Orchid XP v7 wrote:

> I thought it only does bitmap manipulations though. The software he's 
> using seems to be vector-based.

It does some vector stuff, and some bitmap stuff. Shapes and paths are 
the vector bits.

Also, with a pressure sensitive tablet, it can be a lot like painting. 
The harder you press, the thicker the line, but all of these can be 
changed. My tablet is even tilt sensitive, which with a little skill can 
be used for calligraphic strokes.

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Mike Raiford wrote:

> Go download a free trial of it. Go to Adobe, now! Download DOWNLOAD 
> *DOWNLOAD*!!! It'll last 30 days, then you'll be hooked.

I went online and had a look at the prices of various Adobe and Wacom 
products.

And then ran away. And hid. In a dark corner.

Damn, that's some expensive stuff... And I can't even draw! o_O

-- 
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http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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>> I thought it only does bitmap manipulations though. The software he's 
>> using seems to be vector-based.
> 
> Nope, he's just using a ridiculously-high image size.

Woah...! o_O

You mean he managed to scale, rotate, bend and alter *bitmaps* and not 
get distortion? That's pretty unbelievable!

But then, the whole clip is pretty unbelievable... Seriously, it looks 
like SciFi. I had no idea that technology like this was commercially 
available. I mean, DAMN...!

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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Having got over just how amazing his hardware and software is, several 
other facts strike me:

1. This is speeded up 600 times? And it still takes, like, 20 minutes 
for him to draw the whole thing? Wow, that's a long time! (And the 
finished image looks so easy...)

[I was actually toying with the idea of making a web comic of my own. 
Now I see what an absurd idea that is.]

2. He can do stuff with pencil and paper that I couldn't do in my 
wildest daydreams. I mean, if you left me in a room with a pad of paper 
for 20 years, I still couldn't produce anything approaching this level 
of sophistication.

3. He seems to draw and re-draw and constantly tweak everything way more 
than I would have imagined. I assumed he was one of these people who can 
just draw a line and do it perfectly every time. But no, actually he 
seems to spend quite a lot of time adjusting each part to get it just 
so. No wonder the final image looks so damn fine!

4. Woah, that's A LOT of levels of shading!

5. There are quite a few parts where he's not *drawing* anything, just 
pressing buttons on the UI. It's hard to see what he's doing. But the 
software seems to have some impressive area colouring capabilities!

6. This guy clearly has more talent in his left toenail than I have in 
my entire body. Even if I somehow purchased the hardware and software 
that he has, I wouldn't know what to do with it. Just... wow. I should 
go away and be quiet now...

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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> [I was actually toying with the idea of making a web comic of my own. 
> Now I see what an absurd idea that is.]

Oh cmon, you don't need to have CAD's artistic quality. Can you draw 
comics as good as xkcd?

> 3. He seems to draw and re-draw and constantly tweak everything way more 
> than I would have imagined. I assumed he was one of these people who can 
> just draw a line and do it perfectly every time. But no, actually he 
> seems to spend quite a lot of time adjusting each part to get it just 
> so. No wonder the final image looks so damn fine!

Well, that was another comment he got often.
"You're a damned perfectionist you know that...?"

> 4. Woah, that's A LOT of levels of shading!

Lots of people noticed details while watching the video that they had 
never noticed on the comics themselves.

> 6. This guy clearly has more talent in his left toenail than I have in 
> my entire body. Even if I somehow purchased the hardware and software 
> that he has, I wouldn't know what to do with it. Just... wow. I should 
> go away and be quiet now...

Challenge him in Haskell programming?

Different people have *different* skills.

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Orchid XP v7 wrote:
> Having got over just how amazing his hardware and software is, several 
> other facts strike me:
> 
> 1. This is speeded up 600 times? And it still takes, like, 20 minutes 
> for him to draw the whole thing? Wow, that's a long time! (And the 
> finished image looks so easy...)

200 hours? That doesn't seem right. 60x speed-up would be 20 hours worth...

> [I was actually toying with the idea of making a web comic of my own. 
> Now I see what an absurd idea that is.]
> 
> 2. He can do stuff with pencil and paper that I couldn't do in my 
> wildest daydreams. I mean, if you left me in a room with a pad of paper 
> for 20 years, I still couldn't produce anything approaching this level 
> of sophistication.
> 
> 3. He seems to draw and re-draw and constantly tweak everything way more 
> than I would have imagined. I assumed he was one of these people who can 
> just draw a line and do it perfectly every time. But no, actually he 
> seems to spend quite a lot of time adjusting each part to get it just 
> so. No wonder the final image looks so damn fine!
> 
> 4. Woah, that's A LOT of levels of shading!
> 
> 5. There are quite a few parts where he's not *drawing* anything, just 
> pressing buttons on the UI. It's hard to see what he's doing. But the 
> software seems to have some impressive area colouring capabilities!
> 
> 6. This guy clearly has more talent in his left toenail than I have in 
> my entire body. Even if I somehow purchased the hardware and software 
> that he has, I wouldn't know what to do with it. Just... wow. I should 
> go away and be quiet now...
>

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Nicolas Alvarez wrote:

>> [I was actually toying with the idea of making a web comic of my own. 
>> Now I see what an absurd idea that is.]
> 
> Oh cmon, you don't need to have CAD's artistic quality. Can you draw 
> comics as good as xkcd?

You laugh, but take a closer look for a moment.

XKCD is a comic featuring only stick figures. With NO FREAKIN' FACES! 
And yet, they manage to convey emotion. All using nothing but body 
language. From bodies make out of black lines on a white background.

If you stop and think about all that for a moment, you'll realise that 
actually, XKCD is *way* harder than it looks!

> Well, that was another comment he got often.
> "You're a damned perfectionist you know that...?"

LOL! Well, the final results *do* look pretty damn good, no? ;-)

[Actually, it's quite interesting to compare, say, today's comic to 
comic #1. There's quite a bit difference in art style. It changed over 
the years, really gradually, but if you compare the two endpoints it's 
quite striking. Oh yeah, and Lilah in particular looks a lot less geeky 
than she used to...]

>> 4. Woah, that's A LOT of levels of shading!
> 
> Lots of people noticed details while watching the video that they had 
> never noticed on the comics themselves.

I had noticed 2 levels of shading. Apparently there's actually 3 - 
there's a really thin line of light as well as the more obvious dark 
patches. And the shading on the tree is just... wow.

>> 6. This guy clearly has more talent in his left toenail than I have in 
>> my entire body. Even if I somehow purchased the hardware and software 
>> that he has, I wouldn't know what to do with it. Just... wow. I should 
>> go away and be quiet now...
> 
> Challenge him in Haskell programming?
> 
> Different people have *different* skills.

Hmm... I suspect I might get 0wned at that too. :-S

Never challenge anybody to anything. You end up loosing. And then you 
look very stupid.

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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>> 1. This is speeded up 600 times? And it still takes, like, 20 minutes 
>> for him to draw the whole thing? Wow, that's a long time! (And the 
>> finished image looks so easy...)
> 
> 200 hours? That doesn't seem right. 60x speed-up would be 20 hours worth...

Yeah, I think you might be right. 600x would be a freakin' BLUR... I 
must be mis-remembering this stuff. ;-)

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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Orchid XP v7 wrote:
> OK, I just watched this:
> 
> http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/index.php/xmas2006
> 
> Two rather obvious questions immediately throw themselves at me.
> 
> 1. Where the hell did he get a computer screen you can draw on??

That's a Wacom Cintiq.  ( http://www.wacom.com )

I was going to get one but they were just starting to put out consumer 
TabletPCs at the time, so I went with the portability.

-- 
Tim Cook
http://empyrean.digitalartsuk.com

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47c861a5$1@news.povray.org...

> Advanced. So, like, it's as expensive as a high-end tablet *and* a 
> high-end monitor? Must cost a fortune! o_O

About 2500-3500 $.
Actually I was "using" one a couple of hours ago. It's not mine 
unfortunately, and the guy who has it (a professional graphic designer) uses 
it in combination with a regular screen. What happened was that I was 
showing him some modelling tricks with C4D (on the regular screen) and I 
somehow lost track of the mouse pointer... which was now on the tablet. This 
is really impressive tech.

> Yes. [Although obviously I've never seen it, only heard that it exists. It 
> seems more like a legend than a real commercial product...]

Like Mike said, just download the trial version. If you've never seen a 
killer app (apart Excel) that's the one. Also, if you can convince your 
bosses to buy you a license, Adobe allows you to have a second installation 
on your own computer.

G.

-- 
**********************
http://www.oyonale.com
**********************
- Graphic experiments
- POV-Ray, Cinema 4D and Poser computer art
- Posters

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