Sky's the Limits with Flash

We all have ideas in our head that we want to see on paper or on the screen. But that's only the start! The real work is figuring out how to create it!

In Media, it's less about which program you used, and more about how did the outcome look? If you can make something look great in Flash and Premiere instead of After Effects; then use that!

Media is basically a mixed media type of painting where you can use anything you want, and you achieve success when the outcome looks beautiful.

Crayola Suite CS6

Programs like the Adobe Suite are all just tools and mediums of the digital art world, just as pencil and charcoal are of the traditional art world.

What's nice, like a pencil, each tool or program has numerous different ways to create the exact same thing. With that being said, I'm going to show you 2 different ways to create clouds in Adobe Flash, my personal favorite tool.

How to Make Clouds in Adobe Flash

First off, let's start with a clean slate. I like my sky to be a subtle gradient between a blue and a slightly washed out blue. In other words, make a square and change the color tab's objects from solid to linear;

Color

Type: Linear

Play around with it, intill you get what you want, or something similar to;

Way 1: Realistic(ish) Clouds

Depending on the art style you are going to use these for, you might need a more stylized approach, but I wanted to show the more realistic looking clouds first.

I like to select some of the colors from the brighter side of the gradient above and scribble in color where you want the clouds to go. Then scribble on top of that with lighter colors, and repeat till you get to white.

Get the basic shape you want, but this doesn't have to perfect.

Should look like this;

Amazing right?

Now convert those scribbles into a Movie Clip Symbol. You can do that by right clicking, and convert to symbol. You can do each cloud individual or all together, depending on the purpose. I do mine individually.

Now in the properties tab on the side, add the filter Blur.

Play with it in till you get what you want. 20-35 usually is more than enough.

Mine came out like so;

Not bad for scribbles.

Way 2: Cartoon (Stylized) Clouds

Now, the ones above are "realistic" feeling, but I enjoy my toon-y ones, too. Take the same gradient background we created before, and let's start over, like an etch-a-sketch.

To start, let's use that fancy 'Circle Tool' creator. Change the paint fill option to "/" or nothing, but keep the stroke. Add 3 circles and combine to get this effect;

Now delete the inner lines. I didn't like what it looked like so I added another circle as you see below;

Fill in with a gradient, white to a washed out blue works perfectly for this. Again, I like to use the background's colors to make it more unified.

Delete the outline, dupilcate the original a few times, and you should get something to this effect;

It's simple, but clean. Try less symbolic shapes when creating yours.

Experiment with this! These techniques aren't "cloud-exclusive." See what else you can make.

Game On (Review: The Guild)

I mentioned this little series as one of my influences, and I thought, 'why not review it?'

The Guild is one of those series that make you say "I can do this!" In a way, it's the 'Clerks' of Web Series. In the same style of Clerks, it takes something that the creator knows very well, makes something out nothing; and then gets famous and a bigger company pays for it. After the first season, Microsoft took interest in it and started funding it, giving it a chance to be shot in pure HD Widecreen goodness.

It allows you to believe that if you believe in something and you put the effort to make it, you'll find an audience.

The series focuses on the ingame guild known as the Knights of Good, a local guild who consist of Codex (played by creator Felicia Day, the timid healer), Zaboo (played by Legend of Neil's creator Sandeep Parikh, the tech knowing and extremely stalkerish warlock), Vork (played by Jeff Lewis, the hated leader), Tinkaballa (played by Amy Okuda, the spitfire archer), Clara (played by Robin Thorson, the dimwitted but excited ice mage), and Bladezz (played by Vincent Caso the innuendo loving and juvenile rouge).

Left to Right: Bladezz, Vork, Zaboo, Codex, Clara, Tinkaballa

The main plot of the series focuses on Codex, who tries to fix the balance of her life after her stalker and guild-mate shows up on her doorstep. It also showcases how games like Guild Wars and World of Warcraft aren't only played by overweight geeks who live in their mother's basements. Each season also focuses on the typical season plot, like Bladezz getting banned or Tink leaving the guild.

Well, minus the 3rd Season that took a strange left turn into an unfamiliar place, it tried to up the antics by dropping Zaboo and Codex's love plot and introducing a much more dangerious threat, a rival Guild (and Wil Wheaton). It also focused much more on the drama and less on the comedy.

Wil Wheaton, obviously the true face of evil.

Any writer knows that Drama is the main element that all stories drive off of, but you also need peaks and valleys where you can take a breath. Season 3 threw every soap opera trick at us to create more drama, but it drained the series from it's highlight, comedy. Each episodes of every season ends with some kind of cliff-hanger styled problem; but, in season 3, instead of resolving the problem, it just added a new one.

Well, season 4 is now a few episodes in and the series is as strong as ever. It took the elements from season 3 that was good, and brought it back home to its roots. Its very refreshing to see this season going back to basics.

This is what the series looked before they got a budget.

Each member is likable in their own way, and while some have had their fair share of low points, they all always seem to shine through anyways. One of my favorite things about the series is seeing why they emerge themselves into the game so desperately. While it's generally the same reason, they dislike real life; its typically more rooting, like Zaboo being over-sheltered to Codex being more confident behind the keyboard.

Plus, another fun item is how that they made it a tradition to make a music video to promote each new season of the show;

Apparently they have more budget for the videos than the episodes.

There's really not much else to say about the series. I've really enjoyed each season, with the exception of 3. I wouldn't mind seeing the major side characters more; the series has a habit of introducing a major season side character and then when the season ends they disappear. They get mentioned (once), but they never really appear. Though, it looks like Fawkes is here to stay.

But if Season 4 and the future seasons keep on the path it's on, this is going to be one of my favorites, if it's not already, web series. I highly recommend you to either watch it on Xbox Live's Market Place or on the web, it's free for both consoles.

A Map of Influences

So there's this little meme going around over at Deviantart, where you take the template and fill in the blanks with people and pieces that have influence your style and art. So without further ado, here is mine!

I've been watching and reading Eiichiro Oda's One Piece for a few years now. It's a simple story about a pirate captain made of rubber, looking for the ultimate treasure. It might be simplistic, have an easy to figure out story arc structures; but something about it keeps you wanting more.

You know that cartoon/comic that you learned how to draw by mimicking it? One Piece is that to me. Some people have Batman or Ninja Turtles, I have One Piece!

Some of my fondest memories of cartoons rest in Disney's Darkwing Duck and The Adventures of Gummi Bears. These are two series that help me know how I want to be in the entertainment business; I remember catching myself studying it, trying to figure out how they did things.

Venture Bros. and Clerks: The Animated Series are two series that made me want to do cartoons for TV. Both staff didn't really know what they were doing as it is their first (and, for both, only) cartoons on TV.

Venture Bros. first episode was done with Adobe Flash. That has inspired me to want to be able to produce a good, almost traditional-looking, cartoon with the program. It shows that I am not using the program to its full potential, and in a romantic sense, that inspires me to learn more about it.

On the other hand, Clerks has shown me the wonderful world of Animantics, where you take Storyboards (something I have always been interested in doing) and edit them into moving sketches to prep an animated show. What would be more fun that doing two of my favorite things... sketching and editing!

Danny Phantom, X-Men Evolution, Clerks, One Piece, Digimon, and The Meek all effected my art style visually. Gummi Bears effected my art style in structure and in sketch form.

The Meek and Bear Nuts are both Webcomics that are successful (with the Indie crowd, at least) and done by normal folks like myself. (The Meek is done by a teacher.) Both have made me want to step up my own art in different ways. Bear Nuts is kind of lame when it comes to premise (Care Bear Parodies...) but the characters in it are amazing. The Meek is about... I don't even remember anymore, it seems like the plot changes each chapter.

The Guild is something that has made me want to do a story through the Web. It shows that you need an idea you are passionate about, and you'll find people who want to watch what you have to show.

Jacob Dobson and a good majority of The Art Institute of Indianapolis have shaped me, my skills, and my art in a number of different ways. Its introduced me to so much. I don't even know what I want to be anymore, because there's a hundred things that interest me now. Film Editing? Graphic Design? Animation? Character Designer? Box Art Illustrator?

And as cheesy as it is, or maybe it isn't anymore, my Friends obviously have effected me and my art in one way or another. I've known so many "characters" that I hardly have to make any up anymore. Haha. They are inspiring to me in so many ways. Between making me want to go further to not let them down or them helping me evolve my art with their own.

Here is the link to the meme, I say have some fun and do this!

Adamant Ditto

Adamant Ditto is a quirky and nerdy YouTube channel, that does Skype-related video, based on Pokemon, Super Nintendo, and basically anything Video Game related.

Remember those friends that I made through Bowling for Soup? Well, this is what they do now; Pokemon Battle Commentaries. I personally have appeared as a special guest on "Let's Podcast Donkey Kong Country 2," which doesn't look like it's up yet.

Now its time for the break down! I'm going to show you how I created the (Poke)ball in Flash. So, if you know anything about Flash, you know that to use the program to its fullest potential you need to understand that it's all about planning and organizing through layers.

If you look above, you will see that the Pokeball is actually made up of three layers. These are inside a self contain symbol, that way they'll move together and you don't have to move each layer to make it fly across the screen.

If you turn off the shine and shading layers you get these. Pretty simple right? It's the basic rotation animation, nothing extremely impressive. I was so lazy with this that you can see I made half and then flipped them half way through, just reversed the colors.

Now the Shading layer and Shine layer are made exactly the same. But I'll use the Shading Layer as the example. Alright, create the general idea of what you want the shading to look like.

Then convert that shading to a Movie Clip Symbol. A Movie Clip Symbol has more options when it comes filters and properties. The only downside is that you cannot see animation unless you export or test movie; you can't see it in the work space.

Change in the Properties Tab:

Color Effect

Style: Alpha to 81%

Filters

Add Blur:
Change Blur X and Y experiment with it for different objects and different sizes.

Adjust Colors:

This is optional, my original shading color was to low so I edited to fit what it is now.

More of less, you should get something like below;

Above is what mine originally looked like, my settings, and my outcome. I think that'll do for you now.

Thanks!

Fishing For The Soup

Bowling for Soup is an American Pop-Punk band from Dallas, Texas; they are probably the happiest band you'll ever meet. They've made such hits as Girl All The Bad Guys Want, 1985, and Almost.They're probably the funniest band you'll ever hear, plus they like to drink (a lot) on stage, so their show gets better and better. They are huge over in the UK, but they do have a loyal following here in the States.

They are just a fun band, they travel the world (basically the states and the UK) to bring smiles to anyone and everyone. Most of their songs can easily brighten any day. Well almost. But they aren't a typically band, I mean just look at them;

Photography by Kelsey Sailors

Alright, so let's get into what this entry is about! Through Myspace (of all places) I had created a network with the band. I drew a cartoon version of the band, at the time with my limited Flash skills, that I eventually wanted to turn into a music video to their song Smoothie King. Of course, I didn't tell them that; I just wanted to know what they thought about the drawings. Erik Chadler (far left in the above picture; yes the one that looks like a lumberjack) messaged me back saying the band would like my email address. Which I embarrassingly responded with "MrBigGuyYo@aol.com".

I've become good email buddies with Jaret Reddick (next to Erik in the photo above). They occasionally ask me for some artwork they need; typically, I get to do shirts and some times posters. Sometimes it appears on their albums, such as this drawing that got on the Sorry For Partyin' album;

Alright, so let's get to the point of this blog (yeah, again). Jaret recently asked me if I was interested in doing their new EP cover), Fishing for Woos! (By the way, a Extended Play or EP is a CD of music that's too short to be a full fledge Album, but too big to be a Single.) I quickly responded with "Hell yeah!" I made this mock-up of what my idea for the cover looked like. I didn't want to get too literal with the title but I did wanted the act of fishing to be involved.

So I decided that the background should be made up like its a stage play. Everything should look like it's made of cardboard, with the exception being the band. I also wanted a group "cheers!"-like moment going on.

So here is the mock up:

Now, to be honest, I don't know if I am allowed to show you the completed version yet. The main reason is because of bootleggers finding this blog and then taking the image, pretending to be the group, and sell it as merchandise.

Instead, I'll show you the piece with a completed background, but only a sketch of the of the band members. I will also show you the progression of sketch to ink job, and a break down of how I achieve the cardboard effect below;

There's a huge difference compared to the mock up; I love how it evolved. It's great to see how different some things look compared to their initial thumbnail.

The background looks more unique than the stock photo I found off google in the mock up. The poses of the band looks so much more natural and interesting. Plus, I just really enjoy Gary's beer hat and Chris' giant jug you can get at Six Flags or other theme parks.

Next is the sketch and ink job of the band. I did the inking in Flash with the brush tool set to pressure and a smooth of 35 percent. It keeps it nice and smooth, but doesn't try to over correct the lines I draw.

And finally, how I created the cardboard effect. This is simple, first create the object's shape. For this example, I am going to use one of the waves. I created mine in Flash and imported it into Photoshop. If you're more comfortable in Illustrator or Photoshop then by all means create a vector in that program.

Now that it is in Photoshop, I simply added multiple layers blending effects.

Drop Shadow
Normal Settings this was to make it pop out from its background.

Bevel Emboss

Default settings. This will make it look more 3D giving the "edges".

Texture; within the Bevel Emboss change the texture to a cardboard texture easily found on google.

Gradient Overlay
Normal Settings, but change the colors to what you want; with the wave light blue to dark blue.

Stroke

Size: 10 (adjust to size you are working at of course)
Opacity: 56-68%

Reason: I enjoy outlines, this one is optional.

Duplicate the layer and move up. And you should get something similar to this;

I will conclude with that. Later on, I will post the completed version, probably after the EP comes out.

Scooby Re-Doo! (Review: Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated)

Scooby Doo! Myster Incorperated is the new series from the Scooby Doo franchise airing on Cartoon Network. It’s a retooled, rebranded, and rebooted version of the 40-year-old Scooby series of cartoons. This version of Mystery Inc. is set in the so-called "haunted" Crystal Cove, known for its monster sightings.

The mystery-solving sleuths are back to trying to uncover the forgotten history of Crystal Cove. Shaggy, Scooby, Fred, Daphne, and Velma have been warn by the mystifying and unknown Mr. E that the answers they seek, are ones that should remain a secret.

Unlike most Scooby Doo series, this one actually has an ongoing story line in each episode, featuring a clue to the overall plot, found by the group or given to them by Mr. E., but most of the episode focuses on this week's villain. Much like the original series, it has a "Villain of the Week" format.

Another uncommon element in this version is that Mystery Inc's parents show up frequently throughout the episodes; Fred's Dad, the mayor of Crystal Cove, appears in most episodes, along with another new character, the Sheriff.

Speaking of the parentals, they introduce a much needed element to the show; a conflict. The Gang, when not being chased by the monsters, are being scolded by their parents to stop solving mysteries. Proving that the monster sightings are fakes is ruining the economy of the tourist-based Crystal Cove. The gang has been locked up to stop them from solving the mystery on more than one occasion.

This added conflict is great for the series, it helps with the character develop of the gang. The original series had little to no character development and most of characters were one dimensional stereotypes, such as the cowards, the smart one, the leader, and the damsel in distress.

The characters have all been updated to fit more of what they are, teenagers. They don't see eye to eye with their parents, who want what’s best for them, while the group just want to do what they love to do; solve mysteries. Fred's dad wants Fred to be the next mayor, while Fred just wants to invent the perfect trap. Daphne, instead of being danger-prone, she actually finds clues and helps solve the mysteries, which is mostly because she wants to impress Fred, and not be “one of the guys.”

Velma has had the biggest change, becoming much more aggressive than her original counterpart. She's become somewhat of a backbiter, becoming sarcastic and being a little over-controlling on how Shaggy acts. She romantically pursues Shaggy in this incarnation, tries to change him to fit her definition of a good boyfriend. Some of the change was needed to give her character, but sometimes she comes off a bit too extreme.

I've seen some backlash of giving the characters new personalities, but I don't think they're too bad. The only downside is Velma is somewhat of a "bitch", for lack of a better term, in some episodes, while Fred comes off a little too stupid. His constant talk about traps is some times really funny, while other times it makes him sound simple-minded and dumb.

Another addition to the cast is Afro bearing DJ Angel Dynamite. Not much is know about her besides that she is a DJ, and the gang go to her a lot for advice. As mention before, there is a sheriff, who typically appears early on in the episode to warn our heroes, and then again to take the monster away.

One of my favorite parts of the series is its social commentary. One episode has on television some kind of cartoon that looks similar to Chowder, but sounds like Sponge Bob where all the character says is gibberish and the kids can't help but laugh. It reminded me of how everyone in my, and the older generation, thinks all television show anymore are mindless cartoons. A really clever joke was the line;

"Why would you need more money... you're a teacher you make... oh." There is some really good writing in here. You can tell some of the writers know where they are doing.

Another piece of the show that looks like they did well was the art direction. The backgrounds look the best they have in a long time. They have a real style to them with a mixture of color theory, texture, and abstract design. The character designs are very similar to the original with only small and barely noticeable differences to help update the show. The most noticeable feature is that the eyes are all dots, and Fred has a slightly bigger jaw.

It’s interesting how the world is modern, but the characters act almost outdated. It works fine as these characters are fish out of water anyways; with the plot that normal kids don't solve mysteries, but the gang just wants to. When Shaggy and Scooby go into disguise its usually a typical Hanna-Barbara-esuqe disguise, where it’s an outdated vision of something, like women or a child. It’s interesting to see the gang with an outdated outlook on life compared to the people who surround them with clearer views.

Oh, before I forget, this series isn't scared of making nods to the old series in the franchise. In the pilot alone, in a crowd shot, there was a man who looked very much like common cameo of The New Scooby Doo Movies' Don Knotts. In the next scene, showing some of the previous fake monster sightings was Space Kook, Charlie the Haunted Robot, and Miner 49'er all classics of Scooby Doo! Where Are You!

Another The New Scooby Doo Movies reference is that this series and another retro-styled show Batman the Brave and the Bold are going to have a crossover episode. I hope this is similar to the episodes with Batman and Robin back in the 80's.

The series is early in, but it’s at least a promising start. Most of the mysteries have been good, but there have been some flops. Like the gang going to city with only 3 people and there was only 3 monsters with the same builds and hairstyles. Other than some of the weaker mysteries the comedy is good. It’s not the typical slapstick like the previous shows; it’s more about the dialogue and situational comedy.

I've quickly taken a liking to this incarnation. I think most will too. It looks like, in my age group, most have found this series to be the best out of the entire franchise. I don't know if I will say this, but I think this is the best thing to come out of it since Scooby Doo on Zombie Island.