Mecha Talk

I have the install app. for photoshop 30-day trial. Is that much worse than the pay-to-use version?
And if my trial runs out, and i saved my installer, will i be able to re-instal photoshop?
on the topic of lineart...
something totally meaningless that was done for no reason at all.
EDIT: I get to say it now! Pg. SIIIIIIIIIIIIXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX w0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000T!

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Faithful soldier of the Hatsune Miku Scout Force

AVATAR: Zeig Soryu!

You're not allowed to talk about circumventing paying for software, like Photoshop, on this forum.

Anyway. Two ways to clean up lineart:

A. The short way.

-Open the scanned lineart. Make sure the lines are dark.

-Go to Image > Mode > Grayscale. Click OK.

-Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. The blur setting you need to use depends on the size of the image. Blur the image until all of the lines are distinct but lighter gray.

-Go to Image > Adjustments > Threshold. Move the slider to the right until the lineart is nice and full again.

Or,

B. The long way.

-Open the image. Make sure the image is on one layer.

-Make a second layer, over the first layer.

-Select the Pen tool. Set it to whichever tool you intend to use for making your lineart (I tend to use the Pencil tool). Make an anchor point, make another anchor point, right click, choose Make path, click OK, and bam. Do this a zillion more times.

-When you're done, if you want, use the Eraser to modify your lineart, by for example tapering the ends of lines.

The short way quickly cleans up lineart for you, but affords you little control and no opportunity to correct mistakes you made when drawing. The long way takes friggin' forever, but affords you much more fine control and allows you to make changes or correct mistakes you made in the drawing.

Thanks... I'll see about scraping up some greenbacks for photoshop >_<

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Faithful soldier of the Hatsune Miku Scout Force

AVATAR: Zeig Soryu!

or there's always my way...clean as you color.

http://crashlegacy.deviantart.com/art/R ... -155394740

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Crash's Mecha Design Works
Crash's Mecha Based RPG
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ShadowCell wrote: Perspective. It's great.
CrashLegacy14 wrote: my immortal enemy: Perspective.

Ok, I just got done with this little guy and thought I'd put it up here. Pretty much the first time I cleaned up anything on the computer, also the first time in years I've actually colored something. The obvious next move is to shade it, sadly, that happens to be a point where my artistic repertoire is weak, so I'm not even sure where to start.

As always any critiques or tips are appreciated.

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"When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up." -C. S. Lewis

Beware the Haro

It's a Prinny...with a gatling gun...

Anyways, if you use Photoshop, here's an easy way to fool around with shading without having to alter the original artwork in any way:

1. Create a new layer on top of the layer with the original artwork.
2. Set the new layer's blending mode to 'Overlay' or 'Soft Light.'
3. Pick a shade of gray as your colour, depending on whether you want to shade or add highlights.
4. Start shading away.
5. If it ends up making your Prinny explode, just delete the entire layer & start over.

In these blending modes, the layer picks up the colour in the layer underneath it, then lightens or darkens it depending on the value of the shade of gray that you used. Think of it as a camera lens filter. You can then copy-merge the layers and paste to a new layer afterwards when you're satisfied with the results. Don't merge the layers directly (ctrl+e) because the colours won't come out right for some reason (with CS1, anyways).

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RINRIN NANO DA!!

It's very good for a first go. I was surprised at how clean and crisp it was. You should be proud.

As for shading, it looks simple but can be complex and difficult to explain. First off you need to choose the position of your light source as it determines where you will be highlighting and where you will be shading. Your Prinny already has highlights on the left side, so the shaded parts will generally be seen on the right side of the forms.

When I shade, I make a new layer on top of the base color but below the lineart. I basically eyedrop the base color I'm shading and then use the HSB sliders to darken to a proper shade. Higher contrast between the base color and the shade is typically helpful. And more than one "level" of shading is typically helpful for making something seem more realistic.

I think learning by example or observation is a little better in this case. Here is a crummy side-by-side comparison I threw together:

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c353/ ... e-demo.jpg

The left has only the base color. The right has two levels of shading, plus highlights for the violet areas. The lightsource is in a similar position as your picture, so that might be helpful. Typically, it takes some understanding or visualization of the form you are trying to shade.

Edit: **blood starts spraying across the room from a terrible NINJA WOUND***

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"Red particles are bad, they mutate you into... dead? But green/blue particles are good, apparently, for reasons and for purposes yet to be determined. Isn't science sometimes nicely color-coded?"
-Antares
GW: The Sword . Sera's Art . Gameplay . The Lost Citadel

it's... a prinny with a crank box minigun. Is this what heavy weapons guy becomes when demoman catches him without a medic? I've played way too much TF2 lately.

If your working in GIMP (or that OTHER graphic editing software) you can use layers and make a layer for your image that is just the shadows highlights. you don't absolutely have to make a separate layer, but i will make fun of you if you don't.

Anyway, set your color to black and then screw around with the opaqueness. opacity? whichever is the right word. I usually have it set at or below 10% opacity. this makes a very light shadow, but each time you pass over an area, it will get a little darker. The first time you shade, do a relatively large area, then do a slightly smaller inside of that. repeat until the area is shaded. This gives a sort of step to how dark the shadow is. If it's a very hard shadow, you'll have a very small step area, but if its a soft shadow, the step will be wider.

or use Ryujin's method. He probably knows more about this than i do. Stinkin' ninja.

Okay first shading attempt. I think I might have overdone the body, and I did at least a dozen tries on the arm (and I'll probably try a dozen more).

Actually that's what the fluffy suit is for, explosion prevention.

Oh and by the way, I fooled you all! I use paint.net.

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"When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up." -C. S. Lewis

Beware the Haro

holy. I think every one of you guys have given a different way to shade.

personally I do something similar to what Ryujin said except using the Screen and Multiply options instead. and my shading occurs on layers under the line art.

something that wasn't mentioned is it's advantageous to make selections before shading to keep from shading areas you don't want to. course I think that's just common sense.

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Crash's Mecha Design Works
Crash's Mecha Based RPG
-----------------//-----------
ShadowCell wrote: Perspective. It's great.
CrashLegacy14 wrote: my immortal enemy: Perspective.

Someone else here uses paint.net, Hell Yeah!

_________________
“The school of the undefeated East!”
“The winds of the king!”
“Zenshin!”
“Keiretsu!”
“Tempa Kyoran!”
“Look! The East is burning red!”
-Master Asia

Click me!, Click me!

Gyan Kai
Gyan Kai EQ

Wanted to see if this had your general approval before sending it upstairs.

Gyan Kai wcch!! =o

(Oh, and I'll come back to discuss shading again later when I have more time....)

_________________
"Red particles are bad, they mutate you into... dead? But green/blue particles are good, apparently, for reasons and for purposes yet to be determined. Isn't science sometimes nicely color-coded?"
-Antares
GW: The Sword . Sera's Art . Gameplay . The Lost Citadel

Go for it.

_________________
Faithful soldier of the Hatsune Miku Scout Force

AVATAR: Zeig Soryu!

you know, I always thought of the Gyan as a light and agile ms, probably because of mc'quve using the saber to essentially fence. it just seems wrong to make it so heavy looking. XD course that's just my view.

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Crash's Mecha Design Works
Crash's Mecha Based RPG
-----------------//-----------
ShadowCell wrote: Perspective. It's great.
CrashLegacy14 wrote: my immortal enemy: Perspective.

So, I've hit a wall and thought I'd come here for input. I'm currently designing mecha (technically androids, as they are self-aware and unpiloted) themed to theatrical genres, and some of them are rather difficult to personify.

Comedy, Romance, and Epic are all good to go.
Satire and Lyric are just conceptual right now.
Drama and Tragedy I'm not sure what to do with.
Lastly: Tragicomedy, seriously I have no clue where to begin on this one.

Any suggestions are GREATLY appreciated. I'll throw some scans up later, for now my computer is acting up and I'm having a hard time reinstalling .net framework so I can use my paint.net.

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"When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up." -C. S. Lewis

Beware the Haro

Tragic Comedy makes me think of Heavy Arms. The whole half-clown mask; I forget what those things are called. One half of the mask would be a happy clown face, the other sad clown face. :< Something themed after a mime, maybe? They come off as "tragic comedy" to me, IMO. XD

Utilizes invisible weaponry and equipment to ensnare and trap enemies, like invisible cages or invisible tether-like weapons~

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- Turinu's Design Compendium
- Turinu's Pixiv
- Turinu's DA
- Turinu's Franken Archives
- Turinu's 3D Warehouse

Personally drama to me means dramatic and that goes on to be someone/thing that's really showboaty and exaggerated. Although drama is defined as the middle road between comedy and tragedy.
EDIT: The more I think about it I see Drama as the ringleader, it strives to create a show, to please its audience (imaginary or not). I think of laughing Diago from Histories Strongest Disciple Kenichi, It doesn't just want to win but to thrill an audience as it wins. Its scripted, it has a plan that it wants to stick to but can be deviated from if makes the audience thrilled.

tragedy makes me think of the reaper, but that's me. tragedy's weapons would most likely be slow kill weapons, to cause great suffering to the human pilots before killing them. I wouldn't be surprised to see it use poison and informing its victims that they only have a short time to live. Tragedy should ultimately revel in suffering and death, imho.

satire is ridiculing something in order to (hopefully) improve it. a good quote is "in satire, irony is militant" Satire should point out the flaws of whatever it satires, and make jest of it. Them more I think about it the harder it becomes. perhaps it makes fun of the organization its fighting against or the main mech of the opposing side?

with lyrical I instantly think of a harp, and then Nanoha... >_> perhaps an electonic warfare unit? hacks enemy systems and then play lyrical music as it kills them.

EDIT: hope this helps, these are just my ideas but feel free to take what you want how you want.

_________________
“The school of the undefeated East!”
“The winds of the king!”
“Zenshin!”
“Keiretsu!”
“Tempa Kyoran!”
“Look! The East is burning red!”
-Master Asia

Click me!, Click me!

Those are some great suggestions. I like the idea of making Drama a tactician/plotter, like Lelouch but more theatrical.

Collectively they are known as The Chorus Generals so none of them have authority over the others. The only one above them is The Impresario, he is currently under contract to someone referred to as "the client".

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"When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up." -C. S. Lewis

Beware the Haro

Wow. Not a lot of participation, eh?
William Shakespeare's Globe Theater...what was I thinking when I made this ?!?!

_________________
Faithful soldier of the Hatsune Miku Scout Force

AVATAR: Zeig Soryu!

Stopped doing mecha for a while to brush up on human characters:

Well, except for this one:
Demishell#25
Demishell pilot

CHCharWIP#1
CHCharWIP#2
CHCharWIP#3
CHCharWIP#4
CHCharWIP#5
CHCharWIP#6
CHCharWIP#7

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RINRIN NANO DA!!