Hiver

Manga Studio, y a encore du boulot, mais ça va de mieux en mieux
voila les parametres de la plume utilisée "Kabura"
La correction est a 3.0 c'est assez fort - mais ça aide bien
Le detail du bonnet c'est un peu laborieux.
Pour les bottes j'utilise une "Pattern Brush" avec des hachures.

NB : L'image de base est fournie par Faestock -- voir plus de détail ici

Essai avec Manga Studio

Finalement j'ai acheté  MangaStudio Ex et aujourd'hui je me suis dit que j'allais le testé de fond en comble.

Depuis le début de la semaine j'ai fait plein de sketches pour bien maitriser les "brushes" ou plumes, de façon a pas perdre trop de temps.

La touche pour l'outil d'encrage c'est P

4, 5 et 6 permettent de basculer noir, blanc ou transparent

Et donc a partir de 16h j'ai pris une page de BD (l'épisode 001 du call-centre Grinder) et je l'ai entièrement recomposé de A jusqu'a Z sur le Manga Studio - verdict après 3 heures et demi de boulot non-stop

J'ai les calques suivants :

- pour le sketch

- pour les bulles

- pour l'encrage

- pour les tons

L'application Manga Studio sous OS X 10.5 est stable, j'ai pas eu de plantage, ni de crash, ni de "quittage" inopiné, pour l'ajout de textes, c'est un peu laborieux, mais l'editeur d'histoire permet de modifier les textes comme dans un traitement de textes – et ça c'est drôlement bien.

L'encrage est simple, c'est la partie sympa

La fonction de zoom

Création des sketches en 12.5%

Encrage a 100 voire 150%

Interruptions

Comment poursuivre un projet de façon optimal par petit tronçons de 2 heures par ci, 2 heures par la ?!

Comment garder le même style de dessin sur un projet étaler sur plusieurs mois (avec des interruptions, et par tronçons de 2 heures) ?

Comment garder le même élan ? Le même entrain ?

Comment conserver l'inspiration créative sur une période en pointillé ?

Actuellement c'est je pense mon plus gros problème – et je cherche une solution – une manière astucieuse de pouvoir se replonger rapidement dans un projet ancien (comme si j'ouvrais un tiroir dans ma mémoire) – car actuellement, j'ai tendance a repartir sur de nouvelle base : Un projet en cours sur lequel je n'ai pas pu travaillé depuis une semaine, est de facto un projet abandonné.

A priori je suis pas le seul ...
A bit of a rant--read at your own risk by ~KatSushimi247 on deviantART:

Grincheux

Grincheux, raleur, pas content, roumegueur.
C'est le chat Grincheux.
Il ronronne même pas il grommelle!

Optimizing KDE

Running LinuxMint 13 (Linux Maya 3.2.0-23-generic) with KDE Development Platform: 4.8.4 on a Mac-Mini (with 1GB RAM).

I tried to use Krita and create document template comics (European) - this particular operation is very resources demanding and causes the system to get slower and slower and finally crash everything.

so I made some optimization - and here's the list (before I forget to put them in writing and will have to struggle to find all the steps back, if I ever have to reinstall someday).

Des chats partout

Vous aimez les chats ? Tant mieux je vais en faire plein (des bleus, des bruns, des roux, des jaunes etc ...)

Gratuitous painting of a tier1

This is another Gimp painting

A tier1 agent working in the “Call Centre Grinder” - I might call her Tricia, because in the very first episode of season 1 - Martin is mentioning that Tricia is on the late shift, and we actually never have the chance to see her later. The only woman in the Grinder being Barbara for a long while, and at the end of season 2 appears Svetlana ... 

Now the fun part is that I made some preparatory sketches for Tricia (when I was doing character design before starting season1) and she doesn't look like the painting above at all - she was supposed to be more of an Irish "matrone". 

Another fun detail about the painting is the Celtic motives on her brown skirt. 

They're from a Wallpaper  made earlier. I very much like the idea of recycling things.

Now there's the link of the comics - I'm slowly working on season 03 and might even change the vertical 3 frames format into a 4 frames box.
sites.google.com/site/callcentregrinder/

I like to end with some very useful tips on "how to draw girls" from a very talented artist *Robaato :

Girly Tips by *Robaato on deviantART:

- Using shapes for your gestures beats stick figure methods!
- Draw constantly. Don't just look at what you're working on, study it! Learn why certain things connect the way they do, what muscles get tense in a position and relaxed, etc. Don't just draw what you see.
- Come up with your own visual cues to help you "see" how a form works, like the McDonald's Arches and Megaman Boot. You'd be surprised how easy it is for you to remember how something looks!
- With women, remember, dainty and curvy lines beats hard edgy lines! No matter the size of woman's breasts or hips or proportions, these things always apply best: Hands with less lines, thinner fingers and smaller feet. Using line minimally also bumps femininity up if you're not confident with what you're doing yet. And curves always! Even on the straightest line, make it a bit curvy.

Gratuitous Painting of Bob Prezkovic

Made with Gimp - Lately I've tried to use Krita, then because I couldn't really do anything that didn't look like blobs and splotches ; out of frustration I switched to mypaint and did that little sketch - because my feeling at the time was that I had completely lost any abilities and wouldn't be able to make art ever again ... that little sketch was made in less than 5 mn and restored my faith, then I tried something very ambitious involving a gigantic labyrinth of cubicles filled with little people trapped  and acting in various ways to escape their little space - it was really fun, and then it happened the system started to feel slow, then very slow, a little slower, then it seems to halt, then the mouse cursor was barely moving ... I waited around 10mn and gave up ... I had to force shutdown and lost that drawing.

Then I spent 2 days sulking and won't even start the computer, and finally today I launched Gimp
and made this painting above, it's Bob and he's apparently awkwardly adorable.
His T-shirt says "Fnück".

But that last crash, it was surreal ... was it KDE ?! I only use this environment for the last 2 weeks (before that I only used gnome, then MATE), so far I liked it ...

Se perdre dans les details

Je vois souvent des petit poster de motivations qui disent en gros « Il faut dessiner, même si vous avez pas envie, même si l'inspiration est pas la, dessiner quand même »

C'est un peu une (connerie) exageration parce que dessiner c'est d'abord quelque chose qui vient du cœur ; comment on pourrait rester 12 heures sur un dessin, si ça venait pas du cœur ? Et pourquoi se forcer ?! l'inspiration vient (elle prends son temps parfois, mais elle vient).

Après avoir goûter au pixel-art, avoir fait un petit bout de chemin avec Gimp, je me suis mis a myPaint parce qu'il est simple et centrer sur le trait. C'est pour cela que je démarre une petite série d'illustrations très fouillée – qui permet de se perdre dans les détails, cela a beaucoup d'avantages.

Mais ça risque de tuer ma petite tablette wacom...  

Fnük T-Shirt

See other gifts available on Zazzle.

Made this few T-Shirt ; Got the inspiration from my weird swearing word : instead of saying f* I say Fnük and this is how it started

Mute Button

Because a call-centre agent (or telemarketer) is basically reduced to be an expendable canon fodder stuck between picky customers and the constantly scrutinizing and demanding hierarchy – his only way to break through the day is a little gadget on his phone, that allow him to let the steam off from times to times and crack a joke during the conversation, without the customer knowing.

Every agent cherish the mute button, some even give it a name.

Mac-mini dual boot (OS X/Linux)

This post follows my last attempt to install a linuxmint in a virtual machine (virtualbox) see previous post.

After noticing that the Bamboo Wacom tablet wasn't recognized (unless practicing voodoo) I didn't had much choice but to forget the virtual route and ...

Launch Bootcamp, make room and prepare 16GB for the linux install

Which wasn't easy because Bootcamp kept whining about some files preventing the partitioning 

"The disk cannot be partitioned because some files cannot be moved"

and the console spat this eloquent piece of literature "hfs_truncatefs: couldn't reclaim space on HD"

It was only after removing virtualbox, and as many files as possible, doing an single user boot (and fsck -fy) then booting on the install CD and launching disc utility then repair permission, repair disk) that finally ... result ... the partition was made 

The Linuxmint installation in comparison was just a walk in the park

Virtualbox, Apple, Julia and Wacom Bamboo fun

I had an idea last week to run Linuxmint on my mac-mini, I made some research and found many people installing various Linux flavour on their mac using either bootcamp or rEFIt - there's real benefits of course to install physically, but I thought having a linux installed in a virtual machine would be simplier.

Because then I don't have to partition the mac-mini HD and install a new bootloader.

That would be cleaner, and if anything goes wrong, no worry it's in a virtual machine box - what can possibly go wrong ?! 

Well ... where can I start ?

Encore plus de sketches

Dessiner c'est un peu comme réinventer une réalité, se l'approprier en quelque sorte. 

Il y a un gros effort sur la coordination entre la vision et le mouvement de la main, surtout dans la perception des jeux de lumières, mais il y a toujours une grande part laissée a l'imagination.

Parfois (lorsque le modèle est en face, ou une photographie) il faut composer et faire un choix, tracer ou ne pas tracer ce petit trait sur le nez... par exemple.

Et toutes ces micros décisions se font en quelques dixièmes de secondes.

En bonus un documentaire sur Philip K. Dick "un genial inventeur de realités" : Prophets of Science Fiction - Philip K Dick. 720p - YouTube: Prophets of Science Fiction

Pratiquez, pratiquez ...

Le dessin c'est comme la musculation, il faut tout le temps travailler sinon le muscle se relâche, maintenant le problème c'est de bien s'exercer – sinon on s'entraine a bien faire les même erreurs, de mieux en mieux et de plus en plus vite.

Un peu comme quand on fait un exercice en se tenant très mal et on se retrouve avec un mal de dos terrible 2 jours après.

Donc pour un bon exercice de "sketching" d'abord les traits de fondation (pour la base des proportions) ensuite un crayon 2B pour les ombres (pas détaillées) et un final avec un crayon a la mine fine. Pour l'instant j'ai pas trouvé mieux. Et a priori ça fait pas trop mal aux yeux.

2 Years ago

Marking the End of season 02 - 40th Episode

That's coincidentally about 2 years ago, that I've quit my Call-Centre job
Never been happier ...

Have a nice day .... and if you're on the phone - remember it's your choice, you can always give a resignation letter.

Anya Stroud Fan-Art (take 2)

It's not my first attempt at  depicting Anya - this time, I opted for a colored inked version.

Since I've never been able to find a way to use the Gimp's ink tool properly, I switched to myPaint because it has a nice Ink brush.

Then went back to Gimp for the coloring, because myPaint can't make selection, and coloring without selecting areas is messy.

And that's how I need 2 applications to make a little picture like this.

Last months have been tough, didn't had much time for arts, and practice - this week is pretty much the spare time I was looking forward to.


There's a 40th Episode I should be finishing soon ...

And every time I feel that I haven't enough time, I think of Henry Darger :

"Henry Joseph Darger (April 12[?], 1892–April 13, 1973) was a reclusive American writer and artist who worked as a janitor in Chicago, Illinois. He has become famous for his posthumously discovered 15,145-page fantasy manuscript called The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion, along with several hundred drawings and watercolor paintings illustrating the story. Darger’s work has become one of the most celebrated examples of outsider art."

I bet he never made any excuses, on why he couldn't work on his comics.

An experiment

Made with #myPaint and #Gimp

[GCC] 39 - Freshly Hired

This is almost the end of season 2 - "Freshly Hired"
And this is also one of Martin Bradford little tricks up in his manager's sleeve :

Avoid hiring an employee directly, because it is never as interesting or beneficial to you, instead you may prefer to hire an Intern or a  contractor. 

Episode 014 - Le retour de Randall (French version)

Le délicat sujet des clients abusifs : dans un call-centre il n'est pas rare que les agents se fassent insulter, (surtout en SAV) ; les clients au téléphone ont un problème et se sentent piégés d'avoir acheter un produit défaillants et parfois ils se lâchent au téléphone et ne voyant par leur interlocuteur (ils assimilent alors le représentant a leur problème avec la société)– Et se mettent a déballer toute sortes d’insanités (surtout si l'agent ne se montre pas coopératif ou assez rapide).

Le problème c'est qu’après avoir raccroché leur combiné, soulagé d'avoir déballé leur agressivité … l'agent lui doit immédiatement reprendre le téléphone pour un nouvel appel – et il arrive souvent qu'en fin de journée même les plus résistants soient démoralisé – d’où le phénomène de "Burn-out"!

Et maintenant un petit documentaire sur la mémoire de l'eau 

[GCC] 38 - The Samurai

In Call-Centres, there's always one particular agent that surpasses everybody - managers likes them, because they can be used as example for the rest of the team.
But always keep in mind the dialog between Roy Batty and Tyrell in the Blade Runner movie  (based on a Philip K. Dick's novel) :

The light that burns twice as bright burns for half as long - and you have burned so very, very brightly.

Samurais, maestros, champions won't last long and will inevitably be burned out!

Needless to say that Greg will take the chair anyway. An agent like Greg doesn't pay respect to "champions" because he knows they just make his average day harder.

Episode 013 - Puis je vous aider (French version)

Le délicat sujet des sauvegardes : dans un call-centre personne (ou presque) ne pense à faire des backups de son travail – c'est ce que j'essaie d'illustrer ici, car quand arrive un problème (fichier écrasé, fichier effacé par erreur, ou fichier corrompu...) – le support technique assume toujours que l'agent a des sauvegarde a jour... Et là, la catastrophe...

Episode 012 - Le PC tout neuf (French version)

Au grand désarroi de notre Peter le nouveau PC est équipé d'un lecteur de cdrom type "grille pain", alors que l'ancien avait un modèle avec chariot qui pouvait donc servir de porteur de tasse a café.

Les experts remarquerons le trombone qui traine sur le bureau – et qui indique que Peter a quand même essayé d'insérer un CD (ou plusieurs ?!) - et qu'il a vraisemblablement bloqué (démolit?!) le lecteur.

Episode 011 - Oxy-moron (French version)

Ouais, la crise la grande excuse pour tout les abus
Faut tout accepter parce que c'est la crise  -

hein ?! si vous êtes pas content toute façon y a plein de chômeurs qui seraient bien content d'avoir votre place …

[GCC] 37 - On the road

Pete is free as a bird (on a bike), cooking his food near a bonfire, riding his bike full-throttle, and viewing breathtaking landscape ... hopefully he won't forget to deliver the fax to the infamous Randall...

Pete is on tour

Pete Munoz (former tier1 agent from the call-centre Grinder) ladies and gentlemen ....

He is still on the road with his faithful bike.
After he left abruptly at the end of a phone conversation (see episode 020) to deliver a Fax to the always irate customer (Mr Randall)>
He has tried to join the “Helpdesk Angels” - by running a few ritual tests (like impersonating Elvis).

It's Meeting, rejoyce people

Talking about increase in calls of the current quarter (compared to the last quarter) then update a few policies, congratulates the best performers and then read the customer feedback, this is called weekly meeting ... and there's nothing more boring than that (unless you're working in accountancy, and you're knee deep into tax deductibility).


Yes, wearing goggles may create the illusion that you’re awake and save you from dying of boredom – but as marvelous as it looks, this scheme isn't soundproof — Bob had to learn it the hard way.

I'll finish this post with an interesting take at the prospect of Mathematics used for Business purposes on social website  
This Tech Bubble Is Different - BusinessWeek
Because you're worth it!

It's Meeting time, rejoyce people
-- Herbert M. Grindaughan  (former CEO of Grinder Inc.)

[GCC] 35 - Greg's Little Trick (English)

New Episode is available - Call Center Grinder:

Here's Greg offering a little trick - this follow his last trouble with drinking too much tea during the day.
Greg has a problem with the air conditioning, because of that he's constantly wearing hot clothes - therefor he has to hydrate a lot more.
Anyway, his little trick won't work if the calls are monitored, and could put Greg in a very tight spot during the next review.
But while he hasn't be caught ...

There was Barbara's little trick a while ago, there is going to be more (can't wait for Bob's bag of tricks)

Episode 010 - Pause café (French version)

[GCC] 34 - Assume the position (English)

Episode 034 : it’s a revivification of the Episode 001 – but with a twist, because the Boss is played by the irreverencious Bob Prezkovic. The idea behind this strip is : “Doesn’t matter who is the boss, the position assumes that he has to play the bad guy”.

But no worry : This isn’t a real change in the comics hierarchy, Martin Bradford is still around, and Bob a tier2 – it’s just Jim Bishop having a bad dream in technicolor!

Don’t forget to join the “Call-Centre Grinder” facebook page

Episode 009 - La belle plante (French version)

Episode 008 - Keyboard Bob (French version)

Episode 007 - Sous Emploiement (French version)

Normalement il faut dire "sous-emploi" mais comme c'est un mensonge - on dit aussi le "sous-emploi" ment.

Episode 006 - Jamais en tort (French version)

3D simulation in gif

A While ago, I was wondering "Why do we live in a 3D Universe" and "What gives the illusion of 3d" - and how could be simulated the effect with Gimp ?

To my understanding, it comes from a parallax shift and shifting focus between front and background plans ... that's what my last series of 3d gif files is trying to mimic.


And what could be better than Bob's distant cousin Svetlana Prezkovicova for the picture ?!

Oh, and Happy New Year!

For the laughs, have a look at Merriam-Webster Online: 2011: The Year in Words