Portal
Solution: Hire some actors, pose them, photograph them and use my Photoshop skills to graphicnovelerise them.
Problem: I don't play well with others. I would start with reasoning to communicate my artistic vision, but would soon leap to coercion and shouting, barely disguising my need to control every fibre of their being, to bend them to my will.
Also, I don't have the means to costume them in a variety of 1940's uniforms and weapons. So, I decided to have a exceedingly clever idea.
What if I, stay with me, acquired some action figures, posed them, photographed them and relied on my Photoshop skills to graphicnovelerise them? This could work! Very straightforward. Just have a quick look on eBay, and away we go!
Or not. Turns out decent action figures are expensive. Decent meaning they're made by people who know what humans look like. You'll get no change from €100 for Mr. Special Forces, just below. If you want James Coburn to star in your WW2 graphic novel, just below again, then not much change from €200 for his Steiner, as Mr. Coburn is a Dragon Action Figure. Top notch, but pricey. After more searching, I found HM Forces coming up a lot. Very nice, but still expensive, at about €40 each.
Problem: I don't play well with others. I would start with reasoning to communicate my artistic vision, but would soon leap to coercion and shouting, barely disguising my need to control every fibre of their being, to bend them to my will.
Also, I don't have the means to costume them in a variety of 1940's uniforms and weapons. So, I decided to have a exceedingly clever idea.
What if I, stay with me, acquired some action figures, posed them, photographed them and relied on my Photoshop skills to graphicnovelerise them? This could work! Very straightforward. Just have a quick look on eBay, and away we go!
Or not. Turns out decent action figures are expensive. Decent meaning they're made by people who know what humans look like. You'll get no change from €100 for Mr. Special Forces, just below. If you want James Coburn to star in your WW2 graphic novel, just below again, then not much change from €200 for his Steiner, as Mr. Coburn is a Dragon Action Figure. Top notch, but pricey. After more searching, I found HM Forces coming up a lot. Very nice, but still expensive, at about €40 each.
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Then, victory! A charity shop in England with an eBay store were selling a job-lot of 9 HM Forces action figures, in a wild collection of uniforms and equipment, including a dog for a very reasonable sum, about €50 total. Perfect!
Perfect-ish! They had several distinct faces between them, enough for my 4 main characters. Also, their contemporary uniforms & weapons were just right, including a complete pilot's uniform, necessary for a crucial scene.
Perfect-ish! They had several distinct faces between them, enough for my 4 main characters. Also, their contemporary uniforms & weapons were just right, including a complete pilot's uniform, necessary for a crucial scene.
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Perfect until I ran into a rather obvious-now-that-I-think-about-it type of problem. HM Forces just make HM figures, and as Her Majesty was always been very much opposed to Nazis, I realised I would have to dress the "other side" separately. Which led me directly to a solution. And another problem...
There is a strong market for military action figures, the type clearly priced for adults with decent jobs. And, as I'd hoped, a strong market for both contemporary and period uniforms & equipment. I was so happy to get those HM figures at a price I could afford. Now, would it be possible to buy some uniforms separately? Short answer, yes!!!
Turns out "short" was a word that would feature more than I desired. Just between you and me, the HM figures are 10" tall. I'm not sure why, but they are. Every other serious "Military Action Figure" manufacturer in the world makes them 12" tall, with everything available matching that most definitely standardised 1:6 scale. Piddle. So, if I wanted uniforms, I would also need 12" figures after all. Which I had already tried to avoid because of the expense. What's a struggling artist to do when faced with such a conundrum? China, that's what.
China, it's like a giant discount store, but...gianter. Could it be? Would they have what are proverbially called "knock-offs"? I think we both know the answer to that. So, some rather well made 12" figures are available for not very much cash. Xie xie.
There is a strong market for military action figures, the type clearly priced for adults with decent jobs. And, as I'd hoped, a strong market for both contemporary and period uniforms & equipment. I was so happy to get those HM figures at a price I could afford. Now, would it be possible to buy some uniforms separately? Short answer, yes!!!
Turns out "short" was a word that would feature more than I desired. Just between you and me, the HM figures are 10" tall. I'm not sure why, but they are. Every other serious "Military Action Figure" manufacturer in the world makes them 12" tall, with everything available matching that most definitely standardised 1:6 scale. Piddle. So, if I wanted uniforms, I would also need 12" figures after all. Which I had already tried to avoid because of the expense. What's a struggling artist to do when faced with such a conundrum? China, that's what.
China, it's like a giant discount store, but...gianter. Could it be? Would they have what are proverbially called "knock-offs"? I think we both know the answer to that. So, some rather well made 12" figures are available for not very much cash. Xie xie.
I acquired markers & pencils and other things that artists use properly. I start planning and drawing, shouting "rubbish!" and getting good value from my eraser. It's common knowledge that The Beatles imbibed substances during their very creative song writing sessions. I don't, but these markers do make me dizzy. It might help...
I tried photographing my figures in rough poses matching what I have in my head. I decided that while I could create the backgrounds in Photoshop, that would be painstaking and the rough layout of the novel itself was already taking so long.
So, I decided to photograph the backgrounds too. As the University where I go every day has beautiful forestry and buildings, I'll use them and composite everything together later on.
I thought the look of the novel would be purely an artistic difficulty, with my hubris inducing range of Photoshop skills convincing me that the realisation of my vision would be rudimentary. While the layout and formatting of the different frame shapes and speech bubbles was no problem, I really struggled to create something that looked even remotely like someone had drawn it.
I borrowed many graphic novels and read through them for inspiration. After forming a rough look in my mind, I still found it so difficult to realise. So, I had a look-see on T'Internet for a Photoshop plug-in that would help me. It took a while, but I found one.
AKVIS!!! Their plug-ins are amazing, (but will also work as standalone programs). I tried out Sketch, and was so happy with it after just a couple of minutes. Below is a before & after. While not representative of any real effort, as I bashed it together in a few minutes, I am still happy enough with it. I used a photo of the inside of a jeep, drew a few bits and photographed my Chinese Cheapo in a cobbled together uniform.
I tried photographing my figures in rough poses matching what I have in my head. I decided that while I could create the backgrounds in Photoshop, that would be painstaking and the rough layout of the novel itself was already taking so long.
So, I decided to photograph the backgrounds too. As the University where I go every day has beautiful forestry and buildings, I'll use them and composite everything together later on.
I thought the look of the novel would be purely an artistic difficulty, with my hubris inducing range of Photoshop skills convincing me that the realisation of my vision would be rudimentary. While the layout and formatting of the different frame shapes and speech bubbles was no problem, I really struggled to create something that looked even remotely like someone had drawn it.
I borrowed many graphic novels and read through them for inspiration. After forming a rough look in my mind, I still found it so difficult to realise. So, I had a look-see on T'Internet for a Photoshop plug-in that would help me. It took a while, but I found one.
AKVIS!!! Their plug-ins are amazing, (but will also work as standalone programs). I tried out Sketch, and was so happy with it after just a couple of minutes. Below is a before & after. While not representative of any real effort, as I bashed it together in a few minutes, I am still happy enough with it. I used a photo of the inside of a jeep, drew a few bits and photographed my Chinese Cheapo in a cobbled together uniform.
Wow! I was thrilled! But, how much would this set me back? A very reasonable €68 for the Home Deluxe version. OK, that's pushing my limited budget, but I had already decided this was a necessary acquisition. But, ever the cheapskate, my eye gravitated toward "Get a Free License"! It wasn't a flashing sign, but it may as well have been.
One of the suggested options was to write a tutorial for their product and maybe they would pay you with a free license. So, I spent a couple of hours writing a tutorial, focusing on, surprise surprise, my own purpose for using Sketch. To my joy, AKVIS replied the next day with a free license! I love them. So, that's what I'll be using to graphicnovelerise my photos. Splendid.
And that's where we are so far. Now I have to finalise composition decisions and figure out exactly what backgrounds I should photograph. I will have to use some Creative Commons resources, such as free-for-use images of military aircraft and pigs, but I do want to create as much as possible personally.
You might remember I mentioned a 2nd script...
One of the suggested options was to write a tutorial for their product and maybe they would pay you with a free license. So, I spent a couple of hours writing a tutorial, focusing on, surprise surprise, my own purpose for using Sketch. To my joy, AKVIS replied the next day with a free license! I love them. So, that's what I'll be using to graphicnovelerise my photos. Splendid.
And that's where we are so far. Now I have to finalise composition decisions and figure out exactly what backgrounds I should photograph. I will have to use some Creative Commons resources, such as free-for-use images of military aircraft and pigs, but I do want to create as much as possible personally.
You might remember I mentioned a 2nd script...
