1/03/2005
Let's start the new year right. No bitching or moaning until the end of the week, I promise.
Here's the latest rendition of Nosecone Johnson:
Nosecone the Second
I cannot believe how much I've learned about PhotoShop in a year's time. Subtlties in shading, fitlers and textures, altering layers. It's almost like I know what I'm doing. Even the flag was done primarily in PhotoShop:
I drew one half of the rocket. That's it. Major cheat. I copied, flipped, and colored it, pasted it over a rectangle, added in the planet and then mucked with the entire image with a twirl filter to get that great wave.
When I first started, I went for a simpler coloring, wanting to remain true to my cartooning. But after playing for a while, I realized I could get a bit more realistic without detracting. That's why I went with a stronger background, using that star in the lower left for my lightsource. That helmet was a bugger, though. I had to make the layer light enough to allow his head to show through, but dark enough to look like glass. The shadows on the head were even worse; removing the "helmet" makes him look like he got squished by a semi since I had to make the gradients so dark to even be noticed. I was quite pleased with the reflections, though; a nice but simple effect, giving that helmet some needed volume.
This time I didn't bother with a white outline (I call it an "aura") around the figure. I thought the color difference between the figure and background was strong enough to skip that step.
Story's coming along slowly. These damn holidays really threw me off, but hopefully I can catch up a bit over the next week. And then it's on to my next project: finishing the damn micro-comic that I started last year. I'm feeling generous; I think I'll post the color version of the cover next.
Doc "Shortcuts Galore" Absurd
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