That whole two pixel thing, again.

Now I've calmed down since the last time I tried to talk about this. However there is one more thing, but that will keep by me for the time being. You see I'm trying to get video of it happening. Weirdly enough it never seems to occur when my camera is out.

Okay, so what's the big deal over this two pixel thing? It's the way I do the speech boxes in my comics. I just simply use the shape tool to draw a box around the text. I did try doing it the way everybody else does, but that was too much work and in some text heavy comics it would become confusing as to who is saying what. So I decided to pick a color that is either dominant or very obscure to the character speaking. Then I would draw a two pixel wide box around the text and when I highlighted it all and placed it onto the comic there would be a single pixel white line around that as well.

I came up with the two pixel measurement because I could see it. That's how I base everything, can I even see it at normal magnification? I found that one pixel was too small and three was too fat. Two turned out to be just right.

With Windows 7, thing got screwed up. 98, XP, and Vista version of MS Paint were okay, but in 7 Microsoft added in a bunch of stuff we didn't need and took out things we did. Like the option of drawing lines two pixels wide. I had to keep using XP Paint because of this. Then I found out I could resize the shapes after I drew them in 7 Paint on the fly. Previously I had to draw the box and then highlight sides of it to bring back towards the text to tidy it up. Now I could draw the box, and size drag the sides to where I wanted them. I could finally retire XP Paint.

Frustration still set in because I had to draw two of theses things. Meaning something that originally took 5 steps now took 10. Where as if I only still had that two pixel option. Now comes a brain fart.

There are three basic steps I use in making my comics: backgrounds, characters, text, and miscellaneous. When working on the character step, I hit “Ctrl +” to double the size them. A very important thing to note because it makes it them easier to see.

Now mind you, not every comic I do I find interesting. Sometimes they bore me to tears. Then my mind starts to wander around. Of course I forget what step I'm on. One day I was working a comic that really made me wanting to instead go watch some TV. I was on the text phase and drawing the box shape around it the text when I brain farted and thought I was on the character step and I hit “Ctrl +.” That doubled the size of the box. I froze. Took a closer look. Yes the lines were two pixels wide. I could also grab the highlight box and resize the whole thing to were I needed it. On top of that, the next time I drew a box it was two pixels as well.

Now that's fixed. How about fixing those random transparencies and disappearing rotations?