Carrara Challenge #18: Graphic Novel - WIP Thread NOW OPEN
MarkIsSleepy
Posts: 1,496
This month's Carrara Challenge is to show us glimpse into a graphic novel of your own creation! Don't know what a graphic novel is? See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphic_novel
For this Challenge, create any one of the following:
1. A cover image that makes us want to buy your imaginary graphic novel
2. A full page scene or splash page (a splash page is an image that covers two opposing pages, usually an action scene)
3. A multi-panel scene showing us an exciting or intriguing bit of your story
4. An "iconic" image that tells us everything we need to know about your main character in one picture
Your creation can be any genre or style you wish but be prepared to tell us a little bit about the story behind it. You don't have to spend much time or effort on the backstory if you don't want to but you should have some idea who the characters are and what the setting is.
Things you might want to play with (all of these are totally optional) to help sell the style:
* Dialogue/thought balloons
* Different panel layouts
* Non-photorealistic rendering
* Comic Book type filters for your post-processing program of pchoice (e.g. GIMP, Photoshop, FilterForge, etc.)
* Speed/focus lines (especially if you are going for a manga style)
* Simple, dramatic lighting
* Limited color palettes
* Try creating a short animation, rendering out a couple key points in it and using them as separate panels for your entry
Useful or possibly inspiring links:
Free Comic Book Fonts http://www.dafont.com/search.php?q=comic
Create Free Comic Book Layouts http://comicbookpaper.com/
Complementary Color Picker https://color.adobe.com/
Comic Book Art Examples http://comicartcommunity.com/gallery/
Basic Rules
1. Each participant may submit up to 2 images into the Challenge.
2. Images must be new (previously unpublished).
3. Images must be primarily set up in Carrara.
4. Images must be rendered in Carrara or in an external renderer for which there is a Carrara plug-in (e.g. LuxRenderer, Octane)
5. At least one WIP (work in progress) image must be posted to the WIP thread (this can be as simple as the scene setup, a pre/post post-work comparison or just a final image with a brief description of the process you used or as complex as modeling rooms shots, shader setups or partial scene setups or test renders)
Thank you to our generous sponsor DAZ 3D for offering the following awards to the winners:
1st Place: $100.00 towards DAZ 3D owned item(s)
2nd Place: $50.00 towards DAZ 3D owned item(s)
3rd Place: $25.00 towards DAZ 3D owned item(s)
Best Entry By A New Carrara User: $10.00 towards DAZ 3D owned item(s)
Dates to Remember
WIP Thread Opens: Saturday, 06 June 2015
Entry Thread Opens: Saturday, 11 July 2015
Entry Thread Closes/Voting Begins: Saturday, 18 July 2015 23:59:59 CST (GMT-6)
Voting Ends: Saturday, 25 July 2015 23:59:59 CST (GMT-6)
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Comments
Expanded Rules/FAQ
I'l try to clarify rules and collect the answers to any questions about the challenge in this post so people new to the thread can find it easily.
Content Use
Use of any and all content is allowed.
Used content should be credited in the Entry Thread.
Participants are encouraged to create or modify content, but it is not required.
Post-work
Post-work is allowed and welcome.
Entrants are encouraged, but not required, to explain their post-work in the WIP thread so that others can learn from it.
At least a brief description of post-work done should be included with the final entry in the Entry Thread.
Winners
The winner of the Challenge gets to pick the theme for the next Challenge and to make changes to the rules if they wish.
The winner of the Challenge will be the host for the next Challenge, but they may pass the hosting duties to any of the other winners if both
agree, or to any other member of the forum if none of the winners is able or willing to host the next Challenge.
Just a couple quick examples :)
Nothing about these formats is required - I just used some standard comic templates for fun.
I like the idea of a sequential art challenge.
I will customize a new low poly character or two. Here is the start of a space hero. First, I used the vertex modeler to outline a human with roughly the correct proportions. The face and hands have extra polygons so that I can add detail like fingernails and facial features later if I think it will matter.
The figure has not been rigged yet (which I will do natively in Carrara).
For the uniform coat, boots, helmet, eyebrows, and mustache, I selected regions of the low poly figure, copied, inserted a new vertex object, and then pasted. I then edited the result as desired for the final object which fits the low poly character nicely. The buttons, medals, and shoulder pieces are just primitives.
I have attached a screengrab of the figure in the assemble room, along with
- non-photorealistic render set to only outline mode
- photo-realistic render with default Toon III settings.
Still just playing around.
So I took the arm of the low poly guy and created a new figure for it. I just opened the low poly guy in the vertex modeler, highlighted the right forearm and hand, and copied. I the opened a new scene, inserted a vertex object, and pasted the arm. I then added some bones and saved to the object browser.
I'll create more of an instrument board, but you can see the idea starting to come together. The first panel in the upper right of the page will be of the pilot about to press the eject button, which will initiate the story on the rest of the page.
- Panel 1 (upper left), a hand about to press the eject button
- Panel 2 (upper right), a face under stress speaking - text box with some line informing radio that has the McGuffin
- Panel 3 (middle across whole page), spaceship crashing but pilot ejecting just in time
- Panel 4 (lower left), parachute landing alien jungle or badlands?
- Panel 5 (lower right), pilot crouching over pack checking on McGuffin with aliens lurking behind trees/rocks
EDIT::::
Will make more sense if the pilot speaks on the radio BEFORE pressing eject button. ;-)
Diomede
I'm still thinking and you are doing 90 mph down the road !!!!!!!
Looking good so far.
Everyone looking for post production there is FotoSketcher which is free, well worth checking out.
http://www.fotosketcher.com/
Regards, Bunyip
Dragons Breath WIP-1
An Alliance between Orcs & Dragons to combat a mercenary invasion by Mankind ........
It might seem like I am going 90 mph, but you are ahead of me already, Bunyip. Looking good.
Another useful link provides "22 panels that always work" by the iconic Wally Wood.
http://illustratinggraphicnovel.blogspot.com/2015/01/22-panels-that-always-work-by-wally-wood.html
Cool stuff so far!
It can be difficult to come up with a good theme when it's your turn and the pressure's on.
MDO2010: I'm so happy you went with the graphic novel theme. Love it! I already have mine done...in my head ;-)
Looking good all!
Wow...
Ok, I might just have to do this. I have an idea for my next storyline once the current one wraps up...
This is going to be a great theme; I can feel it. I already have a decent idea too... :)
Tidied up in Carrara, then render sent to FotoSketcher for a pencil look, followed by PSP for Title and text.
Might add a few more details yet, but am happy how this one fell into place.
Hope everyone else has their ideas fall into place as well.
Nice work there Bunyip02! Nifty tool that Fotosketcher.
I love the idea.
Not an entry nor a WIP, just something I did 5 years ago when I discovered Carrara.
I gave up because I couldn't come up with a decent scenario :-(, but I really enjoyed the learning curve.
I'll give it another try. Count me in for this challenge.
From another challenge,
Follow the WIP links form that post for having a B&W, engraving like, render
That looks very good Philemo! But my French is awful, so I have no idea what they're saying... :)
First page explains that a world suffered apocalypse, but that life ended up winning again.
Second page says that was was left of civilization fled in starships, leaving only an outpost in a protected place.
Third page shows android manning a surveillance centre spotting an incoming starship and reporting to a human officer.
The idea was to have a mix team of city bred humans and android making a long travel, first in a plane, later on foot, seeking the starship landing point, encountering several more or less primitives human civilizations on the way.
Tidied up in Carrara, then render sent to FotoSketcher for a pencil look, followed by PSP for Title and text.
Might add a few more details yet, but am happy how this one fell into place.
Hope everyone else has their ideas fall into place as well.
Nice image. I think that the lettering could stand out a bit better though. Remember that many times in comic books and graphic novels they will place text in a box, especially if the image is very busy.
Here's an example I did a couple years ago.
when i use pd howler filter\artistic\brush strokes\brush
for an image bigger then screen it only do a part of the image.
can anyone help?
so for now i use gimp filter\artistic\GIMPressionist
in carrara i make 2 toon III renders:
1. with out outline
2. with outline as white and the rest in black.
i select the background of 2 and fill black
do some color and blur thins
and color invert
the new 2 will the top layer with multiply.
few copies of 1 will get GIMPressionist bellow.
with darken only or something.
the scene i use is just the foreground with out fancy lightning yet.
file was too big for something called PHP configuration file.
how to get past it?
under 2mb lmaximum 2000 x 2000 in size. JPG, PNG, or GIF format
I had that error as well. I met the specs for the file size. I think there's something else going on. I upload lots of images and I had a problem with the dimensions even though I reduced them to under 2000 X 2000 and optimized the jpg for a lower file size. Eventually it uploaded, but I had to reduce the image dimensions to something like 1950.
The wording on the error message also seemed a bit different from what I've seen when on those rare occasions I try and upload a larger version of a render that I have accidentally selected.
Edited to add: I just noticed you mentioned under 2MB. Has this changed recently? Note my screen cap. This is the amount I have seen in the past and it seemed to hold true as I have tested the limits. ;-) BTW, I just took this screen cap. If it has changed, they need to update this.
Thanks Dada, FotoSketcher is a great tool, and when you cross some of it's effects with the effects that you can get out of other software then the imagination of whats possible is the limit. It's also got a very nice price of free which is hard to beat.
Regards, Bunyip
Thanks EP
I have redone the text with a black outline instead of white plus I also airbrushed with a light grey colour behind the text in PSP.
I then adjusted the transparency of the airbrushed areas to 50% so that it helps highlight the text but also still blends with the background.
Great seeing some of the early work people have already done, should be an excellent challenge if everyone gets involved.
Will have to consider a 2nd entry, did a bit with lighting that I have not used before in the Dragons Breath setup.
Regards, Bunyip
a smaller resampled image.
well Iocked myself out of my painting studio but luckily my laptop battery is charged...
my concept ....
K4 wakes up. On his bedroom window sill is an ominous omen. A dead rat.
He throws it in the bin and heads off to the bakery.
On the way he walks past the newsagent
He stops, gob smacked, There on the tabloid headlines he sees a photo of himself and the news that
he is now a 'legacy figure'.
But he's not going to stand for that, is he? He remembers one of the last things he bought in the Daz store was a suit of armour....
To be continued....
I have started experimenting with YAToon .
This the first sketch of one of the characters in my Novel.
It is the custom officer.
Here is another major part of my story...
This is WIP. A lot of modelling to do ...
And its not YATooned yet.
And every story needs a hero .. :cheese: