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Reiley posted:I disagree with this advice, as a page leading into a from-the-character's-perspective sequence starting big for context and pushing down to the perspective that rolls over onto the next page makes much more sense than zooming out to an establishing shot and then cutting back to where you started. You're probably right that it would not be best to immediately follow that with a cut back to the interior of the cart. I would want to, having zoomed out, to have a few exterior scenes showing the cart moving thorough the town, to move the character to where she needs to go for the plot and establish the scale of the famine. Then you can show the characters' reaction.
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Jun 20, 2014 04:05
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I think the top down viewpoint in the first panel with the seal and the penguin is giving you trouble. It gives a great sense of isolation and distance, but it also really flattens the volume of the space they're in. If you changed the camera angle so we're seeing them slightly from the side as well as from above, and maybe zoomed out a little and put in a bit more environment in to place the characters in space, I think it would help make the panel a bit more dynamic, and really hammer home how large and menacing the seal is. Is Fairfax meant to be Australian? If he is, the grammar on your last page doesn't seem quite right - 'go/gone walkabout' is the verb form. It's not really a big point, but it caught my eye, so I figured I'd mention it.
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Jun 20, 2014 04:30
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map of the cat posted:I think the top down viewpoint in the first panel with the seal and the penguin is giving you trouble. It gives a great sense of isolation and distance, but it also really flattens the volume of the space they're in. Great! I love that advice, yeah I thought the top down would be a good establishing shot but it just didn't have the oomph I was going for. And yeah Fairfax is intended to be Aussie, I feel like I'm coming off clumsy and awkward with it.
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Jun 20, 2014 05:20
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Fangz posted:I would reverse the order of the panels. Start with the zoomed in image and expand outwards. From the final panel clearly she has seen something shocking that is not a dilapidated street. There is no need to be coy and make the readers wonder what she is reacting to. I think it is more effective to begin with your big emotional punch, and then elaborate on it to show that yes, this is not an isolated thing. Thanks for this and the next post. I hadn't thought of putting the scene-setting panel after the other two. Also, now that you've pointed how how that building kind of looms in the middle of the panel, I've really got to consider reworking how I draw this scene. I do want a sort of low, street-level view, so that I can draw all the stuff, like the corpses in the street and the piles of plague-infected bodies being burned and so on. EDIT: Here's a revision. I decided to take out the cylindrical tower and make the building a bit more flat-faced to make it blend in with the background more. And, thanks to the magic of the digital world, I can easily just ink the two following pages as-is and then cut-paste them to put them at the top! 
DrSunshine fucked around with this message at 06:15 on Jun 20, 2014 |
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Jun 20, 2014 05:58
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raaaan posted:Honestly, put a prominent link or graphic on your website that leads people there, mention it in blog posts whenever you put substantial content updates on it, remind people that even if they can't contribute that passing the word on helps and if you want to, you can chain social media posts--hook tumblr up to twitter up to facebook, post on tumblr and craft a custom tweet before you hit publish, and all three will have a post about it. Thanks for the advice. I will look into the activity feed idea and see what I can do with that, because I do really like that idea- I'm just not sure how to create an activity feed (he admitted with a great sense of embarrassment). I'll do a little research and see how that stuff works. I might sit and think on editing some of the tiers for now. I do want them to be genuinely attractive rewards and I do want people to feel like they are getting their money's worth. At the same time, I realize I am running the risk of overloading myself with work. I'm gonna see how this all pans out. @ Dass Niemand- That is one badass penguin and I would be genuinely interested in seeing where this story goes. Personally, I think the seal fight was a little too brief. I get the impression that you might have wanted it to seem like Fairfax killed the seal easily, but all in all the scene goes by too quickly. If you are going to do future fight scenes, I would suggest thinking about putting in a little bit more build up and action-oriented shots. I think the environments could also stand to be a tiny bit more fleshed out. Also, I'm American and the main character of my comic is supposed to have a Cockney accent. I can sympathize with how awkward and clumsy accented-dialogue can be, at times.
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Jun 20, 2014 07:05
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Sidulus posted:@ Dass Niemand- That is one badass penguin and I would be genuinely interested in seeing where this story goes. I realized after taking another look at it that the environs do need a bit more to them. The trouble with a setting such as Antarctica is flat white snow starts to get difficult to embellish. And I agree that the fighting scene is rushed, it was my first real fighting action sequence so I kind of just went for it
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Jun 20, 2014 18:38
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Dass Niemand posted:The trouble with a setting such as Antarctica is flat white snow starts to get difficult to embellish. Dude, the Antarctic can be loving gorgeous. Use some reference photos, throw a couple of shades of blue in there, go crazy.
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Jun 20, 2014 18:45
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I haven't posted anything in ages, because I haven't DRAWN anything in ages. Just hard to maintain my motivation. But here's my latest comic page. (Apparently uploading that lowered the contrast?)
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Jun 22, 2014 22:52
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Lamplight posted:I haven't posted anything in ages, because I haven't DRAWN anything in ages. Just hard to maintain my motivation. But here's my latest comic page.
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Jun 23, 2014 03:23
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I haven't updated in a while, either! I thought I would make it up to my readers by colorizing this comic. Might stick with it. It would be a good opportunity to make myself practice backgrounds.
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Jun 23, 2014 05:33
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So who spent the forum downtime making comics?    [Tumblr][Site]
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Jun 26, 2014 04:08
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Mercury Hat posted:So who spent the forum downtime making comics? I did, just started chapter 7. 
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Jun 26, 2014 04:13
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I'm mostly done with this page, though I'm not set on the dialogue yet. Also, the terrible clock face is really bothering me because I was lazy and I think I'm going to go back to fix it. 
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Jun 26, 2014 16:01
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Why did you eliminate the gutters from the page? I think you really need it. As it is, I get confused that the (too thick) boundary between floor and wall in the first big panel is a panel border.
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Jun 26, 2014 16:12
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Nessa posted:I'm mostly done with this page, though I'm not set on the dialogue yet. The panel layout looks a lot cooler and more dynamic than it had in previous panels. The art overall is improving a lot.
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Jun 26, 2014 16:35
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For what it's worth, Nessa, black panel gutters in manga tend to imply that what's being shown is a flashback. It's not universal but it's common enough that when combined with the style you're going for, unless you're planning to change the rest of the pages' gutters to match this one, it might get confusing for some readers.
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Jun 26, 2014 16:43
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Fangz posted:Why did you eliminate the gutters from the page? I think you really need it. As it is, I get confused that the (too thick) boundary between floor and wall in the first big panel is a panel border. I didn't think there were any gutters on this page to start with, so I'm not sure what I eliminated? The floor boundary is thick because it's thick on the previous page, to retain continuity. What could I do to make it read better? Fortis posted:For what it's worth, Nessa, black panel gutters in manga tend to imply that what's being shown is a flashback. It's not universal but it's common enough that when combined with the style you're going for, unless you're planning to change the rest of the pages' gutters to match this one, it might get confusing for some readers. I'd say that most of the pages that take place in this dream world are drawn this way. I could easily go back and make them all black for the sake of continuity though.
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Jun 26, 2014 16:52
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Look at http://i.imgur.com/9JQjIMa.png See those white gutters between the panels? They are fine and good. They keep separate events that are chronologically separated and clearly stand out as elements distinct from actual artwork within panels. Have there be one between the top and bottom half of this page. Also make your wall boundary taper with distance, and break that line more decisively to make absolutely sure it isn't confusing. Read http://sundaycomicsdebt.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/comic-pet-peeves.html Really don't overuse inset panels overall. Inset panels conventionally denote simultaneous action, elaboration on the main panel, or can be used to save space if really needed. You have plenty of empty space, and your insets actually give a progression of events. So why use them at all? Fangz fucked around with this message at 17:29 on Jun 26, 2014 |
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Jun 26, 2014 17:23
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Nessa posted:I'm mostly done with this page, though I'm not set on the dialogue yet. I forget, are you using a tablet? If so, keep one finger on your undo button, draw smoothly over the clock face and just keep going over again and again until you have a reasonably smooth and accurate line. That's a decent improvement overall though, the pink creature looks like it's craning forward rather than leaning into panel artificially and in the final panel it looks like she's bracing determinedly rather than being in a stiff pose, so everything has much more vitality.
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Jun 26, 2014 22:14
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Fangz posted:Look at Thanks for this! I guess I just like insets too much.:/ Doctor_Fruitbat posted:I forget, are you using a tablet? If so, keep one finger on your undo button, draw smoothly over the clock face and just keep going over again and again until you have a reasonably smooth and accurate line. I have a tablet, yes. That's exactly what I did on the clock face until I got it to somewhat line up with the original drawing underneath, but the original drawing wasn't accurate either. :/ I redraw lines constantly, but there comes a point where I just have to stop. I'm just not good enough at drawing smooth lines yet. I'll keep practicing though!
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Jun 26, 2014 23:13
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Scribblehatch posted:Oh wow. That looks fantastic. Backgrounds especially. Despite... not drawing for ages? I'm willing to call shenanigans there, because I've known people who left their art savvy to hang, and it really shows sometimes. How long would you say it takes to create this much from start to finish? Thank you very much.  I guess "ages" is an exaggeration, but this is the first comic page I've done since Halloween. I have drawn since then, mostly just sketches on my lunch break at work.
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Jun 27, 2014 03:08
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So uh apparently I'm going to be making a comic book about characters for an indie video game. I brought this up before, it's called CKC, and we're officially moving forward with the project. I wrote the script last Sunday and we already have the first six pages done as far as the line art. Inking is to follow.  I'm very confused and happy to have a project run so smoothly and quickly.
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Jun 27, 2014 16:03
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So is this a little bit better?
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Jun 27, 2014 16:18
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Lamplight posted:I haven't posted anything in ages, because I haven't DRAWN anything in ages. Just hard to maintain my motivation. But here's my latest comic page. Daaamn, that scenery is amazing looking, really nicely rendered. Which, ah, begs the question of why the coloring on the characters looks so... not... great... in comparison. They're drawn very nicely, but the shading on them is just kind of there, and you appear to be using greys to shade instead of actual shadow colors. They're in this lush outdoor setting but they look so lifeless in comparison. I know how rough is it to maintain motivation first hand, though. Wish I could offer advice on that front. Not drawing is awful, you put your art skills on pause, sort of, except they sloowwwlly slide backwards the whole time. I didn't draw basically anything for about 4 years before I started my webcomic and my art was just so much worse than when I stopped.
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Jun 27, 2014 18:14
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Skratte posted:Daaamn, that scenery is amazing looking, really nicely rendered. Which, ah, begs the question of why the coloring on the characters looks so... not... great... in comparison. They're drawn very nicely, but the shading on them is just kind of there, and you appear to be using greys to shade instead of actual shadow colors. They're in this lush outdoor setting but they look so lifeless in comparison. Thanks! I really wasn't happy with the coloring of the characters either. The reason their colors are really muted is because they're supposed to be in shade, while much of the background is supposed to look like evening sun. The only reason I chose to do it that way is because I recently saw a painting using that sort of lighting, and I wanted to try it myself. I didn't shade using grey, but I can see how it would look that way. For some reason, when I open the file in Photoshop the colors look a little more bold. Still muted, but not quite as dull as they look when I uploaded it. I could always bump up the saturation and contrast on the characters a little. Also realized I didn't actually answer Scribblehatch's question. Just guessing, I'd say this took me maybe 12-14 hours total. But of course I didn't do it in one long sitting, or even two. I basically would just work on it for an hour (or even less) at a time over a period of two or three weeks.
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Jun 28, 2014 02:09
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Since I'm on my last 5 pages for this chapter, I decided to just rough them all out at once, though I added proper panel borders this time and some dialogue.    
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Jun 28, 2014 21:35
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Lamplight posted:For some reason, when I open the file in Photoshop the colors look a little more bold. Still muted, but not quite as dull as they look when I uploaded it. I could always bump up the saturation and contrast on the characters a little. It likely that you're exporting with no colour management. if you're using photoshop, when you save for web, make sure you select 'use document colour profile' for it to be an exact match to what you see in photoshop.
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Jun 29, 2014 02:42
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raaaan posted:It likely that you're exporting with no colour management. if you're using photoshop, when you save for web, make sure you select 'use document colour profile' for it to be an exact match to what you see in photoshop. Ah, I didn't even "save for web" in the first place, so that could be part of the problem, too. Thanks!
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Jun 29, 2014 03:38
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I finally figured out how to drop colors directly over grayscale value studies, instead of starting over. Saved me some time, even if it's only at the very beginning. FTR, it's not that there's not a billion guides out there on how to colorize grayscale images; it's that none of them really drove home just how many layers of one color you have to use in order to get any kind of saturation. I'm probably still doing it wrong, but whatever works.
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Jun 29, 2014 18:46
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heysawbones posted:I'm probably still doing it wrong, but whatever works. There's really no wrong way of doing things, the ends justify the means and shortcuts & cheats work great and everyone has their own little ways of breaking the rules. As far as color over greyscale goes, I used to use a lot of layers to make my paintings, and I mean this in the absolute nicest way possible, but I've found the healthiest thing to do to save time and skip steps is to learn to pick your colors beforehand and just build your images as if you were using real physical paint. Your art is beautiful but I honestly can't see a reason why that tree couldn't just be painted brown or that grass a dark cool green with a lighter warm green splotched overtop of it. In my head I am seeing this painted traditionally and I'm honestly surprised to hear there's a greyscale step, it seems like you could halve your workload if you practiced building your backgrounds with color included from the start.
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Jun 29, 2014 19:50
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Reiley posted:... I've found the healthiest thing to do to save time and skip steps is to learn to pick your colors beforehand and just build your images as if you were using real physical paint. Seconding this really, really, really hard. Coloring used to be my most laborious, unenjoyable, tedious, time-consuming step. Earlier this year I started doing exactly this and not only has it massively cut down the amount of time I spend coloring poo poo, it also made it weirdly (almost suspiciously) enjoyable and more intuitive.
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Jun 29, 2014 20:28
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Reiley posted:Your art is beautiful but I honestly can't see a reason why that tree couldn't just be painted brown or that grass a dark cool green with a lighter warm green splotched overtop of it. In my head I am seeing this painted traditionally and I'm honestly surprised to hear there's a greyscale step, it seems like you could halve your workload if you practiced building your backgrounds with color included from the start. Well It's values. I like to do value studies. Not only do value studies help me compose images, but they help me ensure that an image is legible to the viewer. Once I've done a value study, I have this pretty decent looking thing that - before I learned how to drop colors directly over it - I'd just have to set aside in another window, and use as reference as I picked raw colors, which was a process of trial and error as I tried to replicate the values I'd already decided on. I'm not sure what it is about what I've done or said that implied I do not know how to pick colors, or what picking colors entails, but that is neither here nor there. Dropping colors directly over a value study cuts out at least part of that step. Much of the process is still manual color picking, but it was pretty handy for the buildings and the grass.
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Jun 29, 2014 21:53
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heysawbones posted:Well I've seen real media painters do this, too, dropping paint colors over black and white values. It's weird to see replies confused by this process.
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Jun 29, 2014 21:57
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Reiley did say "There's really no wrong way of doing things"  I think it was your ending with "I'm probably still doing it wrong, but whatever works." that led Reiley and I to think you were looking for some sort of advice or confirmation whether you were doing things okay. Sorry for the misunderstanding
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Jun 29, 2014 22:00
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That's how they did poo poo back in the Renaissance. Paint your canvas a warm, neutral colour, then do your highlights and shadows, then just keep adding layer after layer of very transparent colours until you got what you wanted. If it's good enough for Leonardo I don't see why it wouldn't be good enough for anyone else.
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Jun 29, 2014 22:50
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Skratte posted:I've seen real media painters do this, too, dropping paint colors over black and white values. It's weird to see replies confused by this process. My old college professors did value studies too, so it's not an alien concept, but they've always been in charcoal or something and on a separate sheet of paper. I got to see Thomas Hart Benton's America Today mural at the MOMA once and the exhibit also included his value studies as smaller separate canvases. I've never heard of "paint it once and then paint it a second time over that", we've always learned to kill our canvas whites first and measure our color choices in relation to what is or is going to be around them. I'm sure it's perfectly valid but it's really time-consuming for indistinguishable results. e: I'm not trying to say the method is wrong but I'm really implying that with a bit of color practice you might be able to get the exact same results with a tremendous amount of work cut from the process. Reiley fucked around with this message at 00:01 on Jun 30, 2014 |
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Jun 29, 2014 23:58
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I wonder what Leonardo Da Vinci would've done had he had access to a Cintiq tablet and Mangastudio/Sai/Photoshop CS6? 
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Jun 30, 2014 00:00
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Nessa posted:Since I'm on my last 5 pages for this chapter, I decided to just rough them all out at once, though I added proper panel borders this time and some dialogue. Although you've been showing improvement, your latest finished pieces still have some trouble when it comes to avoiding empty space. Doing roughs is a good way of fixing this, but most of these have the same problem. You're laying out the panels of your comic, which basically means you're diving your story into rectangles (or hexagons or triangles or shapeless blobs yadda yadda). You need to OWN those rectangles. Now, obviously these are just roughs, but judging by your finished pages you're kind of avoiding to "fill" the panel. A large splotch of gradient-colored wall isn't going to add "breathing space" to the comic, it's just going to make every scene look desolated and boring. You also rely too much on "side view of the character", which tends to be a pretty lifeless camera angle. Basically, in every panel you should ask yourself: 1. What are the elements I have to show on this panel? 2. What camera angle do I use for a clearer (or more dramatic) view of these elements? 3. Does that camera angle "fit" the shape of the panel? If the answer to step 3 is "not really", you either need a new panel layout or a different camera angle. But don't settle for a panel where all the characters and important objects are scurried away to one side in hopes that you'll add some filler or scenery to balance it out! I scribbled over a couple of your roughs to show you what I mean. The first one is just a suggestion of how you could add a bit more depth and fill the space better. In the second one, since I assume the point of the panel is "there's a giant cat in the next room", you need to make that cat HUGE! Make it obvious he's filling up the room! Stretch that fucker all over! I actually think there's better choices of camera angles when you're trying to convey "this thing is a very large thing", but somebody with more experience would be of more help in that aspect.   TL,DR: Fill up those panels! Specially the big ones! Fill them up!
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Jun 30, 2014 00:26
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Phylodox posted:That's how they did poo poo back in the Renaissance. Paint your canvas a warm, neutral colour, then do your highlights and shadows, then just keep adding layer after layer of very transparent colours until you got what you wanted. If it's good enough for Leonardo I don't see why it wouldn't be good enough for anyone else. It's good, sure, and perfectly useable, it's just a longer process. I dunno, sorry I said anything about it.
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Jun 30, 2014 00:36
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Yes do your comic pages in full sfumato, it shall please the Duke of Milan.
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Jun 30, 2014 02:05
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