November 2012

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Jeremy Kahn’s Vertical Ascent

November 21, 2012 in Uncategorized | No comments

This fall semester I’ve been busy interning at Vertical. Everyday I take a train from where I live upstate to NYC. From Grand Central I walk about 12 blocks to the building Vertical’s office is located in. After a quick stop for breakfast I start to work at my given assignments.

At the beginning I was busy proofing manga pages. This consisted of me looking over a series of PDFs to see if there was any mistakes on the pages. After I checked each page I would re-convert them back into a PDF file. The plan is to have each file eventually converted into an e-book friendly file.

Around the same time as I was doing work on this I was also given the assignment of cleaning manga pages. Cleaning pages consisted of removing Japanese text from each page in Photoshop. Some of the text is placed over parts of image, so removing it means messing up part of the image underneath. This results in having to go back in and touch up some areas by either redrawing some parts, or using the clone tool to fix up the zip-a-tone. For the cloning tool, I  had to learn how to correctly use and apply it when working with zip-a-tone layers. One of the main things I learned and worked with were the overlay and clipping options that are available for the clone tool.

At first I was having difficulties getting the zip-a-tone to line up correctly. To fix this, I erased all the zip-a-tone then created a new layer underneath the one I was working on. Here, I went about recreating the zip-a-tone as a mask. By recreating the zip-a-tone from scratch, and working with it one area at a time, I had more control over it.

At one point I was given the task of designing a logo and cover design for a new manga title Vertical is going to be putting out in the future. This task was meant as a test to see how I would go about creating a cover and logo if given the actual assignment. To start, I creating a bunch of thumbnail designs of both the logo and the cover with variations on how the logo would be placed on it.

Next, using InDesign I went about creating the cover design. I was given a few assets to work with including the image of the cover’s art work. After creating the logo, I placed it on the cover in a visually appealing way. Then I repeated this for two over cover variations. Just to verify, I didn’t draw out the cover’s image, I was merely creating the logo and how it was placed on the cover.

I also helped create part of another cover design. The design called for random black spots so I was given ink and a tooth brush and went about splattering the ink on a blank page. Someone then took the ink splatter and scanned it into PS. There, she transformed and scaled it to make it usable for the cover design.

I was also able to try my hand at lettering. Lettering is a bit different than western comics as you fit the letters to already drawn bubbles. Also, the font is set vertically as to take up as much space within the bubble as possible.  Also, when lettering SFX the original Japanese SFX is still present, you’re just placing the translation for the SFX on the page. To do this, you need to make the new translated SFX text small enough to fit next to the Japanese text, but also large enough to see.

Come Comic Con I volunteered to help out at Vertical’s booth. After helping bring over boxes of books to the convention center I helped setup the table and worked the booth during the convention, but during my downtime I visited other company booths to show off my portfolio. My best reception was at the Archie booth who really liked what I had. They even said for me to email them a PDF with my portfolio later on. I also met with a small group who’d say they be in contact. As for panels, I had time to attend one I was looking forward to.

The panel was set up for indie comic artists to network. A good way to describe it was speed-dating. We would spend some time introducing ourselves and exchanging info with people, then after a certain time period move on to someone else. It was a quick and nice way to make contacts. I even met an alumni from SCAD.

While most of my time was probably spent cleaning manga pages, I really had fun at this internship. Not only did I learn a lot but the people I worked with were very friendly. One of the best things to come out of this is I’m getting production credit in at least two titles that are going to be releasing soon. Also, I was told that the cover design I did was really well received and might even be used for the actual release. They just need to get permission from the artist in Japan.

Overall, this internship was very productive and of course fun.

Lastly, I just want to thank everyone at Vertical for allowing me to partake in an internship with them and for all they provided me.

Fujitsu Lifebook offers convenience at a low price

November 2, 2012 in Reviews, Technology | No comments

A pair of Fujitsu Tablet PCs. Photo by Media Commons.

By Jeremy Kahn

Owning a Cintiq can be a nightmare for the artist on the go. It’s large, bulky and comes with so many wires that you might as well just carry a desk around with you. It’s not going to win any awards for portability any time soon. What would you say if I told you there was an alternative device that solves these issues and doesn’t dig into your wallet as much?

I’m crazy, right? How about if I say you could have this alternative for below $300? Nuts, right? Well, I can assure you I’m neither.

Many companies offer tablets that have the same function as a regular Cintiq. Fujitsu, Lenovo and Acer are just a few examples. Of these, Fujitsu’s Lifebook is arguably the best deal. In fact, I got mine for $175 off lease. The Lifebook doubles as a regular notebook as well as a drawing tablet. An attached stylus pen lets you draw right on the flip down monitor.

Still craving that Cintiq experience? Another neat feature is the monitor rotates 180 degrees so that you can lay it down on top of the keyboard and use the device just like a tablet. No need to deal with the keyboard if you don’t want to.

Making use of Wacom’s Penabled technology and Intel’s Core 2 Duo, this notebook is no slouch in the art department. Buttons on the side of the monitor allow you to map commands making working with Adobe Photoshop that much easier. The ability to change the screen orientation allows one to work from any angle. A SD and Pro memory card slot opens up the ability to manipulate photographs straight from your camera’s memory card.

You heard right, this little machine is able to run Photoshop. Granted, you might be better off using a regular laptop or desktop for intensive projects (everything has its limits) but for projects on the go, it works very well. There’s barely any lag, and the sensitivity of the touch screen is good enough to handle detail work without feeling like any small move will somehow close your work.

A vent on the side does let off some heat, but the underside stays at a good temperature. A weird design forces you to chose between an optical drive or an extra battery. If you’re planning a long trip, I’d stick with the extra battery. An LCD below the monitor shows the computer’s current status, from the battery levels to the status of the CPU. Some features aren’t exactly useful though.

Despite how cool it sounds, you’d be hard-pressed to really find a need for the finger print security scanner. Unless you have top secret government papers stored somewhere. But at that point, you’d have to be more worried about being a bad secret agent.

With the power to run Windows and the ability of a drawing tablet, this laptop is perfect for the artist on the go. And, at a price that no college student could argue with, why not look into getting one yourself.