Friday, December 10, 2010

3 PROGRAMS ???...

It took 3 different programs to make this one image. I drew it in Flash, cleaned it in Illustrator and colored it in Photoshop. I think I'm just dumb and don't know any of these programs well enough to use them to their full potential. I mean..,there's gotta be ONE program that can do it all, right?

To clarify - A program that will allow me to minipulate the proportions of my thumbnail drawings then 'clean' them with a crisp 'vector' line that looks like a kick ass Illustrator brush. Then be able to color it as if it were watercolor with drybrushed highlights, alpha shadow layers and stampable custom t-shirt designs and, AND the ability to zoom in infinately witout pixelation and then break it all down in that 'same' program for it to be aminated. That's all.

Someone please enlighten me.
(and just sos ya know...I called myself dumb so that you wouldn't)

17 comments:

Dougmian said...

I do it all in Photoshop. I just use Illustrator if I want a strong and clean line.

Onno Knuvers said...

I agree with Dougmian. You should be able to do it all directly in Photoshop. Nice character by the way.

Todd Kauffman said...

To clarify - A program that will allow me to minipulate the proportions of my thumbnail drawings then 'clean' them with a crisp 'vector' line that looks like a kick ass Illustrator brush. Then be able to color it as if it were watercolor with drybrushed highlights, alpha shadow layers and stampable custom t-shirt designs and, AND the ability to zoom in infinately witout pixelation and then break it all down in that 'same' program for it to be aminated. That's all.

Anonymous said...

ArtRage and Sketchbook Pro are two programs that immediately come to mind. Maybe you should give those two a shot.

I wish you the best, dude.

From an aspiring animator/cartoonist

Jeff Cook said...

How about Drawing, Clean Up and Colouring in Flash and then add the dry brush effects in Photoshop?

I haven't used Flash in a long time so I don't know if it has brushes similar to illustrator.

Best of luck.

Adele K. Thomas said...

I never use illustrator...basically because I never have had to. But when I have had to animated or break up a character design for build in flash that has been built in illustrator...OH WHAT A HEADACHE! Everything is in groups and you have to break it all apart and then re-group...flash character builder's worst nightmare other than having a badly designed character. If you really are desperate for a illustrator pen look, just import the certain black strokes into flash and apply it to the character you have drawn in flash I guess.

All my stuff for illustration and animation is concepted in sketchbook pro. For illustrations I finish it photoshop and use the pen tool to ink it and make selections to paint...all my monsters from The Monster Maintenace Manual were done that way.
For animation I finish it in flash with the line tool but apply the settings to the line to sharpen the corners so you dont have that horrible blunt rounded end.

Adele K. Thomas said...

oh I just read your message where you clarified yourself...my message might not be helpful then.

Merry Christmas! :D

Martin Wittig said...

I mostly work in photoshop, but I also need to learn a great deal more about the programs! Nice post!

Hobo Divine said...

Process is sacred!
You are not dumb!
Love the artwork!


Talk to you soon,

~ Spaghetti Monster.

Unknown said...

I'll be honest with ya dude.. For me these days.. If I don't do a paper drawing first, I'll do everything in Photoshop. With the newwest Cintiq it just feels so natural, I can get things looking exactly how I want it. The only thing I don't do in photoshop is animate. And I pretty much swear by ToonBoom Animate pro 2 for that.

I love talking process about this sorta stuff.. You know where to find me.. ^_~ We should shoot the shit sometime..

Todd Kauffman said...

Thanks for the advice everyone - much appreciated!

Will Finn said...

Hey Todd, Autodesk appears to be coming out with a godzilla sized version of Sketchbook Pro ($$), ithink it's called Sketchbook Illustrator. as I understand it, vectorization is one of it's virtues that the standard SK BK PRO does not have...

Todd Kauffman said...

Sweet! Thanks for the heads up Will.

Anonymous said...

you should try paint tool sai

Martin "Zobe" Ringer said...

Dude, this is Martin Ringer (from facebook) Just use Xara. I do it all on there. and trust me, it's SO. MUCH. EASIER than the others D: it comes with everything.

Xara Xtreme Pro 5. Try a trial at least it's vector based, auto layering, grouping of course. And it exports to Flash and Toonboom successfully c:

I put a link to my DA, ALL my stuff is done on that C:

MilaYin said...

Try Anime Studio! It can be both used for animation and drawing :)

dany boom said...

hmmm ... that new sketchbook sounds interesting. but todd, you are not doing anything wrong ! if you stayed in illustrator, the colors would be boding, and if you only used photoshop, you wouldnt get the beautiful line you have in illustrator. that you draw it in flash is no more different than drawing on paper or sketchbook.

i agree with da hobo - respect your process ! i certainly love the results.