I think I've told about this before

My planning was unfortunate for that game.

Edited in OpenCanvas, which Ben got me a while back. 

Oh, a quick speed tip: RAMDrives! Modern computers typically have 2-4 GB of RAM, and I generally have over 1TB idling.

So, I created a compressed RAM drive and pointed my Temp files there. This speeds up NWN2 load times, at least, significantly. 

you could even transfer an entire game into a RAM drive for play time, or at least it's resource files, and point the .ini files at them. I'm sure there's plenty of other similar tricks that can be done. Uses for a RAM drive are many.

Whipped up something. 

Probably my favourite chibi. Nice, B&W color scheme, not as complicated as Chibi-GD - who is also quite nice, actually.

Old Stuff #9: Sometimes, women are from Mars.

Ahh... designing the Elder Senshi.
That... is probably the first take on Elder Mars... or I just named a random sketch as such. Or possibly, Ben went and said "This one looks like Mars."

...He probably didn't, considering who Mars is based on.



In any case, here's some more sketchy. Mars still doesn't have her hair here, but it's the correct length, more or less. I'm already thinking that Mars needs armor, clearly.

As a bonus, we also have Mercury here. nice and dynamic, damn the proportions, full speed ahead!

Poor Mars, her shoulder looks dislocated. Maybe that's why her face is so wide.


And here... the hair is wrong - looks like a mature Terra quite a bit - so maybe Mars always had a somewhat similar look...

Although Terra didn't have spiky hair at this point, I think! So it's Terra mimicing Mars, then!

...Well, copying others is what she does best, actually.

The costume is all wrong, but it's nice and dynamic.


Here's a view from the back. The only reason we know this is Mars, is because she has the shield and the... well, it's supposed to be a Gladius.

I think the arms are bent back a bit too much here, but all in all it's quite nice.

Really!



Yet another picture. This one looks like it has almost the right hair, and has an armored gauntlet. Different than what we went with - maybe because it isn't as obvious that it's armor. Missing the bow from back of the skirt.


And here's all we've seen of her in the line comic. I like the line down her boots.
I constantly need to self-reference for various details, and sometimes I get it wrong. However, I've explicitly denied having any consistency so it's all good! Or maybe not.

I used to habitually draw the bows in front too small, and forget the ones on the back. Maybe the Elder Inner Senshi designs just don't have them?

...Seeing as how Chibi-Saturn -- who isn't the best character to refer to, admittedly -- has one.

Sailor Nuke / Blargh.

As you know, designs change - especially if one spends three years between initial draft and the actual appereance of a page. My drawing skills have both evolved and devolved in that time period, all depending on the point of view.

Thank you, Alec Guinness.

In any case, S. N. has changed quite a bit, really. You saw her already in her original guise in Iteration 1. I went hunting for the oldest drawing, but I cannot really say which one it is.

The new version is also quite neat, so I'm not exactly unhappy with that change. I did like the knee pads and the boots on the old one, though. I may need to re-incorporate them.

... You know, as a non-native English user, I oftentimes have no idea if I'm making any sense.

In any case, even Sailor Nuke was easier than Sailor Kawaii.... But, that's a topic for another post, due to the Blargh.

"How hard can installing Linux be?"
Hard.

Y'know, labels are... sometimes obvious, often times, not so much. I mean, this one --
nettg-related, definitely. Making-of? Maybe? Should I use the Comic label? Is that actually even used anywhere? No idea....

Iteration 1 / Making Of #2

No big top image this time. In any case, this is the "official" Monday post, and the previous one is the "Official" Sunday post, so there!

Iteration 1 was my attempt to quickly reach the end of chapter 1 back in 2004. These are the pages created back then. 01-17 and 01-18 were used practically as-is. Parts after that went through some significant changes.



In any case, they do have some good ideas I'm still somewhat fond of, so here they are.

When talking of the Galactic Destroyer, using it requires so much CG-work later on, one might make a joke about blue screens and special effect budget, to continue the metaphor of a live action TV show for the webcomic. But I won't, right now, because I can't think of anything. So there. Urrr....

01-19 was replaced by this version, which isn't that bad, either. Plus, I like how the official version shows a bit more of the Galactic Destroyer's evolution.

Never-the-less, I like the extreme perspective view of QS, and the GD getting blown away --- I was probably watching Fullmetal Alchemist at the time. Also, the GD in the second frame is nice.


You have seen 01-20 before. As I mentioned before, I quite like the chibi-drawings in the middle, and the background action - Saturn chasing the Chibi-GD - in the last one. Beyond that, it's kinda weak.

The last frame has a distinct foreground-background thing going on, though, which is nice.


01-21 is sort-of a new page! Except that it was effectively rolled to 01-20, plus the dialogue is kinda weird there. I like the angry Science-Terra with GD-aura, and the "Final Planet-wide solution" thing. Also, there are older designs for Sailor Kawaii and Sailor Nuke.

I liked the "Free For All!" thing so much I had to put it into the actual page, too -- even if it's practically invisible.

So... What do you think? Is the official version the better one, or did you find this version of our exposition explosion to be the more entertaining one?

Old Stuff #5 / Attention-starved. / Making of

Wow. My behavior surprises me. Attention makes me want to draw more - I've even been keeping to a daily schedule, despite the fact I explicitly deny having adopted one. Today, I've been nervously checking if someone's posted comments - as people have been pleasantly active in the forums - considering latest updates. I guess the newness of practically regular updates -even if it's in a blog, is wearing off. Oh, well.

Notice! I have some family over during the weekend, so I can't really guarantee updates after today - not 'til monday, anyway. Let's hope I can get back to it after such a long break, eh?

In any case, today's Old Stuff is... spotlighting, I guess, the second-to-last page of Prologue --- the new page is the nineteenth page - twentieth, counting cover - of chapter ONE, after all.

In any case, crafting chapter zero was quite an interesting experience, and there are some nice arts there - I haven't improved that much since then. Maybe I draw faces a bit less wonky, though. Also, the hair here is still an intermediary one. Still, Terra's hair hasn't gone through as much changes as the galactic destroyer.

...Er, GD's a shapeshifter, after all. Yeah, that's the ticket.

This one eventually became page nine of the prologue. A lot changed, only the bottom one stayed basically the same. I'm not sure how the dialogue was supposed to go, I guess I could ask Ben if he's kept some of the early drafts of the script - I've changed my Email address a couple of times since then, so I've lost most of them.

I often get into the mood of showing all this preliminary stuff, and some of it might make a nice Extra, but I've never really gotten into it. Blogger does make it easy, even if I'm using Good Evil Google servers to store the stuff. Hmm. Somewhat troublesome. Scary, even.

Ahem, got distracted.
Hmm.

You know, I think I like this explaining-thing, so I shall proceed further with it. The critter on your right is the very first "solid" sketch of GD I made. Very skinny, stealing a lot from H.R. Giger's Alien work, and has weird bat-like wings.

Back when I drew this during a warm summer evening, June of 2002, almost ten months before the launch of the website in it's initial nettg.simud.org location, I already knew I was going to do some CGI-fu on the wings. The head had a lot less going towards the five petals style, but it's beginning. Also, four fingers and a generally slim build.

Some time between this image and the start of actual comic-arts, the GD lost a finger and... ate an Oozaru, or something. I do so like the fingers in this image, though. Nice posing.

The wings developed, from initial cloak of darkness in the cover - and, I believe in Ben's original description of the Beast.

Actually, let me quote Ben here, for a bit:

From the shattered front of the vessel flew a dark shape. It swooped toward the Senshi with a loud, enraged screech.

They ducked a snatch of its talons. It flew down and landed in front of them, lashing out with its huge jaws, roaring menacingly.

...Not really that much to go on with. I wonder, where the whole cloak of darkness thing came from, then? Ah, well.



In any case, as can be seen here, the wings start to charge up with dark energy and go from small, bat-like stubs to petals of darkness with... I believe, I was thinking of supernovas captured within. Also, that's where the petal-face comes from. So, the bat-like state is more like... an antenna of some sort? Perhaps.

I was channeling Dark Star from Slayers Try a bit - after all, there we have an actual galactic destroyer. I think this can be best seen in the very first GD-picture - the "Beware, Beware!" one. I like the green glowy-thing and the red eyes there, definitely.

In any case, the wings develop into... essentially a variation of the petal shape - I like sticking to certain visual themes and such. Although, I take no responsibility of how Terra's hair become GD-spike-like. It's due to Ben's influence, completely.

Of course, I really like the energy-blade wings, with Todd McFarlane type scraps of darkness around them, too. I did warn in an early post - possibly before Ammon gave us the current news-post system - that I wouldn't guarantee any sort of consistency between my drawings.

In any case, the fact we completed the prologue before starting the web site - and that was a good decision - we had some content even with a sucky update schedule - also allowed us to do... some revisions. Biggest of them being page six.
Here, let me introduce you to the original:

Horrible, yes?

There isn't a single frame here with decent art in it - even the best ones, numbers three and four, are kind of... sucky. in three, everything is the wrong length, and four... well, the idea isn't so bad, but the angle --- thumb covering QS:s face? C'mon!

I'm telling you, during some of these shots, it's way too obvious when we're using our trusty crossdressing stuntman, Murray.
( By the way, I love the last picture of Terra going nuts on that extra. )

In any case, the actual page that went live, is quite good. Even if some parts of the original artwork suffered weird aliasing effects and whatnot in the transition, the top frame, as well as frames 5-9 are all quite nice. What I don't like anymore is how the puny lightnings interact with the dialogue and the neck-bending GD in frame 3.

I think I was planning to have the GD do a second, more powerful attack there, but, er, that scene got cut in the scripting phase, or something.

Also, the lower torso of GD in the last frame was very sucky, thus the SFX cover-up.
Oh, just because!!:

I have a habit of lining up stuff naturally, or somesuch, which gives an illusion of... something or other. I'm not really sure, but someone mentioned it. Flow, dynamics. Something like that. In any case, this has all sorts of niceness going, so... y'know, just because.

I will probably talk more of the comic later... But I shan't forget drawing, either! In worst case, I hope this will tide you over the weekend.

Something Lunar High Guard / Blocked / Comic

Great timing on the comic! I'm blocked, now!

Oh well, wasn't sure if I remembered how to draw this. The lighter I went with the hair, the more I liked it, but then I had to adjust the skin tone, and... all sorts of things.



In any case, here's additionally the initial version - "Iteration one" of the comic that went up. It has some stuff I like. Speaking of the depressing pace of comic updates, this one is originally dated August, 2004.

I like the way characters look in the middle frame, and the background action in the last one is pretty good. Terra is horrible there, though. It's a bit more 3d, though...

I changed the Chibi-GD design a bit from the one shown here. The wing joint is lower, and shoulders are different... also, the general design is a bit sleeker, and the wings went from batlike to a more alien configuration.

In any case, the page that went up --- actually has fifteen drawings, around 35 drawing working hours, at least four script revisions and ...two and a half years in the making!

This is no way to make a comic, I can tell you that.
...
Well, it's technically a way, definitely not an efficient one, though.

Comic-du! Yaaw! Like a bunny!

This one turned out surprisingly nice. Thus...
Since it is so tiny here, and such... ( oh, if the link doesn't work while you read it... it will, shortly. )
About the update: Thirteen drawings, or so. Total work time: 35 hours or so. Waaay too much. Clearly, my workflow sucks.

Goof: I erased Chibi-GD's wing to fit in S. K, but forgot to redraw it afterwards.
S. N. is borrowing a bit from an old Army of Darkness poster, I thinks. Oh well.

Hopping mad... Hmhmhm. "Decisive Battle" is really cool, from FF6. Not sure what it has to do with anything. Basically, I guess I'm trying to delay actually posting this 'til Ben gets home and I can go simultaneous with... and such. Oh well, I'll talk of the comic more tomorrow. Webcomicry is... something, definitely.

Okay, seriously, my brain is out of resourcers. Off to sleep, enjoy the comic, once it's up.

Old Stuff #2

This would be the initial version of this page. It's amusing in it's own way....

The dialogue is pretty much the same as in the published page, except chibi-Saturn also said "Don't worry --- I'll take care of it" or something to that effect in there. Date for this one is 3rd of August, 2004. The one published seems to have been 13. January, 2005.

Er... Oops?

the GD-chibi was redesigned, which... probably was the cause for the revision of this page.

Drawing chibis isn't easy. I have a distinct tendency to veer towards the correct proportions and whatnot all the time. Annoying.
Hmm. I wonder if I should label all the old stuff as, well, old-stuff or somesuch.

POWER OVERWHELMING!!

Yay for Blizzard!

It's really hard to find good Protoss Archon reference. Apparently, they do have feet, and while
the Protoss generally have wide chests, their arms are kinda skinny. Also, two thumbs.

My art does have a general tendency to be sloppy. Thus, I'm using methodology which guarantees relatively crisp results. However, the cost is time. I believe the shortest time a single comic page has taken, ever, is something like seven hours. Rather suboptimal in many ways, but the reason I draw for Ben is out of love for his stories, not necessarily to show these stories to others... Although that's fun too. But, I'm greedy like that, and if drawing can cause Ben to write more, then...

Lost my trail of thought, there. This implies I was most likely ranting. Never mind, never mind.