Medieval Rock - Discussion

[The Kool]

Okay, gonna start an OOTS style comic, but only if I can do so without it looking like a two-year old did it. Any advice, suggestions, pointers, etc.? I'll bring up my problems as they come up, too.

[Ichneumon]

First advice: Do not use paint. You need a real talent to draw good looking art in Paint. You need practice (of about 2-5 hours really, nothing more) to draw some real good things with other programs like Inkscape, free to download.

[The Kool]

Thanks, I figured that out after about five minutes.

I want something that's quick, easy, doesn't take up much room... I'm willing to put a bit of work into it, but no more than about two hours per comic.

[Lyinginbedmon]

Two hours per comic on InkScape would be indicative of a big or well-detailed comic, on average a Remember comic for me takes maybe one hour.

At some point, someone is really going to have to put together a guide to making webcomics, but then that may only exacerbate the whole issue of the ever-increasing quantity...

[The Kool]

Good, in that case, maybe an hour per comic and a comic every other day, at best. The less time it takes to make, the more often I'll be able to find time for it.

[Mr_Saturn]

My comics generally take around 2 hours. (look at sig, my banner)

It helps alot to use inkscape or sodipodi. Because that way you can copy-paste much easier than if you would use paint. And it has transparency. You can also edit a character from a walking position to a running position much easier. Or any other actions and gestures a character might make.

@Lying: Good point, maybe i should erase all my suggestions. Hahaha-yeeaahhh <.<

[Bayar]

damn you guys are fast, it takes about 3-4 hours to make a page...if Inkscape does not crash that is...and with my "look exactly"-ness, no wonder...too many details

[Mr_Saturn]

Nobody told you to make a comic about the universe.

[Arakune]

Try to write your story first, even if you don't have anything too much decided.

It can be:

1-Heroes want to save princess;
2-Heroes need to fin princess;
3-They need to fight the Big Bad Dragon;
4-They save the princess;
5-Profit!

You can detail it latter if you want.
Also, don't forget to make some scratches of the characters: personalities, motivations, quirks, hobbies, etc. Again, you don't need to detail it to much at first time.

[Bayar]

Nobody told you to make a comic about the universe.

Actually, that is just the prologue...

[Nameless]

If your comic involves giant killer turtles, it will be a success, I can garanty that

[Mr_Saturn]

I believe i should do that then.

[The Kool]

Could've sworn I posted...

Anyway, I've got the plot...

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This group of adventurers gets sent forward in time by this wizard, because of a temporal rift that sent a bunch of creatures forward in time, which they need to track down as they appear. As a disguise, so their eccentricities will fit in for the indefinite amount of time they'll be there, they are disguised as a rock band. Thus, Medieval Rock is born.

[Nameless]

I was gonna use that though

I shouldn't of have said anything...

[The Kool]

Well, we may find zombies wielding machine guns... Kobolds with high explosives... Orcs with tanks...

[Lyinginbedmon]

Putting aside the issue of Orcish low Intelligence, how would an Orc in any way benefit from being inside a tank? Long-range firepower has never been something they've used, they're already resilient to most attack, and putting a group of Orcs in tight quarters in a battlefield can't be a good idea.

[Surfing HalfOrc]

Putting aside the issue of Orcish low Intelligence, how would an Orc in any way benefit from being inside a tank? Long-range firepower has never been something they've used, they're already resilient to most attack, and putting a group of Orcs in tight quarters in a battlefield can't be a good idea.

There was a pretty good book called "Grunts" that explored this issue... The Orcs found a rift in time/space, that led to a Marine Corps Supply Depot.

Much hilarity ensued...

[The Kool]

It was just an example! Though they'll be fighting modern guys just as often as DnD guys, probably. Now way to know until it get going!'

Speaking of which, got inkscape, now I'm gonna draw up the intro.

[The Kool]

Before I start drawing up the people, I want to know how you save the individual people and things. Cuz guitars and drums are gonna be mighty hard to re-draw...

[Lyinginbedmon]

It's usually easiest to place them all in one InkScape file and then copy them over to new images as necessary.

[The Kool]

Hm, good idea. That would involve some more preparation before I start.

[The Kool]

I've got just about everything but the characters and instruments, and I've whipped up a sample character, and only one question remains: how do I get them on the net? Photobucket doesn't work, so what does?

[Sneak]

Imageshack to the rescue!

[The Kool]

Okay, if you know that you use inkscape with that site, my question is this: what step am I missing to make the file of a type that will be accepted on image sites?

[Sneak]

I personally use Adobe Illustrator, but, well...my guess is that you're saving the files as Inkscape files instead of as image files. I would personally recommend saving the image as a gif and then uploading onto Imageshack.

[Ego Slayer]

The default file type for Inkscape is .svg. It's also not capable of saving .gif, so you could easily use .png: File>Export.

[The Kool]

Will, off to try to decipher how to do that, though I'll just use photobucket in that case.

Figured and done. Here's the sample character.

[The Kool]

And here's the 0th comic, without people or stuff, and only the half of the dialog and names that I can remember right now.

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Any criticisms, advice, or the like?

[The Kool]

I've been working on stuff, I've improved character technique, and I've drawn my first instrument:

It still needs a bit of work. I still need to draw the actual characters and put them in that 0th comic, but it'll be done soon. Once I've gotten it started, future comics will take much less time.

[Maulrus]

I like the guitar, except I feel like the neck extends too far into the body.