My Process for Out of Picture 2
We’re in the middle of production now on Ice Age 3, and over a month has sped by without me even noticing it! So, to make up for lost time, I thought I’d show a bit of the process on my story for OOP 2.
I did A LOT of thumbnails for this story to try to figure out the pacing, staging, action and page layouts. I always start out as loose and rough as possible, sometimes only blocking things out in inch-high thumbnails. This particular page went through quite a few subtle revisions, but I had pretty quickly established that I wanted to start the story with a shot of the destroyed mine’s exterior.
After getting the basic composition, I started doing more fleshed out tonals and began thinking more about the inset panels and page layout.
At this point I had already done a rough layout of my entire story. Each page went through several revisions until I got the pacing and page count right, and then did refined drawings over the layouts. Once I was happy with a page’s layout, I’d transfer the refined line drawing onto bristol board and do the final pencil drawing with a 2B .5mm mechanical pencil.
The last step was scanning the final drawing into Photoshop and adding simple color and pushing the value range until I achieved the look and feel I was aiming for. The last step was adding type and word balloons (which I decided to keep to a minimum).
Wow, thats’ really good Mike ! I can’t wait to read the full story !
Comment by Gerald — April 30, 2008 @ 5:43 am
This is great. It’s really nice to see your process. Looking forward to seeing how the pacing comes together throughout the whole story!
Comment by Sam — May 2, 2008 @ 4:32 pm
what can I say?? this is amazing Mike! Thanks for sharing the process too, all the thought and hardwork really show in the final images. Can’t wait to see the book.
Comment by JC — May 3, 2008 @ 12:27 pm
Thanks, Gerald! OOP 2 isn’t far off now. Finally…
Hey there, Sam! Thank you. Just imagine this process for the better part of twenty pages, then more sketches to try to compress four of those pages down to two. Seriously, laying out a comic book story is still one of the hardest things I’ve ever done as an artist.
James!!! Great to hear from you, man! Thank you so much! Glad you enjoyed my overworked, overcooked, overnoodled process. The truth is I just do all these sketches so I can keep putting off having to work on the final piece. I’m always afraid my finals will lack a certain quality that my roughs convey. Nothing ruins a perfectly good drawing as much as detail!
I’m only sort of kidding. Sigh…
Comment by mike — May 5, 2008 @ 10:37 pm
This looks even better than Oop 1, I can’t wait!
Comment by Eric Orchard — May 6, 2008 @ 9:28 am
man Mike,
I think your work on OOP 2 is some of the best of yours. I mean that says a lot since your stuff all these years at Blue Sky kicked all of our butts!
Really amazing work. I know you got too much to deal with in your life now but man, we must do OOP 3!
Comment by dice — May 11, 2008 @ 1:43 am
Thanks Eric! Just a few weeks to go…
Hey Dice. Thanks, dude. Same goes for your Dream of Kyosuke. Freakin’ beautiful, AND a really great story! Miss you man! Can’t wait for San Diego!!!
Comment by admin — May 14, 2008 @ 9:23 pm
Oh Shizap!! I agree with everybody! Best work yet!! Will you sign my copy Mr. Knapp?
Comment by Mike Lee — June 2, 2008 @ 1:13 am
Great post! Thanks for breaking it down like that. (I’m working on my own story right now, so I know how much work it is.) Thanks again!
Comment by Becky — September 14, 2008 @ 9:23 pm