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Post by ken on Oct 30, 2010 9:38:07 GMT -9
I've started working on my orcs and I have all the fronts designed and the backs for a few of them. I'm wanting to do some test colors for them, and I've inked one both front and back. I scanned it at 600 dpi and scaled it to the right size and saved it as an uncompressed .tif file.
What now?
I've tried following Jim's tutorial, but its better at showing the process than the actual steps.
I have Inkscape, Gimp, and Photoshop CS2. I know next to nothing about Inkscape and Gimp, I'm alright with Photoshop.
Thanks in advance for any help. Ken
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Post by Sirrob01 on Oct 30, 2010 13:01:45 GMT -9
There is a few ways to proceed Open gimp\photoshop and load your scanned image. clean up your scan using the pencil and erase tool: remove any unwanted dots and close any unjoined lines. save the file open inkscape and goto file>>import select your cleaned page select your imported image and go path>>trace bitmap Path>>breakapart Mess around scaling the objects backup and reshaping them that should give you reasonable shapes/geometry to then colour This retains the I've been drawn look or Import the file straight to inkscape, use the Beizer pen to manual draw around each discrete shape. Soon you have a nice bundle of shapes you can colour/shade This gives the mini a very clean clipart look or Open the file straight in Gimp/photoshop, Clean up the artwork so it's nice and clean. Colour directly in Gimp/photoshop using the gradient tool/paintbrush/bucket fill tools. More a digital artwork look or Colour them by hand using paints/pencils/texta's and then scan them, and perform some minor post processing to bring the colours backup to were you'd like. Retains the manual artwork look of the mini's completely. Each of the above methods have their own advantages and disadvantages and you can combine different methods to get different effects. It really depends on what your comfortable with, nothing worse than trying to learn 3 new software packages all at the same time Happy to answer any Q just let us know what method your aiming for
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Post by ken on Nov 1, 2010 22:39:55 GMT -9
Thank you. The "import" part of Inkscape was tripping me up. It only took me all of my weekend but I think I got a system figured out that works for me.
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Post by tonsha on Nov 1, 2010 23:30:29 GMT -9
WOW! Great job Ken! That is a very nice figure! Nice style and colours, and a great pose. Keep up the good work - I'm sure you'll find these popular with the crowd here. With regards to figure designs and process, it really is a matter of taste. Most people like to draw the whole figure - both front and back. This works well for individual characters. But for 'troops' you may find it quicker to design a set of parts - a body, 2 or 3 sets of legs, 2 or three heads - which can be put together to provide a variety of poses for the rank and file. Bear in mind that all of these pieces can be 'flipped' horizontally, so 3 types of legs automatically becomes 6. Whatever you do - Have FUN!! DaveA
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Post by Sirrob01 on Nov 2, 2010 0:17:28 GMT -9
That is a great mini . love the style and the look. They are going to look great at 30 or 15mm. About the only comment I have is that the chainmail will basically print all grey, the ring contrast is a bit to low I'm looking forward to these
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Post by labrat on Nov 2, 2010 1:49:50 GMT -9
That's looking really good. Maybe we could call you little Jim. Your style is very close to his. I think he would be proud. Keep those orcs coming. We need lots of em'.
Since you are comfortable in photoshop I could offer some direction for how you might go about coloring them there if that's something you would be interested in trying. I do start the process a bit differently, so there would be some differences in how I go about it and how you might do it from where you are at in the process, but we could figure it out.
Keep up the good work.
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Post by ken on Nov 2, 2010 9:50:12 GMT -9
Sirrobo1 - Thanks for the mini tutorial, It was a great help. The chainmail texture has given me fits. I used a noise filter and it didn't really do what I wanted. But at least you recognized it as chainmail. ;D
Tonsha- I'd like to do multi part figures, but I'm having trouble wrapping my head around how to go about it. I think it would make everything abit easier and produce more consistent results.
Labrat- Wow. Thank you. I really like Jims style and art, and wanted to mix my figures with his without them looking "off". I would really appreciate any tips, tricks, help, methods with photoshop. I'm most familliar with it but I know that the way I'm working could probably be streamlined and done better.
I'm hoping to have the full command stand done before the weekend.
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Post by labrat on Nov 3, 2010 6:54:51 GMT -9
Ok here it goes. This is my current process for doing minis in photoshop with a pentablet. I say current, because I change from time to time if I find something that works better for me.
First I draw my dude.
Scan it, open it in photoshop.
Create a new layer and name it 'Lines'.
Select the paintbrush, set it to 100% hardness, opacity, and flow. Set your brush size to the desired line thickness. This varies depending on how large your drawing was.
Do your black line inking using this.
Once you get it looking the way you want to, create a new layer, and name it 'Paint'. Move the paint layer so it it underneath your lines layer.
With the lines layer selected, and using the magic wand selector tool, select an area you want to color. Then on the menu bar go to select>modify>expand. Put in the a number of pixels about half as many as your black line thickness. this should have the whole area you want to color in selected, but it's not so good with the acute angle corners, so you need to use your lasso section tool. Make sure it is on the "add to selection" setting, and lasso in those pesky little corners.
Now select your paint layer, and use your paint bucket fill tool or your gradient tool to color in the selected area. There may also be little tight spots that didn't get filled in because they weren't selected which you can use your paintbrush tool to fill in. You can either shade it now, or wait until you have the whole thing in your base colors and then go back and select specific areas to do the shading.
It looks like you will mostly be doing the gradient fill method which is just fine. I like to use the paint brush to paint in the shading using the paintbrush tool, and modifying its settings to my taste. It's totally up to you. When you finish painting on your paint layer, you can merge the lines and paint layer or leave them separate. It depends on your finishing process.
That's my basic process. Let me know if you have any questions. I hope that is helpful in some way. As I have said on this forum many times I still have much to learn about designing my figures.
In case you haven't seen them yet, you can head over to sanitystudios.com to see my latest works. Good luck and keep them Orcses comin'! ;D
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