Messages

2116

Crimson Flag Comic / Re: Making of a Comic

« on: November 11, 2008, 07:53:18 PM »

Thanks!  I'd say a single page takes 8-10 hours of work after I get the sketch from Tod.  I usually try to work on it a little per day, though I'll admit I'm usually distracted at the time which means it takes longer. ;)  I'd love to push the update schedule up to once per week once I get a bit faster.

2117

Random Topics / Re: Sports

« on: November 11, 2008, 07:40:49 PM »

Well, let's just say it involved me looking ridiculous and perhaps a flying golf club or two. ;)

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Crimson Flag Comic / Re: Comic Questions

« on: November 11, 2008, 07:38:42 PM »

Welcome, Bowie!

The title of Lord?  Well it should become evident what he's lord of within the coming pages.  The fact that he's a lord does mean that he owes fidelity to the Queen, though.

And Lopez has some good speculations there. ;)

2119

Random Topics / Re: Sports

« on: November 09, 2008, 10:50:13 AM »

Sport?  What's that?  Is that like where you go.. outside and do... physical things...? *scratches head quizically*

Gah!  I took a golf swing class back in college as part of a PE requirement.  I am forever scarred from the experience. ;)

Although seriously, I do enjoy hiking in the mountains on the rare occasions I can flee this abysmally flat state.  Until then I suffice with weekend dog-walks. :)

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Website and Technical Discussion / Re: Welcome!

« on: November 09, 2008, 10:39:58 AM »

Welcome!  Glad you like it so far.  Thanks for stopping by. :)

2121

Crimson Flag Comic / Making of a Comic

« on: November 02, 2008, 02:47:00 PM »

Hey folks!

Just for fun I thought I'd go through a step-by-step how I make comics.  I'm always fascinated reading how artists do their work, so thought people may be interested in how I do things.  We'll be taking a look at how strip 13 for October 30th was put together.

Tod handles the pencil sketches, so first off I need to get scene and script info to him.  Usually I will give a general description of the setting and characters, then will describe how I'd like the pages to look frame-by-frame.  Sometimes I'll draw general diagrams like I did here for Lucian's apartment.

Next comes the script for the page!

Page 13

Panel 13-1 (Left 33%)

Upper torso view of Lucian reading the scroll.  His lips are pursed in mild interest and thought, though he doesn't seem very excited about it. Simple apartment walls background.

Narrator: "Father only wrote me for two reasons.  Either to demand I return home, or announce that he would be visiting me."

Narrator: "The latter of course only when he had official business in Caerreyn.  Usually a side trip before bickering with the Queen and the Council..."

Panel 13-2 (Middle 33%)

A blank open scroll from Lucian's point of view (so that I can fill in the text).  Lucian's thumbs can be holding it if you can make it work.

Letter:

Lucian,

I will be arriving at noon on the day you receive this.  I implore you to meet me at the dock as I leave my ship, as we have much to discuss and I won't have much time before I meet with the Queen and Council.

Lord Julian Urocyon

Panel 13-3 (Right 33%)

Lucian rolls his eyes as he begins to crumple the paper.  Behind him, the messenger stands in the doorway, one hand extended as he asks his question.

Narrator: "Well, that was to the point..."

Messanger: "Do you require a response, Sir Mage?"

Lucian: "No, you may go."

Tod processes that information, then uses dark magic to produce a raw sketch of the page.



Now the fun begins! (For me, a least!)  I then cut the comic in half, convert the pencils to red, then print it out on matte photo paper.  This comic is a rare case in that it splits in half nicely.  Most of the time I will do two panels on one page, and the last on another.  The idea is to get the panels big enough to do a nice ink-over in pen.



I use Faber Castel pens and a few others to go over everything in nice thick black lines.  I used to just do this all digitally with the pen tool in Photoshop, but printing it out and doing it by hand is waaaaay faster.



After that it's just a matter of scanning it back in and piecing it back together.  Setting the brightness and contrast of the scanned image to 100% makes all the black lines stand out nicely and the red easy to erase.



Ready for coloring!

I use a Wacom tablet to color in all the areas coloring-book style.  Finally I add in text and speech balloons. 

The finished product!

2122

Crimson Flag Comic / Re: Comic Questions

« on: October 23, 2008, 09:00:48 PM »

Welcome, Kai!  Thanks for stopping by. :)

As for starting topics, however you guys want to do it is fine by me.  But yeah, we may want to keep comments in one thread unless we get more visitors.

I'll just touch on a few things since some of the points brought up will be addressed in the comic.

Unimaginable. 700. Orly? Sounds like a bit of an oxymoron. But that's only in our sense, I guess. For a society way back when, that might have been a lot.

Should give you a hint about the world population. ;)

OR....the race of Fens is simply naturally smaller than both the Grays and Reds. Since Gray foxes and Red foxes are approximately equal in size, it wouldn't make any difference until now. Fenec foxes are between 9-12 inches, which is aproximately the size of a small cat.

This is my sort of reasoning when I dream up races. :)

I also read your recent story addition, and I liked it! But are we allowed to comment on your stories here?

Thanks for reading!  Sure, but it would probably better go in the other forum for random topics.  Or you can just email me your thoughts.  I appreciate it!

2123

Game Room / Re: Virmir's Video Game Collection! (massive image show-off warning!)

« on: October 07, 2008, 08:37:56 PM »

Total gamer-girl magnet room right there, dude.  ;o)

Oh please.  As if such a person exists. ;)

Dang, yo. At least I can still take pride in the fact that I have more Sega Genesis AND Ps2 games than you do. But still....that's a LOT, LOT, LOT of old-school games. o.o. All this was so not my generation. >.<. Do you still collect old games now?

Cool!  Feel free to start your own show-off thead if you want.  We need more topics. ;)

Probably 75% of this I acquired in the past three years.  My primary focus is retro games, but I'll pick up newer stuff if it's both interesting and cheap.  I don't really collect with a goal in mind.  Mainly because it's fun to get a box of junk on Ebay or a flea market and discover gems I had no idea about.  I didn't spend a whole lot on it all either.  The NES games probably average out to $1.50 - $2.00 each.  Lots of times I'll nab a random Playstation game for under $5 or so just to check it out, etc.   It's a far less expensive hobby than messing with the modern stuff.  And more fun too. ;)

2124

Game Room / Virmir's Video Game Collection! (massive image show-off warning!)

« on: October 06, 2008, 06:46:50 PM »

Due to overwhelming demand, a vain attempt to make this forum seem active, and because it's my blasted website, I shall now bore everyone with images of my video game collection.

Bwa ha ha ha...



The primary game shelf!  Details below.





My NES games!  As of this post I have 108 (a few more are on the bottom shelf).  65 of them are my "definite keepers" shown here stacked horizontally.  The ones turned on the side are from a recent Ebay lot I haven't gotten around to cleaning/testing yet.  The duplicates and utter rubbish go on the bottom shelf. ;)





SNES games (right) and my paltry Genesis and Nintendo 64 collections.  Super Nintendo is my favorite system. :)  I have 58 of those, the 39 keepers shown here.





Bunch of empty game boxes and my Atari cartidges on the right.  Most of them are 2600 games except for a few 7800's.  Most of the Atari 2600 games I picked up for 50 cents or less. ;)  Adventure, Breakout, Indy 500, and Combat are all awesome.






Blargh.  The crap shelf.  Well not totally, as duplicate games also go here and I have a few good ones.  This is stuff I'll get rid of eventually to make room for better stuff. ;)





My disc based game collection.  There's room for more, obviously. ;)  These are newer games of course, so I'm not quite up to speed with them yet.  The top two shelves are Playstation games, which I've really grown an affinity for in the past two years.  Below that we have my tiny Dreamcast collection (plus a few CD-Rs... shhhh... ;) ) Then of course my Playstation 2 and Gamecube games.





The TV and console set up!  Television is used strictly for video games in my house mind you.  ;)





Here are the consoles lucky enough to live in the entertainment center thing.  Their positioning doesn't imply favoritism-- just the right size and cable connector locations. ;)

From top left to bottom right, Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Playstation 2, Gamecube (with Game Boy Advance player thing), and Dreamcast.  And yes, these are all hooked to the TV at once via my handy (daisy-chained) switchboxes. ;)





To the right of the television!  Details below.





The remaining three consoles and the ye olde VCR that hasn't been used in 5 years.  Nintendo 64, Nintendo Entertainment System, and the thing on the right is an Atari 7800 (which also plays 2600 games).





Nintendo Power magazines!  I have about 140 of them.  I canceled my subscription way back when they were moving from the Nintendo 64 to the Gamecube era.  I didn't get a Gamecube until last year so it was kinda pointless to continue. ;)





Here we can see my framed conglomeration of Nintendo Power posters and treasure chest. :)





Keep all my controllers in easy to reach bins. ;)





The treasure chest opens!  After the blinding golden light subsides, one can see it's just a bunch of AC adapters and extra controllers and junk. ;)





I've another treasure chest next to the couch!  Which is handy for placing my drink and veggie snack dish on during gaming sessions.  It actually isn't that dirty-- the flash made it seem that way.  You should believe what I am telling you and not what you see.





Nice sweeping view of the setup.  That's my 17" laptop in which I make the comic on, by the way.  Although I do real work in bed and not in the gaming room, of course. ;)





The second chest opens!  That's the left over innards of PS2s back from when I was buying broken ones and attempting to fix them.  We also have a Sega 32x add-on, an Atari 2600 Jr. (retired since I got my 7800) and a model 1 Sega Genesis, which really looks a whole lot cooler than the model 2 I have hooked up.





The six NES Mega Man games!  I love these, especially 2 and 3.  I got all of them in my childhood except for number 5, which was a recent ebay purchase to complete the set. :)





Final Fantasy games!  Final Fantasy 3 on the SNES is my favorite game of all time, followed by number 2. :)  Don't have any newer than number 9 yet.





Game Boys!  Lots of good memories with the brick in the upper left.  Thrown in are my Pokemon games, which of course are the second reason the Gameboy is awesome. (The first of course being Tetris.)


Well blast... that's about enough for now.  Hope these pictures were at least somewhat enjoyable. :)

2125

Crimson Flag Comic / Re: Comic Questions

« on: October 06, 2008, 11:03:59 AM »

Hey Xim!  Thanks for stopping by. ;)

Obviously vulpines are the superior choice when it comes to artistic expression! (Heh...)

2126

Crimson Flag Comic / Re: Comic Questions

« on: October 04, 2008, 11:08:46 AM »

Cool.  Thanks for stopping by. :)

2127

Crimson Flag Comic / Re: Comic Questions

« on: September 30, 2008, 08:42:50 PM »

Not a huge part of the story per se, but one of the major differences between the Reds and the Grays.  And differences between the Reds and the Grays are the driving force behind events to come. ;)

It's sort of monotheistic in the sense that the Lady of the Stars is the primary deity, but there are other lesser spirits that are also worshiped to an extent.  To the Reds, these spirits are servants of the Lady.  To the atheist Grays, they are just other life forms with a highly magical life force.  Other races have a different take, such as the shamanistic Swifts that worship only the spirits and not the Lady.

And to add to the fun, there are two takes on worshiping the Lady of the Stars.  One that is tolerant of other beliefs, and one that is fanatical.

More information forthcoming. :)

2128

Crimson Flag Comic / Comic Questions

« on: September 20, 2008, 01:39:25 PM »

Yep.  I intend to have everything explained through the course of the story, but giving info like this on the side can't hurt. :)

There are four ranks.  Level 1's are the initiates, Level 2's are learned and competent, Level 3's you do NOT want to cross in a dark alley, and Level 4's are the grand masters.  There are only one or two Level 4's in the entire city and only a handful of 3's.

All Reyn can learn magic, but most aren't talented enough to pass the level 1 rank.

(Edit: Thought this discussion deserved its own thread, so split it out. :))

2129

Crimson Flag Comic / Comic Questions

« on: September 19, 2008, 11:41:26 PM »

I actually commission the pencil sketches from Tod.  Then I ink, color, add the text, etc myself.  I can usually get a page done in a week, but I set up the ten day schedule to accommodate for writing page scripts, website work, etc.

Scripts do take me a lot of time because I'm a dreadfully slow writer.  And you're right.  The beginning and end are usually the easier parts. The meat is the tough part. :)

Fens correspond to fennecs in our world. ;)

And... page 9 is up! Yay!

2130

Crimson Flag Comic / Comic Questions

« on: September 19, 2008, 09:31:19 PM »

OMG, that wiki is fugly  . It looks like the website of some open source project :P (content before design). I hope you touch it a bit.

Ha ha.  That's actually MediaWiki, the same thing Wikipedia uses.  I didn't want it to look like every single other MediaWiki site, so I changed the skin to the only other one that looked decent.  You want to see "content before design", take a look at the other skins provided. ;)

I kinda like it, but I may tweak it a bit.  You can actually go to the user panel and change the skin back for your personal viewing if you want though.  However accounts are disabled and I'm not sure guests can do that.

Although, I have noticed one very, very disturbing fact. Why is it that all of us seem to create Fox races that have names that look sooooo familiar??? I mean, our two races' names are freegin ANAGRAMS of each other!!! >.<!!! Reyn(Yours)~Ryne(Mine:"Rye-nuh") CREEEEEEEPY.....

Ha ha!  It's not too creepy.  I simply derived the name from Renard, which means fox anyway. I'm sure most people's thought process is similar. ;)

I look forward to when you get your wiki finished. Are you working on another story, by any chance?

I have a few written stories outlined, but I write sporadically and I'm not sure when I'll get around to writing them.  The comic is my main focus. :)