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224 S 200 W, Suite #250
Salt Lake City, UT 84101
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Love your style tkdrobert. It almost looks cell shaded. Are you using filters in Photoshop to achieve that look? Or Clip Studio?
@greycat - check your messages. I PM'd you earlier.
Yeah... That looks good.
The flaw in post-render posterization is that the color palette usually isn't planned to look good as a reduced color poster. When you go from 4k maps with millions of colors to a reduced color final image, I think the results can be kind of too processed.
This has reduced colors, like an old school comic, but the blocks of color don't look like they've been thrashed by a fake filter. It looks a lot like a comic book rather than an image pretending to be a comic book.
The fantasy goal of every non-artist who wants to create art.
That quote is the same as the desire in manufacturers and shoppers to find something that's Quick, Quality and Cheap. It's not going to happen. You only get two of the three. If you make something at a fast rate and it's easy/cheap to make, you don't end up with a quality item. And if you want high quality, at a fast turnout rate, you are going to need a monstrous production pipeline - and THAT is where cheap-to-make goes out the window..
You should watch my video, The Three C's of Being an Artist.
So no, I am NOT ABOVE THIS- I am subject (and victim) to my own understandings. It all applies to me too.
Everyone (including me) would love a one-button-press solution to creating comics. Some kind of magic filter that could just turn my regular renderings into something....more.
Add that special human touch of an artistic line- not just outline, but accent the thickness of the line, the variation of detail and exaggeration of an important detail. A COMIC is an exaggeration as its base level. Muscles are MUSCLES.expressions are EXPRESSIONS, A COMIC (comedienne) exaggerates the intensity or the frequency so that something (mundane) happens to make it funny. A comic is all about extremes. Extreme stereotypes, extreme action- and extreme personalities. We see echoes of truth (and truths that relate to us) and so we gravitate towards those characters and stories. That's the baseline.
Now, we are taking something that is struggling to get the details plain and normal (3D environments for the most part) and push it to extremes. When you don't, you get boring people (the dead stare), standing around - looking bored. And it's up to you/me/us to exaggerate the assets to add the comic aspect. That's the part I'm talking about that goes beyond the process of making something look hand-drawn.
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But now look at what it takes to achieve that. So many layers and filters, one action after the other and (what people soon realize) there's no one setting that works for every picture. The best examples of these is always a multi-step process, it's always under the control of a human (hand) turning dials and making tweaks. THERE IS YOUR ARTIST. The human judgment at work.
The fantasy goal of every non-artist who wants to create art.
That quote should be better understood to say you cannot remove the artist from the art. And ONLY a non-artist would want to remove the artist from the art.
By the time you achieve that comic-book look you wanted, you will have realized you became an artist and/or used an Artistic Process to create your art-work.
The big TRUTH is that people think they cannot DRAW so they need to find a NON-Artistic WAY to create comic books.
... an art style that is quick to execute, ... and visually pleasing....
Somewhere in that pursuit needs to be the Balance of The Tools, Technique and Time -
Remove too many of them and you don't get art.
Thanks for clarifying your statement. I do understand very much the three C's (or the project management pyramid or any other name that it goes by). That is definitely what I meant by "quick to execute but visually pleasing" but didn't articulate very well. Finding that right balance of a quality art style for this story that I can execute on my own but somehow save time and money. And of course still deliver a half-way competent and quality product that would interest people. After spending almost a year (and nearly 30 drafts) on this new script, I suppose I am just getting antsy to finally put the words into a visual form now.
Funny, but I myself am constantly having to explain to people in my daily life the amount of care, perservence and time it takes to pull an idea out of the ether and turn it into a competent and cohesively written script for film. It is a grueling and often humbling experience. But your points are well taken. I can't short change myself in this next phase. Why work so hard on the story itself only to put less care in the images required to complement that story.
For comparison, this was the first image I made years ago as inspiration for another trilogy of screenplays I have been working on. It isn't at all meant to be the final style of art that would be used in those stories, just something to keep me writing and not giving up. And you are also right in saying that there really is no one setting that will work for each image. I would definitely need to take a different approach in art style for sci-fi vs horror graphic novels.
That is a special thing, right there. His face, the angles....the amount of story-telling captured in one image.
Thanks! Like I said not the exact style of artwork I envisions for the actual graphic novels, but it keeps me inspired to finish writing them.
One of the easiest tests of a story is to see if it survives in another medium. If the ONLY reason you're telling a story is because of the medium, it might not hold up beyond the illustrations. BUT! If you do have some gem ideas in there, it might work as a screenplay and/or novel and *maybe you don't have to wait. Maybe write that book and THAT is the launch medium and the comics is another translation of your story.
I don't know what they're called, but you could the thing where it's a book, but has artwork every so often. I know it's more expensive and they'd probably suggest a section at the end or beginning with the art plates, but eh....
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We've gotten to a weird circle, in that comic-stories are big business as movies. So now movie-centric people are trying to start in comics - as a stepping stone to the movie industry. Like, I'll write a bunch of comics and THEN I'll get my foot in the door. And just like how movies like to discard some of the (historic) details for clarity, some comic writers are writing with little understanding of the established characters.
It was rendered in 3Delight with no background. The background was created in Clip Paint Studio (CPS). Also, in CPS, I drew outlines (linework) for the robots. Topaz Simplicity was used to enhance the details. Photoshop was used to enhance the vibrance, colors, shadows, and brightness. I may have used the Photoshop Filter "Poster Edges" to enhance the linework, but I can't remember. Bottom line, it wasn't quick and easy. It's didn't take me as long as hand drawing everything, but it was not done on 15 minutes either. The line work took the longest and is the most important.
I'm not a big comic book reader, I guess. My most recent purchase would be Stjepan Sejic's Sunstone hardcovers... Which is NOT capes and super powers, although masks, latex, and handcuffs are involved...
The Marvel movies... Ugh. Like, oh no, not another one. I should really get my daughter into comics because her fandom of the movies is disturbing. (She saw the after credits end of infinity war and said CAPTAIN MARVEL!) Not Sunstone, though. ;) They'd never make that movie, anyway.
Deadpool is an interesting case, but he's so far off the map of my comic book interest. I didn't know he was a Rob Liefeld creation. There's an interesting name in comic art.
If there's something I learned from Liefeld's very successful work is that creating a feeling and an impression is more important than classical technique.
Now where did I leave my stupid digital pen for my Surface...
Definitely agree. A good story translate to any medium. Books, Audiobooks, Comics, Movies, etc. But the time involved to translate any story into other mediums is the real challenge.
Speaking as a writer myself, I don't think it's as simplistic as a writer just trying to use comics as a stepping stone to getting their foot in the door of the movie industry. I also don't know any writer's that are trying specifically to start out in comics in that way. All the writer's I know have been working at their story telling craft their whole life. And it would actually be a tremendous amount of time and work to turn one story into a screenplay only to re-format it for a graphic novel or comic series just with the hope of that being the ticket to break in to making movies. Nevermind trying to do the artwork for a comic yourself or hire a skilled artist that can do it. So I would wager that a skiller screenwriter would be better off writing 3-4 solid spec scripts every year instead. The more scripts you have in your arsenal the higher your odds of breaking into the film industry. As opposed to just having the one story you can possibly turn into a graphic novel. So I do believe you have to have a certain degree of love for the medium to want to also write for comics.
Now, I do also believe there is a lot of room for overlap. Given your time and dedication. Personally I have always envisioned my stories being made across multiple mediums to reach as many people as possible. So I write the screenplay first and try to make it bullet proof. Then allow that process to inform the potential graphic novel or novellas, etc. And of course if the stars and planets align, and Hollywood did come knocking, then I can dust off the original screenplay and go "Here ya go." This was the seed of it all.
I think the trouble with screenwriting right now and what you might be seeing with a lot of writers trying to jump into the comic scene is the bi-product of:
A) Hollywood execs rarely buying specs scripts anymore and sending the message to the screenwriting community that they only want fully established IP with built-in fanbases. IE - The Walking Dead, The Expanse, The Martian, etc. Gone are the days of Shane Black's Million Dollar pay day on Lethal Weapon as a spec script. Hollywood as become so risk averse that if you don't have a Kindle ebook with a massive following, an Audible component, and a comic book series, then your chances of getting noticed are slim.
B) The Tent Pole or what I would call the Marvel/Disney Effect, is that Hollywood studios have moved swiftly past the days of the 90's independent boom where lots of screenwriters were able to make a living selling personal and artistic stories. I think that the studio system currently has become the most capitalist and unwelcoming that it has ever been. Constant outsourcing across the board and "product" over artistic vision. Every thing is made with machine-like and precise assembly. Some people may not like any of the big budget movies being made but you can't really argue that they are at least all technically proficient and pushing the limits of high quality production value. Most of them just have no heart and soul anymore. IMHO.
As you mentioned, I have definitely thought about creating just selective pieces of art to complement my stories similar to artist editon books that Cemetery Dance puts out. It would be far less work than trying to do a full blown graphic novel and I could keep writing other stories then, but I don't know. I always loved comics when I was a kid and often dreamed of making one some day, but I never had the skills to do it or the knowledge. I used to draw and airbrush a lot but then I discovered DAZ and found it really fun and it reminded me of doing photo shoots with my own personal models. Build a set, clothe and pose the characters and then take a snapshot. And it satisifed my creative urge to make some sort of art when I am not writing.
Just for fun, here is something I airbrushed when I was young and then tried to re-make in DAZ years ago. Also a hand drawing I did for my son many years ago.
All excellent points. It's like that all over as business is looking to capitalize and not really catapult anymore.
(the music industry is horrible with this right now) So by the time they come knocking, you're sometimes giving up more than you are getting.
If you pursue what you love, you'll probably keep churning out incredible stuff.
Quite interesting, I agree, but there is a difference between good CGI comic and average or bad and the big difference it's work, or postwork, postwork on Manga Studio, GIMP or Photoshop, below there is one of the best CGI comic ever made in my opinion:
https://tapas.io/series/HOX-Prototype-CGI-Comic-by-AMOK-COMICS
Many CGI artists aren't making job to postwork, that's the big difference.
My advices to Newbie on DAZ seeking to start making comics, try to work hard and don't let DAZ do all of the job for you.
Another advice, try to use 3delight render or even BasicOpenGL because Iray is too much 3D and realistic render. When render, try to render more than 3000X because postwork on photoshop is better than with small size picture.
That's true artists such JCThomas do an amazing job using DAZ and Poser stuff. Big problem with CGI comics it's the huge use of 3d background and props used and reused on two, three or four panels. And above all, the posing, some are great, others looks like CGI.
Another big problem with many CGI based comics it's the astronomical number of pages, there is CGI comics having more than 100 pages even 1000, readers can be lost at the end.
And as I wrote in my first post, it need postwork and postwork to enhance the graphic aspect. And many of the last newbie in the discussion are trying to work good with postwork they don't let DAZ do the job, they postwork.
Are there some links out there for these comics online? :)
If you're looking for webcomics there is huge of websites:
https://spiderforest.com/
https://www.webtoons.com/en/
Thanks! I am most intrigued to see a well done comic using DAZ to create the art.
There is also some kind of "grouping adress" of webcomic:
http://topwebcomics.com/
With traditional but also DAZ themed, some are fun, one of them is a "crypto-DAZ'" if you know DAZ outfit you'll see a DAZ cloth:
Maybe I'm wrong, but I can see DAZ look at this first page:
This artist is great because he used multi filter and great postwork.
If that was made using DAZ, I'd love to learn the process she/he used.
What aspect ratio waould you normally render at for panels?
Wow, no one else answering?
No exact size, but traditional comics draw larger and then shrink the art down to 'comic book size'. We/you should do the same thing.
So, whatever the "master" page size is, you want each final image to be larger than the size of the intended panel.
That also has the added benefit or sharpening the details.
Also, you want ROOM and the ability to choose your cropping according to the word balloons and spacing.
NEVER create your images at the intended size or shape of the intended panel. Things change.
Fit and crop to that size. You never know. Even if you have story boards do not pre-decide the final arangement.
Things change.
I got my master page size from a printer. (any printer will do as they will always have freely available templates)
You can make changes and/or change printers, but it's good to start with a base and also have the trim lines/area be known in advance.
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If you look at *most* comic book layouts or many template examples, you can see what the average panel is shaped like and the number of panels per page.
There's also mobile and webcomic layouts with vertical, one-panel presentations.
There's also tons of software to help you layout your comics and do text.
I covered this and more in my comics course/webinar series.
https://www.daz3d.com/comic-book-creation--foundation-course-part-1
https://www.daz3d.com/comic-book-creation--foundation-course-part-2
_ interesting topics _
I agree with Griffin, that rendering larger than your intended size, so you have flexibility to crop the shot into a panel is practical. Storyboards as a preproduction step, are also invaluable. Often times they help define the flow of the page, long before you actually render the finished art. Sure they are an added step that slows your production, but storyboard will help uncover flaws in the page earlier in the development process.
Pretty 3D's character is available
http://www.daz3d.com/pretty-base-next-generation-8-for-genesis-8-female
http://www.daz3d.com/pretty-base-next-generation-for-genesis-3-female
Thank you. I do own the G3F version. I have yet to find a right-feeling slot for her character. And since posting that statement, we found that the Aeon Soul character is "Alice" and you've missed a ton of debates about her appearance.
I've seen the comments about Alice, but I know she's not available for purchase - at least not since the V3 days. She's one I would definitely pick up if she were.
Alice has had quite a track record. She was for V4 as well as V3. The artists had a couple of earlier promo girls with V3, then they developed Alice and kept to her.
They created an Alice 4 for V4. Used to be when they were still Aery Soul (I think, they change their vendor name ever few years) and pretty much exclusive on Rendo it was possible to purchase Alice 4 for about a week once every year around Christmas. For 2-3 years at least, that is. Later when they became alfaseed and moved over to RDNA they brought out an Alice 5 body morph (which was still for V4), which was a free download for at least some time, but the head morph remained proprietary. They've obviously redesigned/ported the character morph to G3 and now to G8, but I doubt that she'll ever be sold commercially again.
Considering that we're talking about a character with a face that has been recognizable since about 2005 if not earlier, she's probably just too recognizable for tthat.
Well, I think it'd be great if they went the way of RawArt and made a bunch of characters.
Like RawArt, they have a unique style that stands out and I'd be happy to have a whole cast of characters that look like they are from that universe.
I think that would be insane.
Alice-Styled characters HD.
(that would make me switch to Genesis 9 lol)
They remind me of the porcelain figurines on grandmas shelf and nightstand
So what if i render everything square with crop room all around? then it could be shaped however...
Also, does anyone ever have "one renderer for one image" feelings? where all elements o a image should bes rendered in the same renderer because it wouldn't match ifb you rendered, say, A in DAZ, B in Blender, C in maya, D in iClone and combine it all into one image in Photoshop? i'm asking because i may need to, but i'm hard of seeing and won't be abe to see if they match
We're getting into complicated territory.
where all elements o a image should bes rendered in the same renderer because it wouldn't match ifb you
Well, you have two concerns and they seem to be shadows and consistent color/lighting.
For shadows, you would need to at least get the source light the same across all the set ups. So if it's a bight day and the sun is behind an object and casts a strong shadow, then every other object should have a shadow going the same direction and being as strong.
For lighting, it's about tone control and/or color balance. Overall, you change the "tint" to match and lean everything - like lean towards blue consistently across all the bits....
Maybe saturation needs to be mentioned.
If there really is an eye issue then no amount of advice is going to work without someone else taking a look. So maybe a plan B which should really be PLAN A is to import everything into the program you know best (I assume Daz) and get all those objects under one render engine and that should eliminate the uniformity issue.
Hey, you know those action thingies where an object s flying and the background is, like, a bench of motion streaks t tell us we are flying? how do i dob it?