I've added a new daily feature to my site called "The Morning Improv." It's just a one hour a day, improvisational series -- I'm literally making it up as I go along.

You can find it from the main page:
http://www.scottmccloud.com

Nothing earth-shattering. I'm mostly doing it just to keep loose, and to brush away a few cobwebs since I can only work on the site part-time leading to infrequent updates. It's also pretty weird. More in line with things like the 24-hour comic or some of my more bizarre minis.

Oh yeah, and it has Millard Fillmore for a mascot! Obviously I'm catering to a teen demographic.

[img]/resources/ubb/smile.gif[/img]

Yeah, very wierd. I like it. And what are you doing to create the embossed effect? Is it just a Photoshop-type effect? The gradiated text too. It looks very cute like that. Certainly a great exercise for any cartoonist.



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-Barrett Lombardo
http://www.comics2u.com
http://www.orbitcomics.com
barrett@comics2u.com

Yep. It's one of Photoshop 6+'s layer effects (the inside bevel one) available straight from the layers palette. You can apply it to the whole layer prior to drawing/painting the elements. Those panels, btw, have about 20 layers each.

Of course I'm only using it for the current strip. God only know what the next one will look like!

I'm also using the "Story Machine" for these, if anyone's curious (I have some details on the Story Machine in my "Inventions" section.)

I've also put up a form for people to suggest titles for future M.I. strips.

Scott, you are one bizarre individual.
Keep up the good work.

later,
dave

Fun art. I like the improv idea. If I can offer a comment on the site, the top frame with theFillmore picture is very big. Also the side bar is wide, leaving little room for the artwork panels. I had to scroll up and down on the third panel to see it.

Randy

Hmmm... Anyone else having this problem? Perhaps I should consider a redesign.

I agree that the header frame is pretty tall and smaller resolutions would probably have to scroll down...



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-Barrett Lombardo
http://www.comics2u.com
http://www.orbitcomics.com
barrett@comics2u.com

I'm running at 1024x768 and I don't see any problems.

However, when I switch down to 800x600 the left panel needs to scroll both vertically and horizontally by a tiny bit (small enough that it's clearly not intentional). And the top panel seems shifted a little too far down vertically, but not enough to bother me. The artwork panel did display a vertical scroll bar, but the actual strip still fit in the panel, so that's not really a problem either.

later,
dave

I had to scroll up and down to see the vertical panel too. (iMacs have small screens, so I usually keep the resolution at 800 x 600)

I think you'd be better off not varying the height of the panels....

?

[This message has been edited by James Kochalka (edited 09-04-2001).]

I just trimmed the top panel's height and took away the text and dividers under the image. Let me know if that helps.

Look for this morning's update (Tues) around 10:30am if all goes well.