Spida-jam--BASE FLATS

Phase 3 of this weekend tutorial thingy. (using Photoshop CS3)

EDIT 8(FINAL)- 9th base flat added---the WEB-SEN SHURIKEN! It has its own layer so that i can add effects to it later, like blurs and motion.

Well, that'll do for now folks. Gotta go take care of my ACTUAL work stuff now, heh.

NEXT PHASE===> laying all the individual color flats for everyone

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EDIT 7- 8th base flat added. Thar's our hero, laddies

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EDIT 6- 7th base flat added. Say hello to the NOT-so-itsy-bitsy spider

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EDIT 5- 6th base flat added. All that's left are the two "Spiders"

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EDIT 4- 5th base flat added.

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EDIT 3- 4th base flat added. Notice all the space i used to fill that one. This in particular is important for what i have planned for him

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EDIT 2- 3rd base flat added. Good ol' Gobby

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EDIT 1- 2nd base flat added. Note the different skin color. Each character will have a different one.

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Okay---now that i can work on this again, I shall begin The LAYING OF THE VENGEFUL FLATS! Flatting is the most tediuos step of all simply because it is what it is, ya dig? It's just the building of the foundation of the piece. It can't be helped. BUt what CAN help is your approach. And like everything in photoshop, there's more than one way to skin this cat.

MY method is to draw inside the lines with the pencil tool. And that's key for me---USING THE PENCIL TOOL. This will make much more sense when we start adding flats to the actual characters BEYOND the base color. I just go around, bit by bit, until i've outlined a single drawn character/object, then use paint bucket to fill that part with color.

When Flatting, it can help to have layers for each color you will use for that part you are flatting---starting with the main color---which in the first example, is a peach skin color. I use THIS color for the "Kakashi-lookalike" because MY BASE COLORS ARE ALWAYS THE SKIN COLOR OF THE CHARACTER/OBJECT I'M FLATTING. If I'm NOT flatting a living thing, the foundation is the base color.

The other reason i use the pencil tool strictly at this part is because I really, personally HAAAATTE lassoing to apply flats. It just makes this phase 10 times more boring and tedious. So I lay my base color, then move onto the base color of the next "char/object", and continue until all the char/objects are all filled in with their basic color.

Remember to keep each char/object in it's own group layer. For example---The Kakashi-looak-alike(I don't wanna reveal what character he is just yet) is in his OWN group layer, separate from the MJ/Sakura chick also in that part of the image, while also separate from every other char/objects in the scene.

Lastly---you want to stack these layers in order from BOTTOM MOST to TOP MOST. This just means that, to keep things easier on myself, I make sure the Kakashi-lookalike is on the bottom, underneath the MJ layer. MJ is underneath the Giant Spider-layer---and so on, with Parker being on the top most layer. This is why it doesn't matter right now that Kakashi-lookalike's colors are passing through MJ's lines---her base color will be ON TOP of his layer.

Frosty? Good!

I'll continue uploading this all night as I complete each new block of color for each char/object.

--arf