Wanna help me with the comic?

[SekoETC]

As the quality of drawing and coloring has advanced from a MsPaint sketch to something more detailed, so does the amount of work. Sketching and planning is done during several weeks, inking takes at least a day and coloring might take a couple. And then there are those pesky backgrounds, although the use of Photoshop has made it faster.

But yeah, since real comic artists use slave- uh, other people to ink and color their work, I was wondering if someone here would be interested in helping me with that. It's rather boring and doesn't give much room for creativity, but the reward is fame and getting credited in the webzine. The job requires having Photoshop and knowing how to use it, and of course anal retentive precision. Extra information will be provided if someone takes the bai- um... I mean.. the challenge.

Actually I think I'll be doing the inking myself but could use a hand with the coloring.

[carlaco]

I have PS CS2 & 3 and a bit of experience with photo manip, not actual art, but I'm willing to colorize and "fill in" as needed if you like.

Here's some I've done for another site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/22047386@N ... 070874622/

not a comic, but it proves I know my way around PS lol.

[SekoETC]

Ok good. I'll pm you in a bit. I just finished sketching and writing the lines today, but inking is likely to take a full day.

[Piscator]

Well, I guess I could try it, too. I have to admit though, that I don't really have a clear idea of what I would have to do. I'm not sure either if I have Photoshop somewhere on my system. Is the program required for a special reason?

[SekoETC]

Photoshop allows using layers and transparency and there are useful blend modes. There are other programs that could do the same but it's not certain if it's possible to save in a format that those other programs would understand. The working format must be lossless and support layers, otherwise quality will suffer. I find it easier to send over a psd file, have the helper work on it and email back the edited version when it's done. It might also be good to have the coloring on a separate layer so that if there's some mistakes, it will be easier to fix without having to erase inking.

[Piscator]

I can open .psd files with The GIMP but I haven't done much with the program except watching my photos. Paint.NET would support layers and transparency, but it only works with .bmp, .jpeg, .gif, .png and so on. I guess I could change the file format back and forth, but that would most likely cause some quality deficiencies.
Anyway, I'd still like to try. Even if I shouldn't get anything done this time, perhaps I could help with the next issue.

[SekoETC]

Here's one thing that could work. PNG has full alpha support so I could send you just the layer with the inking in PNG format. Then you can work on it in any program that you like, just as long as it supports transparency and layers. Once you're done, hide or delete the layer with the inking and save the coloring layer in png, send that to me. It should work, hopefully.

Pros:
- I can keep the dialog to myself so you still got something to look forward to when it's done
- smaller file size

Cons:
- copypasting

[Piscator]

That should work. But why can't I combine the colouring with the inking directly? I mean, it should be easier combining both layers right here than sending just one layer and combine it elsewhere.

[SekoETC]

It's just a precaution in case you make some mistake, it will be easier to fix if the inking is on a different layer.

[Piscator]

OK. I see. I'll PM you my E-mail address immediately.

[SekoETC]

Are you reading your email guys?

[Piscator]

I do. I finished skin and hair yesterday evening and am going to do some more right now. I didn't know you expected confirmation.

edit: Done.

[carlaco]

I'm like...80% done, should be done today- if my own staff would quit bugging me about silliness >.<

[SekoETC]

I didn't notice your reply here, carlaco, so you should know that you both have been given the same panels to work on (well, Piscator had finished everything else and I had received no message from carlaco so I sent the same file to Piscator that I had originally sent to carlaco). This naturally means that only one version can get in. The deadline is today and I would naturally like to compare your versions but that's a bit hard if I haven't received them. You've got 4 hours. If I haven't received anything in that time, I'll do it myself.

[Piscator]

I'm sorry I wasn't able to finish the last panel. I was overly optimistic about my spare time and experienced some connection problems lately, too. I hope everything is well.