I’m traveling around America for 50 days! AAAAAAGGH!

I meant to post this before flying, but I ended up getting food poisoned a few days before my flight so things got pretty hectic. Since then things have been non stop and this is the first chance I’ve had in two weeks to post this (I’m typing on my phone in a hotel bed).

I left New Zealand in the beginning of October, and won’t be back until the end of November. That’s quite a while to be off the grid as a webcomic, but oh well, it’s a pretty good reason to.. I think. It will clear my head and fill it with something new. I’ll be taking a journal with me and filling it out as I go because I’m bound to come across some untapped pools of inspiration somewhere. (Also because my memory just sucks and I don’t want to come back with nothing but a curious case of jet lag.)

Speaking of which, I think I’ll be tweeting during the trip so if you want to keep up with me be sure to follow me!

You may have noticed some changes (i.e. improvements) to the site and with Patreon, so I thought I’d fill some pixels about it here.

Firstly, thank you for all of your feedback on the new site design. It has helped me pinpoint the areas that needed fixing or ignoring. By far the most mentioned was the broken status of the ‘random button’; how something so seemingly small was so broken for so long makes me question everything I know about computers, but it’s unbroken now so yay wHaTeVeR!!!!

Another feature that was requested was having navigation at the bottom of the comic so you wouldn’t need to scroll back up. Makes sense, so I’ve added it. However, clicking the comic still takes you to the next one as it did before (handy tip). I’ve also de-cluttered the front page some and allowed it to breathe a bit more, as well as a bunch of other minor fixes (but aren’t interesting enough to mention).

Now I want to talk about Patreon and the KUH-RAZY improvements I’ve done to that. Now even just $1 per comic will get you pretty much everything. Timelapse video? Heck yeah! Sketches and doodles of that comic? Sugar ma noodle! High-resolution download? Abso-lutely! Picture pack? WHAT?!? ?

The picture pack is a new reward; it’s a collection of images from that comic which are share-ready and reusable (e.g. transparent cut outs of a certain character and/or panel, a version of the comic with the text removed, etc). Basically things you might want to re-use in your own way, whatever that may be. To put on your own twist to the comic, or translations, or using it as a spray in Team Fortress 2, or an avatar, or a tattoo on your face, it’s up to you!

Along with boosting the $1 pledge, I’ve also boosted the higher tiers; most notably the new Super Supporter reward which you may have noticed animating beneath the latest comic. Click and hold to see their special animations! Preview shown below (the preview is not clickable, don’t even try).

That about sums it up for this post. Thank you so much for being here and reading this.

– Gregor

I bought a device the other week and it improved my comic drawing workflow by eleventy-thousand percent.

If any of that sentence interests you, read on.

Alright cool, let me first set the scene: To draw my comics I use Adobe Photoshop, and with it I use hotkeys. A lot of hotkeys. If I didn’t use hotkeys I would have been celebrating my 85th birthday last month not my 25th.

TIP: A hotkey is a key you press to get quick access to a function

I used my keyboard for pressing these hotkeys and life was dandy. I’d push B for Brush, and E for Erase, and Ctrl+Z for Undo.. and.. Alt+L+N+L for New Layer.. and so on. It wasn’t perfect, my hand went all over the place, but it did the job.

Fast-forward to a month ago I’m sitting next to Jordan and I’m watching him code my website like a goddamn pr0 hacker. I swooned over his skills of efficiency. I wanted to be like that! But.. in an artist way.

Say hello to my little friend: the Logitech G13.

This “advanced gameboard” is marketed toward the enthusiastic gamer, but secretly it’s the perfect addition for digital artists. After assigning hotkeys and actions to each key, I admit it was a little rough at first. Trying to reprogram my brain into pushing a different key from the one I’ve been pushing for 11+ years was tricky and made me doubt I’d ever end up saving more time than I was spending looking at my awkwardly positioned hand.

… but after a while it just clicked, and now I’m faster than I ever fasted before.

I love it.

– Gregor

Some Q&A:

Can you upload your hotkey file?

I showed an image of my set up to give you an idea of how I’m using the buttons and that lovely analog stick, but it’s tailored for me and my way of working. The whole point of this is to improve your workflow, and for that you need to set up your own hotkeys the way you want them.

Why not just reassign hotkeys on your regular keyboard?

I didn’t want to change the default Photoshop hotkeys because I still use Photoshop at work and I don’t want to completely unlearn the standard hotkey language. Also the Logitech G13 is much easier to carry around than a full keyboard if I need it on the go (I look forward to trying it out with my Surface Pro 2).

Things are different!

If you’re curious about the change, please continue reading this post! (Yes, a post! First one since 2012!) Or if you just want to get to the latest comic, click on the big thumbnail at the top or just go to www.loadingartist.com/latest for the latest comic every time!

I have been a User Interface Artist at Gameloft for the past three years, during which I have learned many things regarding the way menus are designed and how people interact with them. The more I learned, the more I realised how limited Loading Artist was as a website. So a few months ago I decided to redesign Loading Artist from the ground up, thinking twice about every webcomic element and figuring out how to improve upon it.

Once I had my designs done and ready, I met with Jordan from ‘Extra Ordinary’ (a great webcomic by Li Chen (check it out!)) who at first I thought was just a web developer, but have since realised also some kind of a god. The couple months that followed were spent working side by side every Sunday, bringing the designs to life (well, Jordan coded like a pro, and I kinda just watched, sometimes convincing myself I know enough about code to offer the occasional solution).

I am extremely happy with the result, and it’s only going to get better. There are still some ideas up my sleeve that weren’t quite ready yet for today’s launch, but I’ll be adding them over time. So have a look around, I’d really like to hear your thoughts on it so far.

Thank you so much, Jordan, and thanks to everyone who is reading this right now. It sounds cliché I know, but if it wasn’t for all of you this wouldn’t have been possible and I would have been in bed ages ago.

Oh yeah, best viewed on Chrome or Firefox. If you’re using Internet Explorer you won’t get to see all the cool features of the site! And if you’re using Internet Explorer 8 or below.. don’t.

Lots of news to share today!

First of all: As you’ve probably noticed from the new banner; the online shirt store is finally open! Now you can buy t-shirts and stuff! Make sure you use the coupon SHIPFREEUS before Dec 31st to save on shipping ( Save on Standard shipping costs on orders over $50. (* Maximum $9.50 off for International shipping.) ). If you have any suggestions for designs you’d like to see in the future (or a design on a particular type of clothing), feel free to email me.

Second piece of news is directed towards the New Zealanders: I’m going to have a table at Armageddon Auckland next month (October 19th til the 22nd)! This will be the first convention I attend as Loading Artist! I’m hoping to be selling a book (I’m thinking 40-48 pages of good/recent comics at the moment), bookmarks, badges, and more?! (Not shirts, though. That will be online only for now). I’ll reveal more details on what exactly I’ll have at Armageddon, because I’m not sure just yet (I really need to get on with it).

Also, I will be selling prints online at some point in the near future. I have to focus on Armageddon for now, though, but it’s coming!

Goodnight.