Graphics/illustration software
Discussion
Hello all.
I'm thinking of creating some stories for my 1 year old daughter. I would like to create the graphics for these and was wondering if there are any useful tools for doing this?
What I'm after is something where I could build up the parts of the characters (body, arms, legs etc), place them, create a picture then move them, create another picture and so on. As I'm no artist, I thought it would be useful to build the characters and create the illustration frames from this. I don't think I could draw a different picture for each story page/frame and retain some consistency.
Has anyone done something similar and could they recommend a useful piece of software to facilitate this? Ideally, if the output is good, I'd be looking to print them for my daughter as proper books too.
I should be ok with the story text, it'll be the illustrating/images where I will struggle.
Thanks.
I'm thinking of creating some stories for my 1 year old daughter. I would like to create the graphics for these and was wondering if there are any useful tools for doing this?
What I'm after is something where I could build up the parts of the characters (body, arms, legs etc), place them, create a picture then move them, create another picture and so on. As I'm no artist, I thought it would be useful to build the characters and create the illustration frames from this. I don't think I could draw a different picture for each story page/frame and retain some consistency.
Has anyone done something similar and could they recommend a useful piece of software to facilitate this? Ideally, if the output is good, I'd be looking to print them for my daughter as proper books too.
I should be ok with the story text, it'll be the illustrating/images where I will struggle.
Thanks.
Will you be drawing the characters then scanning and tracing them or drawing them from scratch on the computer?
It'll be difficult and take some learning either way.
I'd recommend the best being Adobe Illustrator, it'll give you full control with the pen tool but it's not easy to use.
You can use a 30 day free trial and then pay monthly for however long you need to. It'd be £26.68 a month. https://creative.adobe.com/plans
There might be free alternatives but to be honest I've never used them and maybe Illustrator is jumping in at the deep end but it's learnable, lots of tutorials etc.
It'll be difficult and take some learning either way.
I'd recommend the best being Adobe Illustrator, it'll give you full control with the pen tool but it's not easy to use.
You can use a 30 day free trial and then pay monthly for however long you need to. It'd be £26.68 a month. https://creative.adobe.com/plans
There might be free alternatives but to be honest I've never used them and maybe Illustrator is jumping in at the deep end but it's learnable, lots of tutorials etc.
There's a range of potential solutions but they rely on your proficiency with the software.
Naturally, you're not going to want to go and learn a complicated cgi program with posable characters so this leads us to a more simple approach. For character consistency, you could create the elements either in Illustrator or Photoshop but the purchase price may be prohibitive.
Again, you're going to need to learn how to use the layers & tools.
With respect, a pre school audience will not be that critical of your results so I wonder if this next cheap & easy solution might work for you.
Draw the basic components; Head, torso, arms legs etc. along with some variations in facial expression. Physically cut them out as separate elements ensuring you have things like the thigh, shin, foot & them upper, lower arm & hands separated.
Move / arrange the elements to suit the story and then photograph them. If this is done on a high contrast background, you should easily get your shots masked and then into your backgrounds.
The top image is the donor, with some small changes, we get a different look.
Naturally, you're not going to want to go and learn a complicated cgi program with posable characters so this leads us to a more simple approach. For character consistency, you could create the elements either in Illustrator or Photoshop but the purchase price may be prohibitive.
Again, you're going to need to learn how to use the layers & tools.
With respect, a pre school audience will not be that critical of your results so I wonder if this next cheap & easy solution might work for you.
Draw the basic components; Head, torso, arms legs etc. along with some variations in facial expression. Physically cut them out as separate elements ensuring you have things like the thigh, shin, foot & them upper, lower arm & hands separated.
Move / arrange the elements to suit the story and then photograph them. If this is done on a high contrast background, you should easily get your shots masked and then into your backgrounds.
The top image is the donor, with some small changes, we get a different look.
Thanks.
The plan is to draw them on the computer from scratch. As you have pointed out PP, the look I am after is cartoony and rough. A nice simple approach really.
I have some ideas that involve two rabbits we used to own and a host of other animal characters. I wanted to build the characters in the software, then move and model them for each scene they are in. I wouldn't have the skills to create a new illustration for each page of the book (which won't be a lot due to the age range I'm catering for).
The photography idea is good thanks. I'll look at Illustrator as it seems to be a good tool. The purchase price would be ok, for now.
The plan is to draw them on the computer from scratch. As you have pointed out PP, the look I am after is cartoony and rough. A nice simple approach really.
I have some ideas that involve two rabbits we used to own and a host of other animal characters. I wanted to build the characters in the software, then move and model them for each scene they are in. I wouldn't have the skills to create a new illustration for each page of the book (which won't be a lot due to the age range I'm catering for).
The photography idea is good thanks. I'll look at Illustrator as it seems to be a good tool. The purchase price would be ok, for now.
I was going to suggest Blender 3d, it's free and you can design, rig and animate characters using it. It does take a bit of learning and might be a tad overkill for what you have in mind though. Still, it wouldn't take a huge amount of skill to make some rather good looking 3d rendered comic-book style images and once you designed the model then posing, adding backgrounds and rendering is not that time consuming for a simple rig.
You could create all the individual components for the image - try Photoshop (free trial) or Gimp as a free alternative, making them transparent, and then try using After Effects to animate them.
After Effects would be available at Adobe's Creative Cloud for £17.15 per month, but you could download their free trial for a month and see what it's like. It's quite a learning curve with it though, i've been playing with it for a bit and it still pisses me off!
After Effects would be available at Adobe's Creative Cloud for £17.15 per month, but you could download their free trial for a month and see what it's like. It's quite a learning curve with it though, i've been playing with it for a bit and it still pisses me off!
B3NNL said:
Bit of a left field idea, but how about creating slides using powerpoint?
PPT will let you create shapes and sort of draw a bit, you can then copy the slide and move the body parts you want for the next scene etc.
Not the most elaborate way of doing it but the most simple by far.
Interesting idea. PPT will let you create shapes and sort of draw a bit, you can then copy the slide and move the body parts you want for the next scene etc.
Not the most elaborate way of doing it but the most simple by far.
Foxeh said:
You could create all the individual components for the image - try Photoshop (free trial) or Gimp as a free alternative, making them transparent, and then try using After Effects to animate them.
After Effects would be available at Adobe's Creative Cloud for £17.15 per month, but you could download their free trial for a month and see what it's like. It's quite a learning curve with it though, i've been playing with it for a bit and it still pisses me off!
After Effects would be available at Adobe's Creative Cloud for £17.15 per month, but you could download their free trial for a month and see what it's like. It's quite a learning curve with it though, i've been playing with it for a bit and it still pisses me off!
Thanks.
Serif Drawplus Starter is free, got to be worth a look at the price 
http://www.serif.com/free-graphic-design-software/
http://www.serif.com/free-graphic-design-software/
Cie said:
I'd recommend the best being Adobe Illustrator, it'll give you full control with the pen tool but it's not easy to use.
You're quite correct, it's not easy to use. And not really a recommendation for what the OP wants.I'd go for the Xara stuff (or even Serif), play with the free downloads, and then purchase something that you are comfortable with. The learning curve with these is fairly straightforward, not like Adobe Illustrator.
PW said:
Cie said:
I'd recommend the best being Adobe Illustrator, it'll give you full control with the pen tool but it's not easy to use.
You can use a 30 day free trial and then pay monthly for however long you need to. It'd be £26.68 a month. https://creative.adobe.com/plans
Are you working for the Adobe sales dept?You can use a 30 day free trial and then pay monthly for however long you need to. It'd be £26.68 a month. https://creative.adobe.com/plans
I'd find a free way to do it first; experiment with different software and techniques to establish a way of working that suits you and an understanding of the tools you need, work out how much you actually enjoy doing it and how much time you want to invest in it, and then decide on what software meets those requirements, rather than going straight to paying for randomly selected professional software.
I recommended Illustrator as it's the best out there and so popular that there's so many tutorials and videos out there to help with the OP's requirements, it will be the easiest for him/her to learn.
Thanks all. I'm looking at the Serif tool first and will see how I get on. I'll watch some vids about the other stuff and see what they are like.
I'll start easy and simple with free software and may commit some cash if I find that I'm yearning for more.
The graphics tool development is going hand in hand with some web stuff as I'm attempting to put a page together with the stories on.
I'll keep this thread updated.
Thanks again for all of the suggestions.
I'll start easy and simple with free software and may commit some cash if I find that I'm yearning for more.
The graphics tool development is going hand in hand with some web stuff as I'm attempting to put a page together with the stories on.
I'll keep this thread updated.
Thanks again for all of the suggestions.
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