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dolariOkay...so I managed to inherit a copy of Quark Xpress, mainly to help me train for the Bastrop Advertiser job that I didn't end up getting (dammit). After a few goes with it, learning how to make happy funness with it, I decided to actually assemble my comics with it.
Be warned, the rest of this entry will prolly either be enjoyable only to people in the Printing Industry, or people who enjoy seeing me pull my own hair out.
As of right now, I'm doing a hell of a job putting it together using too many programs because I don't have the hard drive space to completely assemble it in Pagemaker. I figured I'd give it a go with Quark now that I have about a Gig of Hard Drive space instead of my...my...I can't say it....20 GB of space (::cries::).
Any ways, I drew up all seven panels of AWFW and recreated my Pagemaker Template in Quark Express. It was REALLY surprisingly easy and it does something PAgemaker wouldn't do for me: Rounded corner boxes that DIDN'T show the comic through them. Big plus right there. I got finished assembling the comic about Midnight. I figured to myself, all I need to do is letter it, and I'm good for the rest of the night!
As of yesterday, Letteing was one of the HARDEST parts of the comic. I'd type up everything in Pagemaker at 400%, use Paint Shop Pro's "capture" function to import that into Paint Shop pro, shrink it to 100%, build the box around the text, paste it into the comic, and then clear away the "balloon spike" and paste two more lines over it. It SUCKED.
Now, though, (in theory), I could simply make a square box, type the words into it and create the "spike" using one of the text box bezier tools.
That's when I realized I had no idea what the hell I was doing.
This was the same feeling I got when doing the http://www.us-highways.com animation project. I told Robert Droz the animation wouldn't be ANY problem at all...and when I finally sat down to do it, with several sheets of paper and freshly sharpened pencil, and the key animation frame...I had absoballylutely NO idea what was next.
The time was Midnight.
So the first thing I did was make a text box. Simple enough. I typed all my text in, and then clicked on the line where I wanted the text spike to be...went to ITEM -> SPLIT to make a new vertex in the straight line...and it was grayed out. Repeat a few times.
Hmmm...
So I clicked the entire box and went to ITEM -> SPLIT. Grey. Repeat a few times.
Okay, no problem, I can do this....
The time was now 1AM.
I deleted the text box, picked the Bezier Text Box function (which allows you to freehand a text box) and made a square with three spikes in it. Typed in everything I needed in to in it and then dragged it over to it's spot in the comic. Looked great, but the box was covering up some of the art work and needed to be moved. And I did...and then my perfectly wonderful straight lines became perfectly wonderful slanted line, and all the vertices started going out of whack, and my text box became a text trapezoid, and then a text thingy. Not to mention the spikes were now all wonky, and not pointing where they needed to be.
The next few hours were spent meticulously moving ALL those damned vertices into 90 degree angles and getting my text mess into a text box. I managed to do it...and then realized I needed to make a new paragraph in the same box.
Dammit.
It's about 3AM at this time.
I manage to make a new bezier box, with spikes, text a second box and the little connector. I type all my text in, drag it BACK to the comic panel and go about reworking the vertices into straight lines again for a few hours....and finally get it going. Only this time something WIERD happened. My text was doing this:
I
THINK YOU SHOULD GO
TO ONE OF OUR MEETINGS.
There was a huge space after the I. Then I realized that the vertices on the spikes weren't right and they'd have to be straightened out, and that the last hour and half was all for naught.
I hadn't even lettered one panel yet.
I took a 30 minute break, got some food, scanned the help files...and read about the "Merge function."
5:00 AM
I make a text box...type my text into it. Then I make three more text "triangles" and paste those over the text box. Then I make another text box, MUCH smaller, and longer, and overlay that onto the first text box. I make a third textbox, for the next paragraph. Then I go to ITEM->MERGE and I'm presented by a bunch of options. I pick Intersection and I get this weird jigsaw puzzle piece. That's not good. UNDO. ITEM->MERGE->COMBINE. Nothing happens. UNDO. ITEM->MERGE->JOIN ENDPOINTS. I get a beep and nothing happens.
At this point It's 5:30 and I'm beginning to wonder if I should be lettering the old fashioned way. I give it one more go:
ITEM->MERGE->UNION.
PLINK!
Suddenly, I have one text box, with a connector, a second paragraph and three spikes. All as one item.
HOT DAMN! It worked!
I move it into position and realize I'm covering up artwork. I start moving the walls of the box, and end up really freaking the text out, dropping parts of the first paragraph into the second and so on. After some audible cursing, I figure out that I can just keep resizing the box until all the text shows up. And it does! And then move the second paragraph until IT shows up as well. By that time, I have a nice text box, three spikes, all my text, and everything is hunky dory. WOO HOO! AND IT ONLY TOOK FIVE HOURS!
I finished up the rest of the comic, learning how to do the ITEM->MERGE->DIFFERENCE to make little indents in the text box so it's not all white space and do the whole comic in record time. If you delete about six hours. :)
In all honesty, It usually takes me an hour and half to letter the other way, this time it took all of 15 minutes.
I save the file to an EPS file, open it up Photoshop and..
...HORRORS...
The text is too small.
It's about 6:30 at this point. I'm seriously thinking of going to bed and updating the comic in the afternoon.
But no - I can DO this.
I go back in and resize all the text to 12pt instead of 10pt, resized all the boxes to get all my text back in place AND not cover artwork, and, about 7:00, I manage to upload the finished comic.
...and they said technology would make our lives easier. ::laugh::
Hopefully, Thursday's Closetspace will be a LITTLE easier. :)
Oh, and in other news, the navigation of the AWFW website is completely revamped. Everything comes off and gos back to a central Table of Contents.
Be warned, the rest of this entry will prolly either be enjoyable only to people in the Printing Industry, or people who enjoy seeing me pull my own hair out.
As of right now, I'm doing a hell of a job putting it together using too many programs because I don't have the hard drive space to completely assemble it in Pagemaker. I figured I'd give it a go with Quark now that I have about a Gig of Hard Drive space instead of my...my...I can't say it....20 GB of space (::cries::).
Any ways, I drew up all seven panels of AWFW and recreated my Pagemaker Template in Quark Express. It was REALLY surprisingly easy and it does something PAgemaker wouldn't do for me: Rounded corner boxes that DIDN'T show the comic through them. Big plus right there. I got finished assembling the comic about Midnight. I figured to myself, all I need to do is letter it, and I'm good for the rest of the night!
As of yesterday, Letteing was one of the HARDEST parts of the comic. I'd type up everything in Pagemaker at 400%, use Paint Shop Pro's "capture" function to import that into Paint Shop pro, shrink it to 100%, build the box around the text, paste it into the comic, and then clear away the "balloon spike" and paste two more lines over it. It SUCKED.
Now, though, (in theory), I could simply make a square box, type the words into it and create the "spike" using one of the text box bezier tools.
That's when I realized I had no idea what the hell I was doing.
This was the same feeling I got when doing the http://www.us-highways.com animation project. I told Robert Droz the animation wouldn't be ANY problem at all...and when I finally sat down to do it, with several sheets of paper and freshly sharpened pencil, and the key animation frame...I had absoballylutely NO idea what was next.
The time was Midnight.
So the first thing I did was make a text box. Simple enough. I typed all my text in, and then clicked on the line where I wanted the text spike to be...went to ITEM -> SPLIT to make a new vertex in the straight line...and it was grayed out. Repeat a few times.
Hmmm...
So I clicked the entire box and went to ITEM -> SPLIT. Grey. Repeat a few times.
Okay, no problem, I can do this....
The time was now 1AM.
I deleted the text box, picked the Bezier Text Box function (which allows you to freehand a text box) and made a square with three spikes in it. Typed in everything I needed in to in it and then dragged it over to it's spot in the comic. Looked great, but the box was covering up some of the art work and needed to be moved. And I did...and then my perfectly wonderful straight lines became perfectly wonderful slanted line, and all the vertices started going out of whack, and my text box became a text trapezoid, and then a text thingy. Not to mention the spikes were now all wonky, and not pointing where they needed to be.
The next few hours were spent meticulously moving ALL those damned vertices into 90 degree angles and getting my text mess into a text box. I managed to do it...and then realized I needed to make a new paragraph in the same box.
Dammit.
It's about 3AM at this time.
I manage to make a new bezier box, with spikes, text a second box and the little connector. I type all my text in, drag it BACK to the comic panel and go about reworking the vertices into straight lines again for a few hours....and finally get it going. Only this time something WIERD happened. My text was doing this:
I
THINK YOU SHOULD GO
TO ONE OF OUR MEETINGS.
There was a huge space after the I. Then I realized that the vertices on the spikes weren't right and they'd have to be straightened out, and that the last hour and half was all for naught.
I hadn't even lettered one panel yet.
I took a 30 minute break, got some food, scanned the help files...and read about the "Merge function."
5:00 AM
I make a text box...type my text into it. Then I make three more text "triangles" and paste those over the text box. Then I make another text box, MUCH smaller, and longer, and overlay that onto the first text box. I make a third textbox, for the next paragraph. Then I go to ITEM->MERGE and I'm presented by a bunch of options. I pick Intersection and I get this weird jigsaw puzzle piece. That's not good. UNDO. ITEM->MERGE->COMBINE. Nothing happens. UNDO. ITEM->MERGE->JOIN ENDPOINTS. I get a beep and nothing happens.
At this point It's 5:30 and I'm beginning to wonder if I should be lettering the old fashioned way. I give it one more go:
ITEM->MERGE->UNION.
PLINK!
Suddenly, I have one text box, with a connector, a second paragraph and three spikes. All as one item.
HOT DAMN! It worked!
I move it into position and realize I'm covering up artwork. I start moving the walls of the box, and end up really freaking the text out, dropping parts of the first paragraph into the second and so on. After some audible cursing, I figure out that I can just keep resizing the box until all the text shows up. And it does! And then move the second paragraph until IT shows up as well. By that time, I have a nice text box, three spikes, all my text, and everything is hunky dory. WOO HOO! AND IT ONLY TOOK FIVE HOURS!
I finished up the rest of the comic, learning how to do the ITEM->MERGE->DIFFERENCE to make little indents in the text box so it's not all white space and do the whole comic in record time. If you delete about six hours. :)
In all honesty, It usually takes me an hour and half to letter the other way, this time it took all of 15 minutes.
I save the file to an EPS file, open it up Photoshop and..
...HORRORS...
The text is too small.
It's about 6:30 at this point. I'm seriously thinking of going to bed and updating the comic in the afternoon.
But no - I can DO this.
I go back in and resize all the text to 12pt instead of 10pt, resized all the boxes to get all my text back in place AND not cover artwork, and, about 7:00, I manage to upload the finished comic.
...and they said technology would make our lives easier. ::laugh::
Hopefully, Thursday's Closetspace will be a LITTLE easier. :)
Oh, and in other news, the navigation of the AWFW website is completely revamped. Everything comes off and gos back to a central Table of Contents.
