Vic Romano's Weekly Creative Muppet Visuals

[unclematt]

Mokey is a Fraggle

 

[Fozzie Bear]

I don't think Byron does either, but I meant Janice. Mokey has a hairy chest, so I doubt the armpits would be much different.

I just wish I had a furry head--it gets cold in the winter!

 

[Beauregard]

I don't think Byron does either, but I meant Janice. Mokey has a hairy chest, so I doubt the armpits would be much different.

I just wish I had a furry head--it gets cold in the winter!

Well...if Byron ever decides to shave, he can knit you a woollen hat.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

I have one. Wore it when I played Clouseau this past halloween.

But, I'll take a head-rug.

 

[unclematt]

My biggest fear is going bald

 

[BEAR]

Byron, not Bryon! *suddenly cant remember which way you spell your name and whether you took my last remark, aimed at JandM's Man, as a personal insult*

No, I found your remark to Janice&Mokeysman funny. That's what the "Zing!" meant. It's sorta like a rim shot or a "wocka wocka". By the way, my name is spelled B-r-y-a-n.

 

[Vic Romano]

Scarface

I thought the block on my work computer would have been lifted by now, I sent in an e-ticket darnit! So my apologies for the late posting again. Well, you're gonna' get an earful here, prepare for a super long post!

I'm a man, a real man... okay, so I don't pay much attention to sports and I don't drink beer, but I love Kung-fu and gangster movies! This week's visual is a tribute to that Brian DePalma gem - "Scarface"! I always wanted to do a Scarface/Muppet crossover, but with whom? Well, who's the most likely to be the yin to Tony Montana's yang? Our favorite furry and loveable monster: Grover.

Scarface
Be sure to click the image for a "full view"

*Special Note - This visual is sized to 1024×768 for the perfect fit for your computer desktop!

Muppet Central Morsels

• While most of the photo manipulated visuals don't take long, this one was done in less then three minutes.
• The image of Grover's head was already rough and choppy. No additional effects were needed to make him "fit" into the image.
• This visual was inspired and came on the heels of an upcoming visual that combines Sesame Street with "Resevoir Dogs".​

***More info you may or may not feel the need to read!***​

Upcoming Visuals!
We keep the suspense rolling by giving you a look at not just the next visual, but weeks ahead too!
Next Week: Tune in next Friday, January 26th to see more then twenty of your MC pals in "The Muppet Central Show - Season 2"! And then:
February 2, 2007 - Muppets Tonight Meet Sesame Street
February 9, 2007 - Slanderous Junk Weekly, Issue 3
February 16, 2007 - Munchable Muppets – The Kermelon Breakfast Platter

High Resolution prints of "A Muppet Family Gathering"
It's here! Visit this thread.

Q&A's
Quite a gaggle of questions have been asked here, in my PM box and through e-mail and I'm pleased as penguins to answer 'em!
Just wondering if you finished the *insert random Muppet here* avatar I asked for?
If I promised you an avvy and didn’t deliver, I’m very sorry. I made over 30 custom avatars. Some just for fun, and some that were requested. Several custom avatars I made for people were never even used. The bottom line is that I am no longer making ANY more custom avatars. My workflow increases and decreases very randomly, so I can get burned out pretty quickly trying to process all the requests I get. Sorry everyone!

Have you ever tried Macromedia Fireworks?
In the design world, there’s industry standard; and that’s mostly Adobe Products. Macromedia holds the industry standard for web (and even now studio) animation though with Flash and web layout with Dreamworks. Fireworks is Photoshop’s counterpart, and Freehand is Macromedia’s counterpart to Adobe Illustrator. I actually have the latest version of both these products but never use them, although I have heard many people sing their praises. However, Adobe recently bought Macromedia, so I’m curious to see if the two programs will merge or Adobe will discontinue the Macromedia software products all together.

I guess I'm just tired of seeing the same old picture of *insert random Muppet here* over and over.
God, don’t I know it! There’s such a limit on what the internet and even printed media have to offer. I HATE using the same shots over and over, but sometimes I’m forced to. This is why sometime after April, VRWCMV will go on hiatus again. Newer and fresher material is needed if I plan to continue to entertain you every week. If you have rare pics or scenes that you’d like to share with me for this purpose, PLEASE e-mail them to me at vicromano_mc@yahoo.com Also, if you’re one of the many people who’ve sent in ideas for VRWCMV, keep sending ‘em in! They are helpful.

Are you planning a drawn visual any time soon?
No. I can crank out these photo-manipulated visuals within minutes, but illustrating them takes time. There is at least one illustrated visual planned for April and a few members may have opportunity to see it before that if they are the first to order their copy of “A Muppet Family Gathering”. Currently, I just became a subscribed paying user for my personal Deviant Art page and I’m focused on building that up. I do have a couple of Muppet illustration ideas jotted down which I hope to create someday and those will most likely appear when VRWCMV’s eventually return for it’s third season.

Is there a way I could make this my background for the computer?
Most of the time, I try and size the visuals to 1024 pixels by 768 pixels, which is a relatively standard size for a desktop picture. Your computer can fit the image to your screen if your settings aren’t set for this size though. First save the visual onto your computer, then just right click on an empty part of your desktop screen and select “Properties” from the drop down menu. Click the “Desktop” tab and browse through your hard drive for the image you want to use.

The font(s) you use are really nice. Where do you get them from?
There are so many great tools on the internet you can use and that’s why at the bottom of this post is a great list of tools for up and coming designers as well as hardened professionals who are dead to the world, jaded and cynical because of it.

How can I get a copy of “A Muppet Family Gathering”?
Go here!

I can’t see the visual/the page won’t load/I’m not a member of Deviant Art.
First off, you DO NOT have to be a member of Deviant Art (DA) to view images hosted there. Secondly, DA does have a habit of going down due to high volume. If this is the case, just wait awhile and check back later. DA also hosts images that can have mature content. Even though DA is good about warning people as to which deviations are mature in content, this has been known to block users from the entire website depending on whether or not your computer is guarded with parental controls or your school or office has blocks on sites that are otherwise mature in nature. If you still can’t get to it, unfortunately the problem is on your end.

Will we see more issues of “Slanderous Junk Weekly”?
YES! Currently there are two more issues scheduled to appear on February 9, 2007 and then on April 6, 2007 and possibly one or two more after that. These are very fun to do and I can guarantee they will be a reoccurring visual when VRWCMV’s return for it’s third season. If you have an idea for an issue or a funny headline, e-mail it to me at vicromano_mc@yahoo.com

Can you draw me a picture?
I’ve been asked this a LOT here at MC and it’s always awkward to answer. The answer is yes I will if you can afford me. I am a professional, I do this for a living, and it’s how I put bread on the table. My starting rates are anywhere between $600 to $1200 dollars. YES – People do pay me that, and YES – People here on MC have paid me that as well (please don’t ask who). YES – I will trade art for certain things, like action figs or videos. I’ve been known to make photo manipulated e-cards for my closer friends here on MC, but other than that; I won’t do personal visuals for people for two reasons: One, all these visuals are created in low resolution, or web resolution because that’s acceptable to view on a computer screen. By this reasoning, that’s all it would ever be; you couldn’t print a nice version or anything. And two, I don’t own those images, so I legally couldn’t “give” them to you or charge for them either.

Great tools and resources!
There are a lot of great resources and tools on the web for artists and designers, so here are some that I’ve had great experience with and want to share with you!

Stockexchange – This is an image site that hosts high resolution images for free! You do have to become a member to download the pictures, but it is free to join as well. Many times in the design world, you need photos of various different things for your art. Unless you photograph or illustrate the image yourself, you have to purchase a copyrighted image from a site like Corbis, Getty Images, or Veer or a photographer or Illustrator. Stockexchange (SXC) let’s you get free images that are royalty free. That means you can use them however you want as often as you want. The cons? The selection isn’t going to be quite as spectacular as a pay site, and many of the images may require some touch-up or adjusting, but for the price; you can’t beat it! Many of the backgrounds for “Slanderous Junk Weekly” and other visuals comes from SXC.

Good Tutorials – Now this is a site that is for Photoshop users only. This is a cool site to learn… just about everything! There’s lots of info and different techniques to show how to create effects, use keyboard shortcuts, use text and manipulate images. Those of an expert nature might find the site to be frustrating as it typically only deals in low res and RGB images, but if you are a pro, it’s like interpreting a cooking recipe for a bigger family. Many of the tutorials will also link you to sites that offer some cool brushes and filters for free as well.

Blambot and Dafont – There are literally thousands of free font sites, but they all suck. Blambot and Dafont are the exclusion. Blambot is strictly comic book fonts. They have a great selection of free lettering, title and sound fx fonts. 9 out of ten times in my visuals when someone is talking, I use Letter-o-matic, the “Slanderous Junk Weekly” mast is made from a font called “Bada-boom”, all free fonts from Blambot. If you have a program like Illustrator, Freehand, Corel Draw or even Flash; Blambot offers their “Box of Noise” which are free vector comic graphics like talk balloons, sound fx and more. They also have some decent web comics lettered only with Blambot fonts. Blambot also offers professional fonts at a price to the aspiring comic artists.
Dafont has tons of free fonts too, but they’re categorized in a very efficient manor. These are the crème de la crème of free fonts, not just everything under the sun without a price tag. Dafont also has a large selection of Dingbat fonts, or clipart. The other nice thing about Dafont is that they offer True Type Fonts and Openface Fonts for Mac as well. The fancy font used in the “Happy New Year 2007” visual featuring Zoot used a font from Dafont called “Scriptina”. Aside from fancy, movie type fonts and clip art, Dafont also offers many serif and sans serif fonts that are good for letter and business writing.

Colorschemer – Ever had trouble trying to figure out what color background Mokey would look good against? Well I have! But thanks to Colorschemer, those problems are a thing of the past! Colorschemer uses themed motifs and contemporary design trends to give color swatches that would work well together and be pleasing to the eye. Now there is software available for a price, but a little snoopin’ around will find you tons of selections for free.

The Best Brands of the World – You’ll need a vector art program like Illustrator, Freehand, Corel Draw or even Flash or pro Photo software like Photoshop or Fireworks to utilize this site. Brands of the World (BOTW) has thousands of company logos and characters in EPS, AI, FH or CDW file format. A very cool resource to find logos or inspiration to create your own logos. Be advised though that this is not clip art, but if you forget, they’ll remind you.

Check out all VRWCMV here!​

 

[redBoobergurl]

Wonderful as usual Dave! I'm really looking forward to seeing the Muppet Central show 2! Grover really did fit well with Scarface, I'm impressed. Oh, don't worry about not watching sports and being a "real man", my hubby doesn't watch much sports either.

 

[D'Snowth]

Hey gues what? I'm going to be in Vic's visual next week!

 

[The Count]

Which hubby you talking about Beth?

This caught me off guard, twas hexpecting Pepe the King Prawn as Scarface... Maybe in a fierce showdown against Patrol Bear Fozzie or Patrol Chief Link with maybe Lew Zealand and/or Jean Dodd Van Clamme backing him up.
*Note: That was added now for greater visual impact creativenessness.

OK, scratch one possibility, guess I'll have to talk to someone else then.
BTW: Vic, sorry I haven't replied to your message yet. Working on it, at least that's something that I can definitely write up and send. Who knows, maybe we can talk about the other thing if my friend's advice leaves me seeking other paths. At any rate, great stuff, looking forward to MCS2 and MT Meet SS.