sketch loose on first layer- reduce opacity on layer and then create  finer details on next layer up. I will do this several times till I get defined usable clean line... my next step will be to bring image into photoshop- stay tuned

taking a break- penciling

just taking a small break between two different comic projects- I am extremely behind - but am getting better at penciling digitally- so wanted to get image out using photoshop with a brush with scatter and shape dynamics- at opacity of 35 and flow of 35 to simulate a pencil stroke- so here is a stylized version on superman... I was trying to channel jack kirby but looks closer to  Jon Bogdanove

just a little love for the family

my sister asked me to send her an image that she could use for her avatar on her intranet job communication site- where they post messages for projects and conference online- so I made this cartoon image to represent her- I was going to create in in Blender as a more rendered cg character bust- I sent this image to her for an approval stage- so i could start on a Blender project- she was so pleased with this prelim done in Flash that I just gave this to her to use.  She even came back and stated maybe I could do a bunch of them and market them to businesses- don't know if that is feasible- but always open to new opportunities.... maybe will do research- anyway here is the image- ciao

practice focus

sorry have not been posting due to me doing some projects that could help fill out my pockets- or at least for a month or so- but I am now in the realization if  I eventually want to do story boards I need to focus on 3 things- posing and staging- #1,  light and shadow-#2 and line quality #3 and on both board and in computer... If i narrow my focus on making a strong composition and staging characters for story advancement and drama building and motivation- that will help my work stand out.... and 2nd if i deal with lighting in even the most limited sense- i will get a depth of field to the composition and last but not least- practice on creating clean line will add that  extra polish i need.... so I will be posting several images getting my self ready to upgrade my portfolio.... so here is a test using a cartoony head style and cel shading-- as can bee seen- I got a lot of work cut out for me

peace

playing again with anime studio pro

After and between a few assignments I wanted to start playing again with anime studio pro and blender to get ready for  new FX Mulrooney projects that are outstanding... So I wanted to try to test myself on recreating appealing characters with in anime studio pro... at one point I though with the new flash that creating vector characters for anime studio was now impossible since they don't have a ESF file format export any more. But found out there is .fxg format that can be brought into illustrator and converted to illustrator 8 format or eps format with illustrator 8 set up that can then be imported into anime studio pro and lots of clean up if necessary.... Since anime studio pro has its own image forming tools I wanted to test my self on... the trick is actually layers for further animation with out clutter- I can either take photoshop image into program and create layered vector art in the program or create layered art in illustrator or need create images in flash and save out layered features as different symbols and then import via illustrator- so either way a lot of pre-planning has to be done to create a animatable form for anime studio pro- so on the left is the image created in anime studio pro in many layers- top right is photoshop jpg taken from flash render- and bottom right is flash rendered object on one layer... whew