Our Comic Lab in the Playground: An experimentation class

[Felyndiira]

Originally Posted by The Randomizer

hay guys I require assistance. I need to know what to do to make the background look like the characters are moving REALLY fast, and I find Inkscape's blur tool to be unsatisfactory. so any tips?

The only way to do this in inkscape (that I know of) is to make semi-transparent versions of the background and stack them so they look like afterimages.

This is definitely easier with image-editing software, though (GIMP, for one). Any image editor with a motion blur tool makes this seem like cake, so another way would be to save the image as a png and ask someone with fireworks/photoshop to do it for you.

[Lord Raziere]

Originally Posted by Lord Raziere

in other news, I have like.....three....no...four......five...about six ideas for a comic here. I tend to come up with a lot of ideas. I can only give short summaries

Idea 1: Age of the Arcane
Takes place in a DnD world 700 years AFTER the Age of Adventurers ended, magitech is commonplace, the world is ruled by wizard empires, there are rebels opposing them and a lone wizard student is caught up in the resulting war.

Idea 2: The Campaign Trilogy
A trilogy of comics that are all deconstructions of DnD, the cliched "adventurers have random adventures" plot and the gratuitous fourth-wall breaking and RPG mechanics world. the three comics would be:
DM: a deconstruction of DnD as it is
NPC: a look at the world of DnD without any PC's or DM
and PC: DnD without a DM, but with NPC's and PC's

Idea 3: First Reality
a deconstruction of Final Fantasy where a ragtag group of adventurers band together to stop a steampunk empire from conquering the world by activating five crystals of magic- only to discover a far worse threat in the process.

Idea 4: The Story of a Dragon
a 10,000 year old dragon mad scientist tells you the story of his life from a first person point of view narrative.

Idea 5: Lightbringer
in a post-apocalyptic world where the gods themselves wiped out 90% of humanity, the only hope against soulless monsters wiping out what remains rests in an army of super-powered warriors called the "Lightbringers"
(I do not actually take credit for the idea of the setting this comic, as the setting was actually thought up by a close friend of mine)

Idea 6: Weblords
In the year 2100, all technology in the world is connected to the internet and people called "Weblords" who have unrivaled control over cyberspace through pure programming and hacking skill, rule supreme. Earth is in a constant of "Web Warfare" and the borders of web empires change everyday.
A lone rebellious hacker fights against the current world regime in a hope to bring back freedom, hope and goodness to everything.

what, no interest in any of these?

[Herpestidae]

Er... I like the Campaign Trilogy...

[Maximum Zersk]

I like ideas 2 and 3, considering they're Deconstructions, and if you can pull that off, they'd be really good.

[Herpestidae]

This is where we go for artist help, right? Because I'm in desperate need of backgrounds and such. My comics look blind bland without 'em.

[Green-Shirt Q]

Originally Posted by Lord Raziere

Idea 4: The Story of a Dragon
a 10,000 year old dragon mad scientist tells you the story of his life from a first person point of view narrative.

I like this idea. It reminds me of one of my favourite stories: The Bicentennial Man by Issac Asimov.

Just remember, if you do this story, to have a gradual change as time passes. There really isn't any point if nothing in the surroundings change. In a story were the protaginist is really old like this, you need to illistrate how the surroundings change but the protaginist stays the same, except for experience.

Yeah, obvious point. I'm sure you already knew that.

Also, I would like to recommend that there should be a goal for the protaginist to work towards throughout the long lifespan in the story. In The Bicentennial Man, the robot in the story is despretely trying to use it's infinite lifespan to become a human, gradually changing parts of it's body and personality in order to fit the description until law has almost no choice but to consider it a human. I don't know what goal a dragon would try to accomplish, but I think a goal like this would make things more interesting.

[Lord Raziere]

Originally Posted by Green-Shirt Q

I like this idea. It reminds me of one of my favourite stories: The Bicentennial Man by Issac Asimov.

Just remember, if you do this story, to have a gradual change as time passes. There really isn't any point if nothing in the surroundings change. In a story were the protaginist is really old like this, you need to illistrate how the surroundings change but the protaginist stays the same, except for experience.

Yeah, obvious point. I'm sure you already knew that.

Also, I would like to recommend that there should be a goal for the protaginist to work towards throughout the long lifespan in the story. In The Bicentennial Man, the robot in the story is despretely trying to use it's infinite lifespan to become a human, gradually changing parts of it's body and personality in order to fit the description until law has almost no choice but to consider it a human. I don't know what goal a dragon would try to accomplish, but I think a goal like this would make things more interesting.

oh, you see, the dragon travels from plane to plane; he doesn't stay in the same place. there wouldn't be chapters, just stories of him at different ages;
for example first story: Age 50, Second story: Age 140, Third story: Age 790 etc.

well he does have a goal- the dragon is also an inventor, one who wants use both magic and technology in his inventions, and I'm thinking he would create his own planet at the end from a accumulation of 10,000 years of knowledge in tech and magic, and his character development would go from sort of this rogue dragon guy who is out for himself to this responsible inventor who wants to improve society across the multiverse. the story would also be narrated from a first person point of view, since its sort of centered upon him, it allows a look inside his head and how he views the world around him.

as for ideas 2 and 3.....I see.

ok then, we have three good ideas out of six, now to choose which one of the the three I should do, or at least do first.

[potatocubed]

Here's a question for the stick-style artists among you: how long, more or less, does it take to produce a single page of comic?

I'm aware that the answer is likely to be variable, depending on the complexities of the scene, the backgrounds, etc., but I'm just looking for a very rough ballpark figure.

[Herpestidae]

If I don't worry about Backgrounds, like my first comic, It takes me about 1/2 hour to 45 minutes. Worrying about backgrounds adds another 14-20 minutes. Fight scenes take about 3-10 minutes a panel to position everyone the right way and add action lines.

[Keveak]

Originally Posted by potatocubed

Here's a question for the stick-style artists among you: how long, more or less, does it take to produce a single page of comic?

I'm aware that the answer is likely to be variable, depending on the complexities of the scene, the backgrounds, etc., but I'm just looking for a very rough ballpark figure.

I'm guesing I use between twenty and sixty minutes, depending on how many new characters, props and effects I have to update.

[Felyndiira]

Anywhere from 20 minutes to 20 hours, really. Assuming a basic one-page comic, it depends on the complexity of the background, shading on the background, how much positioning I have to do with the characters, whether I need to draw a storyboard, and whether I have all the templates available at hand. On average:

A comic with just talking and some mild fighting, two-color background: 10-40 minutes.
A comic with a fancy background that I don't have a template for:
----Perspective, high-detail, and/or with pre-sketch: add 1-12 hours.
----Low-detail or basic OotS-style scene: add 10-30 minutes
Perspective action scenes: add one hour
Rotating templates with complex hair to unusual angles: add 20 minutes.
Special Effects: add 20 minutes to two hours.
Shading for both scene and minor characters: add 20-50 minutes,

A lot of it depends on how complex you want your comic to be, how many templates you have, how much research you need to do for special effects, and how much you want to portray with it. Standard OotS style is usually adequate and quick, but it tends to be a bit limited in application. Usually, though, backgrounds take up much more time than foreground templates, especially if you want it to look really nice, so if you save a bit of detail on them (or keep pre-made objects as templates), things tend to go much quicker.

Even then, scenes will take less time as you get more used to making them since you won't have to go back, fix vectors, and constantly make adjustments while looking at a tutorial for a different program. You can also re-use scenic elements later on, so it's sometimes worth it to spend the initial time working on something complex.

[Zefir]

Hi Everybody,

i have 2 different Ideas of an OotS Style Comic Story.

The first
I´m in an D&D Campain based on Pathfinder Rules. The Campain is called "The chrimson Throne". We are a group of uknowen people who were brought together by mysterious seeress. The Past of each member sticks together by a man who use kids for his criminal aktivities. Thats the start of the story. Later we hear things like "The King is dead prais the Queen" and "Corvosa needs you".
We have played several evenings and i think it would go well as an OotS Style Comic.

The secound is a selfmade story:
In a world where Magic is bound on crystall shardes, and only a few people are able to learn how to use it, two identically groups of these mages are on their way. There Goal is to find 6 Items on for each known Element. If one groupe finds all they can rais there Homenation to the Worldruler or maybe they make themselve the Worlds Kings/Queens.

The only bad thing is that i have not enougth time and skill to draw them by myself. If someone wants to work with me for one of this story i will be very happy^^.

[Maximum Zersk]

Impulsiveness has caused me to fix the grammar in this, while answering.

Originally Posted by Zefir

Hi everybody, I have two different ideas for an OotS-style Comic.

The first:
I'm in a D&D Campaign based on Pathfinder Rules. The Campaign is called "The Crimson Throne". We are a group of unknown people who were brought together by mysterious seeress. The Past of each member sticks together by a man who uses kids for his criminal activities. That's the start of the story. Later we hear things like "The King is dead! Praise the Queen!" and "Corvosa needs you".
We have played several evenings and I think it would go well as an OotS Style Comic.

The second is a self-made story:
In a world where Magic is bound on crystal shards, and only a few people are able to learn how to use it Two identical groups of these mages are on their way. There Goal is to find 6 Items, one for each known Element. If one group finds all they can raise there Home-nation to World-ruler, or maybe they make themselves the World's Kings/Queens.

The only bad thing is that I have not enougth time and skill to draw them by myself. If someone wants to work with me for one of this story I will be very happy. ^^

Hm. Well, time to critique.

First story. I don't know, I can't glean much information from this description. Could you perhaps explain in more detail?

Second Story. Ooh, magic crystals. Haven't heard that one before. Perhaps I'm being a tad harsh. The problem still stands, though, that the Mineral MacGuffin has been used countless times. If you can think of something interesting to add to these, sure, why not.

[Zefir]

First Thanks or Grammer my English makrs are not the best.

Nice to know "The Crimson Throne" is a curesed Throne. No King of the City died at age all where killed by someone.
Ok as said befor the groupe was stick together by a commen backstorywith the main enemy Gaderon Lamm.
Each member has his own connection to him. A Seeres brings us together and tells us where Lamm is to revenge the pain he caused us. After his dead we find the Head of the seeres and were told from her again that the city needs us to help in futher problems. She deside to stay with her ghost near us by using a Harrow Deck ( Just like the greenhilt sword, if i think about this) After that "ghost session" we noticed noise at the streets. This noise came from a chaos chaused by the death of the current King. To make it short we got some quest form the local guards just like privat detektivs to clear problems like people who sell human meat or some nobility who tried to leave the City in an even worst chaos then it already is.
I am already playing these story and we even dont know who is our enemy at the End.
I hope this got enougth information, but if you need more just ask.

To the secound:
My mistake. I had to know that the informations are to short and will bei n all probability misunderstanded. So here i gave an better discription:
Well i never thought of Sonic ,at the time i made these Story.
The Cristal shiver( i dont know a better word) are kind of, if you broke a diamond with a Hammer the parts you got^^.
I thought of the system more near D&D the more shiver you got the stronger are your spells and the comlexer spells you can Cast. ( Imagin the lvl system of DnD)
The shivers are kind of batterie whis is used by deamons to appear in the world. A Wizard use the shiver to channel his spells. Without a shiver a mage cant Cast a thing. The shiver ale colorless until someone with the Power to use it touches it, then it gets the Color of one of the Elements. (The Element is decided by the gods of the elements.) After getting a Coler the shiver is useless for all other who cant use the element, so each Person is bound on ONE Element (it can chance under special conditions, but its very dangerouse to end it successful).
The shiver can get by Kiling strong enougth deamons and by a mine at an neutral island, which special locations negates all Magic.

Edit: The Artifacts are only some upgrade to make the user of theelement stronger. But i have also thougth that they are only some prestige objets with no real power like the whistle of the wind (a giant whistle only be played by wind and does nothing)

Hope you understand all or maybe i told it with the right words^^.
But i am Happy someone is even reading this.
Thanks again for the grammer hope it got better this time.

[Zefir]

No artist interest in one of these storys?
Or all artist are allready working on other storys?

[Lord Raziere]

huh, I posted my "The Story of a Dragon" comic in the forum like days ago but it still isn't approved by the mods yet.....

....is this normal? or no?

[Green-Shirt Q]

Originally Posted by Lord Raziere

huh, I posted my "The Story of a Dragon" comic in the forum like days ago but it still isn't approved by the mods yet.....

....is this normal? or no?

Fairly normal.

Sometimes it takes weeks, sometimes they can do it by the end of the day. I think it depends on how busy the mods are at the time, though I had another theory that they don't actually check the comics they approve, and that a computer program just has a set time to approve all the fancomics submitted at one certain time.

All of this is pure speculation, but yeah. On average, a few days is perfectly normal. It is suspenseful though, isn't it?

[Teutonic Knight]

Hi, and I would like to share I concept I have been thinking of for an upcoming comic of mine. It is set in a MMORPG world, but has JRPG elements, like screaming the name of your super awesome skill before using it. But trust me it won't become annoying. Think of it like the Tales Of games does it.

Anyway, I would like to have a theme in to my MMOG, which is in western style. I was thinking of either Greece, Italy, France, or the UK countries. Some aspect of that country's ancient-medieval history that I could use for a MMORPG world. Help? If you understand what I'm looking for, that it.

Also, you have decided on a country to take base the world off of, could you also give suggestions for two names, a boy name and a girl name, that would befit main characters and have some connection with that country? In addition, all names for lands and certain skills would come from that country. For that reason, I thought Greece would fit the best. But with Italian names. Something like that.

[Felyndiira]

Originally Posted by Teutonic Knight

Hi, and I would like to share I concept I have been thinking of for an upcoming comic of mine. It is set in a MMORPG world, but has JRPG elements, like screaming the name of your super awesome skill before using it. But trust me it won't become annoying. Think of it like the Tales Of games does it.

I love this idea already =p. [/otaku]

As for history - this one isn't quite ancient-medieval, although it's one of my favorites in European history. If you can refluff it to not break forum rules, the aftermath of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre is an event with a lot of storytelling potential and a considerable amount of historical impact. Set up in France, it opens up a lot of religious conflict between the A-ers and B-ers fueled by the sudden conversion of the King of France.

And, of course, names: Aurelie and Benoît.

[Teutonic Knight]

Yay otaku.

Actually, what I did not mean by history was an event that could be incorporated into my world. I meant more of like, if I did choose ancient Greece, then I could have major nations, or cities named after the Greek gods, and their would be a guy named Prometheus that is like a Robin Hood to the people of the land. It's hard to explain, but another issue I have is what kind of MMO world it is. For example, should it be a world where it just so happens that groups of conveniently placed monsters of varying difficulty exist right outside the castle gate, or should it be like 1/2 Prince, if you now the manga, where it is really a super-realistic game and the characters are aware of party quests and rare drops and such.

The first one was the idea I was originally going with. You see, with the first setting, I could have the characters blame it on the gods, and in that way break the 4th wall as well. I could have a character say "To use this skill, you use TP, which our ancestors found out about in an instruction manual left by the gods." In this way, it makes it more like OotS where the world's inhabitants are aware of the game world around them and make references to it. In this case, character names like the ones you suggested, Benoît and Aurelie could be used, with Benoît shortened to Ben to use as a nickname. I don't know what Aurelie could be shorted to, though.

In the second setting, those names would not work, because people in our world usually choose weird game names. I know I don't. And whenever people make actual names, it usually is a combination of nouns and adjectives that go well together. People rarely use actual names to name their characters, strangely enough.

Anyway, this is still up for more input. Thanks for you ideas.

[smuchmuch]

*Dusts*

hmm. That thing hasn't been used in a while but since it was a colaborative thread, I don't think it's thread necromancay to raise it , no ?

Anyway, just quick question: On these forums what are the best format/dimension for ciomics, from single strip to full pages one ?

[Bayar]

Well, thread necro is thread necro. But since the thread is not older than 1.5 months, neither has it fallen on the third page in the fan comic section...it wouldn't be necromancy.

As for your question: it really differs from artist to artist. But if you want to use a standard, you could use the Giant's size for total comic strip size and just adjust the panels however it will fit your current strip's needs.

[smuchmuch]

I would just like to know at wich point it becommes unpractical for most viewers. Otherwise the bigger the better, since you tend to loose details after a while.

@V No offense taken, I am well aware. I do my best to correct this.

[Emperor Ing]

Well do you plan on archiving your comics in links or spoilers?

All I can say is that most of the time it won't matter, but usually if your comics have a lot of panels (say, 20+ panels,) square shaped strips are annoying. I draw most of my strips 3 panels wide but that's just me.

Also, no offense but you're gonna need to work on your spelling more than your panels.

[Dogmantra]

I'd advise no wider than an A4 sheet of paper. It's a convenient standard, and I believe if you're using inkscape, it gives you a handy piece of A4 as a background.

[Herpestidae]

Assistance for me as well?

I've been looking into a new drawing style that can be used with Inkscape only. I've got a few human figures here:



How do they look. The numbers note how many heads tall the (adult) figure is. 6-7 would be more "realistic." The first one is likely a child.

[smuchmuch]

it depends for what kind of style you are going for.
But what is obvious in all of them is that the legs are far too short for 'realistic' proportions (Particulary obvious on 6 and 7, I think) The legs should be longer than the torso.

The proportions I learned personaly, were roughtly:
3 head in the upper section (torso and belly), 3 and a half in the legs and arms (arms a little shorter, starts from the shoulder and finish somewhere a little under the hips to mùid tight, depending on the person (arm length can be quite variable).) The overall body is about 7 to 8 head height. (8 is a lot, make for a somewhat tall person with a small head)

For a more cartoonish, and/or simplified style you can allow yourself bigger heads (I would in fact recomend it), as it is where you will most likely put the more details to diferenciate your characters between each other, and overall samller body, like a child.

[Keveak]

Originally Posted by smuchmuch

it depends for what kind of style you are going for.
But what is obvious in all of them is that the legs are far too short for 'realistic' proportions (Particulary obvious on 6 and 7, I think) The legs should be longer than the torso.

The proportions I learned personaly, were roughtly:
3 head in the upper section (torso and belly), 3 and a half in the legs and arms (arms a little shorter, starts from the shoulder and finish somewhere a little under the hips to mùid tight, depending on the person (arm length can be quite variable).) The overall body is about 7 to 8 head height. (8 is a lot, make for a somewhat tall person with a small head)

For a more cartoonish, and/or simplified style you can allow yourself bigger heads (I would in fact recomend it), as it is where you will most likely put the more details to diferenciate your characters between each other, and overall samller body, like a child.

That's funny, I usually draw my characters five to six heads tall.

Perhaps it is a bit cartoonish, it is heavily based on Eastern animation after all.

[Darklord Bright]

I've re-done my style completely now, and I'm just putting it up here. The characters used below are from BRC's Rebellion|Revolution. (Only, without the coats I originally drew on them.)



Things I am aware of:

- head shape, size, and details. These were updated a little while before the bodies very purposefully. It's mostly a style choice, and what isn't is a limitation of Inkscape.

- It's meant to be exaggerated! It's not photorealism, it's stylisation!

[smuchmuch]

They certainly look better after stylisation..
in both states, They look a tad disproportioned, on the wide side, no ? And the way the limbs are separated from the body make them look stlighty rigid

- head shape, size, and details. These were updated a little while before the bodies very purposefully. It's mostly a style choice, and what isn't is a limitation of Inkscape.

- It's meant to be exaggerated! It's not photorealism, it's stylisation!

The fact is they look a little like wooden pupets. Am I wrong to assume it's a wanted effect ?

If you'll allow me a very slight critisizm, my only reall beef here would be that between the rather thin legs and wide body and big heads, these character look slightly unblanced (in a 'it's hart to see how they don't fal over 'kind of way, particulary in the 'before' style but still a little after.') but maybe that impression diseaper when they are seen in different poses.

(For somme reson that James remind of Fox Mulder fro!m X files. But the hell if I know why.)