*insane laughter*

[slr2moons]

Ah yes...tonight I finished the last Claymore Page from Hell. And while Skip, New title, and occasionally Nana have plenty of their own PfH, those of Clay are usually the worst. The intricate backgrounds, you know. Speaking of which, Clay's final PfH went out with a bang.

When it comes to manga retouching, it doesn't get much more difficult than 1. blends, and 2. radial lines/texture. Put the two together and you have an official PfH. Thus, we have Clay 9.96. A new character is fighting a youma, using her special sword technique to deal him a damaging blow. Unfortunately for the letterer (namely, ME), her sword technique works like a drill, carving a hole through said youma. This is a chapter title page, so the image of Claymore Warrior drilling through Youma fills the whole page, and is face-on towards the viewer. The entire page is one giant radial blend of varying degrees. Wheeee! Complete with the standard Claymore radial lines and tone and all that good stuff. In the end, I was able to cut, paste, flip/rotate, and blend in about 50% of the needed touchup. The rest I created from scratch. I cut and pasted enough tone bits together to create a large swath, then did much in the way of small lines, bits of texture, new radial lines via ye olde Pen Toole, and other tricks to make the edges indiscernible. I dare say I did a bang-up job. *more insane laughter* It took several hours. Believe me when I say I earn my Claymore paycheck. *nods*

My homework for Temp title has begun. I'm reading all my previous manga volumes and paying special attention to the lettering and FX. I already have the fonts I need, so now I need to study the method. Not to mention keep an eye on the credits page for each vol, to note whenever the letterer changes. Of course, no one IRL really cares who the letterer is except other letterers. And maybe the editor of said manga. Anyway, such is my experience being a professional. *waves hand dismissively*

I'm also reading my 600+ page book of the newest translation of The Three Musketeers, one of my favorite novels. This translation is very faithful to the French original. They kept the purple prose and sexual references. I definitely don't remember reading those in the previous version!! *laughs* And I'd like to reread all of the Harry Potter series as well, before vol 7 comes out in July. I need to hurry up and finish T3M! Yes, I quite often read manga and prose at the same time. I switch back and forth, depending on my mood. I'm a mulitasker, remember?

Four days until new canon episodes of Naruto. *drools* I really want to reread Naruto now, too. >< Not enough time!!!! ARRGGHH!

And the manga report....

Pages completed Sat the 10th: Clay 9.29 and 90; Nana 12.185 and 187; New 1.55, 58, and 63; Skip 9.33, 38, 37, and 40. Blue 1, Green 1, Yellow 5, Orange 2, Pink 2. Quota met? Nope. -3 in Clay. But now that all the PfH are done--unless an Orange is promoted--then things should go a bit faster. But wait--English should be hitting any day now. Oog. ><