1069 replies to this topic

[Nightingale]

Flint Ironstag! Big McLargehuge! Smoke Manmuscle!
(I'mexcitedtoseemusclesyesindeed. *staaaaaaaaare*)

I'm in the same boat as Wolf, I think; if you hadn't posted the list of main Gens before I would have no idea... well I still have no idea, ha. IT'S PiNEAPPLE DELiGHT, I KNOW IT! *dragged away*

Sorry for spamming up your topic with weird. I really am too excited. XD

[TRiPPY]

Hahahaha, glad you like XD

I have spent ALL (and i mean since i woke up at 7.30am) DAY. ALL DAY RAAAGHHHH. Fighting online with technical bullhoohoo about non compatible Vista art programs.

To save anyone ever going through what i did today:

Comicworks- English- V1.5 - WILL NOT WORK ON VISTA. It will ONLY work on Vista if you have the installer CD and follow the manual instalation instructions found on their japanese website (in japanese). And even then it still doesnt work fully.

Comicworks V2MAX- Works if you can import it but you have to manual install with JP instructions and then use it in Japanese text- Wheeeeee.

Manga Studio Debut 3.0 didn't work PROPERLY on Vista (pen tool was like using a retarded crayon) until some very nice person on Sweatdrop's forums told me to disable my wacoms PC extra functions... thing. I loaded it up and now it actualy works on Vista.

HUZZAH.

It was that or get a second hand laptop with XP on it. And I'm glad we found the cheap alternative!


URGH. So much of a headache from all that. Vista is so over complicated for what its supposed to do. Advice to anyone thinking of using Vista. Dont until about 4 years down the line when all the programs you need actualy catch up with patches!!

Now I'm off to eat something and then figure out how to actualy use Mangastudio. Because its really confusing after using comicworks...


Win.

[DiGi Valentine]

Win, not quite. It seems we're still having troubles even when it is working. At this rate, we're considering getting rid of the entire black and white deal and going for full-colour graphic novels instead. There's no denying the fact that this comic is all about different colours anyway so we may aswell just let TRiPPY do what she does best and make this thing in colour. It will be a bit more work but at least TRiP knows what she's doing with it. It is what she's talented at. It will look so much more fresh with colour than if we had to make it black and white anyway. We want the opening issue to blow you away, not some watered down toned version.

The price may be a bit higher than usual but in the long run you're going to be getting the best of her work. It'll be worth it. I promise you.

[Wolf]

I gotta say, I've waited long enough that it doesn't matter TOO much how much each issue costs. I'm totally buying it anyway. XD

Edit: You know, if I weren't going bald, once Lynne gets famous, I could cosplay Bruce. Maybe I'll get one of those hair restorations... and laser eye surgery... JUST so I can cosplay Bruce. I'll do it. >_> Don't think I won't.

[Meggiemaccat]

Oh god, the fuzzy wristband. XDDDD

[Wrenreele]

I gotta say, I've waited long enough that it doesn't matter TOO much how much each issue costs. I'm totally buying it anyway. XD

Edit: You know, if I weren't going bald, once Lynne gets famous, I could cosplay Bruce. Maybe I'll get one of those hair restorations... and laser eye surgery... JUST so I can cosplay Bruce. I'll do it. >_> Don't think I won't.

A wig and contacts might be cheaper . Unless you want to become A REAL LIFE BRUCE, then that's a different story.

I really want to know what color he is!

[TRiPPY]

Hmmmm to be honest I'm really really at a confusing point right now. Part of me wants to do a color comic because it's what im familiar with, but that would mean i couldnt afford to be lazy and cut corners with pattern tones, i'd have to draw them. But color costs so much for a single comic D: But at the same time i wouldn't be resting my laurels on Lulu because i want to pitch to Image eventualy. And all their comics seem to be color.

Either that or stick with black and white Mangastudio tones... but the program (even though it works now) is horrible for me to use >_<. It makes hand drawn lineart import like poo and i have NO IDEA how to use the tones there. Such a confusing program T_T I dont understand the page sizes or anything.

Driving me mental because i don't know what to do.
Then i thought, maybe i shouldt call it a 'comic' but more of a sort of illustrated book or something... urge to hand paint rising.. but that's not very mangaesque is it? I want to do something unconventional not just copy the hoards of mangaka out there doing the same thing, because they do black and white better than i'll ever do and i excell at color and traditional stuff.

Head hurts, mgh, not sure what path to take. Will spend today mulling over my options before begining anything solid. Need to keep reminding myself that people do all sorts of comics and it doesn't matter if you dont follow the 'manga romg' guidelines. I should just draw and be done with it without stressing so much...

[Wrenreele]

Hmmmm to be honest I'm really really at a confusing point right now. Part of me wants to do a color comic because it's what im familiar with, but that would mean i couldnt afford to be lazy and cut corners with pattern tones, i'd have to draw them. But color costs so much for a single comic D: But at the same time i wouldn't be resting my laurels on Lulu because i want to pitch to Image eventualy. And all their comics seem to be color.

I'd have to say, if you're going to trying to be published under a company that has colored comics, you might want to do that, so when pitching to them it shows them that you can do what they desire. But I do understand what you mean with the price and everything.
Besides, why be lazy? Wouldn't you like to see your comics as something you put everything into? That'd be something to be proud of.

[KiloTango]

Not everything Image does is in colour, so don't worry about that. And don't worry about being 'Manga OMG'. I mean you're not japanese for a start, and it doesn't even sound like you're trying to pitch it at Tokyo Pop. Just make it how you want.

Doing stuff with screentones isn't lazy, good black and white work takes time and effort. And it's not just a manga thing any more, indy people use it too.

(It's also worth keeping in mind that if you keep the lineart it's not like you can't colour stuff later if you decide it would look better. Or even do a few pages both ways and see how it pans out in terms of time and effort and results.)

Your colour stuff is decent but I've always liked how you did B+W comics.

[TRiPPY]

Thanks for the input guys, i got over my man-strop about an hour ago and started really TRYING to find good tutorials on the basics on Mangastudio. Part of me wants to maybe make it both now... is it possible to do color tones? I know that sounds weird but my dilema is it's a comic about colors and its in black and white, which sure is an awesome challenge to depict things with gestures and text or whatever, but some things can only be conveyed with color in my story.

I like the small amount of black and white stuff i done too, which is why it's driving me mad that i can't just jump into using this program >_< I know every computer thing has a learning curve but this thing makes me pull my hair out.

My original idea was to have the waking world in much muted grey colors and the dream world all technicolored and mad... but i think I'm being spoilt by choice here. Whatever i do i'll definately keep scans of the original inks so i could possibly do alternative color version techniques afterwards.

I just found some good tutorials here:
http://www.mangatuto...angastudio4.php

which is about as basic as i can find to just get my lineart onto a page.

I wonder what my art would look like if i got a hold of traditional tones and laid them on top of watercolors or something?

Maybe i should do one page in all options and then choose a type of way to go...

And lol i know black and white work isn't lazy (hell no it can be horrific XD ), i mean when it comes to stuff like pasting a premade tone image into a panel, posting in an entire building with one click and so on... that's harder to do in color XD Not that i will! >_> but i know a lot of manga people get other artists to do backgrounds for them. I'm going to be trying my hardest to pendraw all my backgrounds that have solid objects like buildings and so on.

And don't worry about being 'Manga OMG'.

That's one of the things that gets to me a lot, some folk can get really snobby if you dare to deviate a little in style or whatever in comics. I have no intention of pitching to TokyoPop to be honest, i never have, I'd rather just do a comic i feel comfortable with and see where it goes, rather than trying to win some kind of competition. I know RSOM can give new artists good promotion and that's great, but it's... well it reminds me of popstars who enter Xfactor really. I'm not into trying to win something, just draw.
My style i primarily draw in is anime style (i blame sonic) because it's the style i like most, but with this comic i want to incorporate a lot of different ways i can actualy draw that i don't show off much. Something i adored about the Sandman series was how they'd get different artists in to do stories and their styles would vary greatly. The books of magic issues they done that featured the artist who draws Rupert the Bear inspired the hell out of me with those lovely watercolors and inks of his. I want to try things like mixed media, abstract stuff, all sorts of things to portray how each person dreams. So i guess people would dream in different styles too. Some people dream in black and white XD I know comics are mostly about the art, but i sort of want mine to be a carrier for the story i think.

[TRiPPY]

edit- wait how about i do the waking world in black and white/greyscale tones and the dreamworld in full color? That'd be kinda striking.

[KiloTango]

That could work nicely. Powers does some great colour use where the really really cop-drama parts of in muted colours but when superheroes show up it goes all bight and primary. That whole series is stunning for mood and colour.

A bw/colour split like you're suggesting could be really striking, especially if there ends up being some bleed between them. Hell, if people 'wake up' like they did in the old version, maybe their eyes become coloured once they do or something.

RE: Coloured tones, that could be cool to play with, you could colourise sections using gradient maps perhaps, or just layers set to 'colour', or turn the toned image into a layer mask and just painting the colours you want into it. Or you could do tones and have small elements of flat colour, which could also be very effective. I would really advise against just laying black tones over/under normally coloured art. For why, just take a look at the Witchblade manga (though god, don't actually buy it.) The screens of black dots deaden the colours and just look bad. You could pull it off with really muted colours, but you've never really been about muted colours.

Changing style from dream to dream could be cool too, like how Sandman does it sometimes (Particularly in The Dolls House).

[TRiPPY]

X3 *has a decided way to color set in her brain now*


eeeeeeeeeeeee I'm excited! Now i can get back to what i was doing instead of stressing over technical stuff!

*foams at the mouth and runs off*

[DiGi Valentine]

Go do what you do best, booboo. *waves a TRiPPY flag*

[Wolf]

I might do a wig, but I actually have the hair color to do Bruce... as for the contacts - sweet mercy, I can't touch my eyeballs let alone put something plastic onto my eyeball and wear it around all day. I'd die. DIE!

And TRiPPY, I'm really excited about seeing this comic, more and more each time you describe it. I really wouldn't mind if it cost more, because to me, it's worth it to have it in my hands. I really want to see you do this exactly how you want to do it in your style, with your attitude, and your spirit. Ever since you cut out all the other nonsense and just made this your thing, you've been putting out some amazing stuff at about a million times the speed you used to when you were trying to please other people. Now that you're pleasing yourself, you're pleasing more people than you ever did before. ^^ I'm really proud of you, and I'm looking forward every day to being able to read your comic for myself. No matter what, you should never give up or try to change your vision to conform to what someone else wants. You already see it best your way. ; ) <3

[DiGi Valentine]

TRiP was explaining her idea to me when i got home from college and i can honestly say it sounds really quite awesome. Looking forward to this. ^____^

[Jof]

I think the black and white waking world, and full colour dreamscape would work brilliantly. And the "bleeing" into the waking world would work quite cool, with the ey colurs or something, like an aura.

If it's this idea you've gone with, then I think it was an excellent choice. Knowing you though you've probably thought of something better .

[Feniiku]

Trippy dear, the more I hear about this comic the more I know that you're gonna make it work, no matter how much grief it tries to give you at times with awkward programs. It's great to hear that you've got a colourmethod settled down in your head, and I can't wait to see it XD

Remind me to commission you one day XD

[Meggiemaccat]

Oooooh, new mystery color technique! O.O ..... WTF happened to your avatar, TRiPPY? XDDDD

[MidgitLD]

OHNOEZ EBAL DRUNK PSO SCOTWOMAN! Flee for your lives!

[Maki Izumii]

Hehe, I've actually got a comic idea at the moment where one character is pure black and white and the rest is colour.. or vice versa, I havn't decided yet.
The idea of eye colours once they 'wake up' is a lovely idea, but also I think the parts that are set in reality could maybe not have a black and white look to it, but perhaps a sepia tone, which would work quite well (think of movies that have done this - the wizard of oz comes to mind here)

[Handy Candy]

MangaStudio is the worst program in the history of ever. XD;; Though I have heard the new full version isn't as bad. ComicWorks is SOOOOOO much better. Of course, that's just my opinion. ComicWorks is just so east to use, and mangastudio has all kinda restrictions and isn't nearly as easy.

PS. Bruce immediately made me think of Aaron XD;

[Meggiemaccat]

<offtopic>*squeals her head off* RULERSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!! 8DDDD *glomps ComicWorks and rushes off to read more information on it* I was asking for MangaStudio (not Pro) this past Christmas, my mom wasn't able to get it, but I guess that's lucky of me! *horrible with non-intuitive programs*

<edit>Oyyyy... it's so much more expensive, though. X.X; *decides to stick with asking for plain old Manga Studio* </edit>

Oh, so that's what the avatar's about. Thank ya for clearing that up. XD </offtopic>

*clears throat* Anyweh, forgot to mention in my last two posts that Brucey looks rather neat, and in a mellow sort of way that (to me) is unexpected of someone so muscular. He gives off more an air of refinement than most muscle-bound fiction characters I've read (which is very few, admittedly).

[Wolf]

PS. Bruce immediately made me think of Aaron XD;

It's clearly because I'm so awesome. Or... maybe 'cause I have blond hair. XD I should get myself a cool fuzzy wristband and a pink button to wear. That'll let the ladies know that I'm taken (or not interested).

[DiGi Valentine]

Bruce was modeled around a character out of a cheap American TV show from the 90's called "Thunder in Paradise", staring Hulk Hogan and some other guy that i can't remember the name of. The other guy who i can't remember the name of was actually what started Bruce's design off. And we wanted Bruce to look like a bit of a stereotypical ..er... 'jock' too because it magnifies his kinda story.
Originally, in the very early hours of his design being thought up, Bruce was envisioned with brown hair but we changed it to blonde because at the time we only had Falda with blonde hair and Andreanna's concept sketches had not been drawn up yet. We had a few characters with dark or colourful hair already so we decided to make Bruce blonde instead to balance out the character roster appearance a bit.

Once his character fleshes out in the story i'm pretty sure he'll have a fan following.

[TRiPPY]

Bruce also has an air of my little brother to him, but how my brother actualy IS in RL not how i draw him as a little kid all the time. But don't tell him that, he'll get an ego

Bruce starts off as a nasty stereotype and by the end of it is a changed man.... lol


As for what program I'm using now, teeheehee, I took all the high res screentones from mangastudio and imported them into photoshop, so now i dont have to mess around with that horrible program. Still wish Vista ran comicworks tho. Over a thousand screentones to play with now in prgram i can actualy understand.... mmmmm. *bought Mangastudio a beer, had her way and left without without giving her number*


As for where the unveiled dreamers come from/live here's a list

Falda- Sweden
Oliver- England
Emily- Australian origin/moves around
Zel & Heather- England
Adam- America
DeZ- Scotland
Madison- Canada
Andreanna- Germany
Priya- India origin/lives in America
Tatsuo- Japan
Bruce- America

Real captain planet cast going on here *snortlaugh*

[The wise Kitsune]

Bruce looks like he should be on American Gladiators. (But I bet he's a big softie)

[Wolf]

Bruce would pwnz all of the American Gladiators! D: Heheh. I dunno, when we start reading the comic, I'll probably start off not liking him. XD But if he changes, I might come to like him better.

And oh em gee. Captain Planet, he's a hero. You should do a spoof comic one day where they all combine their powers or something and make Captain Rainbow to battle the evil black-and-white or something equally goofy. Heh. Combination of Captain Planet and Rainbow Brite.

Speaking of Rainbow Brite, Bruce needs a pony. He looks like he should have a pony.

[MidgitLD]

Lynne... the fact that the new Blue dreamer comes from Canada gives me the horrible mental image of the old version of Blue from the old story prancing around drunk off her duff singing the Canadian national anthem. XD;;;

[TRiPPY]

..... *shudder*


In other news I've still not recieved my proof copy of the Sapphire diary yet, it should probably turn up on Monday or something. Spending my time getting comic pages drafted, issue 0 nearly completely debugged by DiGi lol. He'll wake me up when im trying to get to sleep to point out glaring plotholes which i try to remember to fix in the morning XD; He mentioned something lastnight and im trying to remember wtf it was... oh yeah.

Really starting to enjoy this now. I mean i was before but passing bits of paper to DiGi and seeing his face light up as he reads the story bit by bit is so rewarding <3 Hope i can do the same for you guys ^^

[DiGi Valentine]

Lol, i love it when a plan comes together. ... did the A-Team use that phrase? XD;;

But, yus. It has been a productive week so far in terms of the Engelbaum comic. We've managed to correct any errors so it flows correctly and doesn't jump from one point to another. After all, this promo-issue is to set the background story for the entire thing. It needs to explain things well. TRiPPY's doing an amazing job with the characters speech. Their personalties are coming through perfectly. It's so cool seeing this thing being pieced together.

[Wrenreele]

If you don't mind me asking, how do you work with languages? I mean do Falda, Andreanna and Tatsuo speak English? Or is what they say just translated into English? I was just wondering since they all come from generally non-English speaking places. Also, in the dreamworld (?) do all the Gens speak one language, or how does that work?

[TRiPPY]

That's a really good question actually, I mean Tatsuo can't speak a word of English (and doesn't intend on learning either lol)(he's a fiesty highschool dropout) so he tends to speak gibberish around english speaking characters, having his friend Kano (who CAN speak English) translate for him back and forth (to amusing results). But for the sake of not having unreadable speechbubbles all the time when characters are by themselves or speaking to someone who can understand them they appear to speak english. At first i was going to do 'subtitles' but i dont think that would work so well in a comic. Luckily i have people native to those languages to help me with fluent speechbubbles when i need them, but it's mostly for comedy effect XD Falda speaks english anyway, and Andreanna speaks both (because she's smart like that).

At one point Emily ends up in a place where she doesn't even KNOW what language people are talking (turns out to be french lol) so she just gets gibberish and keeps to herself so she doesnt have to talk to anyone. She has a problem with street signs however and spends a lot of time stealing dictionaries XD;;


As for the Gens, yup they speak one language. Dreams sort of unify their speech. For the sake of not appearing like a giant nerd (and creating Klingon lol) they speak English... but it's made obvious that they dont actualy talk english. (ie) if my comic was ever translated it would appear in the readers native lingo.

[Meggiemaccat]

*knows she's going to be torn to pieces for mentioning this comic, or at least objected to, but thinks it a good enough solution to suggest* Megatokyo puts <these> around translated-to-english text. Although... not sure what you're going to do if you've got two characters not speaking english not knowing the same language trying to talk to each other; using multiple bracket types would probably become confusing, trying to keep track of them all. X-x; {Like this} [and this] (and this).

[Nightingale]

It's not the only one; ElfQuest and Heroes both use <pointy brackets> to indicate another language, usually with an editor's comment saying which language it was "translated" from. That could probably work in this situation, although I think if the scene has a translating character present then it'd be cool to see the actual language they're speaking. *le shrug* I guess we'll have to wait and see though.

[KiloTango]

Yeah, I've seen the pointy brackets thing done in a lot of stuff.

[TRiPPY]

oooooh never seen that before, sounds like a cool idea hmmmm

Got lots of work done yesterday because our router died in a thunderstorm D: Got a new one that actualy works.
SO in a nutshell issue 0 is complete in terms of script and pencilinings. Some of the stuff I'm drawing again, other stuff I'm tracing because i liked the doodles. So right now I'm inking.
Went out today to take photos of trees from weird angles XD people on the bus must've thought i was crazy haha.

Really really pleased i got the first issue in concrete form ^^ Got to do ACTSHUNNNN scenes too! Wheeeee!

[Murasaki Doku]

I can't waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaait!

Do you think you'll have some "sample pages" available online so I can show my parents what I'm buying?

[Meggiemaccat]

It's not the only one; ElfQuest and Heroes both use <pointy brackets> to indicate another language, usually with an editor's comment saying which language it was "translated" from. That could probably work in this situation, although I think if the scene has a translating character present then it'd be cool to see the actual language they're speaking. *le shrug* I guess we'll have to wait and see though.

I agree; seeing the original language with a translator present to tell us what he's saying (and nervously attempt to censor any bad language) would be cool. ^-^

[Maki Izumii]

Tatsuo can't speak a word of English (and doesn't intend on learning either lol)(he's a fiesty highschool dropout) so he tends to speak gibberish around english speaking characters, having his friend Kano (who CAN speak English) translate for him back and forth (to amusing results).

ahaha, you totally got that from Hiro/Ando in Heroes, didn't you? XD That sounds like it should be really interesting, either way.