Bee's Breakroom - Comics, WIPs and other Ruminations

Linwelly

So its truly this thing, I use that console thing for the scan device, Seems rather versatile :D

Nice kitbashing :D

BeeMKay

Yes, it seems that the design of some items really helps making them multi-purpose!

Over at comicfury, there was an interesting thread about how out characters have changed from first appearance to now. I thought that was a neat idea, so I'm sharing my post here, too...

You'd think that characters stay static in 3D, but that's not quite true. It takes a while to find the right look, and as the character/story changes, so does the way I imagine them. Some is just plain fun, but a lot of this are experiments. So here's the developement of two of my main characters, Seth and Duon.
Initially, they both were "classical" angels&demons (that's how the story was when I did the first renders in 2013/2014)...
So, let's start out with Seth.
Back then, he was still Seth Liam - called 'Liam' (later changed to Seth Caelen, called 'Seth' because he sounded too similar to another character).

• The top image is from 2013 and one of the very first character test renders of him. In case you wonder, the render engine back then was 3Delight, which makes the colours look different from the later Iray renders.
• The first image of the second row is one of the plot point moments of the original story, when Seth decides to join a mission to retrieve some artefact to keep Hades from being destroyed.
• The second image of the second row was testing out different sort of wings. The wings represented the character/personality/emotions of the angel/demon, and as such would change. They also were real flying wings of the feathery kind and would appear/vanish when the person "called" them. In their dormant state, they would look like a wings-tattoo (the "wing's echo" is something the Dwellers still have, though its background story changed).
• The third row image and the fourth row image are from 2014 and show Seth's final wings, one in the solid state and one in the dissolving state. Seth also changed his looks by then.
• The final image is one of Seth in his ceremonial robes. The guy next to him is his Paladin (stilled called "Key Signifer" back then)... named Dan Tae. In case you've read Division, and wonder why the Paladin is not Duon, let's just say that the plot development at that point took some very drastic turns.

 

Duon... is he a god, a demon, a human, or... just plain misunderstood? ;-)

• Top image: The very first iteration of Duon was in 2013... as a demon. Who was sacked by the Evil Dudes for cowardice. The Good Guys also didn't want anything to do with him because he was a traitor and a coward and had a taste for expensive. He had very classical demon-style wings back then.
• Second, third image from 2014/5: Duon got a hair cut and went through a couple of different hair colours. And skins. Did I mention his taste for expensive? ;-)
• fourth image from 2016: This is the first image that has Duon starting out on the side of the Dwellers, wearing what was then considered the uniform of a guard. It's also an early experiment with FX, which are a pain in the rear end if you do them inside the render, i.e. if you do them in 3Delight. But I hadn't learned much postwork at that time.
• the fifth image has Seth and Duon fight for their lives (and almost made my old PC crash). They still had real "Flaming Swords" back then, instead of the pointed ball of flames that is used in Division. The swords was ditched because it was too much "Highlander", though this flaming sword originated from the biblical one. Angels and demons, ya know.

Duon had by then undergone some drastic changes, though he still kept the coward part in his back story; it was something he tried to erase by exceptional bravery. It got him killed at one point, but obvoiusly, he came back ...somehow. ;-) That segment didn't make it to the current version of Demon Division, though.

Fast forward to "present day"... these renders are from 2016-2018, and show the guys not only in "Iray" render technology, but with the final touches of change...
Iray meant that I had to re-do all of the guys' skins, and all other surfaces, plus learning how to work in the new engine. Iray has different rules in how it interprets surfaces and light compared to 3Delight. A hand-drawn equivalent would perhaps be the one between carving on walls and oil paints. I could've stayed with 3DL and their old looks, but I really liked how Iray looked.

• The first image shows Seth, Jael (background), Lucius (chewing out Seth), and Duon. This was for the Dwellers webcomic originally. I did make some final adjustments to Seth & Duon after that; i.e. Duon got some facial changes.
• The second image was the hiatus image for Dwellers, and show the guys in their "Dwellers" and Division" forms - 60 years apart in time.
• The third image was a concept image for the Dwellers webcomic and shows Seth and the previously mentioned "Wing's Echo" on his back.

 

Griffin Avid

Seems like the series was going to be done in a different 'time' with the different looks.

I finished the video of the page study.

BeeMKay

@Drew sorry for the late reply, and thank you for the video review! Yes, the original ideas and designs were completely different from what's going on now. But the experimenting helped to understand what worked, and what didn't work for me.

Struggling with time management issues and my upcoming summer vacation... at least Page 76 of Demon Division is done.

BeeMKay

Uh... yeah. Time to face the music.

So far, I've updated the mobile version of Division every month. For that mobile version, I have to take the page version completely apart. It usually takes a full weekend to convert several pages into one episode....

Unfortunately, my spare time has been drastically reduced and will remain reduced for at least until April next year. I simply can't afford that extra time time if I still want to set up & render new images for the page version... So the mobile version is on hiatus until January. I hope that after the high pressure phase at work's over, it will be back to somewhat more regular hours...

 

BeeMKay

So... the break is over, and the story resumes. We're at a point where some of the things from the beginning of the story fit into place. I'm really excited about the upcoming pages, and things to come.

 

BeeMKay

Team D's on the prowl... and we all know how this will end for Dwayne...

Here, Frank Hunter - the team's Mind Mage - has set up a link to Dwayne's mind, so we are privy to the young man's thoughts. I tried to display that through the usage of different bubble line colours/styles, but I'm not sure if, for example in the last panel, it's clear that Dwayne says the last bubble's words out loud.

The team itself also has a sort of wireless communication, not using radio but a mental connection established by Frank. I tried to use a different line style. They are not using the bubble style thought pointer, though, but the regular triangle one.

Not sure if any of this works as intended.

BeeMKay

Having fun with rendering for Division at the moment...

You know that feeling when you know that something's wrong, but you can't put your finger on on? Dwayne's going through that here... he doesn't know that he's not alone in the room... yet.

chicago1921

BeeMKay said:

So... the break is over, and the story resumes. We're at a point where some of the things from the beginning of the story fit into place. I'm really excited about the upcoming pages, and things to come.

 

Quit interesting how your comic graphism evolved, this page for example as much more photoshop filters than the first, unfortunately the Iray render doesn't suit with for 2D comic effect than 3delight as you used in the past.

BeeMKay

Thank you.

Actually, I just used photoshop/Filterforge here to "disturb" the image, as it is a memory of one of the character and supposed to look visually different from the general "iray look" of the rest of the comic. I have/had no intention to go for a 2D comic effect, tough, because I really like the feel of the Iray renders. Iray in itself isn't a really good source for making a 2D comic, though I've seen a couple of people pulling off the effect very interestingly.

chicago1921

BeeMKay said:

Thank you.

Actually, I just used photoshop/Filterforge here to "disturb" the image, as it is a memory of one of the character and supposed to look visually different from the general "iray look" of the rest of the comic. I have/had no intention to go for a 2D comic effect, tough, because I really like the feel of the Iray renders. Iray in itself isn't a really good source for making a 2D comic, though I've seen a couple of people pulling off the effect very interestingly.

Understood. That was a "dreaming" effect, good choice.

I absolutely agree with you, there is some astounding artists able to postwork and give a 2D effect on Iray but it's a huge work.

BeeMKay

Another page for Demon Division, and big changes are lurking at the horizion...

By the way, as I'm doing Division in English and my native German language, here's both versions... Translation's a pain in the rear end, i.e. since German usually has more and longer words to say the same. And some puns just don't work at all.

Linwelly

thats pretty cruel with those mind bender skills, I think it works well with the pink thought balloons pushing the blue ones

Ivy

these web comics are all very well done Bee . I enjoye reading all your comics very much :)

BeeMKay

Linwelly said:

thats pretty cruel with those mind bender skills, I think it works well with the pink thought balloons pushing the blue ones

Thanks for the thoughts about the though balloons, and yeah, the mind magic skills can get pretty brutal. Frank's level is that of a Mind Breaker, so he could basically shred Dwayne's mind into a long-lasting stupor, or frizz up his memories to a point that would leave him completely emotionally scarred. Mind Mages (i.e. of the Dark Mage/Dweller type) have to be very responsible people, even more so than the rest of the mage bunch. 

 

Ivy said:

these web comics are all very well done Bee . I enjoye reading all your comics very much :)

Thank you! I hope I can keep you entertained in the future, too!

BeeMKay

This page had an interesting challenge - The kid (Dwayne) is struggling. He's aware that something is not right. Originally, the sequence had a lot more images, but I decided to use these three. Next challenge - magic combat!

BeeMKay

Dwayne's clearly not a fan of the Division.

So... having fun with brushes. I'm also seriously running behind my render schedule due to Real Life and Work. More combat's comic up next week.

Linwelly

I noticed this on the comic homepage, that going up in flames effect is way cool, I guess you used some Laplace or Soel to find borders and light them up?

BeeMKay

Thanks! The flames effect was done in Photoshop using the Particleshop plugin. In Particleshop, I used different brushes, and placed the strokes manually.

BeeMKay

Just because someone asked for "boobs" elsewhere... Some of the DD ladies at the beach. It took some thinking until I had the right type of biki style for each of them. If I ever find the time, I'll put them through proper postwork and maybe upload this to the gallery...

Linwelly

Talking about eye-catchers or clickbait, I noticed with these last pages that Duon looks that much better without that brusch under his nose, he should really give up on that again :D

BeeMKay

Haha! Now that you mention it... He indeed seems to have a mysteriously appearing and disappearing Schnäutzer. Perhaps it's part of his disguise when he's in 'suit-mode'. 

*sigh* One more thing that needs to be put up the 'to fix' list for the Reboot.

But can you believe I never, ever really noticed that the beard renders differently between his two subsets? Thanks for pointing it out!

 

Linwelly

BeeMKay said:

Haha! Now that you mention it... He indeed seems to have a mysteriously appearing and disappearing Schnäutzer. Perhaps it's part of his disguise when he's in 'suit-mode'. 

*sigh* One more thing that needs to be put up the 'to fix' list for the Reboot.

But can you believe I never, ever really noticed that the beard renders differently between his two subsets? Thanks for pointing it out!

 

Welcome :D might be because I have a deep going aversion against Schnäuzer thats why I noticed it

Now the question is in which direction will you change it? Or maybe even really give him that change over time, his hair was different in the beginning as well, wasn't it?

BeeMKay

I'll probably go for the Schnäutzer-less version. I also wanted to give Seth a shave, but he looks too young without his beard.

Hairstyle... Well, he does wear his hair differently for different occasions. For beginning of the story, he had pulled his hair back, but when he's not on 'Paladin duty', he usually wears his hair more 'relaxed'.

That said, the character (as is Seth) is still G2. I'm thinking about moving him and Seth over to G3 or even G8, but that will take some time, and I hope to be able to reuse most images for the reboot. If there are too many changes to the character look, I'll have to re-render a lot more images than just those already singled out due to quality issues... 

Here's the most recent page of Division. Lots of postwork this time.

BeeMKay

So... updates. Reorganizing everything for the reboot of Division is a huge workload. Even though my co-author and I do have all the elements of plots and characters, some drastic changes were neccessary to give it better flow and make things more attractive and easier to follow for our readers.

So, while we're working on the Reboot, here's the most current page of Division, and an excerpt from the page in shape of Frank Hunter that I also posted in the gallery:

Linwelly

Somehow I'm rooting all for the kid, with all the trickery they had up their sleeve, to get him. And the Hunter guy, I trust him as far as I can throw him....

 

the wording e-rogue is a bit wierd, is he starting with another word and then changes to rogue? is e-rogue some special thing? I suggest to either leave it with rogue or fully spell what is meant.

BeeMKay

Yeah, poor Dwayne. Alas, the story doesn't end well for him, as we know from chapter one.

As for Frank, let's just say, you don't want to get on his bad side. He is a highly trained mind breaker and can erase or rearrange your memories permanently, lock you up in your mind, or even leave you in a completely vacant state of mind. But normally, he's taking good care of his team mates.

e-rogue is short for emotional rogue (I translated this in German language with e-Rausch, emotionaler Rausch), because that's basically what is happening and how they would say it (shortened term in their line of work). I'm switching back to the interrogation room on the next page where Duon and the interrogator are talking about what happened, and the interrogator will basically give the long term word, and a bit about that the kid let go of his emotional restraint and the magic was about to turn his hate into lethal levels. The next attack could killed them, not just injure.

the only other shortening that came to mind was emo-rouge, but "emo" means something different, if I'm not completely mistaken. Though I'm open for suggestions! Anyone know a proper and telling term, feel free to share!

Linwelly

Yeah I know, it's  a bit sad to see this going down the way it does, seems he is/was rather gifted

I guess emo-rogue would have an odd sound to itself :D  If it gets adressed in the next page that should work I think

BeeMKay

I know what you mean. The kid really grew on me while I was working with him 'in person' rather than just him being a casualty for the sake of his brother's character developement. He did have a lot of talent; and he adored his older brother. And the intention behind the mission was to hand him over to Simon at the end of the day, unharmed.  Now, it's really breaking my heart a bit. I'd love to see him join the Division as a student and kick ass, you know.

Linwelly

heh the crux of alternative options, I have at least three of those in my head for Taiduo but alas they will never become canon