Earlier this year I was commissioned to come up with a series of character illustrations for Cohort Pictures new film project; ‘The Northern Mist‘, a suspense horror set during the Roman occupation of Briton. The illustrations would be used to help the rest of the creative team cast the roles for the film, aid in costume design and provide a bit of promotional material to drum up interest from investors and audiences. It was a great chance to really flex my creative muscles and get into some good ol’fashioned doodling. My favourite piece to come out of this one was what I nicknamed the Lady Briton sketch, so I decided to run a quick step by step tutorial for anyone interested in how I took this illustration through from brief to final concept.

The Brief

So the brief for this character went something like this (and this is me paraphrasing pretty extensively)-

“she’s a feisty female Briton, easily equal to her male counterparts, she get’s captured early on in the film so it’s important to try and get her fighting spirit across in the design as much as possible. Also- she is the only female in a movie full of dudes, so she really needs to not be a troll.”

After a bit of pleading, Patrick (the director working on the film) also sent me through this rough sketch he’d put together. It makes such a difference getting some rough input from a client as it means I have a starting point- even the crudest stick man helps me to get a result closer to what they originally envisioned. Anyway – from this, I gathered she needed to be in pretty light armour, probably leather or cloth and covered in dirt. Nice.

The Concept

The next step is getting a rough sketch together. My initial sketches are always pretty awful (I think I drew this one whilst on a bus in Spain?), but the point of them is very much like the concept Patrick sent me: to quickly get an idea across. If you spend any massive length of time on them, then (if you’re like me) you’ll resent any changes that need to be made, at the end of the day: time is money after all. In this version, Patrick could see I’d gone for a cloth wrap that showed off more skin in a way that wasn’t too obviously sexual, and made the hair very loose, long and straggly. I also gave her two swords, but Patrick felt that a crude sword and shield might work better, so we went with that.

The developed sketch turned out like this. I tried to stay aware that whilst this character needed to be feral and wild, she also had to be quite attractive in her own way. To keep that appeal in there, I pretty much sketched her naked outline and started adding clothes after so as to keep that core feminine silhouette to the design.

Inking

Once that got approved I moved onto inking- I ink right on top of my pencils, but I always make sure to have a scanned copy at a decent resolution just in case I slip up. A lot of top inkers recommend brushes to help you get a good line weight into your artwork, this can make your drawings a lot more dynamic and it really helps to give a sense of depth. Originally I just used digital inking via my Wacom tablet, but at my first comic con in Boston, a few editors from DC comics tore my portfolio apart, saying I had great talent but I really needed to use brushes to ink my work. Since then I’ve tried my best to use brushes, but as with all things it’s easier said than done and I ended up ruining a few sketches with spilt ink pots and the like. Now I’ve found a happy medium in the Pentel Brush Pen- which is what it sounds like; a pen with a brush nib. I think it’s designed for Chinese calligraphy or something, but to my mind, there is no better pen out there for inking your artworks (at least for the major lines anyway).

So now my inks are nailed down, it’s time to erase the pencil underneath and get the inks scanned into Photoshop. I use the Levels Tool (Ctrl+L) to try and clean up my image a bit and get rid of any paper grain. Basically I just move the black and white cursors a little closer to the centre until I’m happy with the definition I’m getting. It’s useful to zoom right in here to make sure I don’t have any pencil trails still knocking about. A trick I sometimes also do (but not for this piece) is run my linework through a Live Trace in Illustrator, then just save it as a PDF and open it back up in Photoshop. This can really help smooth out my lines and can make a huge difference if I’m going for that ultra polished look.

Colours

For colour I generally duplicate my line layer and set the top one to multiply. For the lower level I go to Select > Colour Range and choose black to select all the lines. Then Select > Modify > Contract and contract by one pixel. Now I invert the selection and delete. This means that the lower layer (which will become my colour layer) has slightly thinner lines than my top layer. This way I can just use the paint bucket tool on my lower level to quickly fill the areas I need with colour. The downside of this is that the lines on the lower layer are now very jagged, but fear not- that top layer is still perfect and will keep the ultra smooth lines. Smart.

Shading wise I do love my gradient tool, but I’m trying to broaden my horizons and so, with that in mind, for this piece I decided to use Copic Markers. Now I’m no pro with these things yet, but I’ve seen some amazing artwork from guys like Adam Hughes and Mahmud Asrar, so I figure it’s well worth my time getting to know them. They’re basically watercolours in a pen minus the mess (are you seeing a pattern here?). Seeing as I wanted this piece to be really gritty, I figured it didn’t matter too much if I wasn’t perfect yet as it’d probably add to the effect I was trying to achieve anyway.

So here’s how I work- I go back to my inks in Photoshop and place a ‘screen’ layer over them and fill it with Non Photo Blue (#A4DDED – thank me later), this changes all my inks to a special type of blue that is really tough for scanners to pick up (meaning the lines won’t show up as much when I scan it back in and I’ll just have my sexy Copic shading). I print this out and then start going over it with the Copics. I only use grey as I already have my basic colours in Photoshop. Copics have two types of grey- warm and cool. Warm is generally for skin and ‘warm’ things, and cool for clothes and ‘cool’ things (duh!), however, for this character I really wanted to make her as pale and cold as us Brits really are and so I swapped them over, using cool greys for the skin and warm greys for the clothes. This contrasts well with the olive skinned Romans I illustrated later.

So the technique I use is just to start with my lightest colour and keep adding until I’m happy. I apply each colour a few times to get really slight gradient differences and then switch up a pen for more defined shadow and light sections. Another cool tip is don’t worry about going outside the lines- we have our perfect inks saved on Photoshop now, so if needs be we can always use that as a mask to clean things up.

Some other gadgets I have are these Sepia pens. Again, these come in warm and cool greys. They’re not quite as washy as the copics but they have a much finer nib and are great for detail.

I use these for any sections that need real precise details like on the leather strips or strongly defined shadow. They’re great for hair as well.

Finally I have a couple of white ink pens for highlighting any areas. Generally I like to do this digitally as these inks can run a bit, but sometimes it can be helpful to get the whites in whilst I’m ‘in the zone’ and am pretty familiar with the illustration and lighting etc…

Now for the fun part; get the Copics scanned in and throw them into Photoshop.

I grey-scale them up with Ctrl+Shift+U to get rid of any colours that have shown up (or not if I like the effect, I call it as I see it depending on the illustration).

I put this layer above my colour layer (but below my smooth ink layer) and set it to multiply. What I’m left with is my digital colour mixed perfectly with my Copic shading. Sweet.

Finishing Touches

Now is the time to take a good look over the illustration. I often notice some bits I want to be darker or lighter. Not to worry though, I just hide the Copic layer and start editing my original colour layer. I wanted the eyes much darker and I think I wanted the clothes to cast more of a shadow too, so all I did was highlight those sections and darkened them with either the Lightness Bar on the Hue/Saturation Panel (Ctrl+U), or with the Gradient tool set to black.

Likewise I wanted to brighten up a few sections, like on the sword, so I did the same thing but with white. When I’m creating a glow or a shine, I make sure to do it on a new level above my smooth inks, stuff like this really helps blend a work of art and brings a piece together.

I know what you’re thinking- “this chick is way too clean, where’s all the mud we were promised?”. I know, and I’m way ahead of you. I have this great texture in stock from the Go Media Arsenal Grime Set 2 pack, I think it’s actually concrete, but it works really well for adding a natural, dirty looking texture to things. Normally when I’m working with textures I like to desaturate them so they taken on the colours of whatever layers I apply them to, but in this case I thought the bluey grey colour worked pretty well (having flashbacks to Braveheart!) so I decided to keep it as is.

To apply the mud effect I simply throw it on above the colour layer, delete any part that isn’t over the skin and set the layer to multiply- this ensures that all the dark bits of the texture stay dark whilst the light bits show through the skin colour underneath. After that it’s just a case of playing with the opacity to get the muddiness to a level I’m happy with, I think I opted for around 50% opacity in this piece. Another cool trick I do here to add a bit of depth and volume is to select the erase tool and a really soft brush with a low opacity and just go to work erasing bits of the mud texture on the parts of the skin that would be either naturally lighter or catch the light (since the mud layer is set to multiply, and only the dark bits are showing through, erasing them will make that area lighter). In this case I erased around the shoulder and hips, as well as on the top of the thigh to make those areas seem a bit more rounded and curved.

Now the brief asked for a character illustration and didn’t really mention anything about backgrounds, but I work to the Bill Beachy mantra of “under promise and over deliver” so whilst not going overboard I am going to try and produce a background that’ll help set the tone for this illustration. The basis for the background is very simple. Another texture from Go Media’s Arsenal, this time from the Rust 3 set with a blue tint and a black gradient coming in from above. I’ve also included just the hint of a pattern from the tribal vector pack in order to make that background a bit more dynamic. Also since the illustration is for a movie called ‘The Northern Mist’ I figured it’s probably a safe bet to put some mist in there too. This is basically created on a layer above the background (but behind the character) by using some of the sexy Smoke and Cloud textures from the Arsenal. I use a few of these mixed together and set the layers to ‘screen’ (removing any blacks from the texture and just showing the white misty goodness), this gives a sense of volume to the mist in a very authentic (and quick!) way.

To add a bit of depth and to create a foreground, I duplicated the mist layer and moved it above the character illustration to give the appearance that my Lady Briton was stood amongst the mist rather than in-front of it. I also added a bit of light in the top left corner to help show off a bit of light direction and some cheeky dust particles to make the light look a bit more dynamic and to add extra depth. One last cool little trick I did here was to put all the character layers in a group (Ctrl+G) and then apply a gradient mask to that group from the ground up, effectively fading out her feet. The result of which made her look as though her feet were disappearing into the mist, but still allowed me to keep the mist fairly fine.

So there it is, my finished Lady Briton illustration. Patrick and the guys from Cohort Pictures were really thrilled with how this, and the other illustrations turned out. In fact, they even hired me again right away to produce a short comic book in lieu of the traditional storyboards, so that they could use it as a marketing tool for the film!

The post Some Like it Dirty: Comic Book Inking and Coloring Tutorial appeared first on GoMediaZine.

I was contacted by the folks at Moo Cards and they want to graciously offer 100 free MiniCards to ALL our GoMediaZine readers until August 31st. Your own custom design on these cute mini business cards. For free! You just have to pay for shipping.

We actually got some MiniCards printed for WMC Fest for some tote bag inserts and a “coupon” for a WMC Coffee Drink at the local cafe. They came out awesome and had this nice smooth finish. And it came in a little box, so it made it feel a bit more substantial.

Show us what you got

So instead of just making this a post about getting free cards, I want to see what kind of cards you guys make with it. So if you order these cards from Moo, go ahead and snap a photo and post it in the comments. There’s no prize for the best design or anything, I just want to see some creative ideas.

Get your free MiniCards!

Here are some photos of the ones we got:

The post Get 100 Free MiniCards from Moo appeared first on GoMediaZine.

Works great on any single color logo, emblem, mark, seal, crest.

Because of the great response to my Aged Type action, I took it a bit further and made a similar effect that could be applied, not only to text, but to your logo to give it an authentic stamp or print effect. I have seen various rubber stamp effects on google and none are all that great. So let me show you why mine is the bees knees.

This is a premium Photoshop action that took some time to perfect. So we’re selling it for the cheap price of $1.99.  Credit Cards and Paypal accepted.

Download Now – $1.99

Instructions

1. After downloading the action, simply open up the .ATN file and it will automatically load it into your Photoshop Actions panel ready for use! For best results start with a black and white image that’s at least 800-1,000 pixels wide.
2. In Photoshop, select the layer you want to turn into a stamp and press PLAY on the “Stamp/Print by Go Media” action. It will apply the effect!

Here are some tips:

• Works best on images at least 800 px wide
• Works on any logo, text, or even photos!
• Can also be used as a faux screenprint or letterpress effect
• Final result is on its own layer.
• Settings are completely customizable, tweak to your heart’s content

Examples:

Result is on its own layer

Even works on photos!

For best results, you might have to adjust the contrast of your source image. And again, the settings are fully adjustable inside the action so you can tweak it to your hearts content!

Download Now – $1.99

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Hello there!

It looks like the day will be bright and clear here in Northern Indiana. But I’m not here to write about the weather.

Vector pack 20 is out!

Go Media released its 20th vector pack a little while ago. We even published a case study by Philip Hepler of 316 Graphics about how he created the Hot Rod elements that are included in the set.

But we realized we forgot to do something: release a sampler of the pack. I mean, how can you get an idea of what’s in the box without it?

What’s inside the complete set

The complete set includes 136 high quality and detailed vector pieces. The packs composing the set are Hot Rod Monsters, Guilloche, Victorian Ornaments, Outer Space, Wood Grain, Candy Skulls, and Grunge Borders. Down below are previews:

The sampler

In order to let you guys play a bit with elements from the complete set, Adam put a sampler together for me to share with you today. It features one element of each of the packs that are part of the set.

You can use these in all projects, personal and commercial. However, don’t sell them claiming you created them, or else. Remember the guys in black costume with the big dogs.

After that fair warning: here’s the content of the sampler:

We can’t wait to see what you guys do with these. Don’t hesitate to share your creations in the Flickr pool (tag them something like “Go Media Arsenal vector pack 20 sampler” maybe?). I think we could share the best ones here. The big ol’ download button is down below.

The post Free Vector Set 20 Sampler Download appeared first on GoMediaZine.

Go!

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Scriptographer is a pretty amazing plugin available for Adobe Illustrator. It basically frees the user (at least those familiar with JavaScript) from relying on a third-party developer to create the plugin or script that you have in mind, by allowing you to create it yourself.

I’m going to start off by saying that I don’t know the first thing about JavaScript, but I know a lot of our readers straddle the web coding and design fence, so this might be of huge interest for you. Me, not so much. I’m much more of an end user — but Scriptographer has something to offer for us non-coders as well. More on that later.

Let’s start off with some videos created by the Scriptographer team showing the plugin and scripts in action. Below are two videos, the first demonstrating some basic mouse-based tools, the second some effects on placed raster images:

Of course the real power here is the ability to roll your own scripts, and the Scriptographer team has you covered with some seriously in-depth tutorials helping you get started.

For those of us not familiar with JavaScript, there are plenty of sample scripts uploaded by users which are available to download on the site. Below are just a few samples of the kinds of effects you can generate using Scriptographer:

Some fancy, some functional, regardless I think you’d agree these would be an excellent addition to your design arsenal.

There are plenty more where this came from, so be sure to set some time aside to browse the Scriptographer scripts. And any of your coders out there, take a peek at the creation tools and let us know what you think. If you create any of your own, we’d love to hear about it. If we get any Scriptographer scripts created by our readers, we’ll feature them in an upcoming post.

Go!

The post Scriptographer appeared first on GoMediaZine.

Hot on the heels of the Adobe HTML5 Pack, here’s a handy new Adobe Illustrator plug-in from Microsoft’s MIX Online web developer resource site that will export vector and bitmap artwork directly to an HTML5 canvas element that can be rendered in a canvas-enabled browser.

The Ai->Canvas plug-in enables Adobe Illustrator to export vector and bitmap artwork directly to an HTML5 canvas element using JavaScript drawing commands. Animation can be added to control rotation, scaling, opacity, and motion along a path. Then, events can be used to trigger other animations. Finally, the exported HTML and JavaScript can be extended and used in your own applications running on the latest versions of Internet Explorer 9, Firefox 3.6, Chrome 6, Safari 5, and Opera 10.

Ai->Canvas supports rotation, scaling, fading, and movement along a path. For more advanced users, add triggers that start one animation when another animation completes.

The purpose of Ai->Canvas is to accelerate your HTML5 canvas development. The HTML and JavaScript that it exports is meant to be copied into your own application and extended.

The post Ai to Canvas HTML5 Plug-in appeared first on GoMediaZine.

Paper is dimensional, and if it is to fold into itself to form a brochure, the panels that fold in must be slightly smaller to accommodate for the thickness of the sheet, and for subtle process variation in the mechanical folding process. This mathematical adjustment is called folding compensation.

The overwhelming majority of client-provided files do not account for this critical adjustment, which almost ensures dissatisfaction with the end product (or extra charges for fixing the file). FOLDRite provides precise, mathematically adjusted folding templates through an easy software tool for a seamless, automated and repeatable process. In doing this, we are able to solve the longstanding problem of improper file setup for folded materials by removing the “human element” from the file-setup process. Automated template creation also saves time and reduces paper waste.

Features:

• Fast, accurate custom template creation

• Industry-approved folding styles and algorithms

• Eliminates the need for manually calculating folded template sizes—no more math.

• Significantly reduces production time and errors associated with creation, proofing, and correction of templates.

• Eliminates costs associated with creating or repairing file manually

• Fosters better communication between printers and designers

A single license will set you back $99, which seems reasonable if you do a lot of projects with folds. Mac & PC versions available, however it seems the plugin is only compatible up to CS4. A demo is available, and there are also some informative videos on their website. Note that the demo is not the full-featured plugin — however you can request a time-limited demo of the full-featured version.

— via Adobe guru Rufus Deuchler on Twitter

The post FoldRite Template Master plugin for Adobe InDesign appeared first on GoMediaZine.

Layer Lifter is a simple, free Adobe InDesign plug-in from Rorohiko that offers an alternative method to using the layers palette for moving objects between layers.

Using it couldn’t simpler: first select one or more objects on a spread, and then right-click (Win) or control-click (Mac), and pick a destination layer from the LayerLifter context menu.

The post Layer Lifter for InDesign appeared first on GoMediaZine.

Here’s how to win:

This giveaway has ended. Thanks for playing!
Look through the packs that are included with Vector Set 16. Pick your favorite. Then, tweet about why you want the pack!

Note: This only works for packs, people, so be specific. Packs are $9.99. Tweeting that you want the whole set for free results in instant dequalification. :-)

Requirements:

1. 1. Must tweet @go_media
2. 2. Must include link to the product you want

Example entry:

The best part? Everybody wins. Yep, this is the Go Media’s Arsenal version of a busting open a Pinata. Everybody wins. We’ll be keeping an eye on all of the tweets sent to @go_media and sending out prizes all day long. If you’d like to speed up the process, follow adam_wagner or go_media – because we need to direct message your download instructions.

Alright players. Do your best. May all of you win!

Note: The Vector Pack 16 Twitter Promotion is officially finished on Thursday October 29th 12:00pm (noon) EST.

The post Want a free Pack of Premium Vectors? Just Ask! appeared first on GoMediaZine.