The Zyklon Girls recruiting video: early tests

I and the staff of the Muzik! Zyklon have started to work on the new promo video for recruiting the Zyklon Girls (or zZ Girls).

Yesterday night I started producing some quick reference scenes in Blender 2.70 that I will use for animatics to have a first idea of how cut should be and what shots we will need to take. Though I already prepared the scenes for further editing to get the final result: the clock and the door frame are almost final except for textures.

I hope that this approach will help us to work at a faster pace.

I rendered three images of the clock with different settings. The presence of more lights causes a lot of noise. So, the second image was rendered with just one light and it is less noisy but darker. I think that I will try using a single brighter light for the clock scene, to reduce noise, get a brighter image (as if it were influenced by more lights) and get a reasonable render time.

Playing with grunge effect on Muzik! Zyklon cover for Facebook page

Recently I and a friend of mine, Drakonìa Inchain, founded a Heavy Metal live event that regularly take place in my city, Triest.

My first concern, when we decided to launch the Muzik! Zyklon, was to support the event with a good corporate brand logo and graphics as I was used to do for every project I have collaborated to.

So, I came out with this one.

The base graphics of the Muzik! Zyklon logo.

The idea behind this work was to mimic the original Zyklon B label.

This version was just a black and white wip, a sort of blueprint reference for further work, but we had not much time and we decided to use it for the first edition of the Muzik! Zyklon.

The first edition cover for the Muzik! Zyklon Facebook event.

Yesterday I had to quickly finish the second edition Facebook event cover and I just modified the first edition cover with the images and logos of the bands.
Here is the result.

The second edition cover for the Muzik! Zyklon Facebook event.

Today I decided to go further. My idea was to apply a little bit of grunge effect to the whole cover, using well balanced textures, to reproduce the erosion of old Zyklon B labels found.

I first experimented with the cover for the Muzik! Zyklon page on Facebook and this is the result.

Cover for the Muzik! Zyklon page on Facebook, celebrating the passing of 100 likes.

This cover was to celebrate the passing of 100 likes and I am quite satisfied with it. It is much more interesting and good looking then the first one.

Though I was not totally happy with it yet.

Then I started to experiment with the original one applying some grunge texture with GIMP.

I downloaded two textures from the Web and I modified them using "Desaturate" and "Adjust Color Leves" tools until I reached this results.

Then I placed this two images on two layers on top of the original logo and set their composition modes to "Screen" and adjusted transparency to about 65%.

This is the result.

Experimental cover with grunge effect.

A pic of my tools

Daily sketch - Nöj Rotit Study

Drawn with Faber Castel gray pen and Pentel Pocket Brush pen on my Moleskine.

Small brush zize Fude Pen and cartridges arrived!

From left: cartridges for Pocket Brush pen, two cartridges
 for Fude Pen and the new  Fude Pen.

This is already an "old" story.
I was very busy with Xmas affairs in the past weeks and I had no time to publish this article suddenly.

Though, I tell you, now.

I was so much happy for the sample Fude Pen that Pentel sent me, that I decided to immediately order another one with a finer brush nib, needed for details, and some cartridges for the Pocket Brush pen and the Fude Pens.

I placed my order two fridays ago. I also wrote an email to feedback Pentel with my impressions about the Fude Pen, that were very positive, and I published an article Pentel Fude Pen arrived! Yeah!, here on my blog.

The following monday, Pentel wrote me to tanks for my positive feedback and article and that they would send a gift.

The t-shirt! ;-)

Two days later, december 18, I received a packet with a Pentel t-shirt and a little pen. Yeah!
They must read in my mind, if they know I love gadgets! :-D
Maybe they are Jedy knights. ;-)

One more day, december 19, and I received my thiner brush Fude Pen and the cartridges. And I was so much happy that it is not describable. ;-)

Now I am ready to work on a pair of comics with my new Pentel pens. When finished I will send a link to Pentel, since they have been so kind to me. ;-)

Stay tuned.

"L'audace Bonelli" comic art exhibition, in Trieste

Yesterday afternoon, Morena and I visited "L'audace Bonelli", a comic art exhibition mounted in the "Salone degli incanti", a showroom located in Trieste, our city.
The event, started at December 2 2012, will end March 3 2013.

"L'audace Bonelli" presents a selection of originals illustrated by several different artists that worked, in the past 64 years, for Sergio Bonelli Editore, the biggest italian comics publishing house, and is especially focused on the two more successful characters: Tex Willer and Dylan Dog.

"L'audace Bonelli" is just one of the events presented in Trieste Science Fiction Festival, a convention that takes place in Trieste every year, during winter. Saturday afternoon, for example, I watched "Cockneys VS Zombies", an horror-commedy movie about zombies.

Morena and I were quite surprised to see so many originals. The promotional posters, placed all around the city, are not very clear about the contents of the exhibition. We were worried that it were the usual waste of time (and money) like most of the events that take place in our forgotten city. And, considering the nature of doubts that Monica (another friend of mine) expressed, during our last conversation, it seems that Morena and I were not the only two persons worried.

Despite of our baleful predictions, we had the opportunity to see the artworks of the greatest italian comic artists of every time, like: Aurelio Galeppini, Guido Buzzelli, Magnus, Claudio Villa, Giancarlo Alessandrini, Roberto Diso, Franco Devescovi, Mario Alberti, Luca Enoch, Corrado Mastantuono and many others.

I must say that I confirmed Magnus as the best italian comic artist ever.
Most of the artworks of the other artists look good when printed, at the smaller size used for the Bonelli's issues (about 16 x 21 cm), but loose all their beauty at the original artwork size (about an A3). On the original artworks it is possible to see errors, character proportions mistakes, inking flaws and so on.
Magnus artworks are perfect! No inking errors! No perspective or proportion mistakes! His sketches look like the finals of most of the other artists.

Though, the money spent (6 Euros) are worth it. Seeing the original artworks permitted me to deduce possible tips, tricks and the exact tools used by artists. Most of them use nibs, not only for cross hatching, but also for the thinest strokes (usually to continue a brush stroke). Most of them use brush very little to ink few black areas.

Awesome.

The ticket. ;-)

Dayly sketch - Pocket Brush and Fude Pen tests

I should get rid of this vice to draw characters over the others.