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["title_eng"]=>
string(18) "Comic Style Mechas"
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string(19) "Comic Style Mechovi"
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In today's article, I will show my way of coloring cartoon or comic style, whichever suits you. I implement it on mech figures, specifically from the game Heavy Gear Blitz. As soon as I saw them, they inspired me to try to imitate the retro animation from the anime studios of the 80s and 90s, of which I am a huge fan. I say imitations because it's not easy to transfer the feeling of an animated character to the world of miniatures, it's a question of the amount of detail and lighting - two factors that I'm still trying to perfect.
The idea is not to create NMM (Non-Metallic Metal), although it can look like that, but this is a Cel-shading approach to colors and lighting that segments surfaces into clearly separated tones. The comparison with NMM is in how it handles light on the miniature, where the parallel is drawn because you determine the source and amount of light that is shown in the shading yourself.
My examples in this article are reminiscent of NMM because I shade separate panels, trying to get highlights and slight color fades individually, but if we look at the examples in the animation, the model is often shaded by itself and the transition of shadow and light is only in a few places.
Similar to NMM, the approach is a little more complicated, but the technique is simple: we choose which side the light comes from - the panels facing the light are always brighter, the others are darker. Then we determine the direction of the light and shade so that wash or contrast paint from GW falls, but in controlled layers with clearly defined edges between tones. The final highlight is white, it's standard in cartoons. All edges, or at least all visible, are black lines.
Black lines can be obtained in three ways, one is with the side of the brush on the raised edge, the second is with the prominent tip of the brush in the recesses, while the third is with thin felt-tip pens. The third one is considered mild cheating in our hobby, but I strongly believe that such a term does not exist in our dictionary, if we are talking about manual techniques.
You have to be careful with felt-tip pens, because sometimes they can flow too much on a small edge, but that can all be painted over.
My personal procedure is as follows: I paint the entire model with the darkest color, then determine the side that is lit - in these cases, the front. After that I start shading the mech panels, roughly with triangular shapes to emphasize the light from above. So I lighten all the panels in one or two layers before adding a final highlight with white. After that, I blacken the edges for a "cartoon feel". The inevitable fix for edge blackening bugs is at an end.
For the bases, I decided to make a freehand drawing instead of a 3D base as we usually do, I thought it was appropriate that the drawings are in a flat environment. Since the game is mostly played on desert terrain, I used a few colors to show the small "dunes", black lines and, here and there, some shaded rocks. The bases were completed in this way relatively quickly.

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U današnjem članku prikazat ću svoj način bojanja cartoon iliti comic stylea, kako vam god paše. Implementiram ga na mech figurama, točnije iz igre Heavy Gear Blitz. Čim sam ih vidio, inspirirale su me na pokušaj imitacije retro animacije iz studija animea 80-ih i 90-ih, čiji sam veliki fan. Kažem imitacije jer nije jednostavno prebaciti osjećaj animiranog lika u svijet minijatura, pitanje je količine detalja i osvjetljenja - dva faktora koje i dalje pokušavam usavršiti.
Ideja nije stvaranje NMM-a (Non-Metallic Metala), iako tome može ličiti, već je ovo Cel-shading pristup bojama i osvjetljenju koje segmentira plohe na jasno odijeljene tonove. Usporedba s NMM-om je u tome kako se barata svjetlom na minijaturi, tu se povlači paralela zbog toga što sami odredite izvor i količinu svjetla koji se prikazuju u sjenčanju.
Moji primjeri u ovom članku podsjećaju na NMM zbog toga što ja sjenčam zasebne panele, pokušavajući dobiti highlighte i blagi fade boje pojedinačno, no gledamo li primjere u animaciji, često se sjenča model za sebe te je prijelaz sjene i svjetla tek na par mjesta.
Slično NMM-u, pristup je malo kompliciraniji, no tehnika je jednostavna: odaberemo s koje strane dolazi svjetlo - paneli okrenuti prema svjetlu su uvijek svjetliji, ostali su tamniji. Onda odredimo smjer svjetla i sjenčamo kako bi padao wash ili contrast paint od GW-a, ali u kontroliranim slojevima s jasno određenim rubovima između tonova. Krajnji highlight je bijeli, to je standard u crtanim filmovima. Svi rubovi, ili barem svi vidljivi, crne su linije.
Crne linije se mogu dobiti na tri načina, jedan je s bočnom stranom kista po uzdignutom rubu, drugi s istaknutim vrhom kista u udubinama, dok je treći s tankim flomasterima. Treći se smatra blagim varanjem u našem hobiju, ali sam snažnog uvjerenja da takav pojam ne postoji u našem rječniku, ukoliko pričamo o tehnikama rukom.
Treba paziti i s flomasterima jer nekad znaju previše teći po kakvom manjem rubu, no to se sve može prefarbati.
Moja osobna procedura je sljedeća: s najtamnijom bojom ofarbam cijeli model, onda odredim stranu koja je osvijetljena – u ovim slučajevima prednja. Nakon toga krenem sa sjenčanjem panela mechova, ugrubo s trokutastim oblicima da se naglasi svjetlo odozgora. Tako osvijetlim sve panele u jedan ili dva sloja prije dodavanja zadnjeg highlighta bijelom. Nakon toga zacrnjujem rubove za „cartoon feel“. Neminovno popravljanje grešaka crnjenja rubova je na kraju.
Za baze sam odlučio freehandom napraviti crtež umjesto 3D baze kakvu inače radimo, smatrao sam da je prikladno da se crteži nalaze u plošnom okruženju. S obzirom da se igra većinom igra na pustinjskom terenu, koristio sam par boja za prikaz malih „dina“, crne linije i, tu i tamo, pokoji osjenčani kamen. Baze su na ovaj način bile gotove relativno brzo.
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