Usagi Drawing

Fanfan · Post by **Fanfan** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 4:07 -0700

http://ladrevert.net/usagi/

my first usagi illustration (and my first drawing animation!)... please take it indulgently, i am not Stan ! it is just for fun ! i hope you will enjoy !

cynlee · Post by **cynlee** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 8:45 -0700

That was wicked cool!

(Oh, and I will be sending out your stuff tomorrow!)

Alori · Post by **Alori** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 10:29 -0700

That was awesome!!! I love it!!

Will you be doing more stuff like this?

^_^/

hazlov2004 · Post by **hazlov2004** » Sat Jul 23, 2005 11:29 -0700

good job alori very good job

Fanfan · Post by **Fanfan** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 3:14 -0700

Cynlee wrote :

That was wicked cool!

(Oh, and I will be sending out your stuff tomorrow!)

Really happy that is pleased you! Thank you for the comics, you're the best

Alori wrote :

That was awesome!!! I love it!!
Will you be doing more stuff like this?

Thank you Alori, i am actually working on my own website (there will be a french section about Usagi, and i asked friends of mine to do some fanarts), but i have to do it during my nights so i don't have much time... and in fact am a writer and photographer, not a cartoonist ! but i will try to do more, i have some ideas, but dunnot hesitate to share yours, i don't know if i will be able to do, but i can try !

Post by **Steve Hubbell** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 6:15 -0700

Fanfan wrote:my first usagi illustration (and my first drawing animation!)... please take it indulgently, i am not Stan ! it is just for fun ! i hope you will enjoy !

Definitely a great job!

I'd ask how you did it, but I'm sure the explanation is over my computer illiterate head.

Is that drawing yours or based on one of Stan's?

It would be neat to see a whole page done like that.

Is my memory playing tricks or did there use to be something on television that was similar, where a picture was drawn out in the same fashion?

Fanfan wrote:Thank you Alori, i am actually working on my own website (there will be a french section about Usagi, and i asked friends of mine to do some fanarts), but i have to do it during my nights so i don't have much time... and in fact am a writer and photographer, not a cartoonist ! but i will try to do more, i have some ideas, but dunnot hesitate to share yours, i don't know if i will be able to do, but i can try !

Please be sure to post a link to your French Usagi Yojimbo site when you get it up and going. I'm sure everyone here would enjoy visiting it and seeing your great work, as well as your friend's fan art.

Fanfan · Post by **Fanfan** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 14:56 -0700

Steve wrote

I'd ask how you did it, but I'm sure the explanation is over my computer illiterate head.

humm, i use an old bug open source project (and in fact more than that!), i fixed what i need....

Is that drawing yours or based on one of Stan's?

It is my drawing but very inspired by one of Stan! a pale copy...

It would be neat to see a whole page done like that.

it is why i said "hummm" before, because i began to work on a solution for that... the result : (after 4 hours of my night) i am able to make a vectorial image of Stan illustration (thanks to the sketchbook you send me Cynthia !).
Vectorial image (.svg) and flash (.swf) seem to be very similar (read the RFC). The problem is that i have no macromedia flash, and all i have tried have failed (scripts and conversion). Open source projects are not enough mature for the moment (those I used at least), i post some interrogations on flash forum but there are for professionals (money is required of course....). at last it would be possible to re-draw a Stan illustration (i have seen 2 scripts that really do the contrary flash2svg), which would be great (more than my drawing), but it is only theorical for me at this time…
If I find easy solution I will explain, or if anyone could explain me, am ok ! I made a vectorial image of stan’s drawing, "just" need to convert it in flash.

Is my memory playing tricks or did there use to be something on television that was similar, where a picture was drawn out in the same fashion?

When i was a child there were a TV show "L'ile aux enfants" with Gribouille who made such drawing, we never knew what he wanted to do before he finished... 2 years ago on ARTE (french-german tv) there were reportage showing illustrators and painters at work.

Please be sure to post a link to your French Usagi Yojimbo site when you get it up and going. I'm sure everyone here would enjoy visiting it and seeing your great work, as well as your friend's fan art.

Of course, but it goes slowly…
because you seem to all appreciate animations, i work on the "how to draw expressions" that you can see in the Art of UY http://ladrevert.free.fr/usagi/7ways.html , but it is not yet finished.

Steve you talked of the Trilogy Tour II limited edition, what ‘s this ?

Post by **Steve Hubbell** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 22:40 -0700

Thank you for you answers to the questions about your Usagi construction. Have to admit that most of the computer technical jargon was way above my understanding, but I am sure others here at the Dojo knew what you were talking about.

Sorry, I do not remember if you said you had the hard-cover Twentieth Anniversary Art of Usagi Yojimbo book or not.

The Trilogy Tour II limited Edition comic was released in collaboration of the convention tour of the same name, which consisted of the comic creators Stan Sakai, Jeff Smith (Bone), Mark Crilley (Akiko), Linda Medley (Castle Waiting), Jill Thompson (Scary Godmother), and Charles Vess (Ballads and Sagas).

All six creators contributed stories, with Charles Vess working with Jeff Smith on a Bone story. Stan contributed the water-color painted short story The Guardian, which has not been included in any of the Usagi Yojimbo paperback collections. It was one of two such water-color stories Stan produced over the years. Both were reprinted in the Twentieth Anniversary Art of Usagi Yojimbo Hardcover Book (mentioned at the beginning of this message).

The Trilogy Tour II comic was produced in a regular and a limited edition version. The only difference was the cover of the limited edition version was of a thicker stock, more like a paperback book cover than a regular comic. The limited edition versions were also autographed on the cover by all six creators.

Fanfan · Post by **Fanfan** » Sun Jul 31, 2005 14:44 -0700

Steve wrote:

Sorry, I do not remember if you said you had the hard-cover Twentieth Anniversary Art of Usagi Yojimbo book or not.

i got it!

And i have just finished my second animation, with a special thanks to Stan and Cynthia ( thank you again !) :

http://ladrevert.free.fr/usagi/7ways.html

just click on it to see next animation!

i hope you will enjoy as well.

Mr Sakai, should i put a TM or copyright mention ?

Post by **Steve Hubbell** » Sun Jul 31, 2005 17:47 -0700

That is really great, a very nice piece of animation (even if it took "me" a couple minutes to figure out that I needed to click on the pictures to move on to the next one).

We need to have Todd or Digulla make a permanent link from the Dojo home page to your page.

cynlee · Post by **cynlee** » Sun Jul 31, 2005 19:15 -0700

Thanks for the thanks!

Fanfan · Post by **Fanfan** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 6:49 -0700

Steve wrote :

(even if it took "me" a couple minutes to figure out that I needed to click on the pictures to move on to the next one).

I put a note that explain it on the page

We need to have Todd or Digulla make a permanent link from the Dojo home page to your page.

Wow, it would be great

and an honor !

my usagi section won't progress a lot, got to prepare my travel to South Corea and Japan, I take off at the very beginning of September, and I got a lot of work at the office…

Steve wrote:

It would be neat to see a whole page done like that.

cause am not a so good illustrator to do it, i thought to animate one of Stan's drawing...
i won't detail all i tried and all my tortuous thoughts, but i only expose a digest (in the case of a clever guy of the dojo could find a solution):

I found a script to animate a svg file in flash, you can see it there:
http://actionscript-toolbox.com/shapeDefinedMC.php

I tested it with Stan's illustration I converted before into a vectorial image, but the image is too complex or the script too simple to work (or it is just me that did not understand...)
you can see the SVG here :
http://ladrevert.net/usagi/Usagivectoriel.svg
save it and open it with a svg viewer or a Gimp like software http://www.gimp.org or http://www.inkscape.org/

at least i learned a lot about animation (flash, svg and so ever...) but i really need to sleep... nights were too short...

For Steve : a vectorial image is a mathematical curve. So you can zoom indefinitely you won’t have any pixel effect… in another words with a small svg file you can print a huge image !

Stan Sakai · Post by **Stan Sakai** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 7:16 -0700

That is really cool. The stylized Usagi really lends itself to animation. Great job!

Yes, please add a little " Usagi Yojimbo TM & copyright Stan Sakai", especially since it was taken from a prexisting piece of work.

The images were originally found in The Usagi Drawing Book #5: Expressions, an 8-page mini-comic I gave out at drawing lessons at San Diego and Wizard World Chicago. A few pages were reprinted in The Art of UY. There were only two Drawing Books. Number 6 dealt with Extreme Emotions. Daughter Hannah also sold them for 50 cents each at a few cons. I had intended to do a series of these minis, introducing younger artists to the basics of drawing. Number 1 was to deal with "using basic shapes". Other volumes were to have titles like "bodies in motion", "basics of perspective", and "do your research".

Stan Sakai · Post by **Stan Sakai** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 7:17 -0700

The Trilogy Tour Book limited edition is a hardcover, limited to 100 copies, and signed by all 6 creators--Jeff Smith, Charles Vess, Linda Medley, Jill Thompson, Mark Crilley, and myself. My story was reprinted in The Art of UY.

For me, that Trilogy year was the hardest, and most enjoyable year in comics. We toured the US with a 16 foot tree that took a full 8 hours to set up and tear down. We had to deal with unions, and trucking a dozen 10 foot crates around the country. We also had to work, sometimes until the early morning, in a hot, humid warehouse building everything by hand. But, there were quieter, memorable moments like being invited to a Tennesse barbecue and listening to the Appalacian storytellers and musicians, and watching the fire flies around the lake. Or driving with Charles Vess in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Or being taken on a tour of the real Old Man's Cave by Jeff Smith. I really wish I had kept a journal of those times.

Post by **Steve Hubbell** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 9:21 -0700

Stan Sakai wrote:The Trilogy Tour Book limited edition is a hardcover, limited to 100 copies, and signed by all 6 creators--Jeff Smith, Charles Vess, Linda Medley, Jill Thompson, Mark Crilley, and myself. My story was reprinted in The Art of UY.

Then the autographed copy I just bought must have been a regular edition which was then autographed by everyone on the cover. It has been so long since I looked at the original copy of the Trilogy Tour II comic I bought, I must have forgotten it used a heavier paper stock for the cover.