Journey of a Stache: Making Manga
Friday, July 8, 2011 at 8:31PM
OK - I've been wanting to do this for a while now. This is an app by app walk through of how I went from testing out a new app to making something that I am really quite happy about...
First we start with a picture of a friend, typically this happens because I have a new app that I need to test out, and they guinea pig for me.
So I decide to test out the Kick Ass Photobomb app to see if it is worth keeping... Let's see what we get...
I see two things right away that are negatives.
1) I lost a LOT of resolution. Really chopped the image...
2) Watermarked. If you can even call it that in this instance. It's more of a full on advertisement on the image that'll HAVE to be cropped out - which means I'm losing even more of the image.
Not thrilled, but I have to say that the app did some nice work. I liked what I was able to add, and it blended beautifully. I'll keep playing and see where it goes... I took it into Camera+ and cropped. While I was in there I hit it with a little HDR action because I, like the rest of the known universe, find that crap amazing. Makes you feel like a god when it works out well... Here's what I got:
So I like the comic book thing going on so far - The Kick Ass Photobomb app had started that, and the HDR effect kept it rolling... Hmmmmm what else do I have that could push this project along? I've been playing with an app called Dynamic Light - and it gives you good control over HDR effects and you can really get in there and muck around. I gave it a try, and I came out with this:
Yeah... That's awesome. Overdone and blown out - but awesome. And Now I have decided that I REALLY want this to look like a piece of cover art for a Graphic Novel or a Manga. To do that, I have to pretend that I am an artist. I have an app that is called ArtistsTouch that has served me pretty well in the past when I needed to feign talent - So let's go there first:
Loving it - but it's not gonna fly at this point. One thing that I REALLY liked - ArtistsTouch gave me back some of the size that had been stripped away. Making a mental note of that now. It added the brush strokes AND size. That's a win. Now - I mentioned that it wasn't going to fly, and the reason isn't easy to explain. It met my criteria - looked artsy. Looked comic booky. DONE!
Not done. Something is missing. Keep going. I want something different as a finished piece. I'm going to use an app called Pic Blender to combine the last two images that I just showed you, and see what I can see:
That's interesting. It scaled the image to the size of the smaller of the two. Noted, and acceptable, and moving on. LOVE the look of it. Really feel like I am getting somewhere now. I need to shapen up the lines of the piece to create some definition though. It's too soft and fuzzy. ToonPaint might be the most overused app on my iPhone. I use it about as much as I use the mail app... Even before I launch the app, I know that I'm going to be making two images - One will be color, and the other will be black and white. This'll only take a minute, but it'll look like I spent a LONG time getting these images (ToonPaint, I love you SOO much)...
Color:
Black and White:
Love where I am at, and I KNOW that I have to take THOSE two images, and open up Pic Blender again... Observe:
Now... I see things that others don't always see. When I see that image I see two things:
1) His Name Tag
2) That damn napkin dispenser.
They gotta go. Touch Retouch is on the iPhone. If you don't know what it is, it is a slap in the face of the fine folks from Abode... Intelligent fill done on an iPhone? Yep. And well. Check it out:
And like magic - the annoyances in the image have gone away! AND Touch Retouch has also upped the resolution a bit. I've got my piece. I am done!
Or so I thought. I did this weeks ago. I keep pulling it up, and looking it over. I love it. It's just the right blend of looks to make me feel like it COULD be the cover of a Manga or a Graphic Novel... It's got attitude and charm and balance and I am happy with it. But why do I keep noodling with it, then?
I have an app that I sometimes use to help me when things like this happen. It's called Photofunia. It takes your picture and places it on a Billboard, or on a canvas at an art gallery - that sort of thing... It's great, but it's better when you take something that you've created - something that you have put through a firing line of apps - and THEN you see what Photofunia can do for you. And the results can be magical, from time to time:
So that's the story of going from Point A to Point Q (see what I did there?) with a picture and a handful of apps inside of the most remarkable handheld computer on the planet.
I hope that this didn't bore you to the point of no return. we'll be back with something that will be funny (to us) soon enough...
Reader Comments (4)
In this case, both the journey and the destination are amazing. Your love of creation is easy to read in this post. I'm blown away by the photofunia effect. Really awesome result. Thanks for sharing the whole process.
Thanks for being cool with the post - I could have done another with a pic of me, but it would have been contrived - and chances are that I wouldn't have liked the end product as much as I do with this one...
You gave kovokz a hair cut that would require even more gel than the original! Wasn't sure that was possible :D
Excellent work, Mr. C! Always nice to see the method behind the madness...
At first I was like "why does he need an app for the HDR? Just use the button!"
Then I was like "ohhhhh..... that's right...."