Digital Art Zone

It took me nearly three years, but I finished my graphic novel, Rune: A Tale of Wizards and Kings.

I posted it as a webcomic page-by-page and I’ve put together an e-book that you can read online or download (for free) at Goodreads, Issuu, and my own website.

As it says on my dedication page, Special Thanks to the artists and programmers whose products enabled the renders and illustrations. Your fine products made it possible for me to tell a story in a beautiful, full-color format. Most of the illustrations are DAZ Studio renders using pwToon and I used a TON of the runtime that I’ve bought over the past five years.

I hope you’ll give it a read and, if you like it, share it with your friends. Thanks!

Congrats on your finished novel! I create graphic novels too (with Poser) so I know what a long and difficult task this can be. Bravo to you for getting it done! Also, three years isn’t bad. I think it’s going to be four years for the one I’m still working on right now.

As soon as I get some free time, I’ll be sure to download your novel and view it. The cover alone has me intrigued.

That is very cool,  congratulations!

Wow that’s a big book! I read through the first bit and its amazing you did this all by yourself. You should be very proud of yourself.

My wife has been looking to doing a kids e-book (possibly for print) but she’s a bit confused about what formats, resolution, page sizes etc. to use. Do you know of a good reference or guideline for the more technical aspects of self-publishing online?

Thanks!

Congrats

Cheers!

Congratulations! I know how much work it is to put together a long story using Poser/DAZ, so kudos! And major respect for making it available for free - very inspirational!

I’m really impressed. It takes me between 1-2 hours to pose complex scenes like you have (The hands are always the worst part!). It’s taken me a week to do 40 images, and I haven’t even started my post work T_T

Congratulations! I downloaded your book and it is very cool. Great pictures, intriguing storyline… Excellent work!

wow, congratulations!  i downloaded a copy and what i’ve read so far is really good—i can’t believe you did all that work yourself, that’s awesome!

Thank you all for your kind words! I want to respond to everyone…

LizzieP_D9S - Thanks! I checked out your site and WOW, you’ve made a lot of stuff! Definitely bookmarking to check out later.

FirstBastion - I love your stuff! Renaissance Stealth Action Poses became my favorite poses for Rune. I also used some of your landscapes: The Hidden Waterfalls, Rocky Flats, A Walk Across Water and Hilly Surround. Thanks for the encouragement!

cridgit - Thanks! I hesitate to think of it as “doing it myself” when I’m building on top of the works of all the artists who make the products I use. But it was fun to learn comic layout, lettering, editing and marketing in addition to improving my renders!

I’m guessing the children’s book market is a little different than comics, but I could try to answer any questions your wife has based on my experience with self-publishing. The technical requirements are going to vary depending on what printer and distributor you want to use, so you do have to consider your goals (and how much you want to spend) at the outset. I went with the lowest-possible out-of-pocket expenses since this is not a profit-making venture for me.

RorrKonn and MistyWhisky - Thanks!

canberra_boy - Thanks! I made it free because I have the unknown author problem - people don’t know if I make something they’d be willing to buy. Congrats on having your GN published!

Paradigm67 - I have gotten a lot faster with the posing, mostly by expanding my library of pose collections. When I first started using DAZ, I was like, “Why would I buy poses? I can make those myself!” Then I realized it’s HARD to make good, life-like poses! And time-consuming. Now I start with a pose close to what I want and tweak it. Hands are definitely difficult and time-consuming, especially when they’re holding things! I’m ridiculously proud of the panel where Rune is drinking from a goblet because I spent forever positioning his fingers.

Also, I save time by doing almost no post work. Most of the images are straight-up DAZ+pwToon renders, except for a little general brightness/contrast correction.

Proxima Shining and jade monkey - Thank you so much! I am always grateful when someone takes the time to read my book and let me know they enjoyed it.