Bad Ink Studios

Incredible video. Wish I had the time and skill to make current-event commentary content at this level. Deserves more views.

6 days ago | [YT] | 112

Bad Ink Studios

EDIT: SOLVED. Pinned comment on this post. Thank you to our community for finding a very recent update hidden in the settings!

Okay, YouTube is definitely upres-ing our shorts. I compared the version I exported to my hardrive with the version that currently plays on YouTube. It's subtle, but it's both smoothing lines and increasing the contrast/brightness. It's most noticeable on these punched-in shots of Lydia inking.

If anyone knows how to turn this off during the upload phase, let me know. As far as I can tell, I have no control over this.

In addition to AI-ifying our work, it damages some of the subtlety of the ink sitting on paper. Sometimes it's nice to show the subtle layering of ink when you work traditionally, so people can get a sense of how ink comes off different implements. I know that it's neurotic to care, but comic creators are a neurotic, detail-oriented bunch.

You might even say "well, I actually think they made it look better." And I'll just point out that, in an increasingly fake-looking internet, sometimes looking less polished is key to credibility.

Sigh. Not much we can do besides continue complaining and hope someone at YouTube gives us a toggle option.

1 week ago (edited) | [YT] | 3,302

Bad Ink Studios

Just to let you behind the curtain for a sec, Bad Ink is—unbelievably—not my full time job. I work a day job in a pretty high-pressure industry, so sometimes life takes over and I can't get videos out as fast or as often as I'd like. I used to be able to sleep 3-4 hours a night to keep up, but I'm pushing 40 and need my old man sleep now. Anyway, all to say that it's been a bit since the last upload, but I'm cutting some stuff this weekend and hope to have the content up and running again soon.

I think it's good to be transparent about this, so aspiring comic creators don't think that they've "failed" if they aren't doing comics full time into adulthood. You'd be surprised how many of your favorite creative people are having to do other things in addition to art.

1 week ago | [YT] | 3,138

Bad Ink Studios

It's our favorite time of year! So we decided to celebrate with something we almost never do! Merch store linked on our channel!

1 week ago | [YT] | 695

Bad Ink Studios

Apparently the smoother inking style we showed recently still wasn't smooth enough for some people, so Lydia went full old school with this punk Nancy tribute. About as perfect as a human hand can make a line on vellum bristol board.

1 week ago | [YT] | 2,762

Bad Ink Studios

As a prank I should make a short that sounds like one of those terrible, dragged-out AI scripts.

“Lydia discovered something amazing when she opened up this box of inking supplies. But what happened next shocked the inking world. She opened this box of inking supplies and discovered that she had an old-fashioned inking nib. Have you seen this before? It is so old most people don’t know what it is. But it used to be quite common. But what she did with it shocked the comic world. No one could believe the beauty of the drawing that came from the pen.”

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 2,253

Bad Ink Studios

I had a birthday and realized that I am now as old as Bill Watterson was when he retired.

I used to think he was selfish for denying his fans more of what we loved, but part of getting older is gaining some perspective, and these days I respect him more and more with each passing year. His artistic integrity is unmatched in comics, in my opinion.

For those who weren’t alive in the 90s and early 2000s, you might not know that people openly called him naive and stupid for refusing to license his characters and for “quitting while he was ahead” when he suddenly stopped making Calvin and Hobbes.

“Think about how much money he could make if he just made CALENDARS. I mean, calendars ALONE.”

Time has shown that he was right, I think. We only remember it as a perfect comic strip. It never jumped the shark and it never became a vague pop culture reference of cute drawings on t-shirts divorced from the incredible writing.

As someone who absolutely would sell cute drawings of our characters on shirts, I wish I had that level of artistic integrity. It must have taken a lot of discipline to fight so hard and then walk away.

P.S. this post is just meant to be reflective and not some weird coded “I’m retiring too” post. I just re-read it and realized it could come across that way. We’re doing this for a lot longer. We have merch to peddle.

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 2,619

Bad Ink Studios

Another "We never have used AI and never will use AI post":

It's come to my attention that YouTube automatically upscales some videos with AI, and apparently this may affect some of our videos as well. There is currently no way as a creator to turn this feature off, so if you see a punched-in shot of comic inking and the lines look weirdly smooth, it may be automatically upscaled and we did not edit the footage this way.

To reiterate:
- I write all of the video scripts without any help from a tool like ChatGPT
- My VO is my real voice, recorded through a mic and laid over picture
- All drawing footage (digital and analog) is done by a human being holding an implement
- All background music is my own creation
- We don't use AI to enhance or upscale any video footage

2 weeks ago (edited) | [YT] | 6,452

Bad Ink Studios

The follow-up to the sentient pond video has spiraled out of control. You know it's getting serious when a lettering video turns into Lydia drawing artwork to give the lettering context...

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 1,781

Bad Ink Studios

Over time, my coloring style has evolved into a weird mash-up of retro-simulation brushes and modern digital techniques. I think this piece captures the blend better than anything. Video dropping soon.

4 weeks ago | [YT] | 3,548