I’m doing a few things different now. I’m tweaking my shading work to better reflect form, but that’s not much more than some minor improvement over time. I’ve made extensive use of mask layers (I think that’s the right term) in Photoshop, which has allowed me to do many things faster than before. For example, I have a high-resolution scan of some sketchbook paper which I now make into a clipping mask over my background to give it that hint of texture. I may do more of that in the future. I’ve also started to experiment with different brushes, though nothing is evident here (I wasn’t happy with what I had). I’ve tried a few new tools, too, like BPelt Flatten and Multi-Fill. Multi-Fill is pretty neat, but Flatten doesn’t work for me and without that the whole package doesn’t give me good color coverage under the line work. It probably doesn’t work because I’m using Photoshop LE 3, but regardless of the reason I can’t use it with my current setup.
I want to address a few things for the observant. Yes, this is the same time line I showed earlier. The dashed line indicates a high probability of the end of the user’s existence (time travel deals in probability spaces, not in discrete values). Also, the text is always legible to the reader, in this case the woman and the audience. This is intentional: These displays are designed to put their information up in any orientation the operator desires. This allows the operator to give presentations or adapt to any other situation as necessary. You’ll also notice the huge size of the old guy’s arm computer. I had originally written a joke about the size of computers getting smaller but his eyes getting worse, so he couldn’t see the buttons. If this computer were a cell phone, it would be the Jitterbug.