Hollows. That's what these remind me of. Really cute fantastic hollows. You've done a pretty great job matching characters to character design; I like them alot.
I like the new Ab a lot. You did the fingers really well.
Arrah could use a little more definition...she just sort of looks like a really plain chess queen. Instead of making her body go straight up and down, you could bend her legs and back like a real woman's.
Motny is easily the best model you've done so far. Use him a lot!
Surrok has a really good concept going for him, but I feel like he needs something to make him more evil. I think his face is too plain...and maybe you could give his body really angular features, to set him apart from the good guys...I dunno.
Just tweak him a bit more.
And just cause I forgot to comment on it before...I love your names! They're all so fun to say!
I did always like the Hollow designs... I think I just have a fondness for characters with masks for faces. Shy Guys from Mario, Angels, Hollows, No Face, etc.
Yeah, his name's Motny. I try to follow a formula with my names: Take a normal name and drop/add/change one letter. Abe, Sarrah, Monty, Sal. Surrok is the only character with an entirely made up name.
I'm not entirely happy with the way Arrah came out. She was really difficult to model, and easily has the most complex body I had to make. I am extremely happy with the way Motny came out.
Ab's fingers are an interesting note: I could not, for the life of me, manage to carve an articulate hand out of Ab's arm-stumps. After far longer than I'd like to admit, I found an easy, workable solution: Make the fingers separate blocks and stick them into his palms. So now he has retractable fingers.
Yeah, the detail on Surrok's face isn't showing up well in that shot. He's meant to have a sort of distended skull look.
Also, I tend to think he looks more imposing with his arms spread:
I have no real crits, just wanted to say that I've really been enjoying watching you progress on this. I already feel drawn into the story, and I look forward to reading more.
DE?AD, did You try to use metaballs? I think they'd be very useful for sketching up this kind of characters. Add a Meta->Ball, then add another one and move it around the first one if you don't know how they work
I hadn't before today - I saw the word Meta and figured I'd best avoid it. Thank you for the suggestion, these things look like they could be extremely useful. Oh man, now I have to learn how to use these.
Arrah
I pretty much agree with the comments on her generic-ness, so I went back and tried to add some more character. Here's what I got:
she looks really stiff. I think adding some bend at the waist or something would help, as would placing the arms as if she intentionally moved them there as opposed to just let them fall with gravity. The second image doesnt really look like shes running, it looks more like shes falling over because someone pushed her and she appears very top heavy based off of her shape. For a run I would move something up and forward in the knee area, also I would do a reverse of what you have going on at the ground... have the front side slightly elevated and the back go toward the ground. Also I'd have the arms pumping to indicate action.
The redesign is a bag improvement but I would try pushing it even further, maybe adding more definition in the shoulder area would help. Possibly think about moving the knee area hourglass up toward the waist a little more because it kinda gives the appearance of a shirt that's so tight she cant walk at the moment.
It's hard to make goo blobs look and behave realistically but you've done a great job here. I think the Arrah model could use a little more work though, the others look fantastic. I especially like Surrok.
More tweaks to Arrah’s design, I added more shoulder definition, shortened the her hip/leg area and added a few more joints to her skeleton.
New Arrah standing, running, and standing in a much more awkward pose.
"Running" is a bit misleading, as she has no legs, let alone feet. She, and the other people with skirt-legs, move more like slugs; undulating the bottoms of their skirts to provide momentum. She keeps her arms back because, A. it wouldn't really help her any to move them and B. she's meant to look more "flow-y" by letting her arms trail behind her.
Just thought I would trow in my 2 cents
cent 1. You, sir are really creative and quite talented, I love what you are doing here.
cent 2. Your character designs remind me of the robots of Peter Chung
Hey man, that lighting gets even more confusing... I have an idea:
Apply the subsurf if you're afraid of anyone stealing the model (with subsurf applied it's pretty much useless) and post a .blend file.
If no, my guess is that you're using raytraced shadows which are unnaturally sharp.
I would, but it seems you've already solved the lighting problem for me - Your mention of Raytracing helped me to figure out what was wrong. It turns out, Blender does not appreciate having more than one RayShadows light in a scene, even if they should be blocked out by CastOnly walls. I removed the other lights, and, voila, no ice-cream swirls on Ab.
That's gold Not sure about the large lumped ends of the fins, though, and the little pointy bits coming out from them. I think it would look better if they were a little simpler, and well, more fin-like... but I guess aquatic-style fins aren't really needed in the desert :P
The lack of "ice-cream swirls" seems to be an improvement, too. Good job on re-working that page, it's ALOT more clear as to what is happening now
Not sure about the large lumped ends of the fins, though, and the little pointy bits coming out from them. I think it would look better if they were a little simpler, and well, more fin-like... but I guess aquatic-style fins aren't really needed in the desert :P
Well, they aren't really fins; the knobby things are basically nacelles, and the little pointy bits are actually retractable wing/fin extensions. When in full flight she looks a bit like a biological 747.
Second panel on that new page is really well done. You can really feel the weight of the sword.
In other news; I've been trying to get a title done for the cover page. I didn't want to use a font so I tried my hand at drawing out the thing in Illustrator. I'm not sure what I think about it:
So many good comic artist lately, you all have restored my faith in that particular field of art.
so 2 things:
1. Thanks alot asshole! Now the next time some one posts a terrible MS paint comic Im gunna click on the thread going:
"OH SWEET! New web comic art. (short moment later) ARRRRRRRGH!!! Why in gods name did I click on this, now I have to claw out my eyes."
2. Amazing writing and I love the 3D character designs, even though the story and style is different still takes me back to those happy days when Reboot was still running.
Please post more I love your work and I love seeing all the progress your making on this project.
Hey, just would like to say you're doing a damn good job so far. I'm loving what I see.
I don't know if it has occured to you before, or if someone brought it up I might've missed it, but, the latest page that you've presented, there's the line.
'Why couldn't we just get along.'
Just thought it should be 'can't' instead of 'couldn't', I'm not sure about it, but I just thought 'couldn't' sounded a little weird.
Anyway, I'm looking forward to your updates =D
Edit : Regarding the title, I don't quite dig it, would expect something sleek instead of something that's like a rough handwriting. Afterall, the main char's speech and action makes him seem more like a cool dude.
I love you, DE?AD.
Thanks for the nod in the reworked page. (It looks a hundred times awesomer, by the way) Glad to see my effort meant something. ^^
Aw, I love you to, Dastard.
Yes, the monkey-grabbing (there is no to say that that doesn't sound wrong) is directly cut from your re-envisioning. I would've added the tomb-monkey-grabs-notedeck as well, but I didn't want the fight to go on for too many panels.
2. Amazing writing and I love the 3D character designs, even though the story and style is different still takes me back to those happy days when Reboot was still running.
Please post more I love your work and I love seeing all the progress your making on this project.
Thanks, and I'm glad the comic keeps reminding people of good things.
Hey, just would like to say you're doing a damn good job so far. I'm loving what I see.
I don't know if it has occured to you before, or if someone brought it up I might've missed it, but, the latest page that you've presented, there's the line.
'Why couldn't we just get along.'
Just thought it should be 'can't' instead of 'couldn't', I'm not sure about it, but I just thought 'couldn't' sounded a little weird.
Thanks, and Rust pretty much has it down as far as Ab's use of can't/couldn't goes; At that point, in Ab's mind it's already over - they chose violence.
Regarding the title, I don't quite dig it, would expect something sleek instead of something that's like a rough handwriting. Afterall, the main char's speech and action makes him seem more like a cool dude.
True, but he's more a cool dude in the "wise-cracking tank" vein. Plus, I just couldn't get to look right. Either way, I imagine I'll rework it at some point.
Abe's mask has a pretty interesting shape. Why not work that as a logo possibility?
I have indeed, but more on that later...
UPDATES:
Page 5:
Cover Concept:
New character: Kai the Red, relic hound turned mercenary, and both Ab and Motny's ex. Her coloring is not natural; it's a fine red sand she fills herself with to alter the color of her cloud. Her natural color is more of a deep purple. Kai Running:
The design on her mask is also a sand-based dust. She's the only person in the main cast vain enough to wear color-mods every day. Kai Standing on her tail-legs: Kai showing off her artifact-powered rifle:
Civilians and Goons!
Two Surrok Industries goons in full uniform (those aren't their masks, they're datadeck helmets), three legged civies, a Surrok Industries commander, and three robed civies.
Website Concept
A basic idea for the Redmask site, with design based on Ab's skin and Speech Bubbles. Any opinions? Too LCARS-y?
Gotta tell you mate, love you but...i liked the first page 5 more than this one. The end where he opens the box is much more entertaining/funny than this time around....still, you rock.
I like the three panels in your latest comic where he is checking the box/lid, then proceeds to say "Goddammit". That whole page in general flows pretty well, and the rather dry humour makes me smile.
Kai is looking pretty cool. Although, is it me or does her mask seem to change shape between running and standing poses? That rifle looks like it could do some serious damage, too.
The Surrok goons are sweet. They look just like your stereotypical goons (which is a good thing), what with the large upper bodies and shoulder-pads etc. The officer reminds me of the Imperial officers in Star Wars. Small scrawny guys but mean as any bitch out there
Cool stuff dude, it's good to see a project like this develop, and actually go somewhere.
As for the site, are you planning on using flash for the menu/banner/nav? I personally think flash is fairly overrated in web-design. It has it's uses, but only works well in the right hands, otherwise it comes off as kinda tacky. Ah but I digress...
I would probably suggest some colour/tone variation, as all the elements are just light-brown slabs, and it all looks very flat and dull. If this is just a general layout, and is still in progress then I understand. I'm just pointing out that variations, even subtle ones, in colour/tone/texture all help to make the site pop out a little bit more (try to avoid large empty slabs of colour). Also, what are those two white squares for under the menu, and the brown square under news? It's probably worth listing on paper everything you want to include on the site, and then organising it into categories/sections. From that it's much easier to work out how you want the navigation to work in accordance to the different pages within your site. I mean, if they have a purpose, then just ignore me. If they're just there because you're not sure what to do, then consider what I said above
Look forward to seeing more man, keep it up!
EDIT: I've been looking at your first site design all this time, silly me! I notice that you have indeed added colour variation to the second one. Keep working on it, I'll post more crits when I think of 'em.
I really like the new comics as well, but the title text doesn't cut it for me. The outline of the text is too thick and uneven. Might I suggest rendering the letters in the program you are using for the comics? Or is that much more work than I am thinking. Either way, right now it is a little jarring.
Kai is looking pretty cool. Although, is it me or does her mask seem to change shape between running and standing poses? That rifle looks like it could do some serious damage, too.
The apparent change is because her quadruped legs are on her back, she's just tilting her head all the way back to see where she's running - her mask is upside down because of that.
The outline of the text is too thick and uneven. Might I suggest rendering the letters in the program you are using for the comics? Or is that much more work than I am thinking. Either way, right now it is a little jarring.
That's actually a rather brilliant idea, and it shouldn't be difficult at all (All the speed-lines/impact splashes are done in the 3D program, lettering shouldn't be much of a change.) I'm going to give that a try and see how it goes.
I kinda liked the original confrontation/dialogue with the last monkey, the "Your call" or what not bit. Ah well, still looks nice. And the monkey steal is beautiful.
Is it just me, or does the first panel where he's looking down into the chest seem a bit hard to get at first? There just doesn't seem to be a good point of reference or something..
Anywho, keep up the good work! Story has a nice flow/feel to it.
The Surrok goons are sweet. They look just like your stereotypical goons (which is a good thing), what with the large upper bodies and shoulder-pads etc. The officer reminds me of the Imperial officers in Star Wars. Small scrawny guys but mean as any bitch out there Wink
Forgot to respond to this last time. Thank you, that's essentially exactly what I was going for with both the goons and the officers, in fact, I was specifically thinking of the Imperial Officers while designing the latter, so it's nice to see that came across.
I kinda liked the original confrontation/dialogue with the last monkey, the "Your call" or what not bit.
I pretty much agree entirely, but it just didn't work as well with the changes to the fight choreography (to use a far too grandiose term), so I had to give Ab a little more explanation time.
Is it just me, or does the first panel where he's looking down into the chest seem a bit hard to get at first? There just doesn't seem to be a good point of reference or something..
On it's own, I'd agree, but I think with the last panel on the previous page it works decently.
New Stuff
Bipedal Ab
Finally got this model done, major problems with the crotch and legs, luckily what I learned should help with making the other humanoid models.
3D Masks
After making Natsha, I've been giving all the animal masks a bit more definition, and I'm contemplating adding that to the humanoid's masks as well. It isn't much of a change, but I think it makes them look a little more interesting.
For comparison:
The one's on the left are the current models, the ones on the right are the proposed alterations. Thoughts?
Title's
So, trying to rework the title. Rendering it in Blender didn't turn out quite as well as I'd hoped, as it was very hard to line everything up. Also, a new concept for a backing to the basic text:
Blender Illustrator
The text is in the background is Ab's full name in the font I'm going to be using for the signs and such in-world writting, courtesy of BlamBot. Better? Worse? About the same?
The legs don't contrast well with the big, bulky torso and arms.
exactly what I was thinking. Giving him legs like that, especially legs that long, really makes his figure seem less "hulking and big", which I think was some of the appeal.
Posts
Arrah could use a little more definition...she just sort of looks like a really plain chess queen. Instead of making her body go straight up and down, you could bend her legs and back like a real woman's.
Motny is easily the best model you've done so far. Use him a lot!
Surrok has a really good concept going for him, but I feel like he needs something to make him more evil. I think his face is too plain...and maybe you could give his body really angular features, to set him apart from the good guys...I dunno.
Just tweak him a bit more.
And just cause I forgot to comment on it before...I love your names! They're all so fun to say!
Ab! Pleth! Saln!
Hee hee.
Yeah, his name's Motny. I try to follow a formula with my names: Take a normal name and drop/add/change one letter. Abe, Sarrah, Monty, Sal. Surrok is the only character with an entirely made up name.
I'm not entirely happy with the way Arrah came out. She was really difficult to model, and easily has the most complex body I had to make. I am extremely happy with the way Motny came out.
Ab's fingers are an interesting note: I could not, for the life of me, manage to carve an articulate hand out of Ab's arm-stumps. After far longer than I'd like to admit, I found an easy, workable solution: Make the fingers separate blocks and stick them into his palms. So now he has retractable fingers.
Yeah, the detail on Surrok's face isn't showing up well in that shot. He's meant to have a sort of distended skull look.
Also, I tend to think he looks more imposing with his arms spread:
I take back what I said. :shock:
I hadn't before today - I saw the word Meta and figured I'd best avoid it. Thank you for the suggestion, these things look like they could be extremely useful. Oh man, now I have to learn how to use these.
Arrah
I pretty much agree with the comments on her generic-ness, so I went back and tried to add some more character. Here's what I got:
Arrah standing, and Arrah in a full-on run.
The redesign is a bag improvement but I would try pushing it even further, maybe adding more definition in the shoulder area would help. Possibly think about moving the knee area hourglass up toward the waist a little more because it kinda gives the appearance of a shirt that's so tight she cant walk at the moment.
It's hard to make goo blobs look and behave realistically but you've done a great job here. I think the Arrah model could use a little more work though, the others look fantastic. I especially like Surrok.
Arrah
More tweaks to Arrah’s design, I added more shoulder definition, shortened the her hip/leg area and added a few more joints to her skeleton.
New Arrah standing, running, and standing in a much more awkward pose.
"Running" is a bit misleading, as she has no legs, let alone feet. She, and the other people with skirt-legs, move more like slugs; undulating the bottoms of their skirts to provide momentum. She keeps her arms back because, A. it wouldn't really help her any to move them and B. she's meant to look more "flow-y" by letting her arms trail behind her.
I might be looking at it wrong but meh. Just my opinion.
I don't suffer from Insanity. I enjoy every minute of it.
tumblrrr
deviantart
Apply the subsurf if you're afraid of anyone stealing the model (with subsurf applied it's pretty much useless) and post a .blend file.
If no, my guess is that you're using raytraced shadows which are unnaturally sharp.
Also, I continue to love the hell out of the new page. ^^
cent 1. You, sir are really creative and quite talented, I love what you are doing here.
cent 2. Your character designs remind me of the robots of Peter Chung
I would, but it seems you've already solved the lighting problem for me - Your mention of Raytracing helped me to figure out what was wrong. It turns out, Blender does not appreciate having more than one RayShadows light in a scene, even if they should be blocked out by CastOnly walls. I removed the other lights, and, voila, no ice-cream swirls on Ab.
Glad you approve, she has to be the single hardest character to pin down.
Thank you.
Thank you.
New Page! in which we finally arrive back where we started.
New Character
Natsha standing and flying. She's a Desert Whale, and the party transportation.
Scale Comparison.
Mystery Shot!
The lack of "ice-cream swirls" seems to be an improvement, too. Good job on re-working that page, it's ALOT more clear as to what is happening now
Well, they aren't really fins; the knobby things are basically nacelles, and the little pointy bits are actually retractable wing/fin extensions. When in full flight she looks a bit like a biological 747.
Yeah, I was having my doubts about the font too. Off to Blambot to get a better font, I'll update the pages when I get a chance.
In other news; I've been trying to get a title done for the cover page. I didn't want to use a font so I tried my hand at drawing out the thing in Illustrator. I'm not sure what I think about it:
Any opinions?
Thanks for the nod in the reworked page. (It looks a hundred times awesomer, by the way) Glad to see my effort meant something. ^^
Title's looking real good. You've got a nice (handwriting?) style.
Plus, I like the whale! She's good to go!
so 2 things:
1. Thanks alot asshole! Now the next time some one posts a terrible MS paint comic Im gunna click on the thread going:
"OH SWEET! New web comic art. (short moment later) ARRRRRRRGH!!! Why in gods name did I click on this, now I have to claw out my eyes."
2. Amazing writing and I love the 3D character designs, even though the story and style is different still takes me back to those happy days when Reboot was still running.
Please post more I love your work and I love seeing all the progress your making on this project.
I don't have a lot to say about it (because I know dick about drawing, modeling and the creation of visual images) except that I would read it.
Keep it up!
I don't know if it has occured to you before, or if someone brought it up I might've missed it, but, the latest page that you've presented, there's the line.
'Why couldn't we just get along.'
Just thought it should be 'can't' instead of 'couldn't', I'm not sure about it, but I just thought 'couldn't' sounded a little weird.
Anyway, I'm looking forward to your updates =D
Edit : Regarding the title, I don't quite dig it, would expect something sleek instead of something that's like a rough handwriting. Afterall, the main char's speech and action makes him seem more like a cool dude.
No point in using the present tense there.
Aw, I love you to, Dastard.
Yes, the monkey-grabbing (there is no to say that that doesn't sound wrong) is directly cut from your re-envisioning. I would've added the tomb-monkey-grabs-notedeck as well, but I didn't want the fight to go on for too many panels.
I truly, deeply apologize.
Thanks, and I'm glad the comic keeps reminding people of good things.
Thanks, and Rust pretty much has it down as far as Ab's use of can't/couldn't goes; At that point, in Ab's mind it's already over - they chose violence.
True, but he's more a cool dude in the "wise-cracking tank" vein. Plus, I just couldn't get
Thank you, and I intend to!
I have indeed, but more on that later...
UPDATES:
Page 5:
Cover Concept:
New character: Kai the Red, relic hound turned mercenary, and both Ab and Motny's ex. Her coloring is not natural; it's a fine red sand she fills herself with to alter the color of her cloud. Her natural color is more of a deep purple.
Kai Running:
The design on her mask is also a sand-based dust. She's the only person in the main cast vain enough to wear color-mods every day.
Kai Standing on her tail-legs:
Kai showing off her artifact-powered rifle:
Civilians and Goons!
Two Surrok Industries goons in full uniform (those aren't their masks, they're datadeck helmets), three legged civies, a Surrok Industries commander, and three robed civies.
Website Concept
A basic idea for the Redmask site, with design based on Ab's skin and Speech Bubbles. Any opinions? Too LCARS-y?
Page 6 in which I can finally move on to a new scene.
Also, still trying to pin down a design for the website down. A slight tweak on the original:
Any thoughts?
I like the three panels in your latest comic where he is checking the box/lid, then proceeds to say "Goddammit". That whole page in general flows pretty well, and the rather dry humour makes me smile.
Kai is looking pretty cool. Although, is it me or does her mask seem to change shape between running and standing poses? That rifle looks like it could do some serious damage, too.
The Surrok goons are sweet. They look just like your stereotypical goons (which is a good thing), what with the large upper bodies and shoulder-pads etc. The officer reminds me of the Imperial officers in Star Wars. Small scrawny guys but mean as any bitch out there
Cool stuff dude, it's good to see a project like this develop, and actually go somewhere.
As for the site, are you planning on using flash for the menu/banner/nav? I personally think flash is fairly overrated in web-design. It has it's uses, but only works well in the right hands, otherwise it comes off as kinda tacky. Ah but I digress...
I would probably suggest some colour/tone variation, as all the elements are just light-brown slabs, and it all looks very flat and dull. If this is just a general layout, and is still in progress then I understand. I'm just pointing out that variations, even subtle ones, in colour/tone/texture all help to make the site pop out a little bit more (try to avoid large empty slabs of colour). Also, what are those two white squares for under the menu, and the brown square under news? It's probably worth listing on paper everything you want to include on the site, and then organising it into categories/sections. From that it's much easier to work out how you want the navigation to work in accordance to the different pages within your site. I mean, if they have a purpose, then just ignore me. If they're just there because you're not sure what to do, then consider what I said above
Look forward to seeing more man, keep it up!
EDIT: I've been looking at your first site design all this time, silly me! I notice that you have indeed added colour variation to the second one. Keep working on it, I'll post more crits when I think of 'em.
INSTAGRAM
The apparent change is because her quadruped legs are on her back, she's just tilting her head all the way back to see where she's running - her mask is upside down because of that.
Hadn't even crossed my mind. Why? Because I don't even know HTML at this point, I'm pretty much learning everything as I go. So yeah, no Flash for me.
Honestly? No clue. They're essentially there on a "just in case" basis. You're right I should probably figure out exactly what I need on the site.
That's actually a rather brilliant idea, and it shouldn't be difficult at all (All the speed-lines/impact splashes are done in the 3D program, lettering shouldn't be much of a change.) I'm going to give that a try and see how it goes.
Is it just me, or does the first panel where he's looking down into the chest seem a bit hard to get at first? There just doesn't seem to be a good point of reference or something..
Anywho, keep up the good work! Story has a nice flow/feel to it.
Forgot to respond to this last time. Thank you, that's essentially exactly what I was going for with both the goons and the officers, in fact, I was specifically thinking of the Imperial Officers while designing the latter, so it's nice to see that came across.
Heh, thanks. Man, if nothing else this thread is certainly benefiting my ego.
I pretty much agree entirely, but it just didn't work as well with the changes to the fight choreography (to use a far too grandiose term), so I had to give Ab a little more explanation time.
On it's own, I'd agree, but I think with the last panel on the previous page it works decently.
New Stuff
Bipedal Ab
Finally got this model done, major problems with the crotch and legs, luckily what I learned should help with making the other humanoid models.
3D Masks
After making Natsha, I've been giving all the animal masks a bit more definition, and I'm contemplating adding that to the humanoid's masks as well. It isn't much of a change, but I think it makes them look a little more interesting.
For comparison:
The one's on the left are the current models, the ones on the right are the proposed alterations. Thoughts?
Title's
So, trying to rework the title. Rendering it in Blender didn't turn out quite as well as I'd hoped, as it was very hard to line everything up. Also, a new concept for a backing to the basic text:
Blender
Illustrator
The text is in the background is Ab's full name in the font I'm going to be using for the signs and such in-world writting, courtesy of BlamBot. Better? Worse? About the same?
Lame!
I loved the old model!
The legs don't contrast well with the big, bulky torso and arms.
exactly what I was thinking. Giving him legs like that, especially legs that long, really makes his figure seem less "hulking and big", which I think was some of the appeal.