i have been working on a comic for what seems like ages, and i only just realized that i should have been posting about the progress all along. i could have used the support, but then, i did not want the pressure, either. this is the fifth chapter in a silly semi-autobiographical comic about my childhood, as it should have been. i was not planning on doing this as a CG comic, it just happened that way. ( i started using blender to create backgrounds for drawing perspective, and ended up modeling characters to place in the backgrounds, and from there, it just got out of hand… )
most of the CG work was done in blender, including the textures, with a bit of adjustment done in the gimp. ( the pencil drawn art was edited in the gimp, although i did experiment with compositing in blender. )
i am almost finished the comic, 16 pages of idiocy, without any practical purpose. i expect to compile it, and sell it as an ebook on theillustratedsection.com ( i have some other stuff on there already. i recommend a visit. webcomics need a boost, as the delivery method does not easily translate into income. )
for now, it is on my website, in various stages of completion, along with the previous ( non-CG ) chapters, and some other comics. and stuff. i have a plan for a series of instructional posts, detailing the process to create a CG comic, including process, workflow, tools, design and advice, which i will also re-purpose in expanded form, as an ebook. ( spoiler alert: i advise against it. )
sort of. i have duplicated the scene, turned on edge rendering, using a white shadeless material, to output a line layer, which i multiply on top of the colour render in the compositor. i was using ramps set to the normal values on a per texture basis, but that didn’t work so well. this technique is tricky too, especially with all the transparent planes. but the alpha values on any materials overridden by the blank white material render as transparent. and they really did not need outlines anyways.
um… yes. i just checked to creation dates of my first rendered images. september 23, 2008. this is the problem with personal projects. they can take a lot of time. a LOT of time!
thanks! it is all CG, although i was hand drawing the panels with the renders as reference, which was kinda redundant. i still like the look of the hand drawn art, but it makes more sense to just finish the models, and treat the renders as the final art.
i really like the look of your characters, i am surprised i missed them, but i have been neglecting the forums of late. too busy working, i guess. i am still in the process of rendering, and uploading. i will post again when i have them all up.
done! i now have all the panels uploaded to my website. and i finally have something i can post in the ‘Finished Projects’ forum. you can find the entire comic here:
are you using the toon shader for the outlines? the characters look like they will have a lot of personality 