Photoshop tip #32 - Good gradations:

Ever been working in photoshop and had the dreaded banding issue show up while doing gradations - especially visible when using multiply layers? Well, your bandwidth (BITS) per color may be on the low side and that's what breaking up your gradations. So how do you solve this strange banding gradation problem?

Answer (and it took me a long time to figure this on out):

Bump up your Bits per channel in PHOTOSHOP from 8bit per channel (default) to 16 bits per channel: Image=>mode=> 16Bits/Channel.
Here is a GREAT article on this very topic:
http://www.artemis-design.com/difference-between-8-and-16-bit-per-channel.html

The down side of 16 bits per channel?
1) Massive file sizes. Simply put, the memory/file size of your image size will double.
2) Slow big or tricked out (complex) brushes. In the case of photoshop's new brushes - read that as REALLY SLOW big brushes.

Real world:

A lot of my layered production work gets well into the 700meg+ range and the thought of saving multiple 1.4+ gig PSD files is simply impractical for a lot of the Production Design work I do. BUT, 16 bit is much nicer when doing high end illustrations (with decent multiply-gradations) so...

My current rule of thumb: If it's not banding, stay 8bit. If you need higher fidelity and can afford the huge storage/memory/speed hit - go for 16 bit as the extended range is a beautiful thing.

/Ken H.

A quick photoshop tip for the artists out there that make their own brushes: When you name your custom brush, add the size of the brush and the Flow number like so: "Ken's killer pencil-8p-30flow".

Many of my PS brushes have custom flow settings, unfortunately PS doesn't save that setting when you make a brush. So- by noting the optimum size of the brush and the flow numbers when you name your brush, you will always know how to bring your brush back to it's original coolness. If your new custom brush is also not 100% opaque, then it's good to note that number in the name as well. :)
/Ken h

Hey, so I posted a bunch of new stuff on my website: www.onegameproductions.com
There is a new section called "Pre-vis" where we built some early set designs for Medal of Honor: Airborne to assist the game designers in getting the level rolling and to define the theme for some of the areas. (quicktime fly thru over rough geo env.)

I also added another section called "Production Design". I put a bunch of the pre-production design work that I Art Directed and created for Medal of Honor on this page. It's kind of a walk through of the creative process we used on MOHA (and that I still use today) If you click the "slideshow" option you'll get to see the images full screen. :)

I adjusted most of the pages on the site so by clicking on "Play slide show" will display the images show up much larger. There are still some images that are still kind of small. I hope to load the in at a higher res... some time in the future. (heh)

I have a bunch of digital life drawings that I can add to the site as well, if anyone is interested. I've posted a few of the newer digital sketches on my Facebook photos section, but you have to friend me to see them. :)

I hope you enjoy looking at the new stuff on the website! I still have a couple of boxes of the old stuff (a lot of Shrek storyboards) that need to be sorted out before I can post them ...(so lazy).


-Ken h

I finally got around to posting some of my storyboards. You can find them on my home website: www.onegameproductions.com
They're slow loading because they are higher res files. but you can scroll through them once they have loaded.
The storyboards are from "Treasure Planet", "The Timon and Pumbaa show", and "Shrek".

These are some quick digital thumbnail sketches

from a personal project. I kept them small and

low res so I could focus more on the shapes and

less on the details.

Here is an existential though I had about art, artists and creation:

I like to think that everything is old :)  For me the creation of something new is a mixture of awareness, free associative abstraction, and intent... The artist finds a new way to connect old dots, but the foundation is still awareness of what is. 

To those who may be looking here... 

a blog update.

I have to apologize for not having posted more stuff of late.  I have a boat load of projects in the works, and we're finaling the video game that I am working on for EA so my hours have been a bit crazy of late.  When things lighten up a bit I have some more work to put up from the way back feature animation machine ("Shrek" stuff, more "Treasure Planet" and maybe even some "Prince of Egypt" stuff).  I have a bunch of "Boom Blox", "Goldeneye: rogue agent", and "Medal of honor" images to share as well.  

As it is,  I'm sitting here looking at 4 of those big plastic bins filled with all kinds of still-t0-be-sorted old and new sketches.  There's dust on the lid of the boxes, it's 3am, and I'm bummed that I haven't gotten around to finish the organizing and digitizing job that I started a while back.  I will try to post some new stuff, maybe over the break.  

 

Oh, on a side note, the video game that I art directed, animation directed, and wrote the story for last year just won Spike's "Best Wii game of 2008" award. 

Go "Boom Blox"!!!!!  

I'm just glad folks liked the game... I know my team and I had a great time working on the project.... Now, I know I must have some "Boom Blox" pictures around here somewhere.  

-Ken H. 

(12-14-2008)

                                                                          ©Ken Harsha   

                           A quick sketch done during lunch.       

                                             Harsha/© Walt Disney

 ...a few images from when I was working as a visual development artist for WDFA. 

                                                        © Walt Disney

These are from a set of storybeat images I  created for "Goose Chase" (WDFA). 

 2004 © Ken Harsha  

Gears, steam, and big machines.

                                     

                                                 

 Harsha/© Walt Disney

"Billybones the pirate"... this is an image I did for "Treasure Planet" some years back.  .

Test post after 2 years of not posting

I did this painting during one of Don Lagerberg's life drawing workshops.  

It's all digital...done in 2004. 

I was developing custom brushes to feel more like

natural media.