M-Maher's News

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Some Animation.

Posted by M-Maher - October 15th, 2014

I make shit animation, check it.

(Ver. 1.10)

Hello, I am M-Maher also known as Mark Maher (my real name) and Verbank Sleyher (my stage name), if you like my art and enjoy the style of it then you're in luck, today, in this post I'm going to show you around how I make the things I make, now this isn't going to go into any design ethics I think I'll save that for later, instead I'm going to illustrate to you how my art is made, below you'll see an image, it is my process broken down into 7 different stages, and below that are explinations on each stage, I made this tutorial not as a decliration of "this is how you are supposed to make art" but rather I want this to be something that I can use to communicate my style to other artists and allow them to understand where I come from in an artistic sense.

NOTE: If you choose to follow this please know I do my art in photoshop CS5

Framework Sketch
The framework sketch is simply the base sketch that establishes what the image is going to look like, in this stage I abstain from any detail and sketch the image out quickly, this is so I may encourage myself to actually finish the drawing as it works as a guide for the finished product and doesn't leave me stopping and starting every so often to work out how something will look.
Design and Detail
After the first stage I begin to finally clean up the linework and add in little details here and there like panel lines or armour segments and other such features, I also try to define shapes that were drawn in the first stage and work on them more to be what I want them to be.

In this stage while drawing robots and mechs I go through many different head designs until I find a design I like, additionally I remove any lines that do not make sense in terms of perspective and I eliminate any segments that I consider too much design, I like to make things simple.
Enviromental colouration
Using opacity 75% over a white background with a colour I go over the entire image, the reason I do this is because the colouration of the enviroment you're painting will effect your colour palette so going over it first with a colour of the same hue will allow you to effect the colours your using without mixing (given you're using pressure sensitivity and opacity) this speeds up painting the image as you can use the background to your advantage instead of having to figure out what colour would fit where.
Object, scene and character colouration
In this stage I go over features in the picture with colours I want them to turn out as. the process is done in a hurry, I ignore shading as that is for stage 6 and 7 and I ignore edges as the entire segment is supposed to be of that hue and since the circle paint brush is not very good at tackling corners I am forced to scribble outside the lines to get the effect I want.

Thanks to stage 3 the colours will be more uniform given that they're applied properly, this means applying with opacity on, previously I used to go over an entire character/object with black if they were up close to the "camera" and then apply the colours, if you feel this helps you out then have a go at it, personally I stopped doing it out of both lazyness and my "no black for shading" rule which dictates that I avoid black like a plague, I do this simply because a darker colour has a better look to it than black.
Clean up
Cleaning the image after colouration is needed since, as stated in stage 4, I have to go outside the lines to get the effect I want, during cleaning I can again make lines more defined but this time with colour.

Stage 6 can usually be started on certain segments as cleaning is finished on them and I usually work in stages 5, 6 and 7 at the same time as a time saving technique.
Shading
like in real painting I usually plot out where shade is and reflection is with just plops of colour quickly dabbed in place, this works to setup for stage 7and also distinquishes light direction and confirm that the colours chosen for the darks and the lights work well with the already established colours.
Blending and highlights
The final step is blending the colours from stage 6 and adding highlights and colour reflection to the image, I enjoy this part the most however it is the most time consuming of the 7 stages and can become a bit of a chore as time goes on, this stage gives the image real shape and perspective as opposed to the first 2 stages and actually makes the image seem real (in a sense) and gives it that 3D quality.

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Animal crossing is fun!

Posted by M-Maher - August 7th, 2012

yup

Animal crossing is fun!

5

Shitty music I like

Posted by M-Maher - July 2nd, 2012

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Too all

Posted by M-Maher - April 9th, 2012

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saw something amazing.

Posted by M-Maher - April 7th, 2012

I am speechless. I cannot begin to describe how i felt about what I saw.

And what i saw was an animated mute french movie; the illusionist from 2010, not to be mistaken with the 2006 live action american movie the illusionist, this one is made by pathe, one of my favorite animation producers, their contribution to animation is trendsetting and they're really experimental with their animation styles this animation style was mostly water colors and their setting was much close to (my) home.

set in late 50's early 60's the illusionist takes you on a trip from France straight to London then hopping across to one of the many surrounding islands of Scotland ending our travels at Edinburgh where our protagonist remains until the end of the movie.

I've got to say animation was amazing in this, really fluid, mainly because the animation is constantly at 60 frames per second and is never half-assed it honestly blew my mind when i saw how very well motion is portrayed, it was a 1:1 motion and was really human, because it has to be.

Remember when I said this was a mute french movie? I was not lying, there is little to no dialogue in this movie apart from a few words spoken and this makes the story rely greatly on action and gesture, the animation supplies this greatly, it drives the story and lets people understand what one character is like without them even speaking, this type of storytelling is unheard of in mainstreme american animation and its a pity really when done right it really gives a great feeling to the viewer.

The story is wonderful and i really don't want to spoil anything but i must say the ending really made me feel for the main protagonist and one scene in the finale will stick with me forever I wont give much away but the scene involves the main female protagonist and a letter, the message on that letter will stick with me forever so look out for it.

This movie was flawless to me, it made me empathetic towards fictional characters and never let me down once I recommend that all who read this go out and view it, I don't care how, I don't care where, aslong as you see it that's all that matters.

saw something amazing.

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Some news, links and social networking

Posted by M-Maher - April 3rd, 2012

GOARD EV-NIG EVERY1

the interview is up, go here

I have twitter here

I have tumblr (don't know why) here

I have deviant art here

and music

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The Good Old Days

Posted by M-Maher - March 17th, 2012

Ahh yes the good old days, back when i had windows XP and a copy of MS paint to do my art, I wasnt that great back then, i never really considered shading and highlights or proportions or guidelines or different tools for that matter, back then i didnt even have a tablet, most of my art was done with a mouse and to my surprise it was pretty decent, not exactly the best but when your working on PS paint and using a mouse i guess its the best you can ask for.

The Good Old Days