Full video 1h46min, or watch it directly on Youtube .
Resources
- A zip pack with everything linked in this video is available here
- Deevad Brushkit version 8.1 bundle for Krita
- Comic page template Krita file.
- Perspective star grid PNG image file.
- Speechbubble library and template SVG Inkscape file.
- Lavi Font TTF Font file
Chapter & Content overview
( Note: if you go on the Youtube page , all time tags in video description will be dynamic to jump to the chapter )
0:00:06 Introduction
0:00:32 Disclaimer (french accent)
0:01:00 Chapter 1: Interface of Krita
0:01:00 Dockers,brushkit and tool-option in toolbar
0:01:53 Chapter 2: Preproduction
0:01:53 Script-scenario
0:02:46 Timelapse: storyboard
0:03:55 Subwindows mode
0:04:34 Template page
0:13:51 Chapter 3: Drawing (black&white speedpainting)
0:13:51 Composition vector layer
0:15:50 Canvas border color
0:17:22 Workflow: sketching with lines VS paint with mass
0:20:19 Timelapse: black&white speedpainting
0:22:21 Explaining previous timelapse
0:23:45 Perspective grid
0:28:08 Timelapse: black&white speedpainting (detail pass)
0:30:49 Explaining previous timelapse
0:32:39 Trim to image size
0:33:48 Save As VS Save incremental
0:34:37 Chapter 4: Inking
0:34:37 The Brush preset I use (pencil)
0:37:20 The numpad '/' to switch to last preset
0:37:52 Stabilizer: how to find a good setting
0:40:40 Timelapse: inking main panel
0:42:40 Explaining the previous timelapse
0:44:46 The Mirror mode with M
0:45:23 Timelapse: inking last part
0:47:24 Explaining the previous timelapse
0:48:50 Pure black&white page
0:53:59 Page for beta-translator version
1:00:03 Chapter 5: Adding text with Inkscape
1:00:03 Why not in Krita?
1:00:42 Export a transitional PNG from Krita
1:02:52 Disclaimer about future Krita text-tools
1:04:22 Starting Inkscape, setting page
1:07:04 Comic-speechbuble-template file
1:09:12 Adding text
1:11:07 Adding speechballoon
1:14:46 Adding soundFX
1:17:06 Chapter 6: Color sketch
1:17:06 Preparing the gray value, color balance
1:23:45 Timelapse: color-sketch with blending mode brushes
1:26:18 Explaining the previous timelapse
1:27:34 Chapter 7: Colored Lineart
1:27:34 Colored Lineart technique, alpha lock and isolate layer
1:32:59 Chapter 8: Detailing
1:32:59 Timelapse: Cleaning and painting detail
1:36:51 Chapter 9: Post-production
1:36:51 Color dodge light sources
1:37:29 Fog effect with a lighten layer
1:38:00 Water reflection effect with GMIC filters
1:38:36 Gloss and white stroke on the top, paint-over
1:39:43 Timelapse: paint-over pass
1:40:55 Explaining the previous timelapse
1:41:30 Sharpen filter layer
1:44:32 Epilogue
1:45:12 Thanks patrons!
1:45:39 End credit
Why a free tutorial of this length?
I'm sponsored by a community of patron on Patreon to produce new Pepper&Carrot episode. A lot of them gives between 1$, 3$ to 5$ per webcomic published (I publish maximum one episode by month, around 10 episode per years). Between episodes I often jump into the creation of free bonus for the community. It can be a Youtube tutorials, articles, brushkit, making-of, etc... My patron encourage me to publish the result online for everyone, because we don't like the concept of paywall (subscription with payment to get access to a content).
For sure, paywall are a lot more efficient to receive sponsoring. You probably can see this system on a lot of successfully sponsored artist. So, if you consider my system more fair, encourage it! Become my patron today on Patreon. All money received is carefully invested to grow the open Webcomic project and create more free content and bonus.
Why did you made this video?
Just after finishing the episode 18 of Pepper&Carrot in the start of August 2016, I had a little week of holidays at the mountain. I usually spend my time on holidays to do plenty of drawing on my sketchbook, draft new ideas, invent new characters, create new storyboard, etc... But this time, nothing! Nothing of this did happen. The only thing I could think was about my digital-painting workflow. In this context, it was impossible to focus on making a new episode. I know myself a bit; when I'm the victim of a passion for something, I have to put it down: my only escape is to let the idea grow and finish/publish it. Then only I can dream again. So I started to take notes for this tutorial, and I quickly saw page after pages it was a long project, something ambitious, something big, something of the size of my previous Dvd Chaos&Evolution and Blend&Paint . So why this video? Because it's something I wanted to offer to my patrons as a free bonus. Challenge accepted!
I decided to take the end of August into recording it. Thanks to all my notes, the recording structure itself was smooth. SimpleScreenRecorder and Audacity both were really good tool to create video and audio content. It was a bit too hot to record with the windows closed in my room when outside it was 34°C (93°F). I couldn't even use a fan to get fresh air; no noise in the microphone allowed (I'm using a Samson Meteor USB mic). My poor vocabulary in English and my French accent were also a big handicap in the production. For some clip, I had to redo the voice like ten time. Doing audio and video editing on GNU/Linux was also really difficult and a big work. My usual tool, Kdenlive (I used it since 2009 for dozens of videos and Dvds) was unfortunately to buggy to do the job this time. I tried, tried many workaround, but unfortunately I lost 48h of production in it, and I felt frustrated at the end because I had no idea how to continue the video editing of this project. I then decided to (re)learn the Blender Video Sequence Editor (Blender VSE). It's painful to redo all the 10 first minutes of the video editing in another tool, with another logic, UI, etc... I had to sacrifice some specific effect done with Kdenlive I couldn't do with BlenderVSE. But I slowly found new method of editing and BlenderVSE did the job perfectly without a single bug on my experience. Believe me; something rare on the FLOSS world. On the cons, the text tool in Blender VSE is really too minimal (one can't change font family, weight, decoration, etc). So I went for "minimal effect" this time, and removed my usual screen annotation done with Kdenlive "Title Clip editor". On the pros, I could take advantage of the 3D of Blender, to decorate the timelapse sequences with a clock animation in the corner (the part where I accelerate the video with music in background). After days of video-editing my 15h of rush video into this 1h46 format, Blender took 6h to render a big 3.1GB file. A single review of the video took more than 1h46, and small correction another set of 6h to render... Upload to Youtube took 8h.
In this context, and with 10GB of sources on the disk, you can probably have a better idea of what work was done for a single video, the time spent and the up and down I had in this intense production. I really hope you'll enjoy and learn useful things in this tutorial. I'm proud of my 'new' video structure: partially commented with voice over/ partially live comment while recording/partially timelapse with a clock to allow quick skipping. I feel like I innovated into something new here! Level up :-)
About the workflow
I wanted to break-down for this video the workflow I used on Episode 18 because I had a pleasant production time on this one and found an original 100% digital workflow mixing my love for painting and drawing in a continuous process. The summary: I'm starting with a black&white speed-painting and then I draw lines over it. To color, I keep the drawing on top and then I color under them. Post-production effect are added on the top of the layer stack later and I sharpen the stack dynamically with a filter layer.
With this workflow, I can start each page with blocking my silhouettes and composition with mass of black&white and play with shapes. It's easier for me to compose my panels with mass and silhouettes. Probably something I trained on my past years of speedpainting for concept-art industry.
Thanks to this black&white step, I also can plan and predict more accurately in advance what part will be painted-only (as part of the landscape) and what part will receive ink and lines. So, the line-art is quicker and I benefit immediately of a little shading under my line at half of the process.
Painting time breakdown
1h30 Crappy storyboard
1h30 Detailed speedpainting (black&white storyboard)
3h00 Inking
1h30 Cleaning+Lettering
2h00 Color-sketch
5h00 Detail+post effect
=> Total: 14h30 of painting time per page
Future evolution for the workflow
I'm working more and more on my speedpainting skill. A possible optimization of this workflow would be to start with directly a full colored speedpainting, then detail it, then add line-art on top. Only at the end, a pass of cleaning would be necessary. The big pro; saving step and so saving time. The big con; it's complex to get something 'half done', consistent, and good enough for the translation-step ( a beta version usually in black and white I send to the translator team ). In the video, the step of line-art plus a colored shading is still a good 'half-way' option.
Licenses
Resources
This resources are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 to "David Revoy, www.davidrevoy.com".
Additional custom rules for being friendly with other artist:
- This attribution is necessary in case of redistributing, commercializing, or modifying the resources themselves.
- This attribution is not necessary in case of usage (you can paint any artwork you want with it, you still own totally your artwork).
- This attribution is not necessary in case of doing screenshot/screenrecording or using them in a public demo.
Exception: Lavi Font:( by Ruben Holthuijsen aka Rholt, modification by David Revoy and Sölve Svartskogen; GNU GPL V3 )
Video
This video is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
- Artwork/Video/Comments: David Revoy, davidrevoy.com
- Intro harp sound: sfx_oriental_harp3 by Soughtaftersounds on Freesound
- Timelapse music: Perspective by Kevin McLeod, www.incompetech.com
(credit also visible at the end-screen of the video)
Tool I used:
Artwork: Krita 3.0.1alpha1.appimage
Text: Inkscape 0.91 r13925
Screenrecord: SimpleScreenRecorder 0.3.6
Video: BlenderVSE 2.77a
Audio: Audacity 2.1.2
System: Manjaro XFCE 64bit GNU/Linux workstation
A big thank you!