Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

"This thing's for consumption, it's no good for creation."

Crosbie

Crosbie

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 26, 2010
613
12
Brighton, UK
I've been working on a complete comic book story entirely done in Sketchbook Pro on iPad.

Each year I get a group of students together to do a "24 hour" comic book (split over a few days). I create one alongside them. This year I decided I'd try doing it digitally. Here's some samples:

Mobile%20Photo%203%20Jul%202010%2022%2034%2029.jpg


So ya boo to those who say you can't be productive on iPad!

There was a learning curve but I've loved using it for this. All sorts of cool benefits over pen and paper - much as I love the look and feel of that too.
 
Not in the same league, I know, but I've knocked up an extremely useful spreadsheet in Numbers that has told me the cheapest way for me to buy an iPhone 4 :)

Creation •and• consumption :)
 
Ah yup:). Don't you love those who naysay everything yet are so narrow minded/focused they can't see out of the box at the potential of this "fail" device. Keep up the good work.
 
It would appear that the OP is getting a great return - personally I love the iPad but I don't find it as creative as I thought that I would. Pages and Numbers are great for a small change or review but I don't find them as good as on my iMac. Mice and keyboards still have their uses!

The only really creative use I have found is with Mind Pad. I still think that this is a great app and well worth the money as the changes with a pushed finger saves ages.
 
To be fair, my gf has hardly touched hers - she was hoping to be able to use it for work, but had illusions I think about its file handling capabilities (as yet). She wanted to be able to convert voice recordings to MP3s and shift them onto clients' memory sticks... which you might be able to do one day, but not for now.

But if you know what you can do - and with a great app like Sketchbook Pro, which has its limitations but will only evolve over time - it's just awesome.

With a little working around - email is basically iPad's file system - I was able to print these as I went, and simultaneously upload the pages to Facebook using its upload-via-email facility. The coolness.
 
Unfortunately Sketchbook Pro relies on you having some sort of artist ability. I can think pictures but the fingers just don't have the same ability. There are some great pictures done from scratch using it though.
 
Tulipone said:
Unfortunately Sketchbook Pro relies on you having some sort of artist ability. I can think pictures but the fingers just don't have the same ability. There are some great pictures done from scratch using it though.
Click to expand...

I suffer from this same problem. I have a book that is supposed to help, i'm afraid to start the lessons in it for fear the artist that told me about it lied! LOL!!

OP - that is too cool!!!
 
Terrific. Are you going to post it somewhere for us to see it in readable size? :)

It took me all week to do two pages of a comic, but I sure hope I can improve on that with practice. What was your learning curve like in Sketchbook Pro? How long before you felt like you were "up to speed"?

Ya boo, indeedy.
 
Who knew one could do so much on the iPad? I was an initial skeptic of it, but the more I see one in action, the more I am a believer of the potential power in this badboy.
 
Its not where i want it to be. But for music creation it's a help. I can program drums with ielectribe and at the very least work out some basic melodies and basslines on mini synth. The Drums i can export but the recordings in mini synth are more like idea sketches for me.
 
ACbc: Yeah, I've just started to explore the possibilities of music apps. Makes a pretty good drum pad and keyboard.

Kilo: A couple of days to get up to speed, with a long tail. Partly it's resisting the temptation to undo and redo every line, since this is supposed to be a speed exercise. (I didn't finish within the allotted time this year - though there are other factors contributing to that.)

After a slow start, other elements that made time elsewhere started to take over: I could make a start on the train into work, look over and polish up pages on the train back. It's been easy to pick up the pad At home and make a start on part pages, rather than setting up a table with equipment and settling in for a session. I could even finish off a page in the bath (carefully) :).

I'm posting to my Facebook page for the benefit of friends - can one link to FB albums or make them public? The alternative is the current screenshot is on Dropbox, which I believe has a public gallery...or Google docs? Any suggestions?

Thanks for positive responses :)
 
IT's fantastic that people are doing stuff like this and disproving the naysayers. This is great for people to see the potential of the device.
 
Crosbie said:
I could even finish off a page in the bath (carefully) :).
Click to expand...
Ha! It's good to know I'm not the only person who's tried using the iPad in the bathtub.

I know there's a way to make certain parts of an FB account public, but I don't know what that way is, so I'm not at all helpful on this. I'm spoiled by "everyone" having an online portfolio or Flickr or deviantArt or a webcomic site.

What are your plans for the comic? Do you consider it mainly an exercise, or are you going to print it out? What is the print quality from Sketchbook Pro?

I've started working in Brushes because of its ability to output high-quality TIFFs, but,

1) there are huge glitches in the TIFFs depending on the size of the output--sometimes it's fine, sometimes it produces a "squished" double image overlaid and shifted to the right.

2) Brushes is very limited as to how much the brush tool can be fine tuned.

I was finding ArtStudio to be the easiest interface, the most flexible for creating a subtle brush shape, and giving the most natural-looking line, but that app is glitchy, too. The pencil tool frequently "turns itself off" (just stops drawing), and I have to tap on the pencil icon to get it back. It's as natural a gesture as dipping a pen in an inkwell or a brush in paint, but clearly a bug.

Sketchbook Pro's interface, for me, was awkward and an absolute beast to use, so I'm very encouraged by what you've done with it. I'll give it another try and some time to get used to it :cool:
 
Klio:

Try this FB Link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=47683&id=502312564&l=50297c73f1

Hope it works... let me know how it appears.

The comic will be photocopy-printed and added to an anthology of work distributed amongst my fellow creators. It's part of a college enrichment activity.

Print quality is okay... but needs not to be too large. Really this should be A5 size, though it's to be printed at A4, which leaves the edges somewhat blurry/halftoned. This can be compensated for with contrast adjustment and a good laser printer, and isn't too much of a bother. I'd love higher resolution images in SBP though...

I tried Brushes and it's pretty nice - but what I value about SBP is the box of tweakable preset brushes you can pick from, so you can get a consistent line, rather than Brushes' infinitely variable tools. I like the quality of SBP's line engine too, feels very natural. Haven't tried ArtStudio - must check it out.

:)
 
Crosbie:

Thank you so much for sharing that with the forum! That is really quite nice--art and story as well as the fact it was drawn on an iPad. It would be great to see a "Drawn on iPad" challenge incorporated into 24 Hour Comics Day this year.

I'm going to experiment in SBP with laying out a whole page then blowing up each panel to draw at the size of the full screen, to see what sort of print quality improvement one can get. I should report the glitches in the Brushes TIFF-maker to the developer, see if they're working on a fix.

I still like the results from ArtStudio best, but I'm going to spend the day playing with SBP. I'm baffled by some of the "weird" brushes in the toolbox--bubbles and bones and hands and what is that disturbing hairy intestinal thing...? I probably won't be using that one :rolleyes:
 
klio said:
Crosbie:

Thank you so much for sharing that with the forum! That is really quite nice--art and story as well as the fact it was drawn on an iPad. It would be great to see a "Drawn on iPad" challenge incorporated into 24 Hour Comics Day this year.

I'm going to experiment in SBP with laying out a whole page then blowing up each panel to draw at the size of the full screen, to see what sort of print quality improvement one can get. I should report the glitches in the Brushes TIFF-maker to the developer, see if they're working on a fix.

I still like the results from ArtStudio best, but I'm going to spend the day playing with SBP. I'm baffled by some of the "weird" brushes in the toolbox--bubbles and bones and hands and what is that disturbing hairy intestinal thing...? I probably won't be using that one :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Cheers, my pleasure. :)

Yes, whole page layouts first, lots of pinch and zoom for each panel. Low opacity grid, layer of semiopacity loose sketching, then detailed 'inking' on a top layer. I don't look beyond the first page or two of brushes - I guess the other stuff is for those who just want to mess about, maybe over photos?

Will have a sniff at ArtStudio now...

[update]

Like it. Great value. Lots of control over the nature of the line, but a bit laggy compared to SBP with really fast sketching.

What I really like is the layer transform tools and filters - would really have loved those when working on the above. I'm hoping they'll make their way into SBP.
 
Crosbie said:
Like it. Great value. Lots of control over the nature of the line, but a bit laggy compared to SBP with really fast sketching.

What I really like is the layer transform tools and filters - would really have loved those when working on the above. I'm hoping they'll make their way into SBP.
Click to expand...
Today's AS update added blending modes for layers. I am pleased.

I haven't noticed lagginess, but I also haven't used SBP as much as AS. I did notice that I enjoyed doing quick sketches in SBP. Normally I'm more of a slow sketch sort of person :)

I still feel like a bit of a hostage to Brushes because of the high-res output...:eek:
 
klio said:
Today's AS update added blending modes for layers. I am pleased.

I haven't noticed lagginess, but I also haven't used SBP as much as AS. I did notice that I enjoyed doing quick sketches in SBP. Normally I'm more of a slow sketch sort of person :)

I still feel like a bit of a hostage to Brushes because of the high-res output...:eek:
Click to expand...

Yeah, that tempts me to Brushes... but when I use pencil-and-ink, I ink with a brush pen which gives a lot of variation in line width - which, ironically given the name, Brushes doesn't seem to be very good at achieving. SBP's lines feel more like my style - and AS does it too, but yeah, laggier than SBP.

I must check out AS again after the update...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back