Friday, November 14, 2008

My Medicated Cartoon Life T-shirts!


Ah, the humble t-shirt... the walking billboard that people pay to wear.

There was talk of My Medicated Cartoon Life t-shirts a while back. I was iffy simply because I didn't know what I'd put on them. But Jeaux Janovsky recommended Zazzle, so I thought I'd give it a go.

So, some time ago, I put some designs up but I didn't link to them because I needed to try them out myself. I wouldn't recommend something that I didn't actually like myself. So this is sort of a review of my own t-shirts.

In short, they're okay.

I chose two normal panel cartoons (the one that pissed off some people with the lazy animators and the one with my naked ass) and two Astro Andy designs. The panels were put on relatively small and I thought they'd look pretty smart on a black t-shirt. And, as it turns out, they do.

They work rather well as t-shirts. My only issue with them is that there's a slight bit of overprinting on the black, leaving the images feeling slightly darker then the originals are and the text, while still fine I guess, is not as sharp as it is on the original images. I notice the difference. Someone who had never seen the originals may not notice a thing but I'd be docking marks for that.
I tried two different things with the Astro Andy images. With one, I took the image of Astro finding a giant alien beast and just plastered it on the t-shirt nice and big.


In terms of printing, this one turned out the nicest actually. The colours are not correct and it's gone much more vibrant than the original, but that actually works for it. And I, personally, like the image. The only thing is that it looks like exactly what it is - a big rectangular image on a shirt. It doesn't seem all that integrated if you know what I mean. Not as much as the smaller cartoon panels do.

With the other one, I tried to get a little fancy. I took the image of Andy floating in space and removes the background, leaving the stars. I thought if I could get this on a dark blue shirt, it would integrate nicely. As a t-shirt, I'd say this one turned out the best of the bunch.

The design just seems to really work on a shirt. But even this one can't get a glowing review. Where the alpha channel would have been used to define the print edge, it seems to have gained a slight halo around the image. It's not much and wouldn't be seen on a light t-shirt but it's noticable on the dark t-shirt. It's unfortunate as it's the only negative mark on an otherwise pretty nice shirt.

So there you have it. My review of the My Medicated Cartoon Life shirts. It doesn't cost me a thing to have them listed there, which is nice, so don't buy one unless you really, really want one. And if anyone would like anything else specific on a shirt, let me know and I'll see if I can arrange it.

If I get a chance, I'll put a little t-shirt pic link thing over there on the right at some point, if I can get it to work. Not sure how long it will be there - advertising, even my own, just bugs me.


10 comments:

Andy Latham said...

Haha I might have to get an Astro Andy one! Sadly I'm not only 5! Oh and another year gets added on Sunday :(

Red Pill Junkie said...

The images similar to the one in Oct 28th would also work rather will in a black T-shirt, I think. The images you make on a big black background, or with a gray gradient one, allow themselves to blend with the shirt, and to be printed in a big format.

Spider said...

haha yesss XD I absolutely love the "I'm a cartoon character!" one. I don't remember seeing it before, which is odd considering I've read everything you've ever posted. Or so I thought. Anyway, I'll definitely get it when I have money to spare.

james said...

I've had the naked one on my Christmas list for a while (there are no secrets), but somehow I don't think I'm getting it.

james said...

Would you consider a voting system for the next additions? No, I didn't think so.

Bitter Animator said...

I'm certainly willing to take requests, James. It would really depend on what state the original of any particular image is in. Some are at a good resolution and are no problem to use on that site. Others are a bit all over the place or were done at too low a resolution.

Let me know if there's anything specific you'd like at some point.

james said...

Well, you've opened a door there. I'm allowed one for Christmas, so here are my favorites:
Animal (8/10)
Dreaming (30/9)
Fatigue (10/11)
Locked Up (30/4)
Sitting (28/10).

I'll proudly wear whichever one works best. So long as you don't lose out on set-up cost.

Bitter Animator said...

Nice choices, James! I had most of them handy and I'm in the process of getting them up in the store now. I couldn't find that Sitting one but I think I know where it might be - check back in a couple of days and, if I've got it, it should be up there.

I've put them up as is for the moment and, out of these, I suspect that the Fatigue one could work really well. It would be great to get the Locked Up one without the border but I'm nervous that I could end up with the fringe effect that the Astro Andy shirst had - that would definitely take away from it. But I'll see what I can do.

james said...

Well you made the choice a hard one, but I'll be enjoying Christmas lunch in "If I was an Animal".

Bitter Animator said...

I really hope you like the t-shirt when it arrives, James!