Moebius's "Arzach" Animated—Page 2, Panel 1

Original Moebius panel from "Arzach."

This first piece of animation went surprisingly quick and easy. Removing Arzach and the pterodactyl from the background and filling in the hole they left required minimal Photoshop work as did creating the moving cloudy sky background.

The next step was a little more complicated.

First, there was a LOT more retouching. Part of the appeal of Moebius's work are the wonderful lines and dots he uses to indicate texture. Recreating those lines and dots was a lesson in patience…and a lot of thinking. Because Moebius always placed texture marks with a purpose and consistency. In the gaps, I had to think about what marks were being used, where they should be and why. A useful exercise.

Second, as my hand turned the page of the book, the panels on the next pages were revealed:

I wanted, however, to start with a blank page and have the effect of the panel frames and animation appearing on the page. So I needed to mask all of the drawings on the next two pages.

It took some Googling to find out how to mask a moving object but after some searching I found the right tutorial and achieved the effect I imagined:

With that done, I could reveal the art on the page as I imagined:


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