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Post by stevelortz on Jan 5, 2009 18:47:41 GMT -9
I've been pretty busy this past week. I had to work extra shifts in the bookstore as we wind down our holiday retail activities, and tonight I had my first class at Anderson University. I am now a full time student working toward a bachelors degree in organizational leadership. After that, I'm going to go for teaching accreditation. But I DID get one sketch done: I scanned it in at 300dpi and saved it as a TIFF, but apparently photobucket doesn't recognize TIFFs, so I copied it as a gif and reduced its size by 33%, in order to post something here approximating the original. I took the sketch to CorelDraw and then printed out a copy at 200% to take to the lightbox. I haven't yet been able to do much more than that. I drew some eyelines of my own at 25mm because that's what seems to be the norm for dwarves and goblins in this community. I drew the sketch using one of my metal copies as a model. More as I continue to explore this wonderful medium! Have fun! Steve
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Post by Slick on Jan 5, 2009 19:26:17 GMT -9
Great work can't wait to see it come together. I used the same 25mm template for my dwarfs. It's smaller then the other models but you can still get loads of detail in there.
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Post by onemonkeybeau on Jan 5, 2009 22:24:02 GMT -9
Awesome!
I look forward to seeing what you are going to create!
The possibilities are endless!
onemonkeybeau
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Post by WaffleM on Jan 6, 2009 4:18:47 GMT -9
Great looking sketch! That's a sharp looking character. What kind of color scheme are you planning?
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Post by squirmydad on Jan 6, 2009 6:40:18 GMT -9
I really like your style. I hope to keep prodding you to make more and more. Once you have all your time commitments out of the way, then you can really start producing more! JIM
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Post by squirmydad on Jan 15, 2009 10:14:44 GMT -9
Here I am, poking you with a stick to get this figure done.... poke, poke, poke. ;D
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Post by stevelortz on Jan 15, 2009 15:09:14 GMT -9
Here I am, poking you with a stick to get this figure done.... poke, poke, poke. ;D Poke well taken! I will try to get this done for the January HOARD. I started taking classes this week. One of them is a remedial English class. When I was originally a freshman back in 1967, I wasn't required to take English since my high school grades were so good. I took a humanties course instead. But here I am, 40 years later with no record of ever having taken English! So I'm in a remedial class after having taught Writing to 7th graders two years in a row, and having a work in print ( Quactica by Skirmisher Publications). Well, hopefully that class will be enough of a breeze for me to finish doing my reseach (on how to get CorelDraw to work) and to complete the first Bogey. Have fun! Steve
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Post by stevelortz on Jan 16, 2009 4:11:36 GMT -9
Well, here's my first shot at the Bogey. I finally figured out to do it in GIMP rather than CorelDraw. Now I have to refine it by cleaning up the line work and beginning to grade the color fields. I would appreciate any tips anyone cares to give. Thanks! Steve
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Post by godofrandomness on Jan 16, 2009 7:12:55 GMT -9
It looks very nice.
My only reccomendation would be to lower the pupils a little biut, as it looks like he's currently staring out into space.
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Post by squirmydad on Jan 16, 2009 7:12:56 GMT -9
At first glance, I think you need to find the "feather" fill function. This will fill in the faint white halo effect you get on your figures. You may have to figure this out for yourself, as I am not fluent in GIMP.
I imagine you do the shading and highlighting with brush tool?
I would totally recommend that you pick up a software package that has an instruction manual. I only really learned by having that manual in fron of me all the time. You will never learn if you have to ask what to do at each step from us.
I recommend the Corel draw suite. If you can find an older version on ebay, go that rout, look for the set that includes all of the features, paint, draw, page layout. This will give you everything you need to do this stuff. Just make sure you get a set that includes all of the printed manuals, or it will take you years to learn this stuff. It may still take you at least a year and 100 figures before you master the software. JIM
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Post by stevelortz on Jan 16, 2009 15:35:26 GMT -9
My only reccomendation would be to lower the pupils a little biut, as it looks like he's currently staring out into space. He IS staring out into space! He's a BOGEY!?! Have fun! Steve
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Post by stevelortz on Jan 16, 2009 15:40:55 GMT -9
Thanks, Jim. I've stumbled onto some personally agreeable features of GIMP that will allow me to work the way I want to while learning more of the ins and outs. My aversion to manuals goes back a long way, to when I was learning to program in BASIC and FORTRAN.
Have fun! Steve
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Post by stevelortz on Jan 21, 2009 14:59:59 GMT -9
I would totally recommend that you pick up a software package that has an instruction manual. I only really learned by having that manual in fron of me all the time. You will never learn if you have to ask what to do at each step from us... Just make sure you get a set that includes all of the printed manuals, or it will take you years to learn this stuff. It may still take you at least a year and 100 figures before you master the software. JIM Well, Jim, you're succeeding in dragging me kicking and screaming into the 21st century! I've settled on learning GIMP. CorelDraw has sooOOOooo many bells and whistles, trying to use it is counter-productive. My commercial artist friend who has been using it for over a decade still only knows and uses parts of it. Today I looked at the GIMP website to see what books are available. "Beginning GIMP" looked the most suitable, so I called the Waldenbooks where I work to see if the latest edition is available. It is, but even with my employee discount, it would still be more money than I can part with at the moment. I went to the library and found a copy of an earlier edition, which I checked out. Now I'm sitting here with manual in hand. All I need to do is crank out a few hundred figures! Thank you very much!!! Steve
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Post by onemonkeybeau on Jan 21, 2009 18:47:36 GMT -9
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Post by moloch on Jan 21, 2009 19:25:04 GMT -9
This tip should work if you have a paint program that works with layers.
Another way you can do it is by using the selection tool select the white space inside the drawing. Grow the selection by 2-3 pixel and fill.
Duplicate the outline then select by color all the white space and delete. Place that laying on top of all the color layer.
If its not quite black. select the empty space and invert selection. This should have the effect of selecting the line figure, then fill in with black.
I personally use GIMP.
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Post by tonsha on Jan 22, 2009 3:02:34 GMT -9
If you are looking for online manuals, Grokking the GIMP is a good one: gimp-savvy.com/BOOK/It is for an older version, but most of it is relevant, and it leads you nicely through the interface. There is also the official GIMP manual online: docs.gimp.org/en/DaveA
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Post by squirmydad on Jan 22, 2009 6:11:25 GMT -9
Awesome. The real trick to getting good is ton's of practice. Figure out how you want something to look, then learn how to use the software to do it.
Don't try to learn every feature of the software, just learn what you need. This is how I have done it, but of coarse we all have different ways of learning.
I do think once you clear this hurdle, you'll find it much more rewarding to create the figure designs. JIM
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Post by stevelortz on Feb 27, 2009 18:47:55 GMT -9
After a number of weeks of very frustrating attempts to decypher GIMP from a manual, I threw in the towel, broke out the light box, some pens and some watercolor pencils and did this the old fashioned way: i355.photobucket.com/albums/r466/Steve_Lortz/SRBogeyI.jpgI'm gonna go spend some quality time hanging out with the wife now! Have fun! Steve
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Post by stevelortz on Feb 27, 2009 18:55:16 GMT -9
Well, I don't know what I did wrong, but in the process of moving the image here, it has turned into a GIANT!!! How do I fix this?
Have fun! Steve
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Post by squirmydad on Feb 28, 2009 18:18:22 GMT -9
Giant is fine. It improves the image quality when you shrink it.
Sorry to read about your GIMP experience. Thats one thing about any software is the time it takes to get good at at it. Yu would probably be happier with a painting program that uses a traditional take on tools and such, like Painter. Although you would still have to figure out all the scaling, resolutions and exporting junk.
And there is nothing wrong with traditional art that is scanned and posted. The end result is what's important, and doing the art the most enjoyable way possible. JIM
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Post by Aestelon on Feb 28, 2009 19:06:25 GMT -9
Agreed; getting to know a new program can be the biggest stumbling block. I must admit, I've had a lot of trouble getting to know GIMP, although since discovering some of the handy fuctions it's capable of, I've made more of an effort, and I'm starting to get used to it. However, I'd recommend Artweaver again if you're having trouble with that, as it's got a much more familiar user interface, and is pretty simple to use while having plenty of editing power. And as all the best programs are, it's freeware, so there's not really anything to lose in giving it a crack. Having said that, I think you've done a pretty bang-up job on the hand-coloured bogey...
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Post by stevelortz on Feb 28, 2009 21:18:54 GMT -9
Thanks, Jim and Aestelon. I'm relieved to find out that my bogey's giantism isn't a fatal flaw, but it's still kind of frustrating to do the thing by hand, and it STILL doesn't come through the way I'd like for it to. When I clicked on the link and printed the results, the bogey took up an ENTIRE page of cardstock. Not exactly the scale I had in mind.
I don't think my problem is a result of just one program. It's more of a global thing; "...all the scaling, resolutions and exporting junk" you mention in your post, Jim. It seems that no single software can do all the things that need to be done. You pups who've been immersed in this stuff through your formative years know what's available, and how to navigate. As my wife would say, I'm trying to count black cats in a dark room.
I DID do manual pagination, keylining and paste-up for publication back in the days of T-squares and waxers. My mind reflexively goes to a different place than your minds do.
Thanks again. We'll get back to this later.
Have fun! Steve
P.S. - You like the thick outlines around the front and back? I did those free-hand! Hah! and double Hah! ;D ;D ;D
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Post by squirmydad on Mar 1, 2009 13:16:34 GMT -9
Do you want me to add this figure to the Feb HOARD? I can easily use it as is, actually it's better at this size, it will be higher res once I shrink it. JIM
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Post by stevelortz on Mar 1, 2009 16:34:46 GMT -9
Do you want me to add this figure to the Feb HOARD? I can easily use it as is, actually it's better at this size, it will be higher res once I shrink it. JIM Sure! But since you're going to shrink it down, I'd like it shrunk down a little more than I originally thought it needed. When I sketched it, I drew a 25mm eyeline for it, but it still looks too big because it's so bulky. I think it looks better with a 20mm eyeline. If you could do it that way, I'd appreciate it. I would also mount it on a 20mm base. Thank you so much, Jim! You are the master of this medium! Have fun! Steve
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Post by squirmydad on Mar 1, 2009 17:32:12 GMT -9
No problem, 20mm to the eye. I'll add it to the HOARD. Thanks. JIM
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