Today, I'm sharing the process of making a new stream Overlay. The process took me about 3 hours over 2 days to put together. I consider this to be a fairly basic project, though it does require the knowledge of quite a few after effects functions.

Starting - Illustrator

The majority of the project was created in Adobe Illustrator using the pen tool and gradients. I'm still a beginner/novice when it comes to Illustrator, but I've had Photoshop since I was about 13 (minus a few years in college where I didn't have it), and that's why I consider this project "fairly basic", as the pen tool is one of the first tools you come to know in Illustrator. As for the outline of the machine, which the creation of is not shown in this video (I didn't have the idea to speed art it at that point, next time), it took about 15-30 minutes to do, and I didn't use any rulers...well, maybe once or twice, but hardly. I look to design the way some chefs cook, by taste, not measurement...but sometimes measurement.

Finishing Up - After Effects

After I had the project created in illustrator, I decided to open up after effects and add in some flashing buttons, in case I wanted to make the image a gif or just used as a video instead of a static(still) image. I've had one project before this where I made a neon light glow, and I figured I could apply the same principals to the buttons here. Other than that, I was going in blind as far as how to make the buttons blink the way I wanted them too, but I also figured it wouldn't be anything an adjustment layer, some masks, and stopwatch couldn't fix (inside joke for any designers out there).

Project Inspiration - Moltar

As I wrap up this post, I want to mention my inspiration for this project, and that is...Moltar! Never heard of him? Well, Moltar is a villian from the TV cartoon show Space Ghost. Space Ghost, was a hit TV show in the early 90's on cartoon Network, which featured the protagonist, Space Ghost, and his crew: Jack, Jill and their pet monkey, Ape(their actual names are:)

, as they traversed the galaxy, adventuring into the unknown in search of life, adventure, and justice!

Again, Moltar was a villian, and not a very major one at that. He made an appearance in the shows into video, and one or two episodes, but other than that, he had about as many lines in Space Ghost as Bobba Fet does in Star Wars. Take a moment to let that sink in.

source: episode 10 of Space Ghost Coast to Coast

Moltar is Space Ghost Famous

Yep, Moltar is Space Ghost famous! That spot in the intro was enough to soar him well above all the other Space Ghost villains, with the exception of Zorak and Brak. Not so surprising, that fame led to both Moltar and Zorak being invited by producers to join Space Ghost, as co-hosts on the then-new Late Night talk-show Space Ghost - Coast to Coast, where they would interview celebrity guests.

Most of the show, the 3 hosts were contained to their own rooms, for...reasons. To put it simply, they didn't exactly get along well. Though the crew eventually began to kindle something reminiscent of an estranged friendship, it wasn't unusual for Space Ghost to send a laser beam flying at Zorak, which was typically on target. Moltar managed to evade the majority of this type of abuse from Space Ghost, while on the air, since he was off in the control room, far away from Space Ghost's blasters.

Since Moltar wasn't regularly abused by Space Ghost infront of the audience, he instead got to watch Zorak get singed by countless lasers, and get to laugh about it. His laughter would soon become a staple in the show when Zorak or guests got out of hand.

He was a reminder that though he was working with the man, he was still Moltar, villain of space, and without him the there would be no scene changes, so they better put some Respek on it. Also, he did have that one epic battle with Space Ghost, unlike Zorak who just gets pown'd. He would later go on to work alongside of Cartoon Network hosts like Tom, from Toonami, though he stayed to is role, the role he liked, the control room.

Moltar was one of the coolest Space Ghost villains that ever lived and was smart enough to continue a career in acting/talk shows after his days of terrifying the galaxy. This project is inspired by his control room in Space Ghost Coast to Coast.