A Short Animation

I've been monkeying around with Indeeo's iDraw application on the iPad and the Mac. The more I use it the more I like it.

For some reason I've never liked bitmap editing apps - like PhotoShop, Corel Painter or Autodesk Sketchbook Pro - as painting tools. I use them as image editing tools mostly. There are people out there who can work magic with them but I haven't put the hours in to become that good. I find it easier to use physical media - Pencils, brushes, paint and paper - but there's something about vector drawing that appeals to the tinkerer in me.

Some time ago I bought Boinx Software's Fotomagico. I played with it for a while but it slowly slipped into the background. I've been thinking for some time that it would be good for creating simple animations or animatics for storyboards. Then, the other night, I discovered that iDraw would export the layers in a drawing as separate files, all in one go - just click a menu item and voila! Presto Changeo!

The light went on. Fotomagico slide can have 6 layers that can be moved independently, so I can create a vector drawing in iDraw, export the layers as .png files then import them into Fotomagico to animate them.

I threw something together using some components from the Christmas Card and sat back with a delighted, ear to ear grin as I watched it play.

Picture this. Your driving down a road in the late evening, there are houses set back from the road with cosy glows in their windows, bare winter trees behind the houses. A bright crescent moon rises and a shooting star streaks across the sky.

Now watch this space...

So, That was Christmas

My Christmas card this year was another in the series of warning signs, suggested by Nissa - a member of the illustration class at Putney School of Art and Design.

I created it on an iPad using Indeeo's iDraw app. This is a powerful but simple vector illustration app that does what Adobe Illustrator does but at a fraction of the price. There's also a OS X app for your Mac which syncs with the iPad app via iCloud or DropBox.

I often rough ideas out on the iPad then tidy them up on the Mac. I created this one entirely on the iPad.

Vector graphics can be tedious and time consuming to create but they have several advantages. I mentioned scalability in a previous post. Also, each item you draw remains a discrete object that can be changed easily. You can group objects and create layers, making editing easier.

When I found a problem with various components of this drawing, doing something else while thinking about it and trying out different solutions was great fun, like solving a puzzle but with something to show at the end of it. Vector graphics seem to lend themselves to iterative improvement.

I've only dabbled with vector illustration but I'm beginning to see how I can use it more effectively. The ability to create a collection of reusable objects is useful and can help cut down the time it takes to create a drawing.

The flywheel wouldn't stop spinning and I couldn't leave it alone.  There was a beautiful clear sky on Christmas eve, and a brilliant crescent moon behind the trees - so bright you could see the unlit part - Old O'Ryan marching high across the sky.

Creating the trees was interesting - here's a clue. Self similarity (for those of you who were swept along by the chaos theory fractal thing a couple of decades ago).

What that needs is a Wowl Awa Rich!

Yes, I was thinking that myself.

Ottoline and Old Thrubby

This blog is all about getting sruff out there even if it's not polished and perfect. Here's a very raw first draft of the saga of Ottoline and Old Thrubby - AKA The Collaborative Project.

Ottoline and Old Thrubby are a pair of intemperate old reprobates from a land that time forgot, before plitty creckness shone the torch of enlightenment into our souls. If you're offended by anything they say, well - that's what it was like back then - they'd probably find us a curious lot too.

But remember, they walk among us...

Bear With Me a Second

Another bear sketch.

Mess with me, y'mess with m'bear!

Wanna Rumble?

Just Bear, With Me

Last Friday was the last session of this year at the Putney School of Art and Design Illustration class. One or two people were collecting contact information and a couple of my classmates were enthusing about Facebook. I sent them an email a few days ago asking them to sell the benefits to me, as they both had sensible shoes on the subject.

I received a reply from one of them last night to say she hadn't forgotten about this but was up against the Dead Lions so "bear with me" - adding a comment about the oddness of that phrase, and perhaps there's a sign in there.

That's all the prompting I needed and a maelstrom of ideas swirled around my head - or was that just the wind in the poplars.

Good title for a book Awa Rich!

Here's a preliminary sketch - thanks for the nudge Sharon http://creativefoxblog.blogspot.co.uk

Just Bear, With Me

More Signs

Here are a few pages from my sketchbook for the Sign a Day Week thing.

The left hand page was inspired by the genuine HazMat sign for Oxidising Agent. You can see from the notes I was wondering what it might represent in a social context. I opted for Bad Hair Day.

The first one, which is more like the original, proved more popular. The second one seems to represent more than a bad hair day. And yes, I reused the flames from the Pants on Fire sign.

In the pages below you can see the original drawing for the Do Not Exceed the Speed of Light sign and some signage people experiencing distress as there is a problem with the toilets.

A couple of weeks ago I was having similar distress during the show and tell session in the illustration class. After several visits to the two occupied toilets I gave up and crossed my legs. Later, I stuck this sign on one of the toilet doors. I was delighted to see it was still there a week later.

Jack Frost Nipping at your Nose

Today it is cold. Not as cold as some places but colder than it has been here for a while. This morning I found a small, hard, greyish pea sized object between my toes...

OK, Stop right there Awa Rich! Please, not the frozen fart joke. Leave that one in Maybury Road School playground where it belongs!

Sorry, but sometimes the force is strong with some jokes.

Im Kuhlschrank Dude!

 Dude! Who ya kiddin? Y'did that in PhotoShop Awa Rich!

Nope!

Wish they were!

Actually I did it with Pixelmator on my iPad.

Have you nothing better to do Awa Rich?

Probably....