crlvr [2013-01-19 06:01:48 +0000 UTC]

Incredible once again,and always top quality ......run little bugs run...lol.

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nymmaz [2013-01-18 23:00:28 +0000 UTC]

Haaaahahahaaaaaa I beg to differ


The point is to not only be able to do great, but also to be efficient at it, in terms of time and quality. This is what makes the difference between good and exceptional. It does not mean you have to make everything realistic, flawless or reach photorealism - which is extraordinarily time consuming and difficult, as you know it.


Consider this: what is the point of spending 3 months for a single picture in a comic that has two hundred pictures, comic that take like half an hour to read anyway? Could the reader tell the difference if you spend only an afternoon and reach a quality that gives the message, and is beautiful to look at? Worst of all, if you have spent 3 month on this picture and he does like the comic, you'll be disappointed. If you spent like an afternoon, well you'll be much less disappointed.


Your choice of a flat background was good, even very very clever, in the first pictures, because it served its purpose: quick to do, quick to set up, efficient, it's not the main topic of your picture so it does not need to be perfect and it does not distract the reader away from the subject, and it goves a nice feeling to the whole picture. But it turned against you in this picture because of the uncomfortable feeling it gives visually. Well, it's alright no big deal, now you know it and you'll find a way for next time Maybe you'll trick it away with closed curtains or a set of pictures that will be nearly as quick to set up and that will give you more freedom in camera angles, without degrading the visual comfort


What I'm trying to say here is that you have to fine the balance that fits you best between producing a good picture, consistent in meaning, purpose, relevant, useful, efficient, with all the personality and feeling you want to transmit, and on top of that, easy to do and not too long to do. I stepped down from 3D CGI because I was awfully inefficient. I could make beautiful, accurate (perspective, lighting, shadows, proportions, ...) and clean, but I could take weeks on a picture and still be unhappy about it. That was stupid from me, because when I told people I did CGI, they got excited and wanted to see stuff, and I had like 3 pictures to show for myself, that I did over one or two years. I realized I could communicate the message much quicker in a much simpler style (and way) with 2D drawing.


When you produce a razor sharp picture with nice balance between the furniture that stays discreet, your tall girl that towers above the tinies and all this good render quality, good choice of textures and all, it's a little sad to see that the background has a weird perspective, don't you think? It's the only thing that looks out of tune. All the rest is perfect but that (well, it's just the water, the rest could have tricked the eye, actually). Well, generally your pictures are very good, I'm just the only asshole finding every little thing that does not sound right


I'm not saying you should change your style or do this or do that you do what you feel like doing, and I don't need to tell you that! The only person who can have this reflection about picture efficiency and time efficiency is yourself: you have to explore it by yourself when you feel like it.


But I think it's an interesting discussion to have with yourself once in a while


Maybe you could read Scott McCloud's books: Understanding Comics, Reinventing Comics & Making Comics. Those are comic books about making comic books I found them very interesting, about the art and techniques of thinking your pictures in a very artistic and efficient way of communicating stories. It does not teach you how to draw, as there already are truck loads of books about drawing stuff, rendering, texturing blablabla and stuff. It rather tells you how to choose how you will arrange characters, sets, poses, point of view of the reader and how pictures relate to each other in a sequential order. I'll try to apply that to my next works, see how it turns out. Maybe you'll find interesting ideas in McCloud's works! I find the comics medium to be more and more interesting, these days.



Well, live long and prosper!! thanks for taking the time of reading all this! I'm eager to see what you do now!!!!

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nymmaz [2013-01-18 20:20:46 +0000 UTC]

No bigger than flying ants to her. Poor Angle, it will be too easy for her. She needs to breed some and take a hundred at once, she'd have a lot of fun, I'm sure Well, at least, tiny humans can't climb the wall as quickly as insects, she will still enjoy them I'm sure!



Careful on the perpective here! The backdrop pic: the ground looks slanted, like 30° instead of horizontal. Credible with ground - although not consistent with your previews pictures, where it looked horizontal - but deranging with the water, which SHOULD be horizontal, unless there is a huge mass underground affecting gravity on a 30m radius ^^ (or: the backdrop is horizontal, but her flat has been built on a slanted terrain well at least it would not have cost too much!).

You can trick that more or less, like projecting your picture on a non-flat plane. Like, the bottom is horizontal, then it curves back to vertical when reaching the sky. You'll need a larger picture to avoid seeing the blue background, behind the backdrop plane. But the trick will show anyway, when you move the camera horizontally. Parallax will reveal it Have you tried terrain generators? Maybe they could help, they have good looking trees, realistic texture sets, it's easy to make a relief with just a few brushes... Give it a go Terragen, Vue, ... there are many of them!

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