The other day I was reading some paper on “colorization by optimization” which is a technique for programmatically/algorithmically coloring grayscale images via some human hints. The geek in me couldn’t resist trying out how Mumbai Confidential would look like (since Vivek’s awesome grayscale style is uniquely suited to this approach). So I hunted for some sample code, found some and tweaked it and ran it with a sample page.

Algorithmic generation:
So I took a grayscale page from MC, with a mouse gave some color hints and ran it through the program. The algorithm works by a weighted mean of Luminance (Y) of the neighboring pixels and uses a technique of creating blended pixel sets (based on pointers taken from here) the source image and using the hint image generates the Color (Cb) and Chrominance (Cr) values. Basically “spreads” the hint colors and “smears” them across pixels.

As you can see the process is cool enough, but doesn’t yield good results. I chalk it up to my inability to demarcate areas in the base image (with a mouse).

So I tried a bit more and finally came up with something that resembled a flatted out image.

A few mins of TLC with GIMP filters with layers and I had some passable color images of the page.

After applying softglow (and fixing the sky):

Now, I am no talented artist like Vivek and this was just for the heck of it to explore a mathematical approximation of something that the artist does intuitively. Maths (especially Applied Maths) has been an interest of mine and programming is my dayjob. Add to that, how passionate I’m about comics and this sort of thing is what makes life enjoyable.

As an aside, all of this isn’t my work. The grayscale image was drawn by Vivek and the algorithm and implementation hints came from people who have done work in this field. I just put them together and played with it a bit.

Found a GIMP plugin that implements the colorization at http://zenthought.org/content/project/colorize. makes the pipeline much faster. Plugin code has a bug which manifests if first image is closed, will try to get it fixed and maybe take over the development of that plugin.

Here is another sample page after a quick pass through GIMP plug-in:

– Saurav

About Mumbai Confidential

Mumbai Confidential is a crime noir comic book series created by Saurav Mohapatra and Vivek Shinde [more...]

So, Times of India has posted a list of notable Indian comics or as the byline puts it “Indians who bring a different side of the country to light via their comic book characters”.
[click the image for a hires view]

link to the ePaper for Dec 3rd, Mumbai Edition

As an aside, DEVI, a book I worked on at Virgin comics from issue #10-20 also made the list.

About Mumbai Confidential Digital Shorts

MUMBAI CONFIDENTIAL Digital Shorts are a series of companion comics to the first book “GOOD COP, BAD COP” by various artists using the characters created by Saurav Mohapatra and Vivek Shinde. These shorts are set in the same “universe” as the main story. Though these are not required to follow the main book, they do enhance the backstory of GOOD COP, BAD COP.

About Mumbai Confidential

Mumbai Confidential is a crime noir comic book series created by Saurav Mohapatra and Vivek Shinde [more...]

So, the finished pages for MISSED CALL, the digital short that Shounak Jpg’s been working on have started trickling in and I must say they do look delicious.

Will post updates here, as more pages flow in. Meanwhile Saumin Patel has turned in his layouts for “HOUSE OF CARDS” – the third digital short and I shall be sharing them soon enough on these pages.

About Mumbai Confidential Digital Shorts

MUMBAI CONFIDENTIAL Digital Shorts are a series of companion comics to the first book “GOOD COP, BAD COP” by various artists using the characters created by Saurav Mohapatra and Vivek Shinde. These shorts are set in the same “universe” as the main story. Though these are not required to follow the main book, they do enhance the backstory of GOOD COP, BAD COP.

About Mumbai Confidential

Mumbai Confidential is a crime noir comic book series created by Saurav Mohapatra and Vivek Shinde [more...]

So we’re not dead . I made the move from east coast of USA to the west coast and was down and out for a good part of last quarter => hence, the paucity of updates on this site. We’re back to a schedule and will post Vivek Shinde’s delicious art as soon as I get my hand on it.

In other news, Saumin Patel (my frequent collaborator from the Virgin Comics days on DEVI and co-creator of MUMBAI MACGUFFIN) honored a long standing request and sent in some pieces about his interpretation of MC. Saumin has a style that is truly unique and I feel his renditions of a hard boiled genre piece like MC, makes me wanna bug him some more for a full fledged digital short.

–Saurav

MUMBAI CONFIDENTIAL Digital Shorts are a series of companion comics to the first book “GOOD COP, BAD COP” by various artists using the characters created by Saurav Mohapatra and Vivek Shinde. These shorts are set in the same “universe” as the main story. Though these are not required to follow the main book, they do enhance the backstory of GOOD COP, BAD COP.

About Mumbai Confidential

Mumbai Confidential is a crime noir comic book series created by Saurav Mohapatra and Vivek Shinde [more...]

Artist Sudhanshu Pandey felt inspired by Mumbai Confidential as a concept and contributed this pinup

We were so impressed, we asked him to draw a new Digital Short called House of Cards. More updates on that soon.

About Mumbai Confidential Digital Shorts

MUMBAI CONFIDENTIAL Digital Shorts are a series of companion comics to the first book “GOOD COP, BAD COP” by various artists using the characters created by Saurav Mohapatra and Vivek Shinde. These shorts are set in the same “universe” as the main story. Though these are not required to follow the main book, they do enhance the backstory of GOOD COP, BAD COP.

About Mumbai Confidential

Mumbai Confidential is a crime noir comic book series created by Saurav Mohapatra and Vivek Shinde [more...]

Mumbai Confidential has certainly been in the news recently. Firstly, Anisha Sridhar covered both MC and Dhurandhar for New Indian Express.

Gangsters and Ghosts in new format by Anisha Sridhar in New Indian Express

On Nov 21, Sneha Mahale covered Mumbai Confidential for Hindustan Times.

City cops in graphic novel by Sneha Mahale in Hindustan Times

About Mumbai Confidential

Mumbai Confidential is a crime noir comic book series (about the infamous encounter cops of Mumbai) created by Saurav Mohapatra and Vivek Shinde [more...]

As discussed earlier Artist Shounak Jog (India Authentic, Vargav) has picked up the script for Digital Short #2 MISSED CALL.

He turned in some marvelous thumbs for the story, which I’m sharing here. Remember these are rough layouts/thumbs and aren’t cleaned up.

Once Shounak finishes the short it shall be posted here. Meanwhile you can enjoy Sid Kotian’s work on Digital Short #1 REMASTER.

About Mumbai Confidential Digital Shorts

MUMBAI CONFIDENTIAL Digital Shorts are a series of companion comics to the first book “GOOD COP, BAD COP” by various artists using the characters created by Saurav Mohapatra and Vivek Shinde. These shorts are set in the same “universe” as the main story. Though these are not required to follow the main book, they do enhance the backstory of GOOD COP, BAD COP.

About Mumbai Confidential

Mumbai Confidential is a crime noir comic book series created by Saurav Mohapatra and Vivek Shinde [more...]

About Mumbai Confidential

Mumbai Confidential is a crime noir comic book series created by Saurav Mohapatra and Vivek Shinde [more...]

We make no secret of the fact that Mumbai Confidential is a love song to the pulp crime / hard-boiled movies and books we love (both Indian and Foreign). So from time to time, when Vivek and I discuss the visual tone/feel of MC, the amazing Mr. Shinde dashes off some quick explorations. These may or may not have direct implications on the main story art, but they are damn cool to look at.

We’ve used old hindi movie posters like this one, pulp crime book covers etc. for inspiration to strike the correct balance between the classic pulpy hardboiled-ness and Vivek’s unique painted style in MC art.

Since Vivek has been overloading my awesome-ness sensors for a while now, I felt that the time has come to share with you some of those images.

About Mumbai Confidential

Mumbai Confidential is a crime noir comic book series created by Saurav Mohapatra and Vivek Shinde [more...]

The image is for preview purposes only. Mumbai Confidential is copyright and trademark of Saurav Mohapatra and Vivek Shinde. All rights reserved. This site’s content are copyright of Mohapatra and Shinde. All rights are reserved.

Artist Shounak Jog (India Authentic, Vargav) has picked up the script for Digital Short #2 MISSED CALL and sent in some WIP thumbs when I was away at SDCC.

Shounak has a great flowing style that I admire a lot (He did awesome work for India Authentic : GARUDA issue) and I, for one, am waiting eagerly to see what he does with the script. If the rough WIP thumbs below are any indication, we’re in for a visual treat.

Enjoy these while we wait for Shounak to finish the short, after which it shall be posted here. Meanwhile you can enjoy Sid Kotian’s work on Digital Short #1 REMASTER.

About Mumbai Confidential Digital Shorts

MUMBAI CONFIDENTIAL Digital Shorts are a series of companion comics to the first book “GOOD COP, BAD COP” by various artists using the characters created by Saurav Mohapatra and Vivek Shinde. These shorts are set in the same “universe” as the main story. Though these are not required to follow the main book, they do enhance the backstory of GOOD COP, BAD COP.

About Mumbai Confidential

Mumbai Confidential is a crime noir comic book series created by Saurav Mohapatra and Vivek Shinde [more...]