Saturday 31 December 2016

From layers to a giphy via the Slate


The Slate claims to "Give digital life to your paper creations".

Today, I thought I'd have a go at creating a mini-animation using it. On the way, I learned how to use giphy as well.

Start on a piece of paper and draw (this is a nice way of still feeling like you're drawing rather than drawing on a screen)

You automatically end up on layer 1

 Add a layer (layer 2)
Now use the 'eye' icon to keep layer 1 visible as you draw layer 2

 Now use the 'eye' icon in layer 1 to make it invisible so all you see is layer 2.

Add as many layers as you want - each one effectively being a new frame.




Replay regularly so that you can see what you are doing (but it doesn't hide the layers in the replay)

So, hide all the layers and then make each one visible and export as a gif using the Export command.






Now go to Giphy (check the terms and conditions as you may not wish to share this and upload these images to end up with a resulting giphy)
End resulting giphy which you can also download (see below).


Once you know what you want to draw, it becomes easy as the steps themselves don't take much time at all. 
The time it has taken me to draw the images and work out that I needed to:
  • use layers and export them as jpegs, 
  • use giphy (for the first time)
  • write a post with these steps
  • grab screenshots of layers from Imagink for said post
  • export the screenshots of Imagink of from tiff to jpeg
was less than an hour (and that's including the faff for writing this post)

If you prefer you can also use something like Clayframes and a sheet of paper (last I used it I couldn't import the images).


Friday 30 December 2016

new tool!





Playing with the Slate (iskn) and getting to know it quickly. Love how it stores the lines.

Attempt 1 -  in offline mode - to my delight it stored the movements (and mistakes).

sketch 1



Attempt 2. This time plugged into the app. Flowers in a vase
sketch 2 - flowers in a vase



Attempt 3. This time using the different settings of the app a Robin.

sketch: Robin




My first request - a melting snowman

Sketch: melting snowman




sketch:houses



making mistakes is ok - sketch



Some notes:
What I loved about the Slate is that it was so easy - I drew something offline - it appeared within a minute of 'collecting' it. Then I could change the background image. I could add layers and I could have a recording of the strokes. It was incredible that I could use it in 'screenless' mode and could travel without the app.

When I managed to use it with the app (after finding a compatible Apple product and updating it) the time it took to draw, export as a jpeg/movie and then upload these to a post was trivial. But having this on a computer means that I am 'tied' to it when using the app. However, it also means I can reuse paper and draw over several drawings.

I also love the idea that I could use it to trace and maybe use as a way of animation.  In fact, when it hadn't managed to note my marks, I could retrace/redraw over the drawing.