Oekaki help ><

[Zero One]

yeah, I just got oekaki, so any pointers anyone? I almost had my first fairly good oekaki drawing but i pushed the back button on my browser instead of my undo button and it just went whoosh! and I got mad then I realized I was missing that thing on Animal Planet where they pit a CG animal against another (which this wednesday I believe is the Tiger against a Croc, last week was lion vs. tiger) so anyways I'm gonna go now, plz leave so help so that I shall do better tomorrow thanks ^_^

[Kireihana]

Um... like what do you need help with? The tools, a certain effect? I'd be happy to help you but I'm not exactly sure what you want to know. ^^

[Zero One]

hmm..*thinks* I should probably learn how to use all of the tools efficiently before I go on to effects so yeah if we could start with the tools please.

[Kireihana]

Ok then! These tools are for the Paint BBS and Paint BBS animation programs (I've never used Oekaki BBS).

The first button says "Solid" when you start. That means that you will be drawing with solid-color lines. If you click on the button, it changes to "Watercolor." This makes soft, slightly opaque lines. If you click on it a second time, it becomes "Text." This, of course, allows you to add text to your picture.

The next button has a lot of options. First it says "Halftone," which produces manga-like screentones. Click on it and it becomes "Blur," which is self-explanatory- it blurs things together. Click on it again and itd says "Light," which lightens things. Click on it a final time and it says "Dark," which darkens. In other programs the Light and Dark functions are known as "Dodge" and "Burn."

The next button creates shapes. "Rectangle" creates a solid rectangle, "LineRec" creates a rectangle outline, "Oval" makes a solid oval, and "LineOval" makes an oval outline.

Now the next button can be a little complicated. "Copy" is easy enough; you select part of the image to copy it, and then can drag the copy and place it elsewhere on the canvas. "LayerUnif" condenses the selection onto one layer, depending on which layer you use it on. "Antialias" blurs the selection slightly. "FlipHoriza" flips the selection horizontally, and "FlipVertic" flips the selection vertically. "Rotate" rotates the image 90 degrees to the right.

The next button is the eraser tools. Plain "White" lets you erase with a brush. "WhiteRec" erases a rectangular selection (good for erasing large areas). "Clear" erases EVERYTHING, so be careful with it.

Now for the line-style tools. "Freehand" lets you draw, uh, freehand. "Line" makes a straight, point-to-point line. "Bezier" makes curved lines.

The next button comes in very handy. The default setting is "Normal," which doesn't affect your image in any way. "Mask" makes it so you can't color over the active color (to select an active color, right-click on it. The default active color is black.) It is useful to use the "Mask" tool on your lineart color. The next tool, "Remask," makes it so you can ONLY color on the active color. A good example to use this is if you want to change the color of your lineart. "And" colors underneath colors with a lower hue than the active color, and "Divide" colors over colors with a higher hue. (Very confusing. I never use "And" or "Divide.")

Finally, done with buttons! Now you have the transparency (or "opacity") bar. Use this to change the transparency settings on practically anything- your brush, eraser, or the intensity of tools such as Blur, Darken, Lighten...

Next is the size box. Use it to change the size of your brush and stuff.

Then you'll see 3 little boxes. If you right-click on one of them, it will save your current tool - size, color, opacity settings and all. Left-click on it and you are ready to use the tool again!

Last is the layer selector. "LayerBG" is the background layer, and "LayerFG" is the foreground layer. Be careful when toggling layers because sometimes it's easy to forget and start drawing things on the wrong layer (<-- does this all the time ^^;; )

Well, that's about it. I'm sorry that it's so long; I tried to be concise... If you have any more questions feel free to ask. ^^

[Zero One]

Thank you very much, oh and I went to your deviant art thingy, I like your work ^_^ if anything else comes up I'll ask you. Thanks again, I'm gonna go give it a go right now

[Kireihana]

Thanks! Don't worry, you'll get the hang of oekaki. I remember how bad my first oekaki pictures were... *shudder* It just takes practice and and finding your favorite way of using the tools. Have fun!

[Mave]

Ok this is really silly. Just -what- is an Oekaki? What makes an art piece an 'oekaki'? So sorry, I still don't understand this form of art.

[Zero One]

just your artistic control over your mouse >_</)

[Kireihana]

Ehh? No, you can use tablets on oekaki. (I would die without mine! XD)

Mave:

An Oekaki is an online drawing board. The name comes from the Japanese word "to draw," and the technology was actually developed in Japan. Basically, you join an oekaki and you can draw there for free. You can actually get some really good-quality art out of oekaki. There are several oekaki programs, though the basic ones are Paint BBS, Oekaki BBS, and Shi Painter (not all oekakis have Shi Painter though). My favorite is the animated Paint BBS, because when you're done you can watch your art process played back to you.

One oekaki I am a member of is http://oekaki.loish.net. I've also drawn on CAA oekaki. You should look around, it's a lot of fun! ^^

[Zero One]

tablets I can divorce my mouse and get good lines? o_O

[Kireihana]

tablets I can divorce my mouse and get good lines? o_O

Uh, what? Drawing with a tablet is almost like using a pencil. With practice you can get really good lines ^^ I always HATED doing lineart with a mouse.

[Zero One]

you know I know this is off topic but taht image in your sig with the popping off of the hair is by far the strangest ...well one of the stranger things I've ever seen XD

[Kireihana]

Lol, it's from Azumanga Daioh. I took it off yesterday though b/c it made the rest of my sig look weird (I'm very picky). But if you are looking for a funny anime or manga, you should definitely try out Azumanga Daioh. It's the best! ^^