Hmm, alright; legs bad. What would help? Perhaps if I lowered the crotch a little, then shortened and thinned out the legs? I liked the old centaur look as well, but the problem is that Ab's itty-bitty legs just don't show up very well ... Maybe I could half-centaur him? Giving him longer, more defined front legs while still keeping a back-up pair (a bit like the Stranger from the latest Oddworld game).
Okay, fiddled around with Ab a bit more. Tried to find a compromise between the emote-ability of bipedal legs and the novelty of tiny centuar legs.
Also, got the new page of the comic done. I have now redone this single page FOUR TIMES. To reflect on how far I've come, I've also included the very first rendition of this page, made in Hammer, shot in the Source engine, and with characters drawn on afterwords.
Honestly, his tiny centaur legs were the best for me. Made him look like a single hulking mass, whereas those look like giant noodles dangling from his underside.
The bipedal thing I don't have an issue with, because that plot point where Ab tears his legs off is too fucking cool to complain about. But you'd probably be better off keeping his centaur version as-is.
The bipedal thing I don't have an issue with, because that plot point where Ab tears his legs off is too fucking cool to complain about.
Heh, thanks. The whole scene is meant to be a bizarre play on the action movie standard in which the female lead needs to rip her dress in order to run away.
Hmm, I kind of like those long bipedal ones, maybe if they were shorter. Either way doesn't matter as much to me. Oh, and that old version actually looks really awesome. I'm not entirely sure why you changed. The characters are more expressive, it's easier to tell what's what, the backgrounds are sharper, and the see-through is really cool looking. Also, the sword looks more like a sword. In the 3d stuff the expressions are really lost.
One thing is (and this is hard to explain) is the purple guy in the old one, his fingers went to the edge of his hand and made a cool hand-looking thing. With the 3d stuff, the fingers look more like immovable little knobs that couldn't do much. Also, the contrast is really high, with really dark shadows, and bright everything else.
I don't mean to be a downer on your positivity. Maybe if there was a way to mix some of those better elements of the old one with the new one. That's just what I've thought of so far. Also, sorry if I'm not making a lot of sense.
srsizzy on
BRO LET ME GET REAL WITH YOU AND SAY THAT MY FINGERS ARE PREPPED AND HOT LIKE THE SURFACE OF THE SUN TO BRING RADICAL BEATS SO SMOOTH THE SHIT WILL BE MEDICINAL-GRADE TRIPNASTY MAKING ALL BRAINWAVES ROLL ON THE SURFACE OF A BALLS-FEISTY NEURAL RAINBOW CRACKA-LACKIN' YOUR PERCEPTION OF THE HERE-NOW SPACE-TIME SITUATION THAT ALL OF LIFE BE JAMMED UP IN THROUGH THE UNIVERSAL FLOW BEATS
Ugh, well, it looks like there won't be any updates to this thread for at least a week or so: my computer decided to die on me. Luckily, the hard drive seems to be fine so none of the models were lost.
Orignally I dropped this because of how Blender handles transparent objects. Now that I do the characters on their own layers and put them together in Illustrator, however, I may be able to add this effect back in fairly easily. I'll look into it once my computer's back up.
Oh, and that old version actually looks really awesome. I'm not entirely sure why you changed. The characters are more expressive, it's easier to tell what's what, the backgrounds are sharper, and the see-through is really cool looking. Also, the sword looks more like a sword. In the 3d stuff the expressions are really lost.
One thing is (and this is hard to explain) is the purple guy in the old one, his fingers went to the edge of his hand and made a cool hand-looking thing. With the 3d stuff, the fingers look more like immovable little knobs that couldn't do much. Also, the contrast is really high, with really dark shadows, and bright everything else.
Well, I changed for a few reasons: The first is that I didn't want to deal with the legalities of using the Source engine for the backgrounds.
My reason for doing the characters in 3D is much simpler - I have absolutely no ability to draw perspective. Seriously, it's just sad.
As for the expressions being lost in the 3D version... I'm not sure what I can do about that, partially because I don't really see it. Maybe if I added those little eyebrow lines to the models?
The contrast is out of wack in Saln's barterpost, but that's largely because I messed up the lighting - the store is meant to be a lot darker than it is. I'll have to go back and re-render the whole scene to fix it.
I don't mean to be a downer on your positivity. Maybe if there was a way to mix some of those better elements of the old one with the new one. That's just what I've thought of so far.
No problem, I come here for actual opinions, not ego-strokes. I'm going to see what I can do. Or, at least, I'll see what I can do once my computer is fixed.
Well, after a long period of absence, I'm back with some news and an update. During my prolonged hiatus, I've been working on better understanding textures, lighting, etc. I'm now going back and redoing the first seven pages with my newly gained knowledge.
Here's the redone first page, same script, different art:
Thoughts? Is it an improvement? Is it worse than before?
In other news, the website is up. You may now find the comic by clicking on the little www icon below my post.
The soft shadows are actually due to me trying to speed up render times: Before hand I'd been using Ambient Occlusion to handle light bounce and such, but it took far, far too long. So I spent a day fiddling around until I found a simple, quick solution: Hemi lights. Now I'll usually put a Hemi light in the scene and set it to 0.75 to .075 energy to get a reasonable-looking refraction effect.
Also, I did try brining back the semi-transparency in the old comics, but I decided against it because it made the page way to busy looking. The effect just wasn't worth the confusion it caused.
While my computer was broken, I did a little "Doodling" on the surrogate machine, and I got an idea for a sort of prequel/creation myth story for the RedMask comic. I whipped up some character designs for the thing, and heres what I came up with:
Arrick: Toughened, street-smart companion and bodyguard. Ex-soldier, currently unemployed, very good at what he does.
Neur: Main Villain. Evil, conniving bastard with a rather disturbing interpretation of "unity." Taught by Nebsis' father, former doctor, talented mage.
I'm trying to get a sort-of strange, dream-like quality out of the lighting/shading, as the story is set a very long time ago in the RedMask universe. I.E. before the four elements existed, just after the creation of reality.
Oh, also, that's clothing on them, if that's not clear. Nebsis is nearly naked, Neur is covered in a white robe-y thing.
Thanks. I actually learned quite a bit during by forced hiatus. Plus, it helps that I wasn't trying for "amorphous blob" this time.
The handiest bit about those new models is that they are, in fact, all the exact same mesh - I discovered Key Frames. So now I have a base model with, essentially, a small character creator built right in, saving me a good deal of time.
Posts
Also, got the new page of the comic done. I have now redone this single page FOUR TIMES. To reflect on how far I've come, I've also included the very first rendition of this page, made in Hammer, shot in the Source engine, and with characters drawn on afterwords.
New:
Oh-god-why Old:
The bipedal thing I don't have an issue with, because that plot point where Ab tears his legs off is too fucking cool to complain about. But you'd probably be better off keeping his centaur version as-is.
Heh, thanks. The whole scene is meant to be a bizarre play on the action movie standard in which the female lead needs to rip her dress in order to run away.
But both look really nice.
I definately like Ab's original legs - the tiny centaur ones. They make his body look way stronger and provide good contrast.
but the new page...is awesome.
One thing is (and this is hard to explain) is the purple guy in the old one, his fingers went to the edge of his hand and made a cool hand-looking thing. With the 3d stuff, the fingers look more like immovable little knobs that couldn't do much. Also, the contrast is really high, with really dark shadows, and bright everything else.
I don't mean to be a downer on your positivity. Maybe if there was a way to mix some of those better elements of the old one with the new one. That's just what I've thought of so far. Also, sorry if I'm not making a lot of sense.
I'm glad you put more detail into everything though, that makes it look really good, in comparison to the originals.
Orignally I dropped this because of how Blender handles transparent objects. Now that I do the characters on their own layers and put them together in Illustrator, however, I may be able to add this effect back in fairly easily. I'll look into it once my computer's back up.
Well, I changed for a few reasons: The first is that I didn't want to deal with the legalities of using the Source engine for the backgrounds.
My reason for doing the characters in 3D is much simpler - I have absolutely no ability to draw perspective. Seriously, it's just sad.
As for the expressions being lost in the 3D version... I'm not sure what I can do about that, partially because I don't really see it. Maybe if I added those little eyebrow lines to the models?
The contrast is out of wack in Saln's barterpost, but that's largely because I messed up the lighting - the store is meant to be a lot darker than it is. I'll have to go back and re-render the whole scene to fix it.
No problem, I come here for actual opinions, not ego-strokes. I'm going to see what I can do. Or, at least, I'll see what I can do once my computer is fixed.
Here's the redone first page, same script, different art:
Thoughts? Is it an improvement? Is it worse than before?
In other news, the website is up. You may now find the comic by clicking on the little www icon below my post.
Keep us informed and good luck!
The soft shadows are actually due to me trying to speed up render times: Before hand I'd been using Ambient Occlusion to handle light bounce and such, but it took far, far too long. So I spent a day fiddling around until I found a simple, quick solution: Hemi lights. Now I'll usually put a Hemi light in the scene and set it to 0.75 to .075 energy to get a reasonable-looking refraction effect.
Also, I did try brining back the semi-transparency in the old comics, but I decided against it because it made the page way to busy looking. The effect just wasn't worth the confusion it caused.
Nebsis: Heroine. Shaman's daughter, tribal girl, horribly untalented mage.
Arrick: Toughened, street-smart companion and bodyguard. Ex-soldier, currently unemployed, very good at what he does.
Neur: Main Villain. Evil, conniving bastard with a rather disturbing interpretation of "unity." Taught by Nebsis' father, former doctor, talented mage.
I'm trying to get a sort-of strange, dream-like quality out of the lighting/shading, as the story is set a very long time ago in the RedMask universe. I.E. before the four elements existed, just after the creation of reality.
Oh, also, that's clothing on them, if that's not clear. Nebsis is nearly naked, Neur is covered in a white robe-y thing.
Thoughts?
INSTAGRAM
The handiest bit about those new models is that they are, in fact, all the exact same mesh - I discovered Key Frames. So now I have a base model with, essentially, a small character creator built right in, saving me a good deal of time.