Flatting - how much should I charge?

[mygrimmbrother]

I've been asked to do some flatting for someone, and they've asked how much I'd charge per page, but I've no idea what the going rate is for something like this - anyone have any ideas?

[dyl]

Not much I'm afraid. I pay $15 a page which is a pretty standard rate. Sometimes more for really detailed work.

[chris_askham]

What is flatting?

[radiator]

Laying down flat colours on linework so that the colourist can easily make selections. It's what they used to call 'separations' I think.

[Jim_Campbell]

Laying down flat colours on linework so that the colourist can easily make selections.

This. There's an excellent example in this gutterzombie thread. Because the process is essentially mechanical (it doesn't actually matter what colours the flatter uses), it's very common for professional colourists to sub-contract the flatting to a third party.

It's what they used to call 'separations' I think.

No, that's something different, but it's not terribly exciting so I won't go into it here.

Cheers!

Jim

[radiator]

Grimm, you may already know about this, but if you don't you should check out the (free) Bpelt plugin for Photoshop - it allows you to flat an entire page very quickly - BUT it's not suitable for all art styles (I can't imagine it's terribly useful for stuff with lots of detail and crosshatching or especially sparse stuff where the lines around things aren't closed) and you will always need to do some of the flatting manually. However it might just help you to speed up the overall process.

Duplicate the file with the linework (best to use levels to boost the blacks and whites a little beforehand), then change the mode of the duplicated file to grayscale, then to bitmap, then change back to grayscale, then back to RGB. Apply the 'Multifill' filter - you might need to play around with the setting sliders to get the best result. Then apply the 'Flatten' filter - this can be quite processor-intensive, so you might want to do each panel individually or half the size of the canvas, then size it back up once the filter is applied.

Then just drag the colour back on to the linework file while holding the shift button so that it lands back in the correct position - place it underneath the linework and you're good to go.

http://www.bpelt.com/psplugins/flatting.html

[mygrimmbrother]

Thanks for the advice my brothers. Can I reveal it's for something Matt Timson is working on? There, I couldn't help myself!

Rads - I'll definitely be checking that out, cheers mate.

[House of Usher]

'Flating,' on the other hand, costs nothing (best not to be sitting on your other hand in the first place, of course).

[Bolt-01]

Matt- Good luck with that- Told you years ago how good you were at this stuff!

[mygrimmbrother]

cheers bolt!