Coloring of the Dusty Star Pages Take 2...Actually Take 3

Dusty Star_Page 26

Dusty Star_Page 29

If you had asked me when I first started attending SCAD-Atlanta in 2008 what I wanted to do after college I would have said that I wanted to write and pencil comic book stories. In 2010 I began opening up to the possibility of becoming an animator instead. But as Nightwing told the Tim Drake Robin about his relationship with Batman in the Batman, the Animated Series episode entitled Old Wounds, "Things change." I still want to write and pencil comics or perhaps become an animator, but I am really leaning towards becoming a comic book colorist. I just love the job so much, and it is an absolute blast to do. Sure the flats are a bit tedious, but once you get past that part it reaches it's fun level. So after I finished coloring all 172 frames for my section of the ANIJAM project I decided to practice some coloring, and what better thing to go back to than the two Dusty Star pages that I had done for my Digital Coloring and Lettering class almost a year ago to the day. This time, however, things were going to be different because I have learned a lot since then.

Dusty Star is a comic book character created by Joe Pruett and Andrew Robinson, and of course, she's the one with the giant star on her shirt. This was the project that immediately followed the Fear Agent project in the Digital Coloring class. The first page is very memorable for me because it is where I started becoming a faster flatter. I made a technical error by changing the size of the page accidentally, and I was already in the coloring stage when my professor and professional colorist, Nolan Woodard noticed that the linework had become skewed. I had to start all over again. I didn't make that error in the second page although I seem to remember that I came close, but for some reason something kept me from doing it. I went in to the Sequential room that following Friday during the school's 24-hour challenge, and so while everyone in the department was trying to make a complete comic in 24 hours I was working to correct my stupid mistake. I don't know why it is, but for some reason when I am angry with myself I go faster. My anger kicked me into overdrive, and not only did I finish flatting that first page that day, but I finished coloring it too. I've continued flatting, and now I can flat at least six pages in a day.

My first attempt at the two pages ended with me getting a C in the project, which was much better than what I got in my first attempt at Fear Agent. So naturally I was going to fix the problems that Nolan and the class had suggested, and then I was going to resubmit it. I finished redoing the first page, but then...came the second page. I would work on the pages before my 8 AM  Comic Book Scripting class, and the SCAD-Atlanta computers were updated with the CS5 Photoshop even though I had CS4 at home, but that has never been a problem. Illustrator will go insane, but Photoshop has never cared if a project was created on a CS4 and then transferred over to a CS5 or vice versa. I've gone back and forth between the two bunches of times without any hiccup. Then one day I tried to work on the second page on my CS4, and I get a message saying that it can't open it since it was created on an earlier version of Photoshop. Since when did it care?! I went back to the exact same computer that I was working on before the Scripting class, and I got the same message. No matter which computer I went to Photoshop refused to open the file. There was only one thing to do, and that was to start over with the flats since this was before I started saving my flats on a separate file. However, I was already working on my final project in the class, and I felt that I needed to focus my time on that instead of resubmitting this project. It frustrated me to no end especially since it would turn out that I sacrificed my chance of getting a B in the class. Aw, well, I can only shrug my shoulders and move on since it's not about grades anyway, it's about what you learn.

The coloring of the Dusty Star pages take 3 took place a few days ago, and I scrapped all of the colors that I had chosen originally for the first page. This time I had a new vision in my head for these two pages, and they focused on aerial perspective, focus, and temperature, but also making the pages look as though it was a Western comic. When I was working on these I didn't have my critique notes with me, but I did make sure that some of the suggestions that I remembered were implemented such as the dead bodies being in cool colors, making the last panel of the first page hot, and using color holds on the sound effects. Speaking of color holds though I performed an experiment that I had tried in the ANIJAM, but didn't like it in there, and so I figured that it would work out better here. I placed a color hold on some of the background in the first panel of the first page to create a sense of perspective because you wouldn't really see some of those objects that clearly. It looks pretty good. Although the blond mercenary is back there too I decided NOT to place a color hold on her because I didn't think that it would look very good on a regular person.

When both pages were done I went over them with a monochromatic color to give them a sort of Western comics look. I created a separate layer, and then I filled each panel with a yellowish brown color at 25% opacity. I did have to run several tests on the first page to see what percentage of the opacity would allow the viewer to still be able to tell what the colors underneath the fill are, and 25% was the best. The second page was actually a lot colder, but then the fill brightened it up a tad, and I think that it works better that way.

Although I am letting you all view these two pages I am not ready to print them out and place them in my color portfolio just yet. I would like to hear feedback from my friends, fellow sequential artists, and especially Nolan Woodard first. Feel free to tell me too. Any suggestions to make these better would be taken under serious consideration.

ANIJAM 2012 Update

Frame 240

I am not ready to show off the finished film yet since the ANIJAM group hasn't seen it, but here is Frame 240 of my section. The coloring took a lot longer than I had anticipated, and I was so glad that they decided to push the deadline back, which allowed me to slow down a little instead of rushing it like I was doing. When it came down to coloring the frames I had a certain vision in my head, and it was a vision that most animated colorists would not have taken, but I am not coming at this like an animated colorist. My thinking and approach to coloring will always follow the path of comic books. My inspiration for my section were the classic Hanna-Barbera cartoons, which is why I used very little shadowing on the figure except when the box was blocking a part of him, but I colored it as if I was coloring a comic book page.

Well, the ANIJAM group met at the DMC (Digital Media Center) on Friday for a private screening on the big screen, and a majority of the animation professors were there to watch it. That was great because we got to hear their opinion, but there was a downside to it because they told us that some people will have to get cut from the film. Any section that is slowing the pace of the film faces being cut, and the professors didn't exactly say who was slowing the pace. So now I have something more to worry about. However, either Prof. Maloney or Prof. Becky Wible-Searles said that while the credits are rolling we could show two seconds of the films that were cut sort of like outtakes that way the animators are still credited. I suppose, that is some sort of consolation, but I am still worried. So I have been thinking about what parts of my film could be cut to speed up the pace. Some time this week we should be meeting with Prof. Gregg Azzopardi to go through each section one by one and talk about what needs work. I'll know more after that. Hopefully nothing will require more drawing. Please let it all be fixable on the computer. 

The professors did congratulate us all because we have done a lot better on this personal project than they were expecting. Sure there were some problems, but fixable ones. We have set the bar pretty high for ourselves too. The professors are going to expect a lot from us when we get into some of the higher classes because of how we are coming along with this project. It's a great compliment and a terrific challenge, and challenges are things that I like to undertake.

Final Thoughts

I am still working on thumbnailing the second installment to the Vampire Mouse mini comic, and now that the ANIJAM is nearly complete and the Dusty Star pages are complete pending feedback I can get back to work on it. I have recently made some changes to the first installment of the comic, mainly the word balloons. I got rid of the hand lettering in favor of digital lettering, and it allowed me to put back some words that were deleted due to space. I will be taking down the original mini comic and replacing it with the special edition some time this week.

Near the end of the last quarter I was named the new President of the Atlanta Art History Society, and I officially took charge at the beginning of this quarter. I have a lot of plans in store for the club, but the main objective is to get people to continuously come to the meetings. Everyone on the board has at least five quarters or less left, and if we don't get some new people into the club it will dissolve when I leave. I don't want to see that happen.

So until next time, this is Billy Wright wishing you all a good night. So long, everybody.