Research: Poll for SVG/webcomic experimentation

WRITTEN_BY David REVOY - - 13 comments
[info]**Update:** This post was a technical experiment about online SVG , not a real webcomic page. User had the possibilities to give feedback , but that's not useful anymore: You can read [the result and conclusion of the experimentation here](article465/research-design-of-translation-system-and-why-i-ll-can-t-use-pure-svg-for-my-webcomic "the result of the experimentation here" ) .[/info] ## Questions for the audience: 1. Could you see [this black and white fake comic page](data/images/lab/2015-02-11_SVG-webcomic-test.svg) ? images and texts ? does it look exactly like [this image ?](data/images/lab/2015-02-11_SVG-webcomic-test.jpg) 2. Can you save the first (SVG) image on your disk and edit it with the open-source vector program Inkscape ? Is it easy? Does it look similar? 3. Do you know how to use Git ?

What skills are needed to draw?

WRITTEN_BY David REVOY - - 39 comments
_Translations available: Polish on [Rydyger Art 's blog here](http://rydygerart.esy.es/blog/cel-komiks-czesc-2/ "Rydyger Art 's blog here" )_ ## Introduction It's rare to get a big picture of the skills you need to learn when you start to draw or paint figurative art from imagination... I receive many emails about it ; beginner are often lost, and miss a sort of general page. That's what I'm trying to solve here with a sort of **table of content** : to list the skills you need** to know and practice** to get better at drawing and painting figurative artworks. Each mini chapter attempt to explain with my words the 'what', the 'why' and the 'how' in the clearest and shortest possible way. So, then it's easier to get the big picture and search for specific tutorials with your favorite search engine. I propose also this 'map' to anyone wanting to improve or perfecting their drawing/painting skill. I'll use this overview myself to drive my training exercises or review missing or weak points on my artworks. If you start drawing from scratch here is my advice : be generalist at first and learn a bit of all to get the basics, then focus on specific areas one by one. ## 1\. Perspective - **What is it :** The art of representing three-dimensional objects on a two-dimensional surface. - **What's the purpose :** Do not draw flat, simulate depth on your 2D paper surface. - **What's to learn about it : **The perspectives grids, how basic shapes ( squares, circles, etc... ) behave on perspective and how to keep proportions. ![](data/images/blog/2014/10/At-the-root_by-David-Revoy_example_05.jpg) _an artwork built with two vanishing points ( green and red )_ ## 2\. Proportions - **What is it : **The comparative relation of size between all the object in your scene. - **What's the purpose :** Draw objects with recognizable identity thanks to a set of respected relative measurements. - **What's to learn about it :** Learn by memory the proportions, find mnemonic to remember the relation easily, build a proportion vocabulary. ![](data/images/blog/2014/10/At-the-root_by-David-Revoy_example_06.jpg) _highlight with orange lines of a basic set of proportions and relation over painting ( left ) and a sketch ( right )_ ## 3\. Anatomy - **What is it :** The study of the structures. - **What's the purpose :** Draw things that look believable ( humans, animals, plants but also vehicles, etc... ). - **What's to learn about it :** Joints, bones, muscles, how it works, how it breathes, how parts are fixed together, etc... - ![](data/images/blog/2014/10/At-the-root_by-David-Revoy_example_07.jpg) _left : studies of hands on left, center : studies of skeleton posing, right : muscle study_ ## 4\. Composition - **What is it :** The placement or arrangement of the visual elements. - **What's the purpose :** Serve the artwork to the viewer eyes in a pleasing or expressive way. - **What's to learn about it :** A set of recipes and a general vocabulary of how a picture organization and framing impact the meaning, or the ease of reading. ![](data/images/blog/2014/10/At-the-root_by-David-Revoy_example_08.jpg) _various thumbnails done before starting an artwork ; composition research_ ## 5\. Lighting - **What is it :** Lightness or darkness expressed with values of colors. - **What's the purpose :** Create the illusion of light, trace properly casted shadows, reveal the volumes and set an expressive mood. - **What's to learn about it :** Values, shadow casting, material surfaces, light bouncing, light properties ( underwater, threw materials, aerial perspective, etc.. ). ![](data/images/blog/2014/10/At-the-root_by-David-Revoy_example_09.jpg) _left : light source revealing various materials, right : light usage to introduce a second character outside the frame ( casted shadow )_ ## 6\. Edges - **What is it :** A way to split silhouettes and shapes of the objects in your scene. - **What's the purpose :** To ease the reading of the picture, split overlaps of objects or shapes and increase feeling of depth. - **What's to learn about it :** Edge style ( hard / soft / lost ) for paintings, Lines style ( weight, speed, ghost ) for line-arts. ![](data/images/blog/2014/10/At-the-root_by-David-Revoy_example_10.jpg) _left and center : edges in painting, right : line-art thickness_ ## 7\. Colors - **What is it :** Art of choosing efficient colors ( hue, shade, tint ). - **What's the purpose :** Add more vibrancy, mood and emotional impact to your artwork. - **What's to learn about it :** Color systems ( monochromatic, complimentary, etc... ), emotional impact of colors and traditional meaning. ![](data/images/blog/2014/10/At-the-root_by-David-Revoy_example_11.jpg) _top-left : 3 circles of colors representing the palette used for this artwork ; three complimentary tones._ ## 8\. Gesture - **What is it :** Art of rendering movement or dramatic pose in a static drawing. - **What's the purpose :** Inject life, flow, expression, energy into static shapes and capture action or movement. - **What's to learn about it :** Expressive sketch, rapid execution drawings, studies of anything in movements. Often a warm-up exercise. ![](data/images/blog/2014/10/At-the-root_by-David-Revoy_example_12.jpg) _left : Gesture of pinguin at the zoo, center : action gesture study, right : warm-up sketches for posing_ ## 9\. Style - **What is it :** Aesthetic, taste or style. It often depends of fundamental standards ( ethic, historic, societal, symbolic ), art or cultural groups, art market. - **What's the purpose :** Serves the artwork in a appealing way to an audience. - **What's to learn about it :** your own taste, culture, artistic group as both an audience and a creator. ![](data/images/blog/2014/10/At-the-root_by-David-Revoy_example_02.jpg) _left : classic portrait in black and white , center : heavy stylized ( and weird ) character and painting style, right: my comic stylization._ ## 10\. Concept - **What is it :** A drawing can abstract development of new concepts, ideas associations, inventions and propose new design. It's an overall engineering process. - **What's the purpose :** Propose new visuals, objects, characters, creature to entertain or inform an audience. - **What's to learn about it :** how things works, how to create new things, association of ideas, happy accidents, creative process. ![](data/images/blog/2014/10/At-the-root_by-David-Revoy_example_03.jpg) _A new type of vehicle ( left ) a new type of dragon ( center ) and a medieval house that never existed before this drawing ( right )._ ## 11\. Communication - **What is it :** A picture can transfer a complex and large amounts of data quickly. The adage "A picture is worth a thousand words" describes it really well. - **What's the purpose :** An artist can communicate ( intentionally or not) to an audience. - **What's to learn about it :** Reading images ( decoding messages sent, nonverbal means ), encoding meaning, storytelling, message. ![](data/images/blog/2014/10/At-the-root_by-David-Revoy_example_01.jpg) _A leaf artwork doesn't communicate a lot ( left ) but the accumulation of elements and facial expression can create a complex storytelling ( center ). Association of symbols as a vulture made of journal paper ( right ) can create a deeper meaning to speak about unethical journalism._ ## Conclusion : a meaningful illusion If you can mix with success all the discipline above, you'll be able to achieve the feeling of volumes, depth, texture, light, gesture, movement and life on a static surface. This will immerse your audience into a universe and ease communication of your ideas, storytelling or message. And by the end, that's how I consider the global skill : **a capacity to create meaningful illusions**. All this palette of skills will train your mental intelligence ( memory, management, decision ) but also your emotional intelligence ( feelings, emotions, subconscious ), this is a complete exercise requiring **knowledge, observation, imagination **but above all you'll need to **PRACTICE**, **PRACTICE **and** PRACTICE**. Drawing skill is like a muscle (and you obviously don't get stronger by reading books about weightlifting or watching online videos about it) so have fun drawing and painting and **build your unique skill**. _( Sorry for my mistakes, I am french and my english skill is far to be perfect. I appreciate corrections )_

Research: line-art automatic colorization, first beta-test and review with Gmic

WRITTEN_BY David REVOY - - 43 comments
[info]**Update 2019:** Could I guess my first step with this type of colorize filter would be that popular and known five years later? Nowaday, you can find it in Krita, Gimp via GMIC with more methods, and even Krita made its own Colorize mask. But it is fun to read the origin. This is what propose this article wrote in 2014.[/info] ## Introduction : This is an article dedicated to my research for using the next generation of** computer-assisted tool for colorization **image filter. I'll try to explain the [Gmic](http://gmic.sourceforge.net/ "Gmic" ) filter** 'colorize'**. This filter was created by [David Tschumperlé](http://tschumperle.users.greyc.fr/) , project manager and main developer of Gmic and I see a lot of potential in it. The filter improved a lot on this Autumn 2014 ( and was started around spring 2013 ). I kept an eye on the filter development since the very beginning as a tester, but I got totally enthusiast about it only recently ; especially when filter became interactive and more user friendly. For sure, this type of auto-colorisation will grow everywhere in the coming years. ### 1) What kind of problems this filter will solve? The first steps at colorizing a line-art is usually with flat zone. This process is a super **long, annoying and robotic** work. Here is two way of how artists handle this task since coloring comic in the digital era started (around the end of the 90's): **(illustration a.) **Brush : simply take a brush and fill manually the color on a layer under **(illustration b.) **Fill Bucket : use a fill bucket tool and click the area, then correct with brush ...of course, both methods (often used together) introduce **quality problems** **(c.) ** ![](data/images/blog/2014/09/1-problemes.jpg) With practise and time, a lot of artist find their own recipes to reduce this step or improve quality (using lasso tools, vector shapes, etc). Also digital-painting software proposes often a set of features to make the life of artist less difficult around this two methods (eg. auto-enlarge fill bucket result, gap detection for fill bucket, better selection tools, filter to fill every zones with random colors) ...etc... Here I'm used to color my artworks with the brush method **'a.'**. It's might not look obvious on the size of the little 'grumpy unicorn drawing' here, but I'm sure you can imagine the long time it represents repeating this on all the island of colors in a comic pages (and more in a episode, chapter or comic book). So, it is not surprising that even on the comic industry, 'preparing page with flat color zone' is a full time job. ### 2) What solution proposes this Gmic filter: Gmic 'colorize' filter works a bit like a **smart fill bucket tools on steroïd. **First, this is an **interactive** tool and the task become suddenly a funnier part of the job because it has a little something of a videogame. Secondly, -and that's the most important- it produces a **clean result**. How does it works: 1. Feed Gmic with a lineart ( eg. a b&w picture ) 2. Select colors and place color markers/tokens on the picture ( you can move them or delete them too ) 3. At any moment press <Space> to update the rendering and gmic will smartly fill the colors detecting edges **(d.)** 4. Place more markers until the result is good and keep press <space> to update. 5. Press Enter at the end ; Gmic will export a color map image as a result. **(e.)** Gmic fills the gaps and doesn't care if the line are transparent, or sketchy. ![](data/images/blog/2014/09/2-solutions.jpg) ### 3) The result : Once your color map loaded in Krita ; put your line-art on the top of your layer stack with the 'multiply' mode to see how the two layer are merging visually **(f.)** . You might be amazed by how the color-map is **exact and clean ; even under transparent line-art** **(g.)**. For sure, you 'll meet** minor issue here and there** and will need to clean parts manually sometime, but the bigger part of the work is done for setting your flat zones, and it's done very quickly. ![](data/images/blog/2014/09/3-pros.jpg) ## Real example inside a workflow : In the upcoming Pepper&Carrot ep.3, an [open webcomic](http://www.davidrevoy.com/static3/pepper-and-carrot "open webcomic" ) I'm writing, I used the colorize filter to prepare my comic pages. ### 1) Setting area with clean edges I don't use the filter 'colorize' to color all the little details (eg. the white of the eyes). The filter is able to do this for sure, but for my usage I prefer to obtain only large groups of color and leave details for later. [![](data/images/blog/2014/09/4-workflow.tb.jpg)](data/images/blog/2014/09/4-workflow.jpg) _click to enlarge_ ### 2) In Krita I reinject the colormap obtained by Gmic in my Krita \*.kra files, and correct the areas if necessary. In this case, I had a glitch only on her hair ( still visible on the screenshot ) ; easy to correct with a brush with aliasing. [![](data/images/blog/2014/09/5-workflow.tb.jpg)](data/images/blog/2014/09/5-workflow.jpg) _click to enlarge_ ### 3) Painting within the limits of selected areas Real fun start here; I keep the layer with Gmic result on the bottom of my stack and use it as a color-selector layer ; I use "magic wand" on it to select area of colors. Within this selections, I can paint freely while keeping really clean edges. It's really convenient for my style, because I like soft shading, and not shading with only hard edges as often used on comic, cartoon and anime. [![](data/images/blog/2014/09/6-workflow.tb.jpg)](data/images/blog/2014/09/6-workflow.jpg) _click to enlarge_ ### 4) Post-production effects I add a color-grading pass using often the adjustment curves, color-balance, and contrast/brightness curve. The final touch on the artwork is to texture my result for the watercolor effect. [![](data/images/blog/2014/09/7-workflow.tb.jpg)](data/images/blog/2014/09/7-workflow.jpg) _click to enlarge_ This filter is very recent in September 2014 **and still beta**. Package for mac, windows and Linux are available [here on sourceforge](http://sourceforge.net/projects/gmic/files/beta/ "here on sourceforge" ) on the sourceforge of the Gmic project. If you have already a version of Gmic better than 1.6.1 , then you don't need to install anything. Just refresh the filter database. This installation will install the gimp_gmic plugin as well. Notes for 'buntu Linux 14.04 , 64bit: you'll need **libtiff4\_3.9.7-2ubuntu1_amd64.deb** , required dependencie, [available here](http://packages.ubuntu.com/saucy/amd64/libtiff4/download "available here" ) (from older repo). I installed **gmic_1.6.\*\_beta\_amd64.deb** available [here on sourceforge](http://sourceforge.net/projects/gmic/files/beta/ "here on sourceforge" ). ## **Tutorial** You'll need Gimp 2.8 installed, read the note above to know how to install it. In the future month, I'm sure the filter will be just part of Gmic. [edit 2015: GMIC filters are back in Krita] Open with Gimp your Line art [![](data/images/blog/2014/09/gmic-colorize-usage-example-1.tb.jpg)](data/images/blog/2014/09/gmic-colorize-usage-example-1.jpg) _click to enlarge_ The filter can be found on regular installation under the menu Filters > G'MIC [![](data/images/blog/2014/09/gmic-colorize-usage-example-2.tb.jpg)](data/images/blog/2014/09/gmic-colorize-usage-example-2.jpg) _click to enlarge_ Note : refresh your filter database ( press the button of a circular arrow at the bottom of the 'Available filters' list. it's between a '+' button to add the filter to your favorites, and a checkbox with 'internet' label, to benefit from the additional Internet filters update ) This is the harder part ; Select under the categories 'Black&White' **(1.) **the filter 'Colorize[interactive]' **(2.)** ; then on the right side, setup **(3.)** : - Input type : Lineart ( we choose 'Lineart' here , exept if you want to recolorize an old black&white photo ) - Output type : Original image + color-only layer ( to get two resulting layers ) - View resolution : Choose a setting depending your hardware performance , this will affect the preview refresh time, and preview quality. - Palettes : optionnal ; select on disk a palette ( \*.gpl format ) Then when ready, press Ok **(4.)** [![](data/images/blog/2014/09/gmic-colorize-usage-example-3.tb.jpg)](data/images/blog/2014/09/gmic-colorize-usage-example-3.jpg) _click to enlarge_ The dialog will appear on your desktop ( you'll probably need to reorganize the windows a bit to be more comfortable ). Mini how to use : You can start to take a color from the palette , and place your markers on the canvas Press **<space>** to update the filter, do it often. Usefull : **right click** on a marker to delete it ; and **right-click** on a color on canvas to color-pick it. When the work is done, press **<Enter>** [![](data/images/blog/2014/09/gmic-colorize-usage-example-4.tb.jpg)](data/images/blog/2014/09/gmic-colorize-usage-example-4.jpg) _click to enlarge_ Here are all the list of the keyboard commands so far : - **Left mouse button** creates a new colored control point (or moves an existing one). - **Right mouse button** over a control point deletes it. - **Right mouse button** anywhere else picks a color from the image. - **Mouse wheel, or keys 'CTRL+arrows UP/DOWN'** zoom view in/out. - ** 'CTRL+mouse wheel', 'SHIFT+mouse wheel' or arrow keys** move image in zoomed view. - **Key 'SPACE'** updates the extrapolated color field. - **Key 'TAB'** switches between markers view modes. - **Key 'BACKSPACE'** deletes the last control point added. - **Key 'PAGE UP'** increases image contrast. - **Key 'PAGE DOWN'** decreases image contrast. - **Keys 'CTRL+D'** increase window size. - **Keys 'CTRL+C'** decrease window size. - **Keys 'CTRL+R'** reset window size. - **Keys 'ESC', 'Q' or 'ENTER'** exit the interactive window. When you press **<enter>** the filter will export in your Gimp layer stack 2 layers ; the original line and the color-map. You can then place your lines on the top **(1.)** and set the blending mode to multiply **(2.)** ( or using the Color > Color to Alpha to remove the white part of the image ) Just export this as a \*.ora ( open raster ) if you want to continue to work your color on Krita or Mypaint :) [![](data/images/blog/2014/09/gmic-colorize-usage-example-5.tb.jpg)](data/images/blog/2014/09/gmic-colorize-usage-example-5.jpg) _click to enlarge_ That's all :-) ## Tutorial : command line style Start to update the filter , in a terminal : gmic -update ... to update and download all the recent filters. That's it. You have Gmic beta with last filters. You can then launch Gmic 'colorize' filter this way : Save your lineart in a folder ( eg. lineart.png ) and open a terminal into this folder, and copy or adapt : gmic lineart.png -x_colorize 1,1024,1 -s c,{3-s} -o[-1] colors.png Here is another variant if you save also in this folder a palette.gpl file to get an additional palette dialog. gmic linear.png -input_gpl palette.gpl -x_colorize[0] 1,1024,1,[-1] -k[0] -s c,{3-s} -o[1] colors.png It will open a canvas with your artwork, and under or around a dialog with the palette. The terminal will write you how to use the filter, and command to use. ( screenshot under ) ![](data/images/blog/2014/09/8-install.jpg) _a Terminal windows , after a Gmic colorize filter done from command line_ That's it, have a good coloring time ## Video demo Here is a demo video, by David Tschumperlé over a Pepper&Carrot line-art :-) [youtube]7LaZX3On_oo[/youtube] ## Conclusion : I saw so many comic artist compromising their own line-art style by making all the area closed, all the lines pure black, etc... What's the meaning of all of that ? optimize the artwork to use non efficient tools as the fill-bucket? Yes. Most of line-art artworks are still under the slavery of outdated tools constrains. And most artist prefer change their own style for something more synthetic, robotic and predictable in order to win a bunch of painful hours of work. I don't blame, and I totally understand as I tried myself during many years to ink this way, to optimize my own workflow to make the fill-bucket tool easier to use. But I couldn't use pure black lines, use only big simple shapes and close all my line gaps ; I like the feeling to ink my comics with pencil , and my lines are full of grays shades, and I don't close always my lines and shapes. I even like to crosshatch a bit, and detail texture with messy lines here and there. A nightmare to colorize... But a filter like the Gmic 'colorize' is really bringing on the table an innovating answer to the problem. This will really improve my productivity, and the quality of my artworks as I can now invest more time on the shading and post-production. I even think it will help me to make more spontaneous pencil artworks, get more relax and ink more freely ; because I know they'll be simple to color... Next step ? Getting this directly plugged into the filter menu of Krita ? :-) _Many thanks to David Tschumperlé for all his work on Gmic_ _and many thanks to Timothée GIET too for all the test he also made of this very cool tool._ _[edit 2015: It was directly plugged in Krita]_ _[edit 2018: Now Krita made a native version of this filter: check the Colorize mask feature.]_