One of my favourite things to do is animate Star Wars art but animating comic covers is particularly fun. Especially when there are so many good covers out there to animate. I haven’t animated anything in some time, and I did take a bit of a break after my little meltdown but now I am back and rearing to go.
Here’s an edit I did of this cover by Joe Quesada:
And the animated version:
When I created the Mezzopop Mezzotint Photoshop effect the other day, I had actually forgotten all about it until I was editing this comic cover. So I thought, why not test it out and see how it looks on a Star Wars edit.
If you’ve been a follower of my blog you’ll know that one of my favourite things to do is clean up images or edit comic covers by removing the text to show the underlying image. I do this because I am in awe of some of the comic cover art that adorns these comics. And sometimes text can be a very overpowering element in an image. Sometimes the image needs to breathe on its own. So I edit them.
Here is the original cover, art by David Marquez
And there is an official image without text as well but here is my edit:
And the mezzotint edit:
And lastly, my animated edit
I really like this comic cover. I love how the artist captured Princess Leia with the blueprints showing in her cape of a Star Destroyer, an X-Wing and a TIE Fighter that makes it really stand out for me. It’s unusual and works so well for this comic.
So I decided to edit out all the text to see what it would look like without it. I also did some extra things in Photoshop, just experimenting really and part of being creative is trying new things, right? I do this a lot in my spare time. I learn something, and then I try it out on different things. For this image, I used textures and actions in Photoshop to get the effect I wanted.
Original Cover Art by Travis Charest who works for Dark Horse comics
Edit one:
Edit Two – mixed media effect
Edit three – textures, backgrounds and a lot of editing
I felt like doing something I haven’t done in a while and that is edit comic covers. I’ve edited quite a few comic covers in the past because I like removing the text and looking at the image behind it (if you know what I mean). Sometimes the text can really overshadow a beautiful piece of art. I’ve found that most covers get the variant edition treatment (not all but some do) and the artwork is produced without text already which is awesome. But sometimes, this doesn’t happen and I like to practice my editing by removing the text.
I am probably going about it the wrong way but it seems to work OK for the stuff I’ve done in the past. I’ve made some really nice motion art out of some covers as well like this one of Darth Vader which is one of my favourites. I always credit the original artist when I make motion art out of their artwork and everytime I’ve done this, I’ve been given really good feedback, sometimes from the artist’s themselves. This is what keeps me going, really, when people enjoy what I do.
So here are a couple I did today because I love Obi-Wan and Anakin together. Checking Star Wars Fandom dot com, I don’t see textless variant versions of these covers at all so that’s a bonus! Now they are both Textless. I think I might make some motion art out of Cover H because it’s beautiful.
Obi-Wan and Anakin Part I Cover F Textless:
Obi-Wan and Anakin Cover H Textless – Art by Gabriele Dell’Otto
So I still don’t feel 100 per cent better, the pain is still lingering on one side of my head making that side of my face numb. This is normal after a severe migraine (don’t be alarmed!) I usually end up with blurry vision or lose sight in one of my eyes as well, but that only lasted a very short period.
I don’t feel like writing anything just yet, so I thought I’d animate a new Star Wars Comic cover instead:
Star Wars Greatest Moments Variant Cover – “Duel of the Fates”
Original cover art by Leinel Francis Yu
My animated version (heavily edited)
And the original cover:
How prophetic did this conversation between Leia and Luke become? Luke still a young man being advised by his sister that innocence is always under threat, especially when you’re fighting for a cause and against all the odds. At this point, Luke was still a little wet around the ears, a young man full of promise and ready to take on the Universe. It seems somehow more believable now looking ahead from this point towards what we know of Luke’s destiny. The Luke Skywalker we see in The Last Jedi has become precisely what Leia hoped he wouldn’t, and the force could not protect him from it. Continue reading → Star Wars is Poetry – The Storms of Crait – 1 of 1
I love so many of the Star Wars comic covers, sometimes it’s so hard to choose which one to edit. This one is by artist Tony Harris
Original Cover by Dark Horse comics
My edit:
