Tileable Patterns with GIMP

This post is for people trying to create tile able patterns using Gimp

Let's start with an openclipart symbol
http://openclipart.org/detail/1634/clothes-iron-by-johnny_automatic

Open this svg file in Gimp - resize it to 400x314 pixels
goto Layer / scale and put 200x157 pixels
duplicate this layer
On the 1st layer goto Transform / Flip Horizontal
On the 2nd layer - select layer to image size
then goto Transform /offset then click on the Offset by x/2, y/2 button and click on the Wrap Around radio button
The result should be :

Now select copy visible / and paste as pattern

you can now create a new image 1600x1200 pixels with a dark background
and fill that image with the above pattern

The result will look like this :

Oh ?! you wanted an "Iron man 3 wallpaper" ?!

24h comics

24-Hour Comics Day is an event held around the world which challenges writers and artists to create a full 24-page comic in 24 consecutive hours.

This dare was introduced by Scott Mc Cloud in 1990


More information at 24hourcomicsday

Of course you can do this dare any day you want - but every year (usually in October) there are organized challenges over the World - check twitter.com/24hcdgr  

This Year 2012, it's October, 20th.

Note this dare will push you to the limit (both physically and  mentally) - after you get the topic you'll have to invent a story, write the dialogs, then draw 24 pages continuously -  and to tell the truth in the end, you will feel very shaky, delirious and probably hungry. But the feeling of having made a full 24 pages comics is overwhelming.

Some 24h comics samples :
http://www.sarahgasser.ch/index.php?/comic/24h-comic/
http://herebemongoose.blogspot.com/2010/03/happy-easter-bunnies-story.html
http://letsgetadditives.blogspot.com/2011/10/curse-of-24h-comics.html
http://24hcomicinstudiokamsterdam.blogspot.com/
http://12forever.blogspot.com/2010/03/24h-comics.html
http://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?keyWords=24-Hour%20Comics

A special mention for this guy (Alec Longstreth) - who has made it 10 times!
http://www.lulu.com/shop/alec-longstreth/24x7-a-decade-of-24-hour-comics/paperback/product-6515737.html

Impressive!

Final note it seems that the French have done better ... http://23hbd.com/

More comics resources

Textures :
Plain-Textures.Free textures and backgroud pictures..
CGTextures

Learning Books (PDF)
Drawing Books - Open books for Creative Minds!
Save Loomis!

Inkscape tutorials and SVG download
2D Game Art for Programmers

Fonts
Font Squirrel 

Stock
Public domain and Free Stock photos


DeviantArt resources
youresources.deviantart.com

Tutorials
40-cartoon-character-illustration-tutorials

Comics Generator
Stripgenerator
Bitstrips
Pixton


Inspiration
Vintage Illustration Posters

Webcomics little helper

Here comes more helpful links and tips for (web)comic artists 

1. list of (free) programs

Inkscape - For your layout and illustration

Gimp - For sketching, inking, coloring, and adding text (Inkscape might be better for that task).

2. list of miscellaneous helpful links for the making 

Now if you don't have drawing skills you can always fall-back to use some nice comics stock resources free.

For Office comics
Check http://www.designcomics.org/ for usage details.

The whole source files (Characters, Background scenes, etc ...) is available for download in JPG (64MB) or Adobe illustrator format (207MB) at http://www.designcomics.org/source.html

For drawing references
Check this deviantart account, where a lot of renders are available


For caricatures and public domain pictures
check openclipart.org

3. Lettering

For a good selection of comics fonts
Check www.blambot.com (it's a reference)
The website even has some nice tips for letterer

4. Hosting 

Wordpress & Comicpress - Both for your basic site setup and webcomic layout.

(A nice alternative where everything is already setup is comicspace.com)

And finally Webcomic List - Great forum, get tips, help, or have people critique your work!

Making comics on Linux

Making comics is fun, but requires a lot of skills :
you have to be very imaginative, write interesting stories, be well organized, be good at drawing, accept criticism, be able to publish frequently ...

You will also have to make a few choices on the software to use, photoshop still being a bit pricey - you might be interested in open-source software -  and nowadays they are as good as the leading one.

Assuming you already have a comics in mind, and have drawn a few pages already on paper.

The best route for you is to scan those pages, and import them in Gimp - then to ink them and color them.

By putting the sketch on layer1, the ink on layer3, and the colours in layer2  - you are pretty much set.

Beware though, not to mix layers - if you're using Gimp 2.6 - if you have Gimp 2.8 there is a new lock/unlock feature you might use to prevent editing the wrong layer.

Then when the art is done, you simply add a layer4 for text. Make sure the text is spell checked because Gimp doesn't have this ability.

Image credit : Battle for Wesnoth comics

Inkscape Live Path Effect goodies

Inkscape Live Path effects (LPEs) are neat, but unfortunately not well known and therefor underused.


Lately I found this video and the end results are very pleasant, but because of the lack of explanations and the speed of the video - it's hard to follow

I'll try to decompose it -- Basically you follow 3 steps

1. you draw a shape with the Path tools

2. You open the Path Effect Editor, and add "Spiro-spline" to this shape, this effect will smooth the nodes position and creates nice curves, easy on the eyes.

3. Then You add "Pattern Along Path" and click on the first symbol next to Pattern source (the one in orange)

This will generate a little node on the top left corner of the canvas and will allow new transformation on the current shape.

The next steps are up to you, because it's just a matter of finding the right shape - then duplicate it,  transform it (Object to Path) and resize, change the orientation, duplicate some more, change the color, etc ... until you find the right shape you like.

Blogging like it's the end of the world

Blogging it's a way of life, the more you blog the better you get at blogging.

Now that St Patrick is over, Spring is coming and everybody is starting to make plan to go picnic and hiking outside, but some bloggers are still in front of their computer trying to find content for their beloved blog.

That's what blogging is ... writing post, here and there - and building something that will last.

I can easily picture any blogger as the "Doom guy" on top of a mountain trying to survive, being attacked by procrastination, laziness, auto-critics, etc ... but he will prevails and his blog will be awesome.


5 Ways Blogging Can Save Your Sanity : "Once you start blogging, you begin to pay closer attention to the world around you. You notice the details, live in the present moment, and relish the life lessons, because these become the themes you will write about. You stop going through the motions, living your life on auto-pilot, and instead fully engage in everything that happens. This simple shift in your approach improves the quality of your life in unimaginable ways."

How to make cool T-Shirt

Making your own T-Shirt is a fun hobby - It requires about a good design and then you can go into a printing shop or post your creation on zazzle.com and then have a cool "unique" T-Shirt.

There are a number of rules to follow though
The design has to be contrasted, not too much colors and should be around 1800x2100 pixels in 150 dpi.

Having that in mind, you can go crazy.

3 Ways to create a new font from scratch

More detail on this method at http://cleversomeday.wordpress.com/2010/02/09/inkscape-dings/

If you don't have Inkscape or find this too difficult then you can use the "quick and easy" Handwriting font creator: "Free online tool to create a vector font from your own handwriting."


Now dedicated for  t the hard core geek there's "FontForge" but Warning! this tool is not really user friendly - but a lot powerful, that is ... if you manage to use it.

Image quest (update)

Update to the previous post  : images-quest

Last time I was mentioning the case where you would have a picture and would like to retrieve its source - Now, I'd like to talk about another case, when you made a picture, posted it a while ago and want to know - How it spreads over the Internet (aka who stole it).

First a little comment about the website I was mentioning in the last post, which was nearly 2 years ago - As you may have noticed some website have disappeared, some have improved and some are in between (experiencing turbulence).

One star has emerged though, TinEye.com this website isn't trying to find similar images (like images.google.com would but match precisely the image uploaded. It now also exist as FireFox a add-on! One interesting use is to track the spread of images and memes across the Internet. Perfect for the job.


Now what to do if you find some art thief using your Design, logo, pictures, photos ?

That's where YTWWN comes into action - This blog is here for users who discovered that somebody else is using their creative work, and publish the perpetrators on this website. 

Crystal : super sew it!

Remember my last post "Selvaria : sew it!" : My only regret is that Crystal doesn't have created a youtube account (yet).

Well, here it goes :

The costumes are spectacular, kudos for "Firefall" - the game looks a bit like Starcraft "Ghost" ...  So happy, it's really good and Crystal is going stronger and stronger, and this is awesome!

Whatever cosplay she wears, she is always stellar in it.


Now, I only wish she would star in a movie ?!
I wouldn't mind seeing her playing "Black widow"
But what are the odds of that ...