Thursday, June 09, 2005
Funny Cartoons - how we make 'em
Well, I get so many questions about how I create the visuals for a bifSniff cartoon thought I thought it important to explain it to him. Them.
There's no rocket science here or anything, it's just for the record as it were.
First off Bif emails me the text for the cartoon. In this case it was as follows:
Two guys - crucification scene - one's saying 'I spy with my little eye something...'
The caption reads "Since cards were out of the question, there really wasn't any other way to pass the time."
Usually I get a mental image from Bif's text straight away. Sometimes it takes a bit of thinking through, and sometimes the final image isn't really quite what I pictured first off, but in this case it was straightforward. I got an image straight away and the final cartoon was pretty true to that image.
The tools I use for the cartoon creation are:
I have set up a template in photoshop and a template in Flash. I do all the drawing in flash. My flash template is simply a movie with the stage set to roughly 2575px x 2730px. This large stage size allows me to export the final image as jpg and import into photoshop as a high res image.
My photoshop template is to handle the text as I wasn't happy with text exported from flash. So all captions are added in photoshop.
So the first step is to open up the Flash template and start sketching - I make sure that pressure sensitivity is turned on and use the brush tool to sketch. This gives a more hand-drawn look as the brush now responds to pressure giving varying line thickness.
Step 1
First I sketch a very rough idea of what I have in my mind.
Step 2
Then I create a new layer and begin to refine that rough sketch, adding more detail and fleshing out the idea. At this point you can see I begin to add the expressions on the faces too.
Step 3
Once I'm reasonably happy that I have the gist of the drawing right I can hide the original sketch to see where I am and refine further if necessary.
Step 4
Once I am completely happy with the refined sketch I start on what will be the actual drawing on yet another layer. Using the refined sketch as a guide I carefully trace what I have already, creating surer lines and more definition.
Step 5
The sketch layer can now also be turned off to show the final drawing. Which just needs to be coloured.
Step 6
Using the fill tool I add the basic colours. I always fill white for skin tones initially - you'll see why in the next step.
Step 7
Once the basic colours are in place, I create a copy of that layer - so I now have too identical layers with the drawing and base colours. On the top layer I add refinements to the colouring. On this layer I usually select an area and use the 'paint selected' option to paint shadows and highlights and other bits and bobs. Mostly I use colours at 30%-50% so that the original base colour shows through. I have found this gices a more subtle effect. For skin tone I use a pink or orangey tone at about 25%. Over the white of the base colour it creates a nice tone. Then I increase the percentage to about 50% for the shading.
Step 8
At this point it's just a case of seeing what's missing for the final image - in this case the sky, some shading on the hill and the speech bubble. For the speech bubble I add a guide layer and put in the text so I can tell how big it needs to be.
Step 9
Export from Flash as a jpg, lash it into the photoshop template add the words and voila - one BifSniff Cartoon completed. Oh and as you may have noticed I usually play with the colours a little once I'm in photoshop. Otherwise they'd be a little bit garish. Usually I desaturate a bit - sometimes that's enough sometimes more tinkering is needed.
10 Comments:
I AM SO OFFENDED BY YOUR CRUSIFICTION CARTOON! I'm sure that you know that Jesus did not die for fun, so the fact that you would be making fun of what he did is awful! He died so that we, as his beloved children could have eternal life with him if we so choose! I suggest you take this seriosly into consideration before you make another stupid cartoon.
Broken Hearted,
Anonymous
Dear anonymous,
Jesus does not feature in this cartoon. Nor is this cartoon in any way making light of what many people believe Jesus Christ achieved. This cartoon is not related to Jesus Christ in any way, except in the minds of those who equate crucifiction solely with Jesus Christ, which is unrealistic as God knows how many people were crucified by the Romans...
I am very sorry that you are feel upset by this cartoon, however for the reasons above I don't feel in any way responsible.
Though to be very honest with you, contrary to yourself I don't believe there are many 'sacred cows' that should be given immunity from humour and therefore I cannot promise that you will not ever be offended by our site. I can only hope that if you find yourself begining to be offended you think again and realise it is all done with the best of intentions - to give people a smile. Even if it is aimed at those with odd sense of humours. ;)
Thanks for your comments, I hope this has helped explain our (or at least my)position!
"Broken Hearted,
Anonymous" must really take 'their' Jesus and religion seriously, considering he/she can't even spell: "CRUSIFICTION"
I suppose they should take their spelling and punctuation seriously before they "make another stupid" comment ;-)
I consider myself a devoted follower and true believer of Jesus Christ. I just hope I don't mispel anything important.
Seriously, this cartoon is so inaccurate that it would take a determined stretch of the will to find it offensive. It looks to me as if it could represent the two thieves except they were bound and not nailed. If one were Jesue He would not only be wearing the scars of the crown of thornes but the "King of the Jews" slogan would be attatched to his cross.
Besides all that this cartoon doesn't insult or challenge Jesus' claim to deity. It actually appropriately pokes fun at a particular Roman practice of execution.
I have to believe the crown and title were intentionally left out because of the way this cartoon is otherwise so well thought out and exceptionaly crafted. Overall, I give it one chuckle at being more cute than funny.
dude, you said you didn't want to spell anything important wrong, i just thought it was right of me to tell you that you spelt something VERY important wrong.
i can't understand how you can be so boned up on what Jesus would have on His head (the crown of thorns) and the sign attached. Yet you are so damn lame in not even being able to spell the name of Christ.
The fact that one of the first things you said was you hope you don't spell anything wrong shows that you would have been concentrating on your spelling throughout your blog, yet you are still retarded enough to spell the most important reference in your entire piece.
You make me sick man, i just hope you are forgiven and spared eternal damnnation in Hell once you die.
Take care dude,
you may need to
Not sure who you're talking to, because you do seem a little confused, but thanks for the input. And you too man, you take care too. It's so nice of you to still hold out hope for us. Though I wouldn't waste too much time on it.
I am am very offended by your cartoon! I know you say that it has not got Jesus on it, but most people will associate this well know image of crosses on a hill with Jesus, as I do. I think that you should change it to something that is no way near being a religious thing, but maybe you could do an animal, or something like that. THE CRUCIFICTION OF ANY PERSON IS NEVER A JOKE, SO DON'T TRY AND MAKE IT. ESPECIALLY NOT WITH JESUS!!!
TO BROKEN HEARTED ANONYMOUS:your spelling of crucifiction is right ignore any1 who says it is wrong.
TO ANY1 WHO SPELLS CFICIFICTION AS CRUSIFICTION: you are all wrong! i looked it up in a dictionary, so leave Broken Hearted Anonymouse ALONE!!!!!!!!!!!!
and dont have a go at me, i now i wrote anonymouse, you all know i meant anonymous!
Great idea, next time we'll nail up the easter bunny.
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