Hoozoo Banner

[xephyr@cwnet.com]

Rob Klein asked:
> Thanks, Rich, for making that fabulous banner.  I recognise several 
> of the figure poses.  Did you draw the banner yourself, copying 
> some poses?  Or, did you scan all the figures, then manipulate 
> them around, cutting, pasting and editing lines? 

Well, it was a combination of many things.  What I typically do is
seek out a good, front-facing image of the character which illustrates
the most details.  If that isn't possible, I seek an image that comes
fairly close.  If that isn't possible, then, sometimes I have to 
start from scratch, and, yes, actually draw the character, hoping to
get it as close to it's likeness as possible, sometimes merging a 
combination of different artists styles.  Even when I scan a good
image, though, I always need to edit it, sometimes completely re-
drawing the image over the original, so I can even out the lines
and flatten the colors (removing a lot of the dithering and mixed
colors which result from the printing "dots" that form the various
mixtures of colors in the comics).  Sometimes only part of a image
is available as the character may have been obscured partly by another
or by being partly off-panel, so I must fill in the rest of the 
details. In a few cases, I actually had to draw the character while
watching the cartoon from which they were derived.  I have a video
capture card that supposedly allows me to capture screen images from
my VCR, but they are so bad that the images is usually a very fuzzy
ghost of what I am trying to capture, but can serve as the foundation
for the final image still.

> How did you make it?

I have ALL of the characters "full body shots" saved on various files,
and all I did was import them all into ONE art file in Adobe Photoshop
on different layers (in this case about 80 different layers), then
adjust them so they were all approximately sized correctly, and positioned
in a way that best allows others to be seen around them.  Then I added
the "HooZoo" banner and merged ALL the images to one layer and saved it
as a GIF.

> I like Olivier's idea for character identification.  A few of us 
> hard-core comic book fans are not completely knowledgeable of all
> the Disney animation characters. 

Easier said than done, though it can be done, I think.  Still, I'm
not planning to use this image for the relaunch, so I'll consider it
based on how much work it will cause me.

> Thanks for all the good work on your graphics and HOOZOO.

Your welcome.  I just wish I had more free time.  I can't wait to
add things like Panchito's full name (Panchito Romero Miguel Junitero
Francisco Quinterro Gonzales a.k.a. Panchito Pistoles, son of Maria &
Miguel Gonzales, grandson of Sofia & Jose Morales and Raquel & Roberto
Gonzales).
Maybe Guilles or Sigvald are interested in that bit of knowledge?

For the record, here is another recent banner I made for my Message Board:
http://members3.boardhost.com/DisneyComics/

-Rich Bellacera


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