I've actually started rendering the disco dragon (and also ready to render Sen's comic) but I'm not that far that re-rendering in a different format is a problem. So if you have time please let me know your thoughts on what format you prefer. I need to decide this before I start.(btw check I found my old storyboard for CODE 10 lol)
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So just a quick breakdown of the options in the poll:
Old school upright with frames (like CODE10)
So this is the classic comic book format that I've already been doing for my first four comics including the Gentleman's Club. the only reason I chose to do it this way was pure nostalgia, and I actually didn't really think about the readability. Someone told me to keep going in this format just in case I ever get printed. But for laptop's and PCs its actually a bit clumsy to read.
In any case I really do like the framing of smaller pictures, it gives that old-school tintin or asterix feel to it. This is one of my favorite formats.
Same as above but then horizontal
So you could say old school comic books with small framed pictures and speech bubbles, but then lengthwise for laptop and PC screens. I don't have an example but I think Epoch did formats like this with his earlier work.
Large picture series, less pages (classic 3DX)
Here we're talking formats like what Blackadder does, and just about all other 3DX artists. The only reason I added this as an option is because, well, I am thoroughly lodged in the 3DX scene and this seems to be the standard.
Small pictures, more pages
Take this one seriously because I've been entertaining you with nothing else but this format, and seemingly to effect. First of all all my free series are this format, small but entertaining pictures, sure there's not much resolution, but people seem thoroughly entertained regardless. Second of all, my first three comics were more-or-less this format too, except placed in frames on a larger page (with a few larger full-page renders every so-many pages). The advantage of this format is the speed of production I can operate at, and therefore much more freedom in the story dynamic.
Cinematic small, flipbook style (like Impulse)
This format seemed to me to be a nice compromise between the large but resource intensive 3DX format and my small render avalanche format. The cinematic wide-angle strip worked nicely for me because first of all it gives you the feeling of the cinema, which is associated with entertainment, the wide format also gives a feeling of big and spacious, but more conveniently it removes a whole lot of pixels above and below the scene :D !! So basically I have the wideness of a 3DX format, but the height of my usual renders. I gain speed, but also presentation with this format.
This format did inspire me to experiment with flipbook-style animation, which is basically poor-mans animation. My comic Impulse was the first one I tried this with and people seemed to be convinced by it, even though it was rather vanilla.
Optimized for tablets / Optimized for Laptop / PC
These options, are not necessarily formats, but they can have an effect on preferred formats. I'm just curious what you prefer to use regarding my comics, or perhaps digital comics in general.
Same as above but then horizontal
So you could say old school comic books with small framed pictures and speech bubbles, but then lengthwise for laptop and PC screens. I don't have an example but I think Epoch did formats like this with his earlier work.
I actually planned to do this format for the Gentleman's Club but I hurried my way into production not realizing I had just started with the same old upright format! Oops.
I think I'd be cool with this format, I might try this for the next Black Desk, but it would feel odd since its not like real comics. Not sure though.
Large picture series, less pages (classic 3DX)
Here we're talking formats like what Blackadder does, and just about all other 3DX artists. The only reason I added this as an option is because, well, I am thoroughly lodged in the 3DX scene and this seems to be the standard.
I do have a small project in the pipeline that will use this format, but that project is well suited for this format since it has simply no storyline.
But even so, I doubt I could ever work with a format like this. You've undoubtedly noticed that my emphasis is much more on story, dialog and funny situations, and thus a LOAD of renders. Rendering at full 3DX format would be suicide for me, and probably useless because the detail and resolution of a render is not important when Lali and xtina are talking about what happened last night... :P lol
One thing I'd like to add here was that after the release of the Gentleman's Club, I read somewhere that someone wanted to zoom in to one of the images because they wanted to see the detail of some of the sexy stuff. But the resolution was not suitable for that. I guess this format would solve this but in all honesty, in my 3 years as a 3DX artist I have only ever received like 1 or perhaps 2 complaints that my format was too small. Even requests to make a larger version of a certain render are rare. My emphasis is definitely not wallpaper, but context. So I think I made that compromise in my comic Impulse, where I zoomed into the action for the reader.
Small pictures, more pages
Take this one seriously because I've been entertaining you with nothing else but this format, and seemingly to effect. First of all all my free series are this format, small but entertaining pictures, sure there's not much resolution, but people seem thoroughly entertained regardless. Second of all, my first three comics were more-or-less this format too, except placed in frames on a larger page (with a few larger full-page renders every so-many pages). The advantage of this format is the speed of production I can operate at, and therefore much more freedom in the story dynamic.
By the way, when I mean story I don't just mean dialog and non-erotic stuff. Look at the Gentleman's Club, you can see character-building and fun interaction during the sex-scenes. This is something I really want to perfect with my comics, that the sex scene is not separate from the story, but that is has everything to do with it! But that's not got to do with format, but yeah, the smaller, the faster I am, the more versatile.
Cinematic small, flipbook style (like Impulse)
This format seemed to me to be a nice compromise between the large but resource intensive 3DX format and my small render avalanche format. The cinematic wide-angle strip worked nicely for me because first of all it gives you the feeling of the cinema, which is associated with entertainment, the wide format also gives a feeling of big and spacious, but more conveniently it removes a whole lot of pixels above and below the scene :D !! So basically I have the wideness of a 3DX format, but the height of my usual renders. I gain speed, but also presentation with this format.
This format did inspire me to experiment with flipbook-style animation, which is basically poor-mans animation. My comic Impulse was the first one I tried this with and people seemed to be convinced by it, even though it was rather vanilla.
I think I have decided to do Sen's new comic in this format regardless, because I really want to get that Sand n Sandals '300' feel to the comic, with the flipbook animation style following the fighting (and the sex).
Optimized for tablets / Optimized for Laptop / PC
These options, are not necessarily formats, but they can have an effect on preferred formats. I'm just curious what you prefer to use regarding my comics, or perhaps digital comics in general.
Think about this one because with tablets on the rise, the old upright comic book format might be a thing to re-consider. It depends on what you're comfortable with.
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So yeah let me know what you'd like to see!
(I hope the poll widgets shows below...)
Other News?
Not much else to annouce other than that I spent the last two weeks eyebrow deep in perfecting Project E's naughty morphs. I can be so crazy perfectionist about it that I work myself into oblivion over it. Just a few days ago I hit my head on a beer bottle when I fell asleep at my desk while working on these morphs :P
And I also have a girlfriend haha, so its not like I'm missing sex!
Anyway, TMI!
cheers!
PS: One thing I forgot to mention and deliberately did not add, is the possibility of movies, because I know that option would have been very popular! Some of you might have seen the 'Lali Vines' on Renderotica, they were quite popular. But the simple fact is that movies are VERY resource, time (and beer) intensive, and that I don't have time for right now. Never-the-less I'm keeping my options open and even have plans with our good man Epoch to give it a swing with the DCV once the comic nears completion. I will definitely give it a try and who knows it might work.
(I hope the poll widgets shows below...)
What comic format do you prefer for Lali stories? You can select more than one answer.
Other News?
Not much else to annouce other than that I spent the last two weeks eyebrow deep in perfecting Project E's naughty morphs. I can be so crazy perfectionist about it that I work myself into oblivion over it. Just a few days ago I hit my head on a beer bottle when I fell asleep at my desk while working on these morphs :P
And I also have a girlfriend haha, so its not like I'm missing sex!
Anyway, TMI!
cheers!
PS: One thing I forgot to mention and deliberately did not add, is the possibility of movies, because I know that option would have been very popular! Some of you might have seen the 'Lali Vines' on Renderotica, they were quite popular. But the simple fact is that movies are VERY resource, time (and beer) intensive, and that I don't have time for right now. Never-the-less I'm keeping my options open and even have plans with our good man Epoch to give it a swing with the DCV once the comic nears completion. I will definitely give it a try and who knows it might work.
I prefer you develop your comics on the DCV format! Animation! Score! Sound effects! Movement in frame! Parallax! 3D turntables! Desktop Wallpapers! Character bios!
ReplyDeleteWith your obsessive nature, you'd develop something stuffed to the gills with awesomeness that would be worth every penny, and your fanbase would only grow by leaps and bounds once they had a taste of what you can do with that format.
Consider it. :-)
oh bro by fuck, I am! I actually forgot to mention it (editing in a sec). The problem is adding movies is something brand new to me, and like you say its double the work, so I don't dare announce any plans concerning that just yet. But I really wanna try that for the DD comic.
DeleteConcerning the DCV that's definitely on the list once I near the completion of this comic as agreed. If not movies then at least perhaps flipbook animations or alternate images and music. I defo like the idea.
Going back to Project E, have you had a chance to review DAZ's Victoria 7 as to whether it really is better compared to their previous efforts?
ReplyDeleteNot yet. I'll check it out tonight. It looks good though, from what I have seen. I like the idea of facial bones, found it a bit weird at first but might work. I could try do that with Project E. I've read that she has more detail between the legs, which is always a welcome thing... I'm definitely still carrying on with PE though.
DeleteShe supposedly has an anus from a commenter at the Renderosity Poser forum. Don't know if she has a vagina or if she is only for DS and not Poser.
Deleteyeah she's got a vag and anus. Not sure how detailed yet. Poison said he would make some morphs for it. She is unfortunately DS exclusive, not sure if the CR2 export would work but I'll give it a try.
DeleteOk played with her. Looks pretty cool. People seem to be getting good results in DS.
DeleteConcering porting to Poser, I'm not really managing. FBX, CR2 and DAE all don't work for Poser - well CR2 a bit. Perhaps when Poser comes with Dual Quaternion skinning it might work, but even then I doubt it because DAZ have split the main limbs into two rotation bones and while the bones work well in Poser, the association with the right region of the OBJ file doesn't work. I assume DQS is for how a limb bends and not how many bones per polygroup it has.
The only two ways are the DSON way that midnight_stories (on rosity) seems to have managed, or just re-rigging her in poser. I tried it with exporting as CR2, and bodyparts don't show up because of the capitalization problem that Poison pointed out with G2M (that thread I started), and re-naming the bones and seems to work a bit.
But gave up cuz its a load of work lol and I'll have to redo the weight mapping anyway (I have enough other shit to do hehe). If I didn't have PE I might have actually tried it. I hope there'll be a way eventually or it will be sad for poser users that have invested in DAZ all these years... would seem fair.
Anyway, it is interesting to see how DAZ have put together G3 with the bones and such. The facial bones are a very interesting idea, I was a bit skeptical at first. If I have time I might try it out on p.e too.
Thanks for your review. I wasn't sure whether or not to invest time working with her, but looks you you saved me the trouble of doing so. I'll just wait for PE then to come out.
Delete