Posts Tagged ‘outsourcing’

5 results.

Comic Coloring – Flatting

by Jason Brubaker on November 23, 2009 at 9:21 am
Posted In: Blog, Making Graphic Novels

Flatting? What’s that?

For about 3 years now, I’ve been slaving away at my coloring process about as slow as possible. I would spend hours and hours filling between the lines all while throwing textures over everything to see how it might look. I would work on a page for half a day and then just leave it alone for a while. Perhaps I might dream of a better color pallet that night. Or maybe I’ll be able to see something better if I open it up in a week or a month.

One time I actually hired some freelancers from India and Japan to color a test page to see if they could match my style and save me precious time. I gave them specific reference of how I wanted it to look and even examples of the color pallet. I even gave them my homemade texture files.
When I got the pages back they looked…well, lets just say I deleted the files even after revisions so that I wouldn’t be influenced in any way by what I saw. Don’t get me wrong, they did a great job coloring the pages but it wasn’t right for my project. Even though it was far from what I wanted, it was money well spent because it sent me on a quest to figure out more efficient methods of coloring my pages.
Later I thought about hiring one of them to paint all the sections of my pages a flat color on layers so that I could easily adjust it all and add textures and lighting myself. This would save me so much time but how would I explain this crazy concept that, obviously has never been done before, to a guy across the world with a language barrier. Maybe I can pay him less if he’s just PREPARING the files for me, I thought.
I never got around to it. Finishing the line work for the first book was all I could think about. Good thing too. It was only a month ago that I came across a blog in which I learned all about the common practice of comic book flatting. Or to flat out colors.
Flatting is what comic guys call preparing line art for coloring.  It’s exactly what I needed the whole time but had no idea what it was called. On top of that, I’m now noticing that EVERYONE ELSE knows what it is. I guess that’s what I get for trying to do a graphic novel all by myself in secret.  Here are a few excellent tutorials on flatting.
[edit] If you’re wondering how I outsourced to a few guys on the other side of the world, I talk about that here: Outsourcing.

Here are some images of my process for spread 4.

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Outsourcing Comic Pages

by Jason Brubaker on November 30, 2009 at 10:17 am
Posted In: Making Graphic Novels

Outsourcing Comics

To start this off, I'd like to say that I'm not trying to promote outsourcing. I'm sure someone will read this and be upset with me for showing a clear cut way to outsource your comic pages causing the American economy to collapse…again.  All I'm trying to do here is get my stupid graphic novel finished before I'm to old to draw.  Plus I'd rather spend time with my wife and son then flatting a page on the weekends.  After all, this isn't my job, it's my personal project/hobby.

Surviving the effects of globalization for an online freelancer?

Now that I've captivated you with that last link, I'll plow forward.  The whole idea of outsourcing arose after reading the book The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss. This book, in itself, is a controversy. I think Tim is a bit of a salesman myself but I did pick up some interesting things from his ramblings.

Outsourcing was one of them. Outsourcing boring, time consuming, or monotonous things that don't need your special attention so you can focus on things you want to do. 

The book suggests a few websites that specialize in aggregating freelancers from around the globe.  Here are a few of them:

I suggest Elance over Guru. Guru is slow and it's hard to find anyone for a good price.  Why would I want to pay someone $75 an hour to flat out my pages.  Elance, on the other hand is a pretty fast site to look through and you can find people around the world but it does take some getting use to.

I ended up using a small company of five from India called Dream Computers.  They have a few comic coloring samples in their portfolio.  Their hourly rate said $15 but after I paid them for my test pages they emailed me back, dropping their page rate to $15 a page for finished coloring. Just so you know, I never used what they colored because it wasn't what I was looking for but I'm thinking about emailing my contact at Dream Computers to show them a flatting tutorial and negotiate a new price.  After all I don't want to pay them the same price for flatting a page as I would for finished coloring.  My only problem with this method is it seems like you have to spend time and money to get the right freelancer and maybe even teach them what you want them to do.

Even though I can see how this might work out well with the exchange rates, I'm still curious about hiring someone who already knows how to do flats.  I mean how much more could it cost to have a professional flatter?  But where do I find one?

[Edit] Click here to find out – Outsourcing Comic Flatting – part 2 

P.S. I just got reamed the other day about my lousy lettering job in these pages.  I promise I will make it all better once I learn to do it right and I'll post what I learn. 

[Edit] What I learned – Lettering and Making your own fonts

 

Here is Spread 5 by the way.

 

I'm thinking of adding part of a row boat in the bottom left panel foreground. I already redrew Sonja twice and finally asked my wife to pose for me so I could get it right. I worry it looks more realistic then the rest of her frames.  And talk about negative space!

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Outsourcing to professional flatters

by Jason Brubaker on December 7, 2009 at 11:22 am
Posted In: Making Graphic Novels

Outsourcing to professional flatters

In my last post I brought up Elance or Guru for outsourcing.  This has been useful to know but I almost hate the process of finding the right person, spending money to test them, possibly train them and the whole time wondering if I could just find a more direct route to a professional flatter in the comics industry for a good price.

Enter GutterZombie.

This is an awesome forum started by Dave McCaig, pretty much dedicated to the comic coloring world. These guys really know their stuff and when I asked about flatting they laughed and directed me to a "work for hire section" that is full of Flatters just waiting to get work.  It looks like the going rate is about $10 a page. That's not bad in my opinion.  I can see paying ten dollars instead of using 3 hours of my free time and I don't have to teach them about Flatting.

Here is a link to the work for hire section: Flatters!

There are several people offering their service as flatters but it looks like posting a thread about your project is the best approach.  It seems like everyone finds someone when they post a thread.

I dug through some of the posts and found a few professional looking websites of flatters.  Here are the first five I found but there's plenty more:

Aaron Daly

Alex Petretich

David Burns

Fred Fries

Ruth Lim

I talked to Aaron Daly by email and he offered to flat a page for free to show me how it might work if I hire him for more.  He finished the page I sent him in a flash and it looked amazing!  We talked about a page rate and I must say that it is much better then I expected (sorry I don't want to say his price because he's doing me a favor since I'm paying for this out of my own pocket.) I'll share what he is doing for me in a future post but feel free to check out his samples here.

In conclusion, I'm pretty convinced that finding a flatter through GutterZombie.com is the best approach when looking to outsource. I know I've found my guy and it was pretty easy.

Spread 6 – reMIND

Here is spread 6 along with the pencil lines.  Sorry I'm starting to impose my name and the date of conception on my work.  I've noticed some sites are posting my images which is very exciting but also makes me kinda worried if I don't watermark it from now on. I hope it's not to intrusive into the art.

Here are the final pencil lines of spread 6.

And here is the final colors (I think).  Notice almost a year passed between the pencils and colors.  I'm sure you're also noticing that I'm milking the splash page spreads here.  Don't worry, the whole book isn't going to be like this, although it will have splash spreads throughout. I just wanted the first chapter to be a slower pace to force the mood and feel of the world onto the reader before I jumped into heavy story.

 

(All this information about outsourcing is my unprofessional opinion only. Please contact your CPA for any tax related questions about outsourcing.)

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The Best of reMINDblog – The First 6 Months

by Jason Brubaker on April 29, 2010 at 6:00 am
Posted In: Blog, Making Graphic Novels

Nearly 6 months ago I started reMINDblog.com and I’ve seen many new comments and I want to welcome you all and thank you for partaking in this journey with me.  In hitting the six month milestone, I’ll leave you with a list of my 10 favorite Thursday posts to date.

My Top 10 Favorite reMINDblog Articles…so far.

  1. Before You Start Your Graphic Novel – This was the first real article I made to try and convey something I learned about the GN creative process. It started as an answer to a question that someone asked me in a forum. I didn’t feel like I was qualified to answer but once I started writing it, it was clear to me that I had some important things I wanted to say and warn people about. I’ve updated it since it’s inception so check it out again.
  2. Outsourcing Comic Pages (Specifically Flats) – What I learned in this series of posts on Outsourcing really changed everything for me. I was able to color my last 2 pages in an a hour and a half last night, and it was largely because I learned about flatting and outsourcing. This article has a few parts to it so keep clicking.
  3. Interview with Ian Hannin (a professional comic colorist) – It’s not everyday that I get to interview someone working on Batman. Plus it’s very informative of the creative process of coloring comics.
  4. Making Your Own Comic Font – When I first started my graphic novel, I didn’t seem to care about my fonts or anything to do with Lettering. After showing some pages on forums, my eyes were opened and I realized that the Lettering is just as important as any other aspect of my comic. I tried to find the right font but had trouble getting one I was happy with that matched my style. Shortly after, I learned how to create my own font and never looked back.
  5. Blogger Vs. WordPress – I started out using Google’s Blogger for reMIND but once I starting getting serious about blogging I learned about WordPress and the ComicPress theme. What I discovered completely revolutionized the direction I took with reMINDblog.
  6. RGB Vs. CMYK in Photoshop – This has been a tricky learning curve for me because there are so many opinions of the right way to do things. Even so, I never understood the real working difference in Photoshop until I made this video comparing the two modes. Decide for yourself which mode you want to work in but only after you see what the difference really is.
  7. 1000 Ture Fans – This is an encouraging article about making a living off your comics or graphic novels. The linking article by Kevin Kelly is a must read and can really change the way artists think about their work.
  8. 7 Reasons to NOT use Comic Sans MS in Your Comic – This is by far my most trafficked and controversial article to date. Some hate it and some love it. Before just plopping the first comic font you find into your artwork, check out this article.
  9. Easy Word Balloons – I made a quick tutorial a while back about word balloons. I’ve made them many ways over the years and this is the easiest and best way I’ve discovered.
  10. Unnatural Talent – I know this is a new article but I think it’s one of my most heart felt posts I’ve written so it definitely deserves to be on this list.

Thank you for all your support and comments over the last 6 months. If it wasn’t for all your warm encouragement I’d still be trying to finish the first Chapter.

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Rock Stars and Comic Books

by Jason Brubaker on May 3, 2010 at 6:00 am
Posted In: Blog, Making Graphic Novels

Here are pages 50 and 51. Click to enlarge. Right click to see it full size in a new window.

These pages went through several changes before I finally figure ‘em out. For example, the first panel used to be Victuals at the doorway of his mom’s house and he was in peasant clothes. All the detail in the room was added after the fact and with a Wacom Cintiq. I think it blends pretty well with the pencil drawings. The beads are also all digital. The third panel use to be 2 frames. One with Victuals giving her a ring and the second with them kissing. The ring idea was bad from the start. I mean why would lizards be giving each other rings like humans? Then the kissing panel just looked silly so it got cut. When I think about it, most of the time when I can’t figure out how to draw a story point, I just cut it out and let the narration speak for itself. What a cheap trick. Anyway, I hope this conveys the story I was intending.

If you want to see thumbnails, sketches, pencils and the first coloring pass of these pages then vote HERE!

6 Month Milestone

Today is a special date for me and reMIND.  Six months ago I published the first 2 pages of reMIND. I had no idea what would happen when I started this blog and I had no idea what I was doing either. But now after six months, I can’t imagine trying to finish reMIND without it. I had concerns and doubts when I started but now I can’t stress the benefits enough. I’ll talk much more about this in the future because it’s a fairly new and misunderstood path for publishing. I also hit a few milestones that I want to share real quick:

  • I just hit 200 RSS subscribers about a week ago. For some reason I had 200 as a goal for myself. Not sure why but I’m pumped that I hit it!
  • According to ComicBlogElite, reMINDblog has had over 50,000 unique visitors in the last 6 months. That’s cool!!!
  • I colored a complete spread in an hour and a half yesterday.  This is really fast for me. When I started reMIND (4 years ago) it took me about 3 days to color a spread because I had no idea how to even start. I’ve refined my coloring over the years and started using a flatter and in turn, whittled down the process to a reasonable time. I’m not saying every spread takes me 1.5 hours now, some may take a good 6 hours until I’m happy but the fact that I don’t have to kill myself to get this done is very relieving.

T-Shirt Update

I just talked to my brother-n-law who is also the one making my T-shirts and he told me that I should have my first batch of shirts this Saturday. So it looks like I will be packing up all the Gorilla Packs next weekend to ship out.(assuming all goes according to plan). I still have a few left to move. I have 3 small, 10 medium, 10 large left. So jump on it if you want it for $10. Once I finish selling these I think I’m going to raise the prices to $15 (plus shipping this time). I’m basically selling them for no profit this first batch just to get the word out there. It also leaves me with the bill unless I sell them all. So yeah, buy a shirt so I can pay my brother-n-law. haha

Click here to order shirts.

Also, thanks to all who donated a little extra to help me cover the shipping outside the US. I’m really excited to know that reMIND shirts will be seen around the UK, Netherlands, Germany and Belgium! In fact, I’ve almost sold as many shirts in Europe as I have in the US. Maybe it’s because I like European comics better than most US comics. Interesting.

Rock Stars and Comic books

In my career as an artist I’ve noticed some strange things. One thing that keeps surfacing is famous musicians making comics. In my article about Agents, I talked about an unnamed famous rock star who hired me to draw his stupid comic and never paid me. Yeah, talk about a looser.

I have a good rock start story though. It’s about Rikki Rockett. You know, the drummer of Poison. He’s pretty much the coolest rock star I ever met. When I was at the San Diego Con back in the 90′s I showed him my portfolio and he immediately wanted to hire me. I was invited to Rikki’s private party that night for his new comic company called “No Mercy Comics”. That was cool.

Later that year my friend, Brian Brethauer and I planned a road trip to LA from Idaho to see Rikki and show him some more work. Needless to say, nothing ever panned out. Rikki was awesome but it just wasn’t the right timing. Talk about a surreal moment seeing Rikki Rockett color one of my comic pages in Photoshop. I’ve never seen Photoshop before that day either. Remember, this was 1996.

Rikki coloring one of my pages.

Here’s another picture of Rikki Rockett and Brian Brethauer. I’m not in the picture because I was the one behind the camera. Rikki was eating a giant sandwich.

Since I have no pictures of myself and Rikki to prove that I actually met him. Here is a picture that has Brian and I so you can at least see that I know the guy sitting next to Rikki.

From left to right: Jeremy Barlow, Me, Jon Barlow, Brian Brethauer. Brian’s face is half covered but it’s really the same guy. Seriously. Brian, help me out here! This proof would never hold up in court. Brian?

I bet Rikki and Brian are off somewhere playing golf right now, laughing.

Anyway, so the point of this rock star memorabilia is this.

Last week, I was contacted by someone who works for the singer VV Brown. I guess VV is really into graphic novels and is making her own called The City of Abacus. I was asked to do a feature review of her book but instead I just want to say how fascinating it is that everyone is in the same boat when it comes to making a graphic novel. They might have more fame or money but in the end, they are the same as you and me, just trying to make a cool comic. It’s kinda encouraging when I think about it, I mean the fact that someone famous is asking me to plug their book? Me? I just have a blog and a comic that’s not even published.

I wish VV Brown all the best in her new venture as a graphic novel creator. When I cut my first thrash-metal-country-opera album I’ll know where to go for some press.

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