Frankentoon Studio

Hi!
 
I'll be posting here my artwork made with Designer so far. Hope you all enjoy, I've had lots of fun doing this characters and creatures! Any comment good or bad will be welcome.
 
 

Ooooooo. Hell yeah, I'd be interested in this!! I'll buy anything about Character Design but if it's explicitly tailored towards AD then I'm eager to snatch it from you and gobble it up.
 
I seem get to a point in software where I plateau. I like what I can do with it but never really push the software or my skills further. Any help in this department would be great
 
As for format, iBooks would be great but a physical copy might be worth considering too......
 
Looking forward to any updates and of course the book(s)
 
WoOhoO!!!!!
 
George
 

Hi!
 
My name is Enrique Figueroa, I'm a professional graphic designer.
 
I've started to use Affinity Designer recently and I love it!.  I have some expertise in character design, mascot design and such... I began to write a book about cartoon character design in Adobe Illustrator a few months ago... but it happens that I don't use Illustrator that much anymore (I hate, hate the subscription thing).
 
So I thought that it would be a good idea to re-write the whole book for Affinity Designer only. 
The book is oriented towards people that would like to give life to their ideas, without the pain of going all the way trough DaVinci's academy... the learning method is very simple, for beginners and advanced users alike. 
 
The goal is to help you in the making of all kind of characters within a month or two, so you can even make money out of them (T-Shirt design, vector stock selling, freelance works, etc). Its heavy focused on styling and commercial appealing.
 
I still don't know in which formats will be released.  For now I would really, really appreciate your feedback on this project. It appeals to you?, Would you buy it?, how much would you pay for it?, is this what you need?... any opinion is welcome, my mind is open. You can ask whatever you want too.
 
I have attached a couple of my drawings just to give you an example of the simplicity and look of the characters for this first module (these ones won't be in the book, but they can give you a small idea).
 
I love more and more AD and I think It has great potential as a learning tool.
 
Thanks in advance,
Enrique Figueroa

Enrique,
Perhaps the iBooks format’s possibilities for ‘interactivity’ are one of its strongest suits; not only for video (screen recordings?) and slideshow (small series of perhaps 3-7 images showing progression of a specific stage in design?) embedding, but also in the layout and tools available. For one example, many newbies (myself included) were faced with an enormous number of terms which are quite new to them and Apple’s built- in ‘define’ tool can come in handy or you could provide links in the text so that clicking on a term takes you to a glossary which you have created just for each volume. This way no one needs to learn each and every term but has the ability to learn those which are relevant to the lesson at hand. You can also provide ‘links’ to the ‘extras’ available on your website (specialty brushes, palettes, styles, fonts, etc., which you have on offer). You would be able to promote another volume of your ‘collection’ right in the text of the volume currently being used; i.e., “to learn more about facial expressions, download Volume 4: Facial Expressions”, if you see what I mean. Altruistically speaking, the iBook format would allow you to help a huge number of people along the way to learning both Character Design and (by default) Affinity Designer (without the usual associated high cost). Financially speaking, the iBook format also provides you vast marketing potential. Hopefully you will find a balance between that of honestly helping people to learn Character Design for a fair and reasonable price and that of creating an income source for you that is enjoyable for you.
 
I have a small book on photography which I have been working on for a couple of years that is nearly complete and two follow-up books with more advanced information which are nowhere near complete. When Volumes 2 and 3 are nearer to readiness I have already planned to offer the first volume as a free iBook and then wait to see what reaction it gets before offering the other two (at a price point of about €2.99 - €4.99). I started this process more as a challenge for myself and since I learned all that which I know through the kind help and example of others (and some through ‘happy accidents’) I want to give away the bulk of my work for free. In effect, holding back, and charging for, some more advanced tips and techniques for the subsequent volumes is just something which I feel will provide a way for anyone who felt helped by the first free volume to make an ‘after the fact donation’ for it. Silly me.
 
I assume that you asked your last question (in your post script) to the forum at large. My answer would be the obvious one: “developing one’s own style”. Most of what  any of us has learned in life we have learned through imitation (language, for example); a small part we have added to this through some ‘eureka!’ moments here and there. So, creating variety or expressions we can easily learn from another; but to develop our own style is something that but few achieve. Musical or comedic improvisation is not at all ‘improvisation’ but rather it is calling upon what one already has and adapting it to a new situation. Eminem, BB King, Prince, Robin Williams, Beethoven, Maxfield Parrish, Van Gogh, Bob Dylan, etc. developed their own style - was that something that they learned? However the more differing styles that we each see and learn the more likely we each are to have those ‘Eureka!’ moments and, possibly, develop our own unique style. (Peter provided you with a very abbreviated list of some of the very people who have done so who also happen to be on this very forum.)

ikarvs,
As you mentioned in your original post that you were undecided on the format(s) for this project, I thought that I might suggest the iBook format for a number of reasons:
 
Those who want to learn Affinity Designer (and even Affinity Photo and the hopefully relatively soon to be Affinity Publisher) are all already using a mac.
 
The iBooks format easily allows for imbedded video and 'slide-show' type of content.
 
The iBooks format allows for you to push updates to your content whenever tools and techniques happen to change in Affinity Designer.
 
The iBooks format would allow for a 'basic' version to be offered free and additional 'books' can be offered which cover further techniques, tools, and topics more in-depth; an iBook which consolidates all of you presently offered iBooks (and future updates) could be offered at a discounted price over the cost of purchasing the books individually. It could work something like below but with your breakdown of volume content, of course:
 
"Learn Affinity Designer"   -    FREE
"Learn Affinity Designer - The Pen and Node Tools: Advanced"   -   €3.99
"Learn Affinity Designer - Boolean Operations: Advanced"   -   €2.99
"Learn Affinity Designer - Gradients: Advanced"   -  €2.99
"Learn Affinity Designer - Brushes and Styles: Advanced Use and creation"   -   €4.99
"Etc., Ad Infinitum"
"Learn Affinity Designer - The Complete collection"  - € (priced at something like (Total number of ibooks - 1) * 0.65)).
 
As you create new content for individual books the consumer can delete their present version and download the newer. If the 'Complete Collection' version was done as a whole then the same would apply for it.
I am sure there are other advantages to the iBooks format which could benefit both you as the content creator and the content consumers. Likewise there may be some disadvantage to this format which I am unaware.
 
But, if the consumer finds the content useful, clearly presented, reasonably priced, and (to some extent) entertaining in the first free 'book', then you could be on to a winner.  Looking at the two files you provided has piqued my interest and I would certainly download the first free book - whether I or anyone else would pay for more from the rest would obviously depend only upon your creativity, talent and teaching method.   :rolleyes:

Sounds a great idea. I would be interested in your books and the website. Difficult to say how much I'd pay. Really depends on how much content there is. If each volume was quite small and therefore cheap, I think I'd be more likely to buy than one expensive book. The books could have links to your site too, so if someone buys the book they can access files, brushes etc that tie in with the examples in the book. Good luck with this. I look forward to seeing future updates on it.

Hi!
 
My name is Enrique Figueroa, I'm a professional graphic designer.
 
I've started to use Affinity Designer recently and I love it!.  I have some expertise in character design, mascot design and such... I began to write a book about cartoon character design in Adobe Illustrator a few months ago... but it happens that I don't use Illustrator that much anymore (I hate, hate the subscription thing).
 
So I thought that it would be a good idea to re-write the whole book for Affinity Designer only. 
The book is oriented towards people that would like to give life to their ideas, without the pain of going all the way trough DaVinci's academy... the learning method is very simple, for beginners and advanced users alike. 
 
The goal is to help you in the making of all kind of characters within a month or two, so you can even make money out of them (T-Shirt design, vector stock selling, freelance works, etc). Its heavy focused on styling and commercial appealing.
 
I still don't know in which formats will be released.  For now I would really, really appreciate your feedback on this project. It appeals to you?, Would you buy it?, how much would you pay for it?, is this what you need?... any opinion is welcome, my mind is open. You can ask whatever you want too.
 
I have attached a couple of my drawings just to give you an example of the simplicity and look of the characters for this first module (these ones won't be in the book, but they can give you a small idea).
 
I love more and more AD and I think It has great potential as a learning tool.
 
Thanks in advance,
Enrique Figueroa

Hi!
 
My name is Enrique Figueroa, I'm a professional graphic designer.
 
I've started to use Affinity Designer recently and I love it!.  I have some expertise in character design, mascot design and such... I began to write a book about cartoon character design in Adobe Illustrator a few months ago... but it happens that I don't use Illustrator that much anymore (I hate, hate the subscription thing).
 
So I thought that it would be a good idea to re-write the whole book for Affinity Designer only. 
The book is oriented towards people that would like to give life to their ideas, without the pain of going all the way trough DaVinci's academy... the learning method is very simple, for beginners and advanced users alike. 
 
The goal is to help you in the making of all kind of characters within a month or two, so you can even make money out of them (T-Shirt design, vector stock selling, freelance works, etc). Its heavy focused on styling and commercial appealing.
 
I still don't know in which formats will be released.  For now I would really, really appreciate your feedback on this project. It appeals to you?, Would you buy it?, how much would you pay for it?, is this what you need?... any opinion is welcome, my mind is open. You can ask whatever you want too.
 
I have attached a couple of my drawings just to give you an example of the simplicity and look of the characters for this first module (these ones won't be in the book, but they can give you a small idea).
 
I love more and more AD and I think It has great potential as a learning tool.
 
Thanks in advance,
Enrique Figueroa

Hi!
 
My name is Enrique Figueroa, I'm a professional graphic designer.
 
I've started to use Affinity Designer recently and I love it!.  I have some expertise in character design, mascot design and such... I began to write a book about cartoon character design in Adobe Illustrator a few months ago... but it happens that I don't use Illustrator that much anymore (I hate, hate the subscription thing).
 
So I thought that it would be a good idea to re-write the whole book for Affinity Designer only. 
The book is oriented towards people that would like to give life to their ideas, without the pain of going all the way trough DaVinci's academy... the learning method is very simple, for beginners and advanced users alike. 
 
The goal is to help you in the making of all kind of characters within a month or two, so you can even make money out of them (T-Shirt design, vector stock selling, freelance works, etc). Its heavy focused on styling and commercial appealing.
 
I still don't know in which formats will be released.  For now I would really, really appreciate your feedback on this project. It appeals to you?, Would you buy it?, how much would you pay for it?, is this what you need?... any opinion is welcome, my mind is open. You can ask whatever you want too.
 
I have attached a couple of my drawings just to give you an example of the simplicity and look of the characters for this first module (these ones won't be in the book, but they can give you a small idea).
 
I love more and more AD and I think It has great potential as a learning tool.
 
Thanks in advance,
Enrique Figueroa

Hi!
 
My name is Enrique Figueroa, I'm a professional graphic designer.
 
I've started to use Affinity Designer recently and I love it!.  I have some expertise in character design, mascot design and such... I began to write a book about cartoon character design in Adobe Illustrator a few months ago... but it happens that I don't use Illustrator that much anymore (I hate, hate the subscription thing).
 
So I thought that it would be a good idea to re-write the whole book for Affinity Designer only. 
The book is oriented towards people that would like to give life to their ideas, without the pain of going all the way trough DaVinci's academy... the learning method is very simple, for beginners and advanced users alike. 
 
The goal is to help you in the making of all kind of characters within a month or two, so you can even make money out of them (T-Shirt design, vector stock selling, freelance works, etc). Its heavy focused on styling and commercial appealing.
 
I still don't know in which formats will be released.  For now I would really, really appreciate your feedback on this project. It appeals to you?, Would you buy it?, how much would you pay for it?, is this what you need?... any opinion is welcome, my mind is open. You can ask whatever you want too.
 
I have attached a couple of my drawings just to give you an example of the simplicity and look of the characters for this first module (these ones won't be in the book, but they can give you a small idea).
 
I love more and more AD and I think It has great potential as a learning tool.
 
Thanks in advance,
Enrique Figueroa

Hi!
 
My name is Enrique Figueroa, I'm a professional graphic designer.
 
I've started to use Affinity Designer recently and I love it!.  I have some expertise in character design, mascot design and such... I began to write a book about cartoon character design in Adobe Illustrator a few months ago... but it happens that I don't use Illustrator that much anymore (I hate, hate the subscription thing).
 
So I thought that it would be a good idea to re-write the whole book for Affinity Designer only. 
The book is oriented towards people that would like to give life to their ideas, without the pain of going all the way trough DaVinci's academy... the learning method is very simple, for beginners and advanced users alike. 
 
The goal is to help you in the making of all kind of characters within a month or two, so you can even make money out of them (T-Shirt design, vector stock selling, freelance works, etc). Its heavy focused on styling and commercial appealing.
 
I still don't know in which formats will be released.  For now I would really, really appreciate your feedback on this project. It appeals to you?, Would you buy it?, how much would you pay for it?, is this what you need?... any opinion is welcome, my mind is open. You can ask whatever you want too.
 
I have attached a couple of my drawings just to give you an example of the simplicity and look of the characters for this first module (these ones won't be in the book, but they can give you a small idea).
 
I love more and more AD and I think It has great potential as a learning tool.
 
Thanks in advance,
Enrique Figueroa

Hi!
 
My name is Enrique Figueroa, I'm a professional graphic designer.
 
I've started to use Affinity Designer recently and I love it!.  I have some expertise in character design, mascot design and such... I began to write a book about cartoon character design in Adobe Illustrator a few months ago... but it happens that I don't use Illustrator that much anymore (I hate, hate the subscription thing).
 
So I thought that it would be a good idea to re-write the whole book for Affinity Designer only. 
The book is oriented towards people that would like to give life to their ideas, without the pain of going all the way trough DaVinci's academy... the learning method is very simple, for beginners and advanced users alike. 
 
The goal is to help you in the making of all kind of characters within a month or two, so you can even make money out of them (T-Shirt design, vector stock selling, freelance works, etc). Its heavy focused on styling and commercial appealing.
 
I still don't know in which formats will be released.  For now I would really, really appreciate your feedback on this project. It appeals to you?, Would you buy it?, how much would you pay for it?, is this what you need?... any opinion is welcome, my mind is open. You can ask whatever you want too.
 
I have attached a couple of my drawings just to give you an example of the simplicity and look of the characters for this first module (these ones won't be in the book, but they can give you a small idea).
 
I love more and more AD and I think It has great potential as a learning tool.
 
Thanks in advance,
Enrique Figueroa

Hi!
 
My name is Enrique Figueroa, I'm a professional graphic designer.
 
I've started to use Affinity Designer recently and I love it!.  I have some expertise in character design, mascot design and such... I began to write a book about cartoon character design in Adobe Illustrator a few months ago... but it happens that I don't use Illustrator that much anymore (I hate, hate the subscription thing).
 
So I thought that it would be a good idea to re-write the whole book for Affinity Designer only. 
The book is oriented towards people that would like to give life to their ideas, without the pain of going all the way trough DaVinci's academy... the learning method is very simple, for beginners and advanced users alike. 
 
The goal is to help you in the making of all kind of characters within a month or two, so you can even make money out of them (T-Shirt design, vector stock selling, freelance works, etc). Its heavy focused on styling and commercial appealing.
 
I still don't know in which formats will be released.  For now I would really, really appreciate your feedback on this project. It appeals to you?, Would you buy it?, how much would you pay for it?, is this what you need?... any opinion is welcome, my mind is open. You can ask whatever you want too.
 
I have attached a couple of my drawings just to give you an example of the simplicity and look of the characters for this first module (these ones won't be in the book, but they can give you a small idea).
 
I love more and more AD and I think It has great potential as a learning tool.
 
Thanks in advance,
Enrique Figueroa

Hi!
 
My name is Enrique Figueroa, I'm a professional graphic designer.
 
I've started to use Affinity Designer recently and I love it!.  I have some expertise in character design, mascot design and such... I began to write a book about cartoon character design in Adobe Illustrator a few months ago... but it happens that I don't use Illustrator that much anymore (I hate, hate the subscription thing).
 
So I thought that it would be a good idea to re-write the whole book for Affinity Designer only. 
The book is oriented towards people that would like to give life to their ideas, without the pain of going all the way trough DaVinci's academy... the learning method is very simple, for beginners and advanced users alike. 
 
The goal is to help you in the making of all kind of characters within a month or two, so you can even make money out of them (T-Shirt design, vector stock selling, freelance works, etc). Its heavy focused on styling and commercial appealing.
 
I still don't know in which formats will be released.  For now I would really, really appreciate your feedback on this project. It appeals to you?, Would you buy it?, how much would you pay for it?, is this what you need?... any opinion is welcome, my mind is open. You can ask whatever you want too.
 
I have attached a couple of my drawings just to give you an example of the simplicity and look of the characters for this first module (these ones won't be in the book, but they can give you a small idea).
 
I love more and more AD and I think It has great potential as a learning tool.
 
Thanks in advance,
Enrique Figueroa

Hi!
 
My name is Enrique Figueroa, I'm a professional graphic designer.
 
I've started to use Affinity Designer recently and I love it!.  I have some expertise in character design, mascot design and such... I began to write a book about cartoon character design in Adobe Illustrator a few months ago... but it happens that I don't use Illustrator that much anymore (I hate, hate the subscription thing).
 
So I thought that it would be a good idea to re-write the whole book for Affinity Designer only. 
The book is oriented towards people that would like to give life to their ideas, without the pain of going all the way trough DaVinci's academy... the learning method is very simple, for beginners and advanced users alike. 
 
The goal is to help you in the making of all kind of characters within a month or two, so you can even make money out of them (T-Shirt design, vector stock selling, freelance works, etc). Its heavy focused on styling and commercial appealing.
 
I still don't know in which formats will be released.  For now I would really, really appreciate your feedback on this project. It appeals to you?, Would you buy it?, how much would you pay for it?, is this what you need?... any opinion is welcome, my mind is open. You can ask whatever you want too.
 
I have attached a couple of my drawings just to give you an example of the simplicity and look of the characters for this first module (these ones won't be in the book, but they can give you a small idea).
 
I love more and more AD and I think It has great potential as a learning tool.
 
Thanks in advance,
Enrique Figueroa

Hi!
 
My name is Enrique Figueroa, I'm a professional graphic designer.
 
I've started to use Affinity Designer recently and I love it!.  I have some expertise in character design, mascot design and such... I began to write a book about cartoon character design in Adobe Illustrator a few months ago... but it happens that I don't use Illustrator that much anymore (I hate, hate the subscription thing).
 
So I thought that it would be a good idea to re-write the whole book for Affinity Designer only. 
The book is oriented towards people that would like to give life to their ideas, without the pain of going all the way trough DaVinci's academy... the learning method is very simple, for beginners and advanced users alike. 
 
The goal is to help you in the making of all kind of characters within a month or two, so you can even make money out of them (T-Shirt design, vector stock selling, freelance works, etc). Its heavy focused on styling and commercial appealing.
 
I still don't know in which formats will be released.  For now I would really, really appreciate your feedback on this project. It appeals to you?, Would you buy it?, how much would you pay for it?, is this what you need?... any opinion is welcome, my mind is open. You can ask whatever you want too.
 
I have attached a couple of my drawings just to give you an example of the simplicity and look of the characters for this first module (these ones won't be in the book, but they can give you a small idea).
 
I love more and more AD and I think It has great potential as a learning tool.
 
Thanks in advance,
Enrique Figueroa

Hi!,
 
I plan to switch to Affinity Photo for my illustration work in the near future. I don't like Adobe's subscription business model.
 
I've been testing Photo with real projects and works ok.  But there are some things that still need improvements to consider it in a day to day pipeline of work.
 
First of all I'm testing it on a 2014 27" iMac, 16 GB RAM and 2.7 GHZ processor. Iris Pro Graphics.
 
1. Brushes still have some lag when painting fast and in high resolution.  Several strokes are drawn very delayed before drawing them with the tablet. Time is crucial in my work and this issue is a little bit frustrating.
 
2. I understand the color picker being precise, but again, in a day to day basis I use the color picker hundreds of times and almost automatically when I'm painting. As it is now, the delay of the color picker can be annoying when you seat for 5 straight hours painting and try to work as fluid as you can. ¿Can we have a less precise but faster color picker option?, that would be great guys.
 
And finally, there is this little bug in the brushes panel. When you select one brush and change its size with the keyboard, that brush in the panel is deselected automatically. Visually confuses a bit, even thought the brush itself is still selected. 
 
Just my two cents, hope this great piece of software make it far, I really admire your work guys!