Monday, March 17, 2014

Technology for Caricature


I have a friend who is an amazing caricature artist with no budget, but he owns an iPad. His real advantage is that he can draw quickly in real-time, no under drawing, in front of an audience and entertain.

I did some research and found some great options for iPad, and I thought of some ways to take advantage. A few advantages for a caricaturist on a computer of any kind is that you can project onto a big screen in front of a crowd, you can email the finished art to the client and they can post on Facebook without scanning. This makes for a great marketing strategy, requires a light weight travel solution. You can screen record yourself drawing and put on YouTube - imagine giving your client a video of the drawing process and a finished drawing. Imagine setting up a second camera to record the event and the crowd reaction. There are screen recording and time lapse apps for the iPad.



With tools like Skype or Google plus, a caricature artist with an iPad can even remote in to perform. 

With a video screen projection, the crowd can see the artist's desktop and the face of the subject as the caricature comes to life. Whether performing at a festival or corporate event, the screen projection allows everyone to see what's happening and draw more of a crowd without competing for space to watch. 

Again, it's easy to record everything - you can charge clients for the drawing and for the video - and now your client can post the image and/or video to social media. 

And, you might even set up a google help out page where people can pay you to make caricatures:
https://helpouts.google.com/home

Tools List

Procreate is apparently a highly rated, high-resolution drawing app + stylus - I've not used it but it looks good. Most other apps will not allow for high-res. which is important for printing.

Examples here:
http://procreate.si

Buy here for $6
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/procreate/id425073498?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

This stylus is said to be most sensitive - these are not cheap

https://tenonedesign.com/checkout.php?storeClient=affiliate&product=pogo%20connect&bundleid=au.com.savageinteractive.procreatehttp://the-gadgeteer.com/2013/11/10/hex3-jaja-pressure-sensitive-stylus-review/

This artist claims that using his finger is better than a stylus, you just customize your brush in the app:

http://studiojason.wordpress.com/2013/01/31/procreate-for-ipad-an-artists-must-have-app/

Screen recording:

screencast-o-matic - $15/year, records up to 2 hours
http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/

How to record your iPad
http://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/cInob2VIaL

Reference: http://som.screencasthost.com/


 $13 - You may want to use a trial version before purchase and look for other apps if you don't like it.
Time lapse apps for ipad - use this to speed up the movie of your drawing process
$2
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lapse-it-time-lapse-stop-motion/id539108382?mt=8

$3
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/osnap!-time-lapse-stop-motion/id457402095?mt=8