You are on page 1of 27

Cartoon Backgrounds

know your fonts

Lakshmi Prabhala

Free your mind

Design & Importance

issue 3
november UNITED ARTISTS GUILD
Think . Create . Inspire
UAG
Think . Create . Inspire
issue 3
november
index
w h a t t o f i n d i n s i d e
Dear All,

Before we move on to introduce Free Your Mind


the articles of the month, I’d like
to thank each and everyone of How to start off with freelancing
the contributors and readers for
boosting us to 200 downloads Typography
for the previous month.
Understanding fonts from the core
We appreciate the support and
would continue to try to publish Featured artist of the month
quality material for designers,
creatives and artists every- Lakshmi Prabhala : Photographer
where.
Game Scripting
Also we would like to announce Importance of game stories today
that we would soon be going
online with an website for pub-
licity. We are still hopeful that Pencil Art : Chapter II
we’d get some sponsors as to
Designing Cartoon Backdrops
help push this project to the max
and also put in more resources
into this magazine.

Thankyou for reading,


UAG Team.
Expert
Details
Amandeep
Kochar

Creative freelancer
and sound artist, has
been in the feild for 3
years. He is currently
many of you might even be writing pieces, looking to get into DJ
stories, poems or making logos, graffiti sitting school to learn music
in that boring lecture of yours! Some out of you mixing.
reativity is a pure bliss and an amazing gift might be budding website designers or
to have in oneself. There must be so many of working your way through 3dmax and Maya!
you creative heads who like to take it out in Akshata
various forms. Doing all that and letting out your creativity is Mukund Shastry
just a heavenly experience. It feels so good
You might be clicking beautiful shots with your when you see your baby completed in front of Based in Nashik, this
camera or editing it in your Photoshop suit. You your eyes. Well you can have a nice add- on to author and journalist
might be drawing things or making a cartoon all of that. How about earning nice bucks with freelancer has
strip sitting in a cafe. God knows how many of all that feeling and satisfaction? worked with Nashik
you might even be writing pieces, stories, daily’s for 1 year now.
poems or making logos, graffiti sitting in that Now, you don't want to go out traveling and She also is an artistic
boring lecture of yours! You might making a working some small workspace. You may be a photographer.
cartoon strip sitting in a cafe. God knows how college student, or into some other profession!
There are a wide variety of websites and portals offering you
tons work on freelance. It ranges from Graphic, website, logo
designing to article writing, photography and many more things.
All work available for you. You do the work and get paid with
you pay pal account.

To illustrate, a typical freelance website works on Bidding for


project basis. First thing you got to do is get yourself register as
a freelancer. Then create your profile stating you expertise and
the jobs you take up. Also keep the portfolio handy. Then you
have hundreds of jobs offering in the site. You make a bid and
show sample work, or your idea to the client. Then when you
get the project, complete it and get paid. The site gets a cut. As
simple as that!

Making a creative resume and portfolio showcasing your work


is a good idea and helps to get work pretty soon. You can
choose the project you think you would like to do and have a
chat with your client. You can demand higher fee as you get
more and more work. If all goes well, you may be minting
money in your bedroom with your laptop, and an internet
connection!

Rules of Engagement
Moving on now lets discusses next the rules you need to follow,
the tasks you need to handle when starting off as an artist and
also the real life pitfalls when working as an freelance author for
publications.
Freelancing as we have mentioned, is fun. You
decide how much work to do and when and
how to do it. Now for the bubble busters- it’s not
all fun. Initially at least there is a lot of slogging
and a fair amount of begging involved, here are
a few pointers to make it easier.

What really helps is ‘contact’, going and


speaking to editors. It is always a wise decision
to touch base with actual people in an office.
Speaks to people get visiting cards, phone
numbers and most importantly email
addresses, hound them till you see your name
in print.

Remember there is no publication too small. In


fact the smaller the organisations the better the
chance of landing work with them. This will also
help you when you take your portfolio (of
published work) to bigger and reputed places.
Cause nothing speaks better than published
work. And yes big joints mean big money.

One and probably the only commandment


Please send feedbacks and
freelancing which a lot of artists do not realise
questions at :
is that you cannot, not even at the risk of ‘killing
an article’ send it to more than one joint at a
uag_contact@yahoo.co.in
time. This is a big no-no, not only do you risk
the wrath of the two publications involved, but
Best of luck and happy
you might even risk being black listed as a
freelancing
freelancer.
typography
introduction to font design
by Vishal Kumar
typography
History
Earlier when printing was the main medium of publications, news, books and reading,
there was a term called ‘typefaces’. Printing at that time used to be done using metal cast-
ings and were hand composed or set on typefaces like linotype, monotype, compugraphics
or varityper typesetting machines. Synonymly hot-metal text composition played the most
significant contribution to the DTP of that time. And so the current DTP is still an extract
of earlier printing technologies.

Present
The words ‘font’ and ‘typeface’ are all the same thing. They are a set of characters, punc-
tuation signs, figures and symbols that share a common design. Like Arial, Rockwell,
Times etc.
A large variety of fonts are available today. They range from the classic typefaces that
originated from the ancient letters carved on stones and centurie-old hand drawn samples
of master calligraphers to the modern typefaces created on computers using sophisticated
softwares like GLYPH. It is very important for a designer to choose the font that conveys
the right mood for a publication or a particular design.

How designers pick a font


Professional designers choose their fonts with care and thought. Some dedicated designers
also get emotionally involved with their fonts! To locate the “right” font for a publication
most designers begin by leafing through their ‘golden-collection’ of type specimen cata-
logue. They then refresh their mind by looking over the latest fonts issued by international
fonts providers(font vendors). They may also take trial prints of the short-listed fonts be-
fore they pick their final choice.

typography
But the lesser mortals who do not have the luxury of owning or buying a sizeable or
the research facility to experiment, and the unintiated who can not make a simple differ-
ence between Arial and Akzidenz Grotesk(sans serifs), may find it a daunting task to pick
the ‘right’ font for their job. Arial, mostly found on PCs, is a mixed blend of Helvetica and
Grotesk; Akzidenz, a classic sans, is a full blooded German invention, mostly found on
the Machintosh
typography
ABC of Typography
For those who have a burning desire to go deeper into the mysteries of fonts, rather than
merely seeking ‘how-tos’ or ‘silly shortcuts’, here’s the first thumb rule of Typography.
There are no 3A’s 4B’s or 5C’s of Typography that one can learn at a design school.
Design schools teach only the history, aesthetics, semantics and applications of ty-
pography. To achive excellence and true knowledge of tons, one will have to self educate
himself/herself. One must understand and love fonts, one must learn to feel and caress
them. Fall in love with fonts and see the magic!

Quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog


In the earlier days of publishing, on specimen sheets, the sample fonts was set in a line
“the quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog!”. There are no apparent reasons or jokes for
the fox to be brown or the dog to be soooo lazy. They anyways are so by nature!. Tha fact
is that the line contains all the 26 lower case letters of the alphabet. Lower-case letters
reveal the overall design of a particular typeface.

Uppercase and lowercase - The history


The term ‘uppercase’ and ‘lowercase’ date back to the time when all types were piece of
metal(mostly lead). Two wooden cases(drawers), the size of a small table, with several
small compartments were used to hold these metal pieces. One case was kept flat on the
table; the other case was positioned at an angle, above the top edge of the first case. All
capital letters, small caps, fractions and as assortment of symbols were stored in the up-
percase, while the lowercase letters, punctuation marks, numbers and units of spaces, etc.
What is the point?

typography
The convention of expressing the size of a typeface in points dates back roughly 300
years, to the Parisian typefounder, Peire Fournier Le Jeune. He invented the usage in 1737
and it took 40 years since then to standardize a ‘point’.
A point was defined as 0.013837 inch(0.3515 mm), by american Typefounders’
Association in 1886 and then by the British in 1898. There are approximately 72 points to
an inch or 1 ‘pica’on the desktop computers. Picas are the standard units for measuring the
widths of lines, sometimes called ‘ems’
typography
Font anatomy

A
2

c
M
3 X
4
1
B
2
D

A
7 2
6 12
C 10
8 X M
9
9
B
11 13
5 D

A Ascendar 1 Spur 7 Stem 13 Counter


B Baseline 2 Serifs 8 Hairline Crossbar
C Cap-Height 3 Bowl 9 Terminal
D Descender 4 Link 10 Round ball/Tear
M EM-square 5 Closed loop 11 Bowl/Belly
X X-Height 6 Ear 12 Bar
featured ar tist of the month
CreativE

BlocK
featured ar tist of the month

What are your educational qualifications and how you started off as an artist

Technically, I am an Engineer who has been into software for a good number of years.
Currently on a sabbatical, I am using the time to learn as well as discover the joys of
photography.

While in school I did sketch and paint but that’s about all the formal training I had. I
consider myself a self-taught photographer but I cannot deny that I have benefited
immensely from the works of so many professional/amateur photographers that I have
seen online on various websites.
CreativE

BlocK
What is your family background? Did anyone
from your family or friends inspire you in your
work? If yes, please do tell. If not, what inspires
you today, what drives you as an artist?

Most of my family is more musically inclined. So, you


could say I was a black sheep. œWell they do
encourage the artistic temperament, though.

What drives me as an artist is the quest for


understanding the world, to seek a meaning of how
things actually are and how we perceive them. Its is
rather strange that we miss so many things around
us and its only when we frame them that we happen
to see something more than we normally do.

featured ar tist of the month


CreativE

BlocK
featured ar tist of the month

One event in your life that you found was most Which is your proudest moment as an artist?
impactive to you as an artist

Maybe, when my brother gifted me a Point and Shoot When I showed my pictures to someone I didn’t know at all and he was willing
Camera, because that’s when I took to photography to publish a few in his book, I was very pleased.
like a fish takes to water. I went berserk clicking
everything I could. Of course now, wiser by two and But it’s the creative high that makes all the effort most satisfying when
half years, I think a little more before I press the everything just falls into place and we are able to ‘see’ and allow the viewers
shutter. to feel the same
CreativE

BlocK
Your philosophy about art /
photography

To me photography is a wonderful
blend of art as well as technology.
The cameras and lenses keep
getting better but you have to have
the imagination/visualisation to
hold the viewers attention or tell a
compelling story. Sometimes you
need to wait for at least an hour
and sometimes it happens in a
fraction of a second.

Although I try my hand at different


genres, I am more drawn to the
street photography. That’s when
one has an opportunity to observe
life and even try to catch it while it
is happening. I also love the
dynamic nature where one cannot
really control either the subject or
the conditions (light or presence of
other distracting elements). You
just take what you get graciously

Years of experience in the field,


current clients

May 2005 , started off more


seriously since 2006. No clients as
of now
CreativE

BlocK
Something for the hundreds of
people who aspire to be like you,
words of wisdom?

The digital medium seems to have


immensely helped the cause of this
art form making it more popular
than ever. As more and more
people are taking it one has to step
up a few notches to come up with
more compelling work. Everyday
there must be thousand of people
who click a picture of a rose, but
one has to work at how to make the
picture stand out from so many
others. Maybe different light, differ-
ent exposures, different back-
grounds, different compositions,
using bokeh differently ..basically
think out of the box!

The trick is to keep trying. As they


say, the harder you try the luckier
you get.
featured ar tist of the month

Lakshmi’s work reflects the soul and vibrancy of


India. Artists like her show the true self of
people, the side hidden from the masses. Her
not being in this profession but still excelling just
depicts her as an true artist at heart and nothing
less than a purely passionate. We thank
Lakshmi for talking to us and permitting us to
publish her work

You can reach Lakshmi at lakshmi.


prabhala@yahoo.co.in. She also maintains a
flickr profile which also features her other
collections under username “Lakshmi
Prabhala”

UAG features a deserving creative profile in


every issue. If you’re interested in getting in
focus, mail us some of your work at
“uag_contact@yahoo.co.in”

Image Credits
All images (including cover image for UAG) are
copyright by Lakshmi Prabhala, all rights
reserved.
Cover Page : Innocence
Intro Page : Arches
Page One : Solitude
Page Two : Fortune Teller
Page Three : Filmy Shave
Page Four : Ethnic Door
Page Five : Self Portrait - Tones
Page End : Smoke
y
i cl e B oan
Ar t ay Bh
h
Aks o re
in g m
y
r e noth visuall
m e s we ctivity volving
a ra e
v i d eo g of inte e ever omplex
i n g era, ncept w ith th more c
r t co e w
th e sta basic m e s gr way to .
In ga he es e is
th ey han a ted. As paved t in gam a m
to
;
ries kins t presen s they epicted f a ny g hanics
e ll s Je n re h ip gd e o m ec ship
t r y o c e i n c o r ts
s i m pl y
- Hen r
mi c o g i e s b t th e a n d i
e l a tion ive
” r
d on't spaces i d eol s a
a
y th engin . The
e
a divis nd
s
ner sculpt the ght me a g re e ins ers, a ts
e si g o n d m i g a m a
a m e d lds and g o bey in the Coders by the t not tory re design atemen
“G n wo r
d to e as ? It w e re d m igh nd s fans, n t st
i g r i e i d v e o e a c e
des )
T l w a ys t g new addicti s or p t som games game ome re
. a in e i c u s
(M.I h ave n creat s a gam n graph
b
t w een among nsider r r a tive;
s e o a
o g ame ginatio t make polygo
a a
b
u e s tion like. C : i te of n author,
a e
Vide on im But wh ge high ry? o o d q holars his issu o ppo
s
o f the r motive
m . g c t e n
com rs mind tting ed and sto o f an lying s ade on o st th directio ayer fo
e
play t the c se of a
u r t
o r t
e
anc under the m i s al m
r the n the pl
p s ty e o
s
i s j u r l yi n g b
a
th e im ame, it tters in but e r a ctivi ws und pends s u ally
e s s g a d n t fl o d e u
und o d i sc
u
to a n y w h a t m h e w o rl "I
r r a tive activity ams e are rrative,
t e o t n a r d p l a
w e try an bas and als not only h i l
e
e int Ernest
A
r y p e o w e e n n t yo u I
t
e
Her line as game pect to w
e r " -- th eo ns be
a b all a wait
y y s pow ic tio nd
stor t on an with re c a dem distinc If I throw rop it a ories."
c
effe et toda
y
t s i d e a making ames. o u to d lling st linen
k
mar too. "Ou llent at a n d g xpect y
t a r ts te u Eske
exce
a e it s Markk
Indi
a dram don't until --
At one point of time you too would be Based on the initial idea; one can start I can imagine that one can build a great
stuck between trying to make a decision brainstorming what might be a good game script around a simple game like Tic-
on how to handle game stories. Do you mechanic that facilitates building up the Tac-Toe as well; probably it might not
let the player go into their own thought premise. Ideas must be prototyped and sell well to hard core audience but can
process and imagine what comes next evaluated for fun and then should be built become a great product for young 7-8
or would you decide for them? Or is it further. It is like going hand in hand with years kids, who in general love stories,
just better to leave the story alone for the one leading the other during the initial fairytales and epics.
time and push forward with the other phase of development.
elements of the game. In my opinion one should not “stop
India current production trend mostly thinking” scripts or for that matter
As we now look from a game writers relates to mobile game design. And as anything, just because the current state
prospective, what would be the best always we in India have always been of the market does not support it.
way to start wring a game script? thought as coders rather than artists.
Should we stop thinking about
We discussed this with Sumit Mehra complex ideas just because currently
and this is what he had to say: India is not publishing games of that
level like Metal Gear or Final Fantasy?
It depends on what drives what; do you
have a game mechanic/play under A “complex”; I would use the word
consideration/evaluation or already “deep”; A deep story does not
tested and ready. Now you would like to necessarily require a complex
come up with a game script that game mechanic to support it.
SSuum
a g miit
deepens the play? Bookworm Adventures anyone?

ks a m e t M
is
OR do you have the script first and now wo
M
vel eh
e hr
bile . He n div per a ra
Ga w d
a
are looking for a developer to build a me i th e
Mo s a o
game around it. In my opinion a script
starts with a premise, theme or a and has isio nd
Par also n of curr
philosophy. The script is not fleshed out ado w en
x S orke Micro tly
on day one. tud d s
ios with oft
EA
Every year somewhere about 400 Original ideas are always invited. An concept of the games might be same
games are released in the interna- idea if original no matter how primitive (such as Need For Speed Vs Asphalt),
tional market. It’s quite easy to can be explored and expanded into but where it can be prevented it should
understand that not all of them are something glorious. The industry will be.
new and original concepts. Some are always welcome something new and
closely inspired, some remakes and fresh and this should be just the point In the end just like Sumit pointed out, it’s
some just pure copies. Thinking as a that should drive writers to be creative, the studio to decide if the game idea is
game writer, should we stick to only original and thoughtful. worth the effort.
purely original ideas? What if they
are too controversial like "too But as ideas are not always easy to Coming to the second part, studios will
violent" or "too imaginative"? come by and hence the reproduction of usually not work on games which turn
one or more element occurs. In some out to be too controversial especially
Where Sumit said: games it can not be prevented as the when we think of developers in India. If
underlying the same situation would be faced in
”Both of them are personal choice US, there might have been a different
questions (either as an individual or as reply.
a company), there is no right answer
and a wrong answer”, we had more to
say.
In todays high polygon XBox and play, visuals, sound and over all direc-
PS3 environments, do you think tion.
gamers give a lot of attention to just
the visual part of the game (graphics) On the other hand I did not like Max
and not the storyline or the logic Payne storyline despite of all that new
behind it all? cool visual effects and intense Havoc Thanks to Sumit Mehra for the
physics. So I think lot of factors govern ever valuable comments. Sumit
I think visuals has always been a strong why one follows or does not follow a can be contacted at
criteria while game purchases are done, game's stroyline. Major ones are: per- sumit@sumitmehra.com
even if you go 10 years back, better sonal preference, boring storyline, bad
visuals always attracted. So I think it is direction, poor lighting and camera
not something new, but the definition of work, too deep and meaningless. Send feedback to UAG at
good visual has changed 10folds. uag_contact@yahoo.co.in
Games have always been built around
Caring about storyline is again a tough ideas and dreams. Fun is an side
ask? How many games come with a product of it all. Even though today
good storyline anyways? If a game does computers are able to generate photo-
not have a interesting story should realistic graphics and run superb
gamer still care? physics engines, the interest factor is
generated by game stories. Stories
Do you have data to support gamers are generate momentum and keep the
not paying attention to storyline? player motivated.

In my opinion games like Warcraft 3 Stories and writers have always been
(and expansions), Onimusha 3, Half Life important and will continue to be even
Series, Splinter Cell Series, Bioshock with new games.
and even games like Diner Dash and
Serious Sam have stories that I like, By Akshay Bhoan
BUT it is not the only thing that makes
me like these games. The story is
interesting but it is driven by great game
Hey! Wanna hear
a fish joke?

Man I’d rather


be chopped &
canned..

Chapter II : By Vivek Singh


Outside
If our character is standing outside then
Architecture
firstly we have to decide the whether we Coming to the architecture, buildings. If we
want to show in the scene. If its cloudy then want to show hot sun or moon behind the
you can show the clouds as shown here buildings then we need show the buildings
in form of sillhoutes. This is an usual thing
you’ll will notice for any subject which itself
is dimly lit but its background is bright. See
the below illustrations for example.

You can also add some birds around it or in


sky. Don't worry you don't have to learn
how to draw birds with intricate detail for
this. See above.
The Sun can be draw sun in any of the
forms as shown in the illustrations; last sun
is sort of stylish one that could be used to
make our cartoon funky if required. The
illustrations also show a garden or a park
with fences and a tree. To show the hilly
rocky areas you can show as illustration 2;
always remember to give rocks the 3D look
with some shading. Try to design elements
that you see around you for best results.
Drawing Indoors
Now lets get the inside view of the house.
We show a cozy room, a window with
curtains and a few other elements. An art
piece hanging makes the doom look
detailed. We can also show some furni-
ture like sofa and table having lamp on it.
The key here is to make the room detailed
but never messy or cramped, unless our
scene calls for it. If you plan to work on an
comic page or an print comic then keep in
mind that it takes a lot of effort for the
reader to distinguish between intricate
detail and mess unless someone is ready
to give you a full page to work with. Try to
keep things uncomplicated and easy to
understand.
This brings us to the most important part when
working with backgrounds. Compare the two
images here. Have you noticed the difference?
In the second image, our character is tightly
surrounded by the background. Doing this our
scene becomes crowded and it's not easy to
concentrate on character.
Now in the first one, character is visible but also
we can view the backgrounds itself, because
they are separated by a bit.

If you are having an issue with keeping distance


between the character and the backdrop or the
character fails to be distinguished from the
backdrop, e.g. in animation, try fading the
backdrop a bit using alpha effects, so as to keep
the focus on the character. Another effect that
comes in very handy is using the blur tools to
create depth, something which will surely help
you out in such scenarios.
By Vivek Singh
United Artists Guild
think . create . inspire

Issue 3.0B
Archive : www.esnips.com\web\uagissue

United Artists Guild has been created for the sole purpose of
creative education for individuals with profound artistic thoughts.
As we are still on very infant stages of this internet issue, we are
currently NOT* charging for any advertisements or promotions
related to this feild. If you as an company or even as an individual
are interested in this please contact us at:

uag_contact@yahoo.co.in

*Conditions apply

UAG Internet Issues are free for distribution by any reader / user. No part of the issue may be
reproduced or editied commercially without the permission of UAG.
Credits
Concept - Design - Layouts : Akshay Bhoan
Pencil Art Tutorial & Images copyright of Vivek Singh (2007)
Creative Block - Featured Artist images copyright Lakshmi Prabhala (2007)
Freelancer article by Aman Kochar & Akshata Mukund Shastry (2007)
The Greatest Rapper Of Typography article by Vishal Kumar
Game Scripting Article by Akshay Bhoan
The Century Is Here Special Thanks to Sumit Mehra for notes on Game Scripting

You might also like