That ol' color thread

[Vaughn]

And here we have my very first attempt at coloring anything... ever.

It's also the first time I've used Gimp 2 for anything serious, and I must say - I love it!


Comments?
Suggestions?
Lawsuits?


[url=http://svein.brage.info/sore_colors/st20040308.png]

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UPDATE: There is now a high-quality PNG version available; just click on the image to get it.


P.S.
The above picture is on my personal DSL line. The line is unstable, and the computer might be. (Crashed in an ACPI call, but that is now disabled.)

[Vaughn]

I somehow forgot to mention:
The above probably isn't the finalized version; I didn't really finish the last two frames. I need to eat, though; I might upload something better later.

EDIT: And it's done. Pretty much.
Now I get to do it again in two days. ;0

[Mingan]

Thats some pretty cool coloring, I really like the textures of the backgrounds and mom's dress.

but, whats with the pink?

[wryann]

very nice first attempt. I especially like the bookcase... enough variation in color so that it comes across as a bunch of separate books, but not so colorful that it's distracting and draws my eye away from the important parts of the picture

How long did it take you?

[Vaughn]

2.5 hours or thereabouts, but I probably did half the work in the last hour.

I'll shoot for 1.5 on wednesday.

[Tofenheimer]

Very nice first attempt. Like your choice of colors for, well most everything in there.

[Espio]

Thats some pretty cool coloring, I really like the textures of the backgrounds and mom's dress.

but, whats with the pink?

Thats the color of her hair on the characters page.

[Shobbs]

but, whats with the pink?

Yeah, its 'anime' so what isn't with the pink. I must say Mr.ComicProducer, that you are awesome.

[Vaughn]

And to think, it's all done with flood-fill.

Well, flood-fill with transparent layers... and patterns... and varying "border" thresholds...

But really just floodfill. With a side dish of selections.


You should try it; it's easy. Download the GIMP, or try using Photoshop; I'm told it's nearly as good.

[Electrospecter]

Oooh, how pretty.

[Nrg Spoon]

Suggestion for next attempt: Place the lineart as the top layer with a multiply filter. Helps make the thinner lines look better.

[Guest]

Hmm, must've missed that characters page, she does look pretty good with the pink hair there.

I'm looking forward to your coloring of the new comic.

[TommyDKat]

but, whats with the pink?

Yeah, its 'anime' so what isn't with the pink. I must say Mr.ComicProducer, that you are awesome.

What Shobbs said. Awesome work! The Devil's in the details, as they say, and you do very well on the details(the piping on the backpack, the bookcase, the contrast between Mom's pasty face and Cecania's much healthier complexion). The only(relatively minor) complaint I have is that the color's seem...muted somehow. This is Anime. They should be more vibrant, and 'pop' more, if you know what I mean.

Overall though, just awesome! Keep up the good work!

[Vaughn]

Nrg_spoon's suggestion about using multiply really helped in a whole bunch of ways - for one thing, shadows look a *lot* better now, as do her braids.

That said, it's going to be a while before I can upload the next comic; I've only just finished coloring Cecania.

I think a lot of the reason is that I've been paying attention to individual pixels... come to think of it, exporting to jpeg applies a sort of RLE-blur filter, so maybe I shouldn't bother.

[TommyDKat]

Nrg_spoon's suggestion about using multiply really helped in a whole bunch of ways - for one thing, shadows look a *lot* better now, as do her braids.

That said, it's going to be a while before I can upload the next comic; I've only just finished coloring Cecania.

I think a lot of the reason is that I've been paying attention to individual pixels... come to think of it, exporting to jpeg applies a sort of RLE-blur filter, so maybe I shouldn't bother.

You could always post it in jpeg format, then, if you wanted us to be able to see the higher res version(and save your bandwidth) you could zip up the higher res original and make it available for download.

[Vaughn]

There are a number of problems with that idea.
Let me see...

Okay, first off: The original is in .xcf format, which is only readable by the GIMP. No biggie there; I can always save it in .png format.


But here's the kicker: People keep saying "just zip up that picture", apparently not knowing that all picture formats worth their salt - i.e. anything but .bmp and .tiff - are already compressed.

PNG uses Lempel-Ziv compression, which is far better than zip compression; also, knowledge of the file format (which libpng obviously has) means it does a better job than any general-purpose compressor possibly could.

For more information (and reasons that Internet Explorer isn't a good web browser), visit http://www.libpng.org.


That said, I'll take a look at the filesize. I've been compressing it at 90% quality; there's a good chance that png pictures won't be much larger.

[TommyDKat]

LOL...I know that having it zipped is kind of a moot point when it comes to compression. I was just thinking that it's a fairly convienent way to download the file, that's all. If you link a high res image to a thread, it's doing to destroy your bandwidth, but, if you zip it and make it available for download, it will only be downloaded once per person, rather than once every time someone opens the thread.

And, AFA formats...well, having Paint Shop Pro with TONS of plug ins, and ACDSee means I never have to worry about not being able to read a specific picture format. For all those that cant afford to go that route, you could always convert to .tga. IIRC, that can be read by Internet Explorer just fine.

And, there's nothing inherently wrong with IE. It's just designed to be homogenous. And, like any product designed to be a jack of all trades, it doesn't do any *one* thing well...but it does do just about *everything* adequately.

[Vaughn]

Well, I haven't used PSP *or* ACDSee, but uploading the .xcf would be a moot point anyway; the only advantage would be in seeing just how large my undo history really is.

As for IE, well... I'm not going to enter that debate; not again. Suffice to say that I don't agree.

(Konqueror is designed to be a jack of all trades, and does it very well. IE wasn't really designed at all, as far as I can tell.)


The .jpeg files are upwards of 200KB; the .png files are over twice that. I'll just post a link to the .png file, shall I? Even better, I'll scale down the .jpeg files, and use the pictures themselves as a link to the .png files.

[TommyDKat]

LOL...ok ok, 'Designed' is probably too strong a word. Thrown together by dope smoking monkeys might be a better term.

Dont get me wrong, I have issues with IE too(and, by extension, Windows, and M$)...but, they're still the only game in town if you actually want anything resembling compatability. Sure, Linux/BeOS/Opera/Konqueror is nice, but, if I just want to install a piece of software, and have a reasonable expectation of being able to use it without having to recompile my kernel/get a buttload of patches/not have it work no matter what I do, then Windows/M$/IE is the only real answer. Again, it's not perfect, but at least it's compatible with just about everything. When I want a specialty product, I get it, but when I just want something to *work*, with a minimum of fuss, I just want it to work.

Erm...anyway...sorry. I'm dragging this totally off topic. AFA the pic size...it might not be a bad idea to post a smaller jpeg version that's a link to a larger png version that people can click on, if they want to. It helps out the dial-uppers too.

[Vaughn]

Here's today coloring; click on the image for a high-quality version if you want.

On another note, my internet connection is about as unstable as usual; if anyone happens to have a better connection and stable server I could upload these to, that would be nice.


[url=http://svein.brage.info/sore_colors/st20040310.png]
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And a big thank-you to nrg_spoon, without whom I'd probably have finished in half the time.

[TommyDKat]

That is SOOOOO cool! The characters really pop in this one. And the hi-res version is even better. I really like the way Cecania's eyes look in the second panel close up. Keep up the awesome work!

[Owen Gieni]

Vaughn, you are the Man! It is super cool of you to color these strips. They look great. I am very impressed. I hope you do more, we can have a whole series of the strips in colour. That would be sweet.
Thanks a lot.

--Owen

[thehobbit]

that wall colour's a bit 'in your face' isn't it? not what i really think of as fitting for someone like ce....how do you spell her name???, anyway, her mum.
or maybe that should be mom...

[thehobbit]

oh yeah, the eyes rock and so does her hair... and the wall colour is growing on me!
i guess i just wanted to say good job, nad the first post was just my attempt at some constructive criticism :)