Layout #73: Sins of the Past

Layout #73: Sins of the Past. Click here to return the layout listing.

Name : Sins of the Past
Index : Yes
Made : Shaza – July 27, 2005
Site : MyCurry
Brushes : No;
Shapes : Yes; Lines
Effects : Yes; Vivid Light, Multiply, Satin
Fonts : Yes; Engraver MT, Hans Hand, Arial for CSS
Navigation : No; Horizontal
Artist/Comic : Rurouni Kenshin—Nobuhiro Watsuki
Original Picture from : Self screen shots taken from the Kenshin OVA, and one artbook image scanned by me.
Process : This layout took a very long time. First, I downloaded a program called FRAPS and took 700+ screenshots. I first stuck the OVA artbook image on the left hand side, and applied vivid light, multiplying it, and then erasing the duplicated layer around Kenshin so that Tomoe was a bit more into the backdrop. I love Kenshin’s eyes so I took a yellow brush and carefully painted in his eyes around his hair. I opacified this slightly to let it blend in and applied Satin. Next, I stuck the Tomoe sword on the other side to the right and applied vivid light, and painted some extra blood over it, erasing it a little bit. Now, using several different screenshots I started the layout. First I used a screenshot which had blood dripping down a bridge, and put this on the far left corner behind Kenshin and Tomoe, using the sharpen tool to make it clearer, and adding a bit more blood. Then, I took an umbrella picture, rotated it a bit, sharpened, and applied vivid light to make it darker and stuck it on top of the bridge, erasing the corners, and then taking regular brushes and erasing at the edges to make it blend into each other. There was one picture with a fence and another with a dead guy, so I put them together under the umbrella to make it seem like a view of something, and then added more blood on the floor. Using a Kenshin image, I cut out his swords and hand as well as robe (which was all black) beside this dead guy, to make it seem like at least to me that he was peaking behind the umbrella but his face could not be seen ^_, but blending into the image. The next part was very easy as I took a screenshot of Kenshin and Tomoe’s first meeting in a far view, and pasted this in the middle. This image was already pretty much blended in, so I sharpened it, and slightly fixed it on the corners to blend into the black background. For the network, behind the umbrella I used a series of screenshots of flowers, and grass as well as vines (a total of 5 screenshots) with different opacities and effects (mostly vivid light, hard light, and overlay) to blend into each other and look like a complete image. I erased corners and other things to make them seem realistic. About this time 1/2 of the layout was already done. Next, I took the 4th OVA screenshot of Tomoe’s grave and stuck it on the bottom with her scarf, but since the scarf was a bit cut off, I drew in the rest of it and darkened it to make it match the background, all the while sharpening some of the edges. I didn’t want to fill up too much of that part of the layout since it was at the end. On the top I added another screenshot of Kenshin killing people in a temple, and added some darker trees to make it seem like it was blending into the background once more. Then, using another screenshot of the sky, I pasted in the background behind the cross. It seemed a bit too plain and the blood on the Tomoe sword on the left hand side seemed out of place, so the screenshot of Kenshin’s feet and Tomoe’s dead fiance opacified very lightly in the blood with the pink flowers from Kenshin stepping on the pavement. A really cool screenshot of Kenshin’s sword with blood shining in the night stuck into a tree was to finish off the transition between the Network area to the recent one I just described above. On this screenshot I sharpened it a bit, added some more dripping blood, and tada it was done. The next step was to group all this layers together in a set, so I wouldn’t get confused, and I started adding some finishing touches. Basically I took the default brushes from Adobe in Yellow, and applied outer glow with green, using the blur tool to blend it in at different levels. Using the manga for quotes I added some quotes and the text for the sections. For the coding, I prepared an overlapping version where I highlighted particular parts, which was just a range of opacified white solid color and some blood. Since the layout was really dark, I made sure the font wasn’t too dark and coded everything in this way. The index was really easy as I used the network area for the top and another screenshot for the bottom. Although these explanations for the layout sound really simple, it was really hard because I had to get the screenshots that would fit together, and I ended up taking SO many screenshots but using a mere 20 or so for the layout. The light layout was just the left side, without the umbrella.
Description :This layout was horizontal and followed the Truth of Alchemy Layout. I wanted it to be pretty simple and easy to understand, so I worked really hard on it. Mostly, I just wanted to represent my love of Kenshin and try something different : that is; blending and DRAWING as least as possible. The last FMA layout was drawing mostly, but I wanted it to be a totally different atmosphere from the last one, much darker and gloomy—and more even. This layout ACTUALLY took a LOT longer than the FMA one. Probably close to 23+ hours put together. While the FMA one took a mere 14. My love for Kenshin never dies :P