Mimi Tachikawa : Butterfly Whispers
art by Valsharea
Video walkthrough: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4jNCgwGCWA
Closeups: http://valsharea.tumblr.com/post/53021763595/
Lyrics:http://www.animelyrics.com/anime/digimon/digibfly.htm
Closeups of my latest illustration, coming soon to a deviantart (and tumblr) near you!
My first video with Screenflow?
First screen-recording/video ever! Thus, it probably looks very amateur. Only uploaded the last bit of my painting process (because that’s when I started try…I’m going to go through a bit of my experience working with Screenflow, the screen-recording tool I decided try after realizing the QuickTime screen-recording functionality is terrible on Mountain Lion OS (i.e. it lags, and obviously that makes screen recording digital painting impossible).
I decided to try Screenflow as it was considered to be on par with Camtasia, “the” screen recorder for Windows. If you’re looking into a screen recorder, you may want to also look into iShowU and Voila (I’m speaking as a Mac user btw). Do your research though. I chose Screenflow as it seemed to be the most popular alternative to Mac’s prepackaged QuickTime, and so far, it has done as that I’ve needed it to do.
Some handy tidbits I picked up along this little adventure:
Youtube Video: Changing Speed of Clips in Screenflow - I pretty much figured everything out on my own clicking around. But I followed this video to figure out how to change of the speed of my clip. However, I noticed people facing the same problem I was, which was when we followed the video, the clip would literally be cropped (shortened) as opposed to being faster. This at least was the case when I nested several clips together and then tried to speed the whole thing up.
My solution to the above problem was to first export the nested clip [as an mp4]. Then create a new “project” document in Screenflow and import the mp4. Then, splitting the clip and speeding up different parts of the video went perfectly smoothly.
One thing I find quite odd with Screenflow is the need to rightclick on a clip to paste a copied clip. And then the copied clip ends up wherever your “time-scroller” is (whatever you call that component that you drag to mouse through the video).
I had a fun (and occasionally irksome) time playing with the video actions. Probably not as expansive in selection as a program like Adobe After Effects, but at least it’s clean and efficient in getting things done. I’ll keep exploring its different features with future videos.
If you have questions or suggestions, please leave a comment here or on the video, whether it’s on my coloring/drawing technique of any of the features you see in the video. I am happy to help and am totally open to doing tutorials in Screenflow if that’s the case.
I’m looking to actually uploading the actual image to deviantart “tomorrow” (as in, after I go to sleep and wake up), though I first need to compile my wip images and upload those too. I’m also making a short and simple tutorial on how I did the grass in the background of the image so that’ll take a bit of time too.
My second attempt at trying to make my “final” male hairstyle reference spreadsheet, but of course, I’m unsatisfied again. I think I’m just getting bored drawing two sides of a hairstyle. Maybe I’ll stop trying to make this reference, or I’ll try to do a completely frontview version only (so I only have to draw each hairstyle once…).
Feel free to use as a reference, but please do not copy or post/publish elsewhere without credit.
This is actually quite a bit old. I was feeling ambitious and wanted to do a better mimato picture, but now I’m terrified of having to ink this picture (mainly the background/roses part…). xD So I’m uploading it as it is now—a sketch. Maybe in the future I will revisit this picture and do it more justice.
It probably isn’t obvious since I don’t publicize my anime pairings much, but it’s Mimato (from Digimon)! Probably one of my first otps, though lately I’ve started realizing I could probably ship Mimi with any of the males in the series. Maybe I’m maturing into a more open-minded person. xD But Mimato will probably remain my favorite of them all.
To make y’all feel better, I’m working on a Mimi picture! So look forward to that in the near future!
For the fun of it, what song do you think they would be dancing to? ;)
Mug Design :: Chemistry of Happiness
Closeups & old sketch of a mug design for an RL friend of mine!
It’s been a while!
Sketch prize for someone who won ArtisticAnimanga’s annual mascot contest of her character. I like how the simple look came out. Eyes inspired by CLAMP in case it’s not obvious enough, haha.
Chinese/Japanese Calligraphy is so beautiful.
I don’t have “real” calligraphy tools, so I just use a normal pointed paintbrush and either black pen ink (I found it lying around) or acrylic paint mixed with a good dose of water. Perhaps that’s half the reason why my calligraphy usually doesn’t turn out half what I’m trying to obtain.
Some resources I like to use when doing random calligraphy “doodles.” And trust me, calligraphy is harder than it looks.
Chinese Proverbs/Quotes:
Chinese proverbs @Wikiquote (see external links, etc.)
One a Day (a Chinese idiom a day)
Pretty calligraphy examples for inspiration:
Browsing Calligraphy @ deviantart (Western calligraphy too~)
KisaragiChiyo @deviantart.com
Sumi-e @ Google images
(will add more as I come across them~)
Have your own resources you’d like to share?
Illustration for Science Review magazine for my school. For an article on the Accelerator Synthesizer or Serendipity machine, I think. xD
So apparently my scanner is no longer compatible with my labtop now that I’m using Mountain Lion. So I ended up taking a picture with my iphone (it worked surprisingly!) and coloring it on my labtop. Probably took more work than necessary, but I managed to pull it off in ~3 hours as I was doing on a deadline (as always!).
Works in progress & Closeups of my entry to the “Beautiful Creatures Light or Dark” contest on Deviantart. I kind of like the messy WIP effect of the shredding fabric than the final version…
