Talk:2811: Free Fallin'

Is it just me, or does the caption cast a shadow?

I didn't spot it, but when I zoomed in, yup, there's a grey "shadow", particularly the top line, particularly "onto" and the W in "law" (looks like the black version the W is sloppier). I think Randal does a draft first - in physical form this would be pencil, not sure if XKCD is purely digital - to plan out, like checking letter spacing, then does the final version over the draft, and the grey is that draft. NiceGuy1 (talk) 05:04, 5 August 2023 (UTC)

Aye, we've seen it before, possibly even enough for it to be Catagoried. I suspect he does (at least one) draft-layer for text (as well as whatever layers he uses to plan and redraw the lines/other artwork, e.g. to replicate actual acurately generated maps "in line-drawn approximation" style) and then sometimes only drags the transparency up to the high-0%s/opacity into low single digit%s rather than the whole way. Or perhaps he normally drags them to "still notably visible" which reminds him to de-visible/delete the unwanted layers, but the remaining 'onion skin' effect is too muted to remind him. Obviously, we only get to see the flattened image not the 'working copy', so it's speculation (does he even say he uses a particular software, Photoshop/GIMP/whatever, as well as what technique he employs?), but this might well be considered a revealing detail (of interest to those who are interested in such details, tautologically) worth at least this quick Talk-page ramble. ;) 172.71.242.194 09:08, 5 August 2023 (UTC)

The DMB song referenced in the tooltip is "Crash Into Me" Jdavis103 (talk) 20:53, 4 August 2023 (UTC)

Okay, other than name-dropping Reseda, Ventura Blvd., and Mulholland, I'm not sure how those lyrics would translate to THAT flight path, :) (for example, why is THAT "the shadows"? Looks mountainous, is that a name/nickname for those mountains? Why is the skywriting incident THERE, and spirals?) And WEIRD coincidence, lately I've been looking into a Family Guy joke about Dave Matthews! Peter has Dave's head as a punching bag, punching it does a scat I find familiar, I'm sure it's famous, but I'm having trouble identifying it (then he switches it for David Lee Roth doing Just A Gigolo, THAT one is easy) NiceGuy1 (talk) 05:12, 5 August 2023 (UTC)