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More simple dialogue here.

I added a green tint to Serpentor's text bubbles (when I remembered - oops!) for more variety, and to add to the strangeness of his character.

Two things to note as Serpentor beats the snot out of Rev: motion blurs and text effects.

To give the illusion of movement to Serpentor's arm, I first cut out a copy of it, using the Lasso Tool. I pasted it in as a new layer, and then added a large Motion Blur to it. This same effect is used with Grand Slam and the Annihilators somewhat in the next chapter. Sometimes, I'll add another layer of the moving item holding still, with the blur underneath it. Sometimes the blur need to be moved so it's not blurring in both directions.

For the sound effects text, I generally use bold Futura font, as well, though I'll sometimes use something different for special sounds (see later). I usually add an Emboss effect with Layer Styles. Also, Photoshop has a Warped Text effect for distorting it with bulges and arcs.

I'll comment on Serpentor's cape below.

The knife spin created a special problem. The middle photo, when taken, didn't have the knife in it at all!

I took a separate photo of the knife by itself. After trimming any background from it, I used a severe Radial Blur on it (which took my computer a couple of minutes to draw). The new, spinning image was then copied and pasted into the still image.

I had to cut out Serpentor's arm with the Lasso Tool and paste a new copy of it on top of the blurred knife.

In the bottom photo, I did what I described above with the Motion Blur, and pasting a non-blurred dagger & hand on top of the blurred one.

The critical stabbing scene had to look good. I took five different shots of it, from all different angles. To give Serpentor's cape the illusion of billowing out in this shot and the above punching shot, all I did was brace it with a tiny twig underneath. (Sometimes, the simplest, silliest solutions are the best!)

The only other effect here is the sound effect. I used a different font here, for one thing.

To add the "bloody" effect, I transported the text to a new document and flipped it upside down. I then used Eye Candy's Smoke filter, with red colors instead of black or white. Flip it right side up, and voila - blood!

Speaking of blood...

The stain on Rev's shirt is done with the Airbrush tool.

The blood on the knife, though, was painted on in a separate layer. I also added an Emboss through Layer Styles to it, with a high degree of Smoothing.

Move on to the LAST PAGE for blue skies and Skystriker ejection seats!