Wednesday, February 29, 2012

What is "Flatting"?


If you've been following this blog you've probably read in a post or two that I've been flatting this comic or that comic, and thought to yourself "What the hell is flatting?"

Flatting is a step in the process of coloring line art which is widely used for comic books.  The line art is separated into flat, solid blocks of color which a colourist then uses to render the page. It is a time-consuming process that most professional colourists farm out to peons like me.

The above example from Strange & Darke 1 show (from left to right), the line art, the flats, the layered flats and line art, and finally the rendered page.

Words: John Smith. Pictures: Colin MacNeil. Final colours: Len O'Grady. © 2012 Rebellion A/S.

2 comments:

  1. So thaaaaaaat's what flatting is. Been wondering. Thanks!

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  2. I hope you don't mind me asking, but do you get given a colour palette to draw from that gives you what colour each thing is, or is it part of the job that you're choosing the colours as well as flatting them in? Thank

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