Typesetter/Cleaner Aplication

[Hanakumu]

Name: Hanakumu
Availability: I am flexible.
What Manga You're Interested In: Funouhan is in need of typesetter, right?
Software: PS6
Experience: Yes.
Other Groups: None.

https://www.mediafire.com/?25oe47akpuxmppi

I also decided to do a cleaner test.
https://www.mediafire.com/?cl18erffaiymx9e

[Wraith]

OK, Hanakumu, I have your verdicts.

For both cleaning and typesetting, you have many strong points we rarely get from our applicants. However, you need to brush your skills up a little further to take up our series.

For typesetting, you did two things very weel, shaping and choosing fonts according to bubble shape and situation. The latter is something we almost never get from our applicants. However, you undersized the text in most cases, and your centering needs improvement, lost of text boxes were off-centre.

For cleaning, your strong points were the skillful use of filters, the Unwarping, and your ability to do simple redraws. However, you overlooked Levelling in some cases, and in others you overlevelled on Blacks. You also did not Dust the pages properly. That could be easily solved if you learn to use this Photoshop action for bubble cleaning:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/kch9rcn9in89z ... e.atn?dl=0

and

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pwdzunptef97y ... e.png?dl=0

Use it on bubbles and on page margins and it should solve most of the Dust problem.

Finally, you merged the cleaning layers. That's not advisable, because if the layers are kept separately, the quality checker can easily make corrections prior to release of the chapter.

Ah, yes, you did not change the color mode from RGB to greyscale. We only use RGB for scanning the chapter, not changing it to greyscale causes the file to be uselessly large.

So, is this a fail? Well, you were one of the best applicants we had in recent times, I'd say you need just a little polishing to pass. It's up to you. We gladly assess resubmissions.

If you do decide to try again, good luck!

[Hanakumu]

One cannot simply walk into Mordor.
Typesetter:
https://www.mediafire.com/?9kqgzd0f78unl6j

[Hanakumu]

Cleaner.

I bubbled every page. Took me a while to understand and tune properly magic wand...

I don't suppose you can explain to me what you/mr editor meant by "overlooking" leveling? My English might be at fault here, but did he/you mean I didn't do any leveling at all? Because if that's the case, I leveled every page, better or worse but I did. I slightly changed leveling now but it looked good to me even before those changes. If something is still wrong, then without a helping hand (for example properly leveled image or a hint...) I can't do more. Sorry.

Also, I didn't merge any layers other than those that I needed to be merged. I forgot to switch back RGB to grayscale after using Topaz.

https://www.mediafire.com/?h1nkzdqpciq3d0l

[Wraith]

OK, Hanakumu… you pass for cleaning.

Your Levelling improved significantly, especially on page 05. One of the places we check Levelling is the old samurai's silhouette towards the bottom. If we cannot see the pattern of his armor in the shadow, it's because the Blacks were overlevelled. In your first attempt, that area was almost black. Page 01 is still overlevelled, though: you can see that all tones of grey became much darker. That page needed no levelling, to be honest, or maybe just a little to eliminate JPEG artifacts. This is how that page should look: http://bato.to/reader#77467091fa8347cf_3 Knowing when no Levelling is needed is also important, but we trust you will get it with practice.

You still need to get the gist of the bubble cleaning action. On page 02, the action erased the edge of a panel. When it happens, you can just use Layer Via Copy to restore it. And on page 05, the action overlooked some scanning remnants at the top of the page and cleared the some tips of spiky bubbles. Again, these are things you should have corrected manually. However, because it's the first time you used the action and you clearly know your way around Photoshop, we are confident you will improve with practice.

I'm waiting for feedback on your Typesetting test. If you pass both, you will be created a Death Toll Editor. If not, I'll make you a Cleaner. Whichever way it goes, I'll upgrade you to staff and write your welcome message later today.

Congratulations, and thanks for your patience.

[Wraith]

OK, you also pass for Typesetting, but there's room for improvement. Here's your full assessment:

- First thing: when a bubble is incomplete, you center on the imaginary complete bubble. We have some typesetters who do that here. The Head Typesetter prefers centering on the real bubble, as he thinks the text ends up too close to the panel edge if you center on the imaginary one. However, this clearly is not a problem of not knowing how to center, but an aesthetic choice. So long as you don't actually touch the edge with the text, it's acceptable.

- Page 01: the text in both bubbles is off to the right a little bit. The pattern you chose to overlay the SFX is not the right one, but that's not a problem because at Death Toll we don't normally do SFX, we put them as notes.

- Page 02: the second half of the third bubble (b3b is our shortening, meaning bubble 3, part b) is off centre by a little.

- Page 03: the text is a little to the left in all bubbles.

- Page 04: you changed the shouting font from a bubble to the other. And second bubble was a really poor choice. That font looks a lot like Felt, it has those knotty tips that really don't look like shouting. We use Felt for notes.

- Page 05: b1 and b2 are low and to the left. B3 and b5 are a bit low. B7 is off to the left.

- Page 06: you changed the stroke thickness on panel 03. That has to be consistent overall.

All in all, what saved you is that your centering is just a little off. You need to pay it a little more attention and that should be enough. You will be under supervision for your first few chapters and the supervisor will be an eagle-eyed freak who will notice 1-pixel deviations, so make sure to give it your best. When you are released from the this probation period, you will be free to do whatever you please when typesetting (well, we still have quality checkers for major mistakes).

You are a DT editor now. I'll write your welcome message forthwith.