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rpgmgames · 6 years ago

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November’s Featured Game: Shooty and the Catfish

DEVELOPER(S): Daniel ENGINE: RPGMaker MV GENRE: Adventure, RPG WARNINGS: Course Language, Gore SUMMARY: Shooty and the Zaat are a dynamic duo solving monstrous mysteries!

Play the demo here!

Our Interview With The Dev Team Below The Cut!

Introduce yourself! Sure! So my name is Daniel, I guess technically I am an animator. I started out making flash cartoons around 2000 just for fun and became a professional animator in the advertising space around 2007. I have been working in media ever since, both in studios and as a contractor working under the Visitors From Dreams label which is also the label I use for my game development. I started dabbling with RPG Maker in around 2002 but I never got very far. Once I got into the media industry I wanted to pick it up again but with Mac being what almost all my work was done on, at home and in studio I didnt get the chance to actually get into it properly again until MV released, infact I was so excited that I purchased MV the day it dropped and immediately begun development on my first title Flatwoods. Ironically Shooty and the Catfish was developed on a PC, but I digress.

What is your project about? What inspired you to create your game initially? *Daniel: Shooty and the Catfish is set up pretty simply. The 2 lead characters, Shooty and Zaat run a sort of monster investigation unit out of their home. They get calls to different desitinations to deal with different monster problems. I really wanted it to feel like it was set up in a similar way to a lot of cartoons from the 80s, where every episode had a pretty similar but still managed to feel like a little self contained adventure. I have thrown in some little elements of an larger narrative but they are light until the final episode. Originally the series was pitched to Frederator for Cartoon Hangover, it got a little ways into early development but then Youtube changed its algorythm and animation on the platform became a struggle and the project was dropped. I didnt want to waste all the work I had done on the concepts and so I eventually tried to find a way to work them into a game, its taken me quite a few years to get as far as I have with development, but I would be even further back if I had tried to animate it all alone. I created Flatwoods to try and get a small project out, you know, to get some experience with the engine, little did I know how much more I had to learn!

How long have you been working on your project? *Daniel: I pitched Shooty and the Catfish back in 2013 from memory, but it didn't start to take shape as the project you currently see until the last 12 months. In that sense I am incredibly happy with how quickly the game has come together.

Did any other games or media influence aspects of your project? *Daniel: So many things have influenced my work its not funny... Where do I even start? Shooty and Zaat have a bit of a Finn and Jake thing going since when the project was originally pitched to Frederator and thats what they were looking for at the time. Resident Evil 4 (the closest any game has ever come to perfection imo) was the inspiration for the games ammo based combat system. Demons Souls originally derailed the project when I tried to emulate its non linear hub based design (you will notice the demo takes place on a single island instead), that created all kinds of balancing issues though so thats all been stripped back and is what lead to the decision to make the game episodic instead. One element from Demons Souls that remains in the game is a diverse mix of linear and looping level designs when it comes to mapping. The game also features towns that have layouts based on unused maps from the Pokemon GS 97 Spaceworld demo since they never made it into any of the actual games in the series. Pokemon GS also influenced the games visuals. I'm not a big RPG guy, but I played a hell of a lot of Pokemon growing up and Gen 2 is still my favorite. Trying to get MV to emulate the limitations of the Game Boy Color was quite the hurdle, I still cant believe I got it working as well as it is. I also have a lot of cameos from other peoples RPGM games, so there's that. Its a big ol' mixing pot of ideas and inspirations.

Have you come across any challenges during development? How have you overcome or worked around them? *Daniel: Countless, the biggest challenge is always scope though. I originally wanted the game to be like 3 hours long tops, now its well in excess of that and that's before I have even put in meaningful NPC interactions. That's why I have decided to break the game up into episodes, each one should be around an hour which is much more my jam. I don't have a lot of free time so I tend to gravitate towards games that are tight and short, I think that's why I am so determined to keep this game in nice manageable chunks. Now that the game is shorter I don't need levelling so I am starting to tone down the RPG elements. One change always leads to another, but episode one is getting damn close to completion. I say this before I have even had the chance to announce the game's going to be episode on my own blog, ha ha. Episode 1 January, The Great Spore Chore! Keep your eyes out for it!

Have any aspects of your project changed over time? How does your current project differ from your initial concept? *Daniel: As mentioned above a lot has changed, I feel the biggest change was when I tried to move the game from being episodic into one adventure after playing through a bunch of other RPGM games for ideas, it all started to feel a bit aimless and the storytelling techniques I had planned when it was episodic weren't translating well as the game progressed. So I guess now the game is episodic again we have come full circle! So many ideas seemed good on paper but ended up not really being fun or adding anything in practice. Oh yeah, and the transition from Game Boy green to color was a big one based on feedback from the demo. Some people were finding it hard to tell what elements were interactable, doors in particular, I hope that color has helped minimize that issue. Key items will also have an animation on them so they are hard to miss. I'm not a fan of hunting for items in big maps, it's certainly not something I want to subject people too in my own projects.

What was your team like at the beginning? How did people join the team? If you don’t have a team, do you wish you had one or do you prefer working alone? *Daniel: This project has had a few key people involved. Outside of myself I have worked with 2 musicians. One is an old school friend who did music for my animations back in the early 2000's. He has contributed a bunch of really cool EDM which makes up most of the games OST. On top of that there is also a number of optional bosses (one per episode) that have music composed by Secret Agent Ape who worked on Soma Spirits and a bunch of other upcoming games. I have been really lucky to get to work with such rad dudes.

What is the best part of developing the game? *Daniel: I love designing enemy battlers, my process usually involves me drawing a weird shape, sticking some eyes and a big goofy nose on it and trying to come up with a stupid pun to use for a name while listening to bands like Yes or Klaatu. It's bliss. I have a lot of people ask me why I have limited myself in terms of resolution and color palette, and it comes down to one of the important things I told myself when I got into game making as a hobby was that I would stop if it ever started to feel like work. I spend my days doing heavy visual effects and compositing, sometimes doing complex character animation. I want to keep that stuff as far away from my game development as possible. Ironically working within the incredibly restrictive limitations of the Game Boy has ended up being incredibly liberating and keeps things feeling fun as opposed to feeling like more of what I do all day to pay the bills.

Do you find yourself playing other RPG Maker games to see what you can do with the engine, or do you prefer to do your own thing? *Daniel: I always enjoy checking out demo's of upcoming games. Both Heartbeat and Virgo and the Zodiac's demos blew me away from a technical standpoint on the MV front. I still find it hard to believe those demos were made with the same engine I'm using. I guess it really shows what can be done when the engine is in capable hands. I wish I had more time to play actual full releases, I mean Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass just came out and I have no idea when, if ever I will have the free time to play it because its such a commitment. I feel like I am missing out on some great stuff.

Which character in your game do you relate to the most and why? (Alternatively: Who is your favorite character and why?) *Daniel: I guess I relate to different characters in different ways. Slim Grim is the one who hands out assignments to Shooty and Zaat, he is pretty much done with life, over people and the world itself, I think thats something we all have a bit of inside of us. Shooty is a very positive individual, his solutions to most problems is a bullet with a smile, and I think theres a bit of that in all of us as well. Zaats a bit of a cheeky smart arse, so I guess in a lot of ways I am most like her as a person. One of the episodes also features Gerkinman who is and has been a sort of self insert in my work since 2001 so I guess technically I relate to him most... ha ha, but thats cheating!

Looking back now, is there anything that regret/wish you had done differently? *Daniel: I wish I had done a better job keeping the project focused. I feel like a good few months were spent making the game bigger in ways it didnt need to be.

Once you finish your project, do you plan to explore the game’s universe and characters further in subsequent projects, or leave it as-is? *Daniel: All of my games are loosely connected, taking place in the same world. None of them tie directly into each other, im not big on the cinematic universe concept that seems so popular right now, but events in my previous 2 releases and the 5 planned episodes of Shooty and the Catfish are loosely connected in ways people who take the time to look can find. They are also tied into around 17 years worth of animated shorts I have released. I have no plans on stopping now!

What do you look most forward to upon/after release? *Daniel: Well, theres quite a few things... Mapping for all 5 episodes (outside of towns) is complete, so when Episode 1 is done I will be immediately rolling into Episode 2. I am aiming to have an episode out every 2 months which should be doable with so much of the game already finished. I also have a couple of short films I am looking forward to being able to invest some time into, things have slowed down in recent months due to freelance but I am eager to get to animate some of my own work again. I am also eager to see the comments sections on Lets Plays. Both Flatwoods and Hazmat got a bit of Lets Play action and a couple of those have some pretty substantial comment sections. The amount of theories people try to put together for these projects is staggering. I could never write something as entertaining as what the speculations in these comment sections contain in terms of what my games mean, it cracks me up and I find it quite flattering that random people have put more thought into elements of my stories then I have. Makes me want to keep things deliberately vague just to encourage more of it. Lastly I will be releasing all the build files for the project so if anyone wants to make fangames or whatever they have direct access to all of the core files used to build the games. Im a big fan of the concept of a mod community, and while RPGM doesnt exactly allow for that, id love to see people do similar things to my work as whats been done with a lot of LISA fan games.

Is there something you’re afraid of concerning the development or the release of your game? *Daniel: I don't know about being afraid exactly. I am curious about how my business model for the episodic releases will go over. I was planning on releasing them at $1 an episode and $4 for the bundle when it's all complete. I know some people think thats still charging too much, but some people have also told me im not charging enough and that it lowers price standards accross the board for RPGM content. The way I see it if I can cover the costs of Steam and the music I commissioned then I've done alright since this project was for fun, but that's just me.

Do you have any advice for upcoming devs? *Daniel: Just keep at it and set yourself small goals. If your working on a big project break it up into manageable sections. Take things one map at a time, ya know what I mean?

Question from last month's featured dev @overcast-rpg: If you could choose an RPG Maker gamedev to release another game; which one would you choose and why? *Daniel: Oh that's an easy one, The Catamites. I love Space Funeral, it's easily my favorite game made in the engine, and while The Catamites has developed countless games since its release, they have all been in other engines. It would be fun to see them return to the engine after all they have learned about game design since Space Funeral's release and to see what they would do.

We mods would like to thank Daniel for agreeing to our interview! We believe that featuring the developer and their creative process is just as important as featuring the final product. Hopefully this Q&A segment has been an entertaining and insightful experience for everyone involved!

Remember to check out Shooty and the Catfish if you haven’t already! See you next month!

- Mods Gold & Platinum

#rpg maker #rpg maker games #indie games #free games #pixel games #shooty and the catfish #games #gotm #game of the month #november #november 2018 #inktober 2018 #gotm 2018 #game making #game development

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oshenikawdesign702 · 2 years ago

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New Design Concepts

Here is my new design concepts:

I redesigned the painting from my previous post of the women with a lotus flower painted on the Sigiriya Cave. These women were depicted as supernatural beings they are portrayed with flowers to shower upon humans below. They were intended to evoke a sense of wonderment and to project the opulence and grandeur of Kasyapa the all-powerful god-king. They are a celebration of beauty. Some say they are celestial nymphs carrying flowers to shower upon kings and mortals below. Others suggest that they are queens and concubines of Kasyapa’s harem.

One things for sure is that these paintings are fascinating and show the Sri Lankan art form, from ancient times. I have always loved the way these artists would create these women in such a way that is so distinct to Sri Lanka.

Going back to these concepts, I changed up my whole layout. I changed my brand name from it being basic to having a bit more style to it. Making the "S" and the "A" larger and having that underneath the image. This looks much better and is one of the first things a buyer would see after the illustration.

With the flavours, I am debating weather to have it on the main label or on the label that would be wrapped around the neck of the bottle?

Colour wise, I think this nude peach/brown is really nice is suits the skin tone top of the drawing and doesn't drown the image. I do want to try a darker background though and even add some floral patterns too. I did add a round floral pattern in the background in few of the concepts with a low opacity. I think it looked good but a bit too light when I printed it. But I was thinking to have that pattern used on the label that will go over the cap or around the neck of the bottle, which will also be foiled.

Back to the illustration, since the women is wearing gold jewellery I want to foil that or possibly deboss it in gold. I am also not sure if I should foil the brand name or not, but thats something I will do once i get back to uni. I will foil the borders too.

With the shape of the label, I placed the design in three different sizes. One was my original size was more square like. This shape felt too boring and. The second one with a rectangle/square shape with a dome placed in the middle. This label shape felt like it was depicting a temple with its dome shape in my eyes. The third one I made it longer. I asked my friends outside of uni what their thoughts were on my old label designs size wise, and the all said it could be longer.

My next step is to start and finish my other to designs and get those sussed out so when I comeback I can try foiling and prototyping.

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archived--hell · 7 years ago

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1, 2, 17, honestly all of them if you’re up to it

1 - already answered

2. Do you have a personal favourite among your OCs?

L O R D T jupiter fuck man got damn id die for jupiter

3. Have you ever adopted a character or gotten a character from someone else?

i have adopted characters before, but ive never done anything with them, and i have received characters Back from people but besides that nah

4. A character you rarely talk about?

HI PLEASE I BEG OF YOU ASK ABOUT THE GODS PLE AS E IM DYING

5. If you could make only one of your OCs popular/known, who would it be?

fuck uh.. honestly if its only semi popular would i do this bc being Well Known would be nice, yeah, but.. it scares me? idk but uh probably leo or aero, theyre two boys i hold close to my heart

6. Two OCs of yours that look alike despite not being related?

:) eldur and leo kinda? idk i try not to make any of them look alike rip

7. Are your OCs part of any story or stories?

YES! theyre actually all part of one universe called cooking with demons! i have a whole game planned out for the man cast kinda? but all in all its all set within one universe, with multiple different stories occurring within it jhfdksg

8 - already answered

9. Would you ever be willing to give any of your OCs to someone else?

unless specfifically made for them upon request, no. ive already tried that once and it lead to me losing any and all control i had over my characters. At this moment, i only “share” a few ocs with my boyfriend @coffee-burglar and even then, its taken almost a year to even be able to do that

10. Introduce an OC with a complicated design?

uh, all of them are kinda complicated for me, but as of right now, that would go to leos full form. (if u want a ref hmu and ill post it, but it wont be my art)

11. Is there any OC of yours you could describe as a “sunshine”?

like a ray of sunshine? yeah! angel and stitch would fit perfectly for that!

12. Name an OC that isn’t yours but who you like a lot

@coffee-burglar their oc chrome n koh, or derek but thats bc im a hoe

13. Do you have any troublemaker OCs?

aero, jhor, innis, leo are all trouble makers to some degree, leo being the most trouble some

14. Introduce an OC with a tragic backstory

uhhhh fuck what counts as tragic?

i guess id have to say leo or jupiter mostly, but eldur fits too

15. Do you like to talk about your OCs with other people?

if youd let me i would yell about these fucks for hours on end, ive done it

16. Which one of your OCs would be the best at biology (school subject)?

the best but wouldnt enjoy it: Jupiterthe best and would absolutely enjoy it: colby

17. Any OC OTPs?

stitch/lavaaero/kohcolby/derek/inniswill/happiness aeyr/Eberictderek/Xhaztolleo/eldur

18. Any OC crackships?

jhfkdfsjghdfkjhgdkfjsgl i never talk abt it but will/aero is fucking A+

19. Introduce an OC that means a lot to you (and explain why)

ah,, leo. i originally made him to project the worst in myself onto, and because of that ive made his life a living shit hole. but,, recently ive been hell bent on giving him a good ending, one where he heals, and lives his life ok, where he finally, finally has a chance to be happy and get help. its,, kind of been a tiny growing point for me? he just, means a lot to me because of that haha

20. Do any of your OCs sing? If they sing, care to share more details (headcanon voice, what kind of songs they like etc)?

uhhh all of their voice claims are songs n such but only a few of them actually sing in canon! heres the voice claims of the ones who do sing:

Aero - thats his voice, but hed probably more likely to sing Something Like ThisAngelStitch - this is her voice! but shed be much more likely to sing something a lot more upbeat, kind of like thisColby (its jeremy from bmc jghfdkg)

and one i dont have a voice claim for yet that does sing canonically is Sycamore!

21. Your most artistic OC

!!!! oh thatd easily be will! hes nothing professional at all, but he does enjoy drawing and making diy type projects :0c hazels also artistic but with food :0c but what would you expect from a kitchen witch

22. Is there any OC of yours people tend to mischaracterize? If yes, how?

Hi My Names Skinny Penis And No One Has Ever Even Looked At My Ocs For More Than Two Seconds

23. Introduce OC that has changed from your first idea concerning what the character would be like?

lordt all of them would fit that, but the one thats changed the most? lordy thatd probably be will! he used to be a persona that was mostly only interested in dying and getting fucked, but now hes? evolved into a fully fledged character, and has even changed from being human lmao

24. If you could meet one OC of yours, who would it be and why?

jupiter, simply because he is The Biggest Comfort i have. hes,,, really important to me and i love him a lot

25. The OC that resembles you the most (same hobby, height, shared like/dislike for something etc?)

:) its bold of you to assume they dont all resemble me in some way. the most though? damian. lazy motherfucker with 200 emotional issues and no motivation to fix any of them

26. Have you ever had to change your OC’s design or something else about them against your will?

…yeah.

27. Any OCs that were inspired by a certain song?

Nope, most tend to be born from ideas spawned by me n my bf concepting about my ocs, and what would happen if this thing happened? yknow?

28. Your most dangerous OC?

He has yet to be revealed >:)c his names icarus

29. Which one of your OCs would go investigate an abandoned house at night without telling anyone they’re going?

INNIS, GOD INNIS WOULD AND HED PROBABLY DIE

30. Which one of your OCs would most likely have a secret stuffed animal collection?

secret: damiannot so secret: colby

31. Pick one OC of yours and explain what their tumblr blog would be like (what they reblog, layout, anything really)

uHHhhHh

damian would probably have a very shitty coded blog theme (or default) and would genuinely only reblog shitty, abstract memes, and nice food recipes for hazel to make him

32. Which one of your OCs would be the most suitable horror game protagonist and why?

protagonist? if youre going for the scared baby, colby. if ur going for the stoic “thats weird but ok” one, innis or aero.antagonist tho???? Leo and angelica :)

33. Your shyest OC?

uh, a oc thats genuinely shy and not just anxiety filled? angel :0c shes had a very limited interaction pool with anything thats not other angels so she tends to shy away from others bc she really, really doesnt want to get into awkward situations

34. Do you have any twin characters?

Jupiter and leo!

35. Any sibling characters?

Jupiter, leo, angelica, damian, eldur

jupiter, leo, damian, and angelica are all related via their dad, while eldur is related to damian via their mom

36. Do you have OC pairs where the other part belongs to someone else (siblings, lovers, friends etc)?

uhh if im understanding this question right yeah i do! derek, koh, n a lot of others belong to @coffee-burglar ! ive just roped them into my universe dkjfhkdjgh

37. Introduce an OC who is not quite human

Op All Of My Characters Are Inhuman

38. Which one of your OCs would be the best dancer?

surprisingly? aero! hes got really good rhythm and can actually dance really well, its kinda scary

39. Introduce any character you want

:)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))) Ill let yall have a choice, pick one

1.) Lust2.) Greed

40. Any fond memories linked to your characters? Feel free to share!

fond?? uh,, not really. but damian does have a very important memory attached to him.

tw for suicide ment hjgkdfs

with damian, i created him after i tried to kill myself and was stuck in a mental hospital. i had just finished reaing the first shadowhunters book, and decided to try and draw the first demon(???? was that what he was?? im a dumbass and its been over 2 years) you met, which had bright blue hair and if i remember correctly, electric green eyes? but yeah. i made him to cope with all the mental stress i had while being forced to be in that hospital, and hes become very close to my heart because of that

41. Has anyone drawn fanart of your OCs? If yes, maybe show a picture or two here (remember sources & permissions!)

!!!!!!!!! yeah!!! my boyfriends drawn damian and most of my characters bgjkfdhgkfdsgl but one i do hold close to my heart (bc at the time, i barely knew them) was when @stuck-in-the-ghost-zone drew aeyr! it made me really happy tbh. i still have it saved to my phone actually!!!

42. Which one of your OCs would be the most interested in Greek gods?

uhhhh,,, provided that they found a way to get anything involving earth and their beliefs itd probably be either angel or colby. angel enjoys learning anything and everything she can, while colby enjoys hearing about the Tea™ that comes with greek shit

43. Do you have any certain type when you create your OCs? Do you tend to favour some certain traits or looks? It’s time to confess

lordt ok

i really just? enjoy making demons really, or anything that doesnt quite fit “conveniently attractive” in at least one form they have. (i also favor making guys bc im Gay)

44. Something you like about your OCs in general

how well theyre coming together, for so long, their stories have been little fractures and pieces that never fit together. Fragments. but now, theyre almost fully put together and its… wonderful to see

45. A character you no longer use?

a hi have.. one. their name was angel aura, a steven universe oc. i got rid of them because of too many.. bad things.

46. Has anyone ever told you that you treat your OCs badly?

not directly, but yes. it.. actually helped me give a lot of them a ok life, or at least a good ending

47. Has anyone ever (friendly) claimed any of your OCs as their child?

@coffee-burglar eldur, colby, will n a few others lmao

48. OC who is a perfect cinnamon roll, too good for this world, too pure

ELDUR GOD ELDUR PLEASE SOMEONE GIVE THIS KID BACK TO HIS MOM

49. Which one of your OCs would most likely enjoy memes

damian

50. Give me the good ol’ OC talk here. Talk about anything you want

ghjkfgkfdhgklfjhglkjdfhgslfjdgh give me a actual thing to talk about bc im dying op

#general oc tag #Anonymous

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comicteaparty · 7 years ago

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September 14th, 2017 CTP Archive

The archive for the Comic Tea Party chat that occurred on September 14th, 2017, from 5PM - 7PM PDT. The chat focused on Nine Twilights by Andrea Rosales, Anne Mortensen-Agnew, and Chris Hansbrough.

Featured Comment:

Chat:

RebelVampire

Good day everyone~! This week’s Comic Tea Party is now officially beginning. Today we are discussing Nine Twilights by Andrea Rosales, Anne Mortensen-Agnew, and Chris Hansbrough~! (http://www.ninetwilights.com/) For those new to CTP, discussions about the comic are freeform, so please feel free to bring up whatever you wish. However, every 30 minutes I will be dropping in a discussion question to help those who would like a prompt. These questions are totally OPTIONAL to answer so pay them no mind if you wish~! Remember, constructive criticism is allowed, but the primary focus here is to have fun and appreciate the amazing comics that the community makes~! Each chat a top comment will be picked and featured on an ad for this chat, so let’s have a great discussion~! With that said, let us begin with this first question~!

QUESTION 1. What is your favorite scene in the comic so far and why?

DracoPlato

I think I like the latest page the most because it was the happiest so far and she looks cute trying on the dress. RebelVampire

yeah i really liked seeing her embrace freedom there and get to enjoy herself.

especially since even before the big odin reveal her life was pretty crappy

was going to slap her teacher so hard O_O

DracoPlato

yeah her teacher was such a jerk >n<

I liked the transformation scene too because of the colors, but I thought it seemed really random with the rest of the tone of the story so maybe not my favorite since I wtfed a lot during it

MathTans

Hey-yay-yay-yayyay, hey-yay-yay... I said hey. What's goin' on. (re: latest page)

(That's totally He-Man meme in the background, right?)

RebelVampire

omg it is he-man

i didnt even notice

JudgementScythe

it migght be

RebelVampire

thats amazing

DracoPlato

oooomg that's awesome, lol

JudgementScythe

Andrea likes to have fun with the background elements

AndreaRosales

Hello! I'm Andrea! I'm the artist of Nine Twilights!

MathTans

As to fave scene, I'm gonna go right back to Page 13. The conversation while walking down the stairs on one side, with the rainbow on the other. That just looked so neat, like a juxtaposition of the normal with the fantastical, and I would have never thought of doing the layout that way.

AndreaRosales

I love backgrounds, but my favorite thing in making this comic is honestly just having fun with facial expressions. I love having characters emote and really act.

DracoPlato

your facial expressions are amazing, those were my favorite part of the comic

annemagnew

Anne, the writer here

DracoPlato

I really really liked the art in this

AndreaRosales

Aww garrrrsh thank you!

JudgementScythe

yeah the stairs page was one of my favorite things she sent me. It was just a really cool idea for the movement and storytelling of a page

AndreaRosales

Aw, yay! Thwe whole team is here!

MathTans

Though I also liked the transformation scene. I might have squeed.

I didn't expect it, but thought, that ups things.

DracoPlato

I thought visually it was gorgeous

altho wouldn't have minded more norse themes incorporated into the outfit

MathTans

Yay for team synergy! I'm impressed at how you work together.

DracoPlato

it reminded me more of greek designs

MathTans

I freely admit to my ignorance as far as norse goes.

AndreaRosales

The bare inks of stair page!

MathTans

Coolness! You keep all that on hand?

AndreaRosales

I do!

Actually, let me know if you guys wanna see any concept art!

I've got TONS on my compy that I'm more than happy to share.

I like talking comics process . I learned a LOT while working on 9T. It's kinda my first comic.

It is my first serious go at arting a comic

RebelVampire

i really like the composition for the panel on the right cause i find my eye auto drawn to the rainbow. which i assume is a ref to bifrost so i knew something was going down.

MathTans

Your enthusiasm is infectious. Yay for arting.

(Well, and writing and editing too!)

That whole "you knew my name thing" was well done. I picked up on it off Baltur's expression the first time she did it, but I can see how it might have been missed making for a nice callback when he hit her with the whammy.

annemagnew

@RebelVampire Definite. The Bifrost (or the current one at any rate) in our story is something of a fusion between a Boom Tube, the Thor movie's interpretation of the Bifrost, and auroras & rainbows

AndreaRosales

sketchy!

RebelVampire

i really liked the name thing cause for me i was like "wait when did he say his name maybe i missed some dialogue." but then whoops, surprise, this was an important tell

MathTans

Also friggin' impressed how a battle with the undead can have moments of levity in there. Well played. (The heavy sword, for instance.

JudgementScythe

I think, my favorite thing about this whole thing has been watching Andrea's art improve page after page.

MathTans

Cool, it's in different colours...

AndreaRosales

Those are the super rough pen and ink sketchies. I had to play with a lot of different page layouts to get it juuuust right.

DracoPlato

yeah it was good that the name was mentioned again cause i was confused if i'd missed a page

she looks like sailor saturn there XD

AndreaRosales

At one point, transformation page was gonna look like this!

MathTans

So is that by hand and scanned in?

AndreaRosales

Fun fact!

Wanda's design is actually based on Sailor Saturn!

annemagnew

@MathTans Wanda was originally going to have a sword -- Mythologically, Gungnir was a gift and not his original weapon, and one of the Viking weapons books I have mentioned swords as weapons of the nobility and spears weapons of laymen. Also, Gungnir still exists here, even if it's not currently usable. But I figured it would be better to stay "on-brand"

AndreaRosales

It was one of the first design references Anne gave me.

annemagnew

Yup. Her hair is directly lifted from Saturns

sad teenage girls with death powers

MathTans

I can see it now, right, with the glaive and everything.... clever.

AndreaRosales

I do all my layouts on paper in my sketchbook first.

I take pics on my phone, email them to myself and then I just insert them into my Manga Studio document and then I pencil and ink away.

DracoPlato

aaaaah that makes sense

AndreaRosales

Manga Studio is wonderful by the way. I really enjoy working with it.

MathTans

@annemagnew That's fair. As I say, I don't know the brand well myself, but it seemed to work for me.

DracoPlato

yeah i work in MS too, it's a great program

annemagnew

i am All About norse mythology

AndreaRosales

Sad teenage girls with death powers, but also, best friends!

MathTans

I can tell from the avatar.

AndreaRosales

I love horse mythology too.

MathTans

Pegasus?

AndreaRosales

I mean Norse mythology. Horses are cool too though.

Most def!

I didn't know that much/ anything about Norse mythos until this project.

DracoPlato

should've done Loki if you love horses, huhuhuhuhu

MathTans

That would be low key.

AndreaRosales

Neigh!

You're such a good neiiiigghbor for those puns.

I love it.

I love puns. Keep em' comin'!

MathTans

Hah. I'm mostly math puns, but I branch out. Not relevant to 9T though.

I like the idea of them going all over the world, wow! Have you travelled much? (The creators.)

JudgementScythe

I've lived in Oregon and Muskoka Ontario and spent a lot of time in Guanajuato Mexico and Costa Rica as well

You want to know about middle of nowhere Canada. I'm your guy

AndreaRosales

Woo! Concept art time! This was one of my first takes of Wanda in her magical girl form. We didn't go with this one since it wasn't Norse looking enough. So it was back to the drawing board for me!

MathTans

Heh, I'm a Canadian, so I'm good. As Indonesia, I have no idea if the city's right or not, but you seem the types to research such things.

DracoPlato

oh i really like that design

AndreaRosales

I have travelled a fair bit! Been to Italy, England, Mexico ( got lots of family there, I'm Mexican, btw, Canada, Japan, etc.)

annemagnew

I travelled a lot more when I was younger (and didn't have to pay for it, sobs). The idea of globe-hopping team actually sprung out of watching Sailor Moon as a kid. If they mentioned in the English dub why they had to stay in Crossroads (ie because they looked for the Silver Crystal everywhere else), I missed it, and wondered why the Negaverse didn't just go somewhere else. And then I thought if they did, then Sailor Moon would have to follow them! And she'd meet Sailor Scouts in cool places like China and Russia and [other countries?? in my memory those were the only other countries??]

AndreaRosales

I would looooove to travel more though.

I also wished for a more diverse sailor moon!

So when Anne approached me to work on this comic I was immediately like " YES!"

Initially with some hesitation though b/c I wasn't confident in my ability to consistently webcomic well at the time.

JudgementScythe

A lot of the indonesia scenes were taken from reference photos. As well as the fact that Anne and I have been part of the SUikoden fandom forever which has a huge indonesian contingent who I've run things past to see if we've gotten the score right

MathTans

Thumbs up for Sailor Moon, my gateway anime.

AndreaRosales

It's so, so good.

DracoPlato

yis

annemagnew

literally the thing i care about most

MathTans

I don't think anyone's confident to start out with. Or if they are, they probably need humility or whatever.

AndreaRosales

Wanda's magical girl design take 1 was based on Chris Lightfellow from Suikoden 3! I've never played a Suikoden game!

MathTans

Oh, huzzah for fandoms then.

annemagnew

look at that female videogame character with ACTUAL ARMOR

AndreaRosales

I love her design. That armor * kisses fingers*

JudgementScythe

We're going to fix that

AndreaRosales

20 CHEF KISSES FOREVER

Here's an old Wanda! I was inspired by FF games at the time so there ya go!

annemagnew

I still want to bring that pelt cloak back somehow!

AndreaRosales

another early wanda

RebelVampire

i really like the pelt cloak in that design

DracoPlato

same

AndreaRosales

Wanda's def. gonna bring pelts back in style!

MathTans

How long did you concept the comic before starting, if you don't mind the question?

Wanda's gonna pelt people?

annemagnew

@MathTans I came up with it during an internship I had in college, 2012 or 2013

I wanted to do a magical girl comic since forever, and I love Norse Mythology, so combined them. I had two ideas for the premise - the team either were reincarnated gods, a la Sailor Moon, or were just given the gifts of gods, a la Wedding Peach

MathTans

(I vaugely recall some of the bg from reading the between-volume-asides, but not well, and others reading the chat later might want to know.)

AndreaRosales

I was approached for the project in early 2014 if I recall correctly. I think Anne and Chris talked to some other artist friends of ours before they came to me.

We worked on designs and layouts for a good while.

Look at this sassy Sari. I love her attitude.

JudgementScythe

And the two of us talked about doing it for a bit but fell off until I felt the editing bug come back after time away from the industry. Then I was just like no we gotta really do this because you should be writing comics and I really am feeling making them again.

annemagnew

If I had gone with scenario B, the story would have taken place before Ragnarok, and Tyr would have been in the Baldur mentor role

AndreaRosales

OOOH BALDUR!

MathTans

Is Sari also a reincarnation, or is she just related to someone who is?

AndreaRosales

OUR FAVE TRASH BOI

I gotta throw up concept art of him

Original Baldur circa 2014!

He's vintage

annemagnew

It might have been better for the girls if Tyr was their mentor. He’s got far fewer issues about his dad than Baldur!

AndreaRosales

Baldur circa 2016!

annemagnew

Fun fact: Baldur’s entire outfit is lifted from the Balmain men’s catalogue, ca. 2014, when I wrote the first draft of chapter one.

MathTans

Tossing out the mention of Baldur's wife was clever. Helped to hint at his age and stop the shipping before it might've gotten rolling.

anne: that's awesome trivia.

RebelVampire

lol math you think thatll stop the shipping

annemagnew

please dont ship baldur with his dad/wanda with her son (also wanda's gay)

AndreaRosales

Fun fact! Rumiko Takahashi was a HUGE influence on the way that I ink Wanda's hair! I love her work!!

DracoPlato

rumiko is awesome~

annemagnew

i mean, like, do whatever you want, but also, Please Don't™

MathTans

RebelV: Eh, maybe not - I mostly ship yuri anyway though.

DracoPlato

loooooool

AndreaRosales

Look at these two dooooorks

MathTans

Was that an image of Shampoo?

DracoPlato

yis

AndreaRosales

Rumiko is the best!!

annemagnew

shampoo is the best ranma girl

RebelVampire

QUESTION 2. This comic is directly influenced by Norse mythology, with the plot being about reincarnated Norse gods (Wanda being an incarnation of Odin). Was there any allusion that particularly struck you? Or, if you’re not familiar with Norse mythology, is there anything you wish you had a better grasp of to understand the story? Lastly, what do you think happened in the past that caused so many of the gods to be reborn?

AndreaRosales

Fun fact! Sometimes I get sections of my sketches done well in my sketchbook. Those sketches aren't always right next to each other, so I just stitch them together in Photoshop to make the final page layout.

Sometimes I get lucky and manage to sketch it all out right on the first take.

MathTans

A Norse is a Norse, of course, of course... honestly, I don't really feel like my lack of myth knowledge (outside of Marvel cinema and Dirk Gently) is a hinderance to enjoyment, and I don't really feel impelled to look into it. Though I do feel like reading the comic heightened my awareness.

As to what happened in the past... Odin wanted to see how the other half lived, and others were on board with that? Dunno.

AndreaRosales

@MathTans , you are great with puns!

DracoPlato

For me I felt a disconnect between Wanda and Odin and would have liked it more if she seemed more similar to Odin in a way that made me go, oh yeah, she totally was him

MathTans

Aw, thank you. ^^

RebelVampire

man math you are missing out on so many allusions :"D

MathTans

I don't doubt it.

AndreaRosales

I didn't know much 'bout Norse mythos as I mentioned earlier, so Anne let me borrow the Prose Edda and I read it in a week. Riveting stuff.

MathTans

Andrea - the stitching's neat, I hadn't even really thought about that aspect.

AndreaRosales

Thanks!

MathTans

Draco: Like more of a fatherly figure, or which? Just curious, not knowing the mythos as well.

DracoPlato

Yeah, or even more of just a connection to anything norse at all

RebelVampire

i cant pick an allusion i like most because i like them all. i fangirled a lot and had to stop myself to remain focused

annemagnew

We actually have the reason why on our About The Comic page, ahaha. TL;DR: Odin didn't feel like being dead forever, roped his favorites (and not so favorites) into reincarnating. It was a bad move, cosmically speaking. Thanks, Odin! What a great guy!!!!!

AndreaRosales

Other times I get ultra mega lucky and all the pencil roughs next to each other work out just fine! Anyway, back to mythos chat!

DracoPlato

for me Wanda read very much as a typical protag, and the norse stuff was just sort of pasted on but not really part of her

RebelVampire

@AndreaRosales whatever works. sometimes just gotta work with what you got the stitching is definitely creative

AndreaRosales

Odin wanted to keep cracking out cool ones with the gang.

RebelVampire

odin please maybe the others just wanted to vacation

JudgementScythe

lol

AndreaRosales

@RebelVampire Thank you! I like to see how I can piece things together. Working on comic layouts is a lot like piecing together a puzzle.

MathTans

The gypsy take (uh, should I even use that word?) is interesting, I felt like it tied into the "travelling to other lands" aspect. But maybe that takes away a bit from Norse origins? I don't know.

annemagnew

Odin: We could be dead forever. Or, hear me out.... we could not

Please don't use that world, but thank you for asking

She is Romani, though.

AndreaRosales

Odin had some free pizza coupons he needed to use! Also, "Gypsy" isn't the word to use. Wanda is Romani!

MathTans

Wanda does seem more reticent than a "typical protag", but maybe that's just me in terms of what I read.

Romani, thank you. (Derp.)

AndreaRosales

All good!

MathTans

I knew there was a term out there. >.< Cleverly set up with the nasty girls using 'gyp', by the way.

annemagnew

Also, @DracoPlato -- I totally get you. Connecting Wanda to Odin was something I've worked with. Without getting into too many details/future reveals: her mother (and father, before he died) didn't raise a terrible person, but that took work. There's something in Wanda's core character that connects her more to Odin as well, and re-discovering that is a part of her arc.

DracoPlato

ah, that's good if it can circle back around to it at least

MathTans

Odin bought a time share but it's only good every other century.

AndreaRosales

First ever drawing of the "God Squad"! Our first 3 gals of the series. Got my ladies in formation! Circa 2015.

MathTans

WHOA. Two weaponing with one of them being that axe? Daaaamn.

Nice shadows.

JudgementScythe

yeah I'm really excited to get to Aish. She's going to be the tank of the party and is SO GOOD

annemagnew

Freyja on the left and and Ullr on the right. Ullr I chose because I thought it would be fun, but actually, writing a character connected to a god whose mythological presence has been mostly erased is Hard

MathTans

Tank you very much.

annemagnew

@JudgementScythe i love tank sailor venus

MathTans

Now I want to see her with a love-me chain.

AndreaRosales

Our precious badass daughter WADNA!

Aish's design is awesome. She's got a sword like Ivy from Soul Calibur. I love drawing that.

annemagnew

@MathTans she has an evolving weapon. @AndreaRosales , do you have the bookmark for her? She's got a link sword there.

Yup, there it is

AndreaRosales

Just posted it, Anne!

@annemagnew I think you mean " WHOOMP THERE IT IS"

MathTans

So here's a question that you don't have to answer, but... are all the gods reincarnated at about the same age? Or is there some kind of hierarchy thing?

annemagnew

also true

MathTans

That is indeed a link sword. Shades of Signum from Nanoha.

AndreaRosales

I can't wait to draw ULLR just doing a crazy cool ski-by on some draugar.

annemagnew

They're all in the same age group, at the most three years apart. I think Freyja's older than most of them. Wanda and Ullr are the same age.

MathTans

nods And I'm guessing Baltur's wife is a reference I don't get.

RebelVampire

ah thats probably good. dont need to have any old folks cramping their style.

annemagnew

@MathTans Nanna is Baldur's wife. She and their son Forseti are ruling Asgard in his absence.

AndreaRosales

We did a promotional mini comic sample thingy back when we debuted at Rose City Comic Con in 2015. You can see a bit more here of how weapons look, etc.

annemagnew

fun fact: forseti actually looks older than his dad does

DracoPlato

oh that's really cool~!

AndreaRosales

@annemagnew It's not the years, it's the mileage!

MathTans

Wow, you did a debut at a Con? Neat.

RebelVampire

ah that page makes me look forward to future action scenes

AndreaRosales

Well, the first time we were about to launch, we took a mini comic

DracoPlato

nice!

MathTans

I guess having a dad like Baldur ages you faster on the outside.

Also I cannot spell.

annemagnew

I see Baldur as a pretty good father, actually. Much better than Odin was.

AndreaRosales

Here's a rough pencil of the next page of that mini comic we did. I was super giddy that I got to do some super cool action stuff.

MathTans

He does seem like he's doing his best, that's for sure.

annemagnew

Of the Odinssons, Baldur and Tyr turned out the most normal and well-adjusted. Unfortunately, Baldur has tons of issues about his dad that Tyr never did.

MathTans

Oh, wait... those two people communicating through the tree, were they his wife and son?

AndreaRosales

Guys, Baldur is trying so hard man! Dad jokes are hard to do!

annemagnew

No, those were the Norns. Two of them, Verdandi and Urd.

DracoPlato

gorgeous action panels~!

MathTans

<-- is a neophyte, or something.

AndreaRosales

@DracoPlato Thank you!!

RebelVampire

i just wanna say i really like Baldur as a character. i especially like that scene where theyre in the restaurant and wanda hides. and then baldur comes in and is like "i know youre there." i totally expected him to just walk on by, but nope. he was a smart boy.

DracoPlato

I'm enjoying Baldur as well

JudgementScythe

He's dumb. but he's not dumb dumb.

MathTans

I liked when Wanda's mom was all "where do you know her from?" and Baldur's like "....School?"

DracoPlato

haha i liked that too

JudgementScythe

WAIT WADNA I JUST TOLD YOU YOU WERE MY REINCARNATED DAD WHY ARE YOU LOOKING AT ME FUNNY WHAT IT'S NOT CREEPY OR WEIRD AT ALL

DracoPlato

she should have embraced fatherhood

MathTans

"Go to your room."

RebelVampire

yeah i do have to wonder how baldur thought thatd go at all well XD like you dont just tell some teen theyre your dad.

annemagnew

he wants his dad to pay attention to him and tell him he's doing a good job (he is doing a good job right???? TELL HIM HE'S GOOD)

DracoPlato

poor baby

just wants some love

MathTans

Baldur needs head pats.

annemagnew

a decent amount of my favorite male characters remind me of this scene from IASIP https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBfnOtiJOWw

RebelVampire

wanda just needs to tell baldur shes going to the store to buy milk. then not come back. problem solved.

DracoPlato

oooh i really like the blue there

RebelVampire

ah im glad to see huginn and muninn in there too >v>

DracoPlato

yis

AndreaRosales

A Baldur from the character cards we give out at conventions!

MathTans

I wonder if Baldur has the stones for his task. Like, assuming all nine gods have stones.

AndreaRosales

Whoops, lol sorry for the double post

my computer is slow.

All the artwork on a 7 year old machine... ooooof

MathTans

Eh, my phone's older than that.

RebelVampire

(sppt math maybe get a new phone)

DracoPlato

is it a flip phone

MathTans

It has one of those little retractable antennas. Anyway. No prob if old computer.

DracoPlato

oooomg it has an antenna XD that is old

MathTans

I iz old. >.<

RebelVampire

QUESTION 3. At home, Wanda faces a lot of pressure from her mother to excel in her studies and pull herself out of their living situation. What do you think of this situation? Does the fact that they’re hinted to be discriminated against because they’re Romani affect your opinion? Do you think Wanda and her mother will be able to see eye to eye?

DracoPlato

wanda kicking ass

i had one too math, it's okay

I just don't use it now

MathTans

It's fair. As a teacher I'm not allowed to use a cell phone anyway, so haven't upgraded. (Btw, as a teacher, I also wanted to slap Wanda's teacher, but at the same time I could see where she was coming from.)

AndreaRosales

This has to be one of my absolutely FAVORITE goof images I've done while drawing this comic. I do a lot of em'. The relationship between Baldur and Wanda is one that I enjoy depicting a lot. I can't wait for all the fun shenanagins I'll get to draw them in later in the comic!

MathTans

"Baldur. I am your father."

DracoPlato

oh that's fair

and loooool

AndreaRosales

Oooh I like this question. They've all been super good so far!

DracoPlato

with the teacher, she should have known if the other girl's grades had drastically improved when wanda transferred there tho, perhaps

annemagnew

Wanda's time at school - and the teacher's dig at her - is a direct reference to how Romani students are discriminated against in Czech schooling.

MathTans

As to the living situation away from school, it felt genuine. (Painful, but genuine.) I'm not sure about the eye-to-eye thing, but they may both need some space for now.

AndreaRosales

Romani aren't treated well/respected in "mainstream" European society.

annemagnew

>> Roma children in the Czech Republic were segregated into “special schools” with poor curricula, lower teaching standards, and very few resources. “Testing” these children was a culturally biased process that resulted in the majority of them being pushed into the special education system. The system also segregated children with additional learning needs, unlike the inclusive education systems in the UK, Sweden, or other countries (https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/czech-republic-segregation-roma-children-continues)

MathTans

Draco - True, guess I felt like it was still start of the semester or something. Pretty sure her opinion was coloured by racism too, is the thing, so she didn't look for other explanations.

DracoPlato

yeah that could be

MathTans

Anne: That's kind of sad, but nice that it's authentic.

RebelVampire

yeah i really applaud the research into it

DracoPlato

my only issue with the bullying is I've read a ton of comics that start that way with the protag recently so I was a bit tired of the trope, so i have a bias there

MathTans

Friggin' "testing" mumble wumble argle wargle fargle.

I'm fine.

(I don't even teach in the US.)

AndreaRosales

I find myself being easily able to relate to Wanda.. my parents are Mexican and there was always that push growing up to be academically successful. That Romani are given such poor schooling is setting them up for failure and it's such a sad thing. It's something that's happened in a lot of places in the world. It's heartbreaking that Wanda is clearly very intelligent, but her brilliance can't be fully appreciated in such a biased school system.

JudgementScythe

the US testing system is so bad. I remember when they first really instituted it and it's like...take this multiple choice test to decide how much funding your school gets

AndreaRosales

That's so awful.

JudgementScythe

NO GIMME ESSAY QUESTIONS CAUSE THAT"S ALL I'M GOOD AT

MathTans

Somehow I made this talk about my job. Back to home life.

DracoPlato

teaching always relevant

MathTans

But it reminds me I have papers to mark.

I'm like Baldur. I want to do a good job.

Haha, steered it back.

AndreaRosales

You're doing a great job!

RebelVampire

i can understand both sides to the situation of their home life. cause i can understand why wanda's mom would want her to break the mold. but i side a bit more with wanda in that i think theres just way too much pressure

DracoPlato

oh cool inking~!

RebelVampire

as for seeing eye to eye, i could see them not being able to get over the odin thing.

AndreaRosales

Thanks! I really wanted to go for a high contrasty dramatic lighting thingy. Haha, I'm no good with words.. it's why I draw.

MathTans

I wonder how much Wanda's mom knows about the mythology thing. (Maybe the undead will make her read up.)

JudgementScythe

But yes... The home life was a really interesting thing to figure out. Wanda's home life, the pressure. The build. I want my life but because of my blood, I need to work 10x harder than anyone else for the same things and even then people will say I'm cheating for what I get

MathTans

Andrea - You do puns, that's good words.

annemagnew

(The bullying and constant pressure are part of why she's less like Odin than she used to be.)

AndreaRosales

I have a feeling we might get some insight into Wanda's childhood at some point... @annemagnew ?

MathTans

I would imagine Odin didn't get bullied much.

annemagnew

Wanda's mother wants her to break the mold, but in the mold she wants.

MathTans

Oooh, smol Wanda.

AndreaRosales

Hehe.. seeing eye to eye... Odin... good one, @RebelVampire !

annemagnew

@AndreaRosales no spoilers

MathTans

We saw a bit of that already, with the stargazing scene.

AndreaRosales

Gosh @annemagnew I just wanna share all the concept art and it's driving me crazy!

Uguuuu

MathTans

patpats

AndreaRosales

babbu Wanda is the most precious thing I've ever been fortunate to draw.

@annemagnew THANK YOU for writing babbu Wanda!

annemagnew

Yeah, part of the fun with her was, as I built the character, realizing her life circumstances are the exact opposite of her past life's. There's a core to her that's still Odin, but her circumstances and her context are so different.

AndreaRosales

A really great contrast of nature v. nurture!

MathTans

A bit of the nature versus .... Andrea wins.

annemagnew

That's true for a lot of them, actually. There are reincarnations who have contexts very similar to their previous lives', and others who have better (or worse) ones.

MathTans

It's nice that there's a mix that way.

Is it one volume per reincarnation for a total of nine? Or is that too far in the future to know?

AndreaRosales

Another goof!

annemagnew

Honestly the way I see this story going, it's going to run F O R E V E R

AndreaRosales

GOOD

I'm glad, @annemagnew because I seriously want to draw this forever.

MathTans

Hmmm.... and yet time passes in the real world. Like Indonesia might look different in ten years. Parallel Earth to the rescue maybe.

AndreaRosales

Here's a fun take on the toppling over due to sword weight page. Wanda's face in that last panel...

RebelVampire

poor wanda really needs to start working out. work on those sword wielding muscles

annemagnew

The way I see it right now - which I reserve the right to change! - the story starts in The Fall of whenever you started to read it, and ends in the following year's spring

@RebelVampire she gets a strength buff whenever she transforms

RebelVampire

lucky :"D

MathTans

So there might be a Christmas Episode.

annemagnew

Nanna thinks everything he wears is good. Which, you know. She's not wrong in this case, but that outfit is just... A Lot

RebelVampire

i really liked the art on the draugr. like when i saw them i definitely knew what they were and there's just something really appealing about them. in a theyre draugr kind of way.

DracoPlato

love the tails behind her~!

AndreaRosales

@annemagnew I'll have you know I'm animating the Christmas special.

annemagnew

Fun fact! Baldur's topwear is three layers: Leather jacket, blue sweater, full plate armor. (You get killed by mistletoe once...)

MathTans

"Zombies" "Draugr. And no."

AndreaRosales

OH NOESSSS!!!!

AndreaRosales

@annemagnew I don't think Baldur is quite fond of Christmas decor...

DracoPlato

Looooooool

RebelVampire

this is how wanda will escape him. trap him in a room of mistletoe then make a run for it

MathTans

Oooh, good point.

annemagnew

i'm not saying mistletoe is banned in new asgard, but i am saying it's considered in poor taste these days

AndreaRosales

Mistletoe is totally banned.

MathTans

I would imagine it tastes bad, yes.

annemagnew

baldur: you can hang it. it's fine. it's a traditional decoration gersemi: but you don't want us to hang it baldur: i didn't say that

MathTans

It's all in the cringe.

AndreaRosales

Fun fact! Anne had me reference Al Ewing's Mighty Avengers for the way that the Draugar lunge out. There's a fantastic panel of Ayala doing that in that comic.

RebelVampire

now im just picturing baldur glaring through a window, watching them to say with his eyes you better not actually hang that

AndreaRosales

Gods, I just love the image of Baldur death glaring the mistletoe away.

annemagnew

it's coming off as passive-aggressive, but he was trying to be polite and accommodating (and okay maybe a little passive-aggressive)

AndreaRosales

Mistletoe? More like mistle-don't!

MathTans

Miss-letoe.

annemagnew

baldur: i'm the god-king of the universe, not a tyrant

(some elf or whatever: can we establish a democracy then baldur: how did you get in my castle)

AndreaRosales

Fun fact! All 3 of us creators are in the most recent page of 9T! We're all in the dance club together!

MathTans

The two ravens, there's no connection to Sailor Mars, is there?

DracoPlato

awwww that's awesome

RebelVampire

ah thats cute. the more i look at that bg the more i can see how much fun stuff went into it

MathTans

Andrea: That's, like, the best easter egg. I was too focussed on He-man.

AndreaRosales

Teamwork makes the dream work!

Backgrounds can be super fun!

annemagnew

@MathTans the two ravens are Huginn and Munnin, Odin's ravens from the mythology

AndreaRosales

This isn't the first time Anne's been in the comic!

annemagnew

They're patterned here off of Pied Ravens, which were native to the Faroe Islands before they went extinct. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pied_raven

MathTans

@annemagnew Ok, cool, I suspected a mythology link was dominent but suddenly thought I'd check.

annemagnew

#DeadStuff

Fun Fact! Everything and everyone important in this story has been dead, is dead, or will be dead at some point

AndreaRosales

That's Anne in the front seat in front of Wanda on the bus!

@annemagnew true! my hand is dead from drawing so much!

MathTans

Wanda: "What are you writing?" Anne: "Uhhhh...."

AndreaRosales

it's also undead and keeps returning to life

MathTans

Also, that panel had the "she knows me" look that I caught and liked.

RebelVampire

QUESTION 4. Towards the end of the first chapter, Wanda and Baldur find themselves attacked by Draugr. It later becomes apparent that these Draugr are being controlled. Who do you think is controlling the Draugr to attack Wanda? What are their end goals and do they have anything to do with the current peril the world is supposedly in?

AndreaRosales

Wanda skips cardio day.. yet she runs a lot?

MathTans

Oh yeah, crystal ball person who's likely Norse that I don't know.

The goal is presumably not to perfect reviving the undead in order to restore a family back to life.

AndreaRosales

Fun fact! That's Chris and I getting dinner at the restaurant where Wanda and Sari are!

JudgementScythe

That's definitely a thing that we get into over the next chapters. Chapter 3 is currently pretty big. Anne and I are reworking parts of the script to really fine tune it but yeah. The end of chapter 2 and chapter 3 definitely hit on that front

MathTans

But yeah, here's the thing... if he's (gender guessing there) testing Wanda, is it possible that he'd end up killing her in the process? Would that just mean Odin revives again at some later date? Is it even possible that this did happen before, person was tested and failed and Wanda's the latest in a long line of reincarnations?

(I'm just spitballing here, no need to feel you have to answer.)

RebelVampire

@JudgementScythe looking forward to it being addressed soon then.

MathTans

And if it's not a matter of testing, what's the grudge?

RebelVampire

i feel like if there were a long line of reincarnations, thatd be sad. so many ppl whose worlds were rocked cause baldur hunted them down O_O

MathTans

(Maybe it's back to the mistletoe thing.)

Yeah, though maybe Baldur didn't find the others in time or something.

AndreaRosales

Fun fact! This page's color scheme was heavily inspired by the cinematography in John Wick.

MathTans

Oh, speaking of colours, is there a particular reason why some pages get coloured? Or simply a time thing?

JudgementScythe

We wanted to set apart magic from the real world. When the magic is on...sort of Wizard of Ozzy

annemagnew

It was born out of timing, but think of the color as akin to an FMV in an old video game as well.

AndreaRosales

Wizard of Ozzy sans the eating of Huginn and Muginn

MathTans

snaps fingers Gotcha. Interesting.

FMV?

annemagnew

Whe we meet a new character, something very important happens, or it's magic time, we switch to color.

Full Motion Video

AndreaRosales

Yep!

MathTans

Ahhhh. (Stop... Magic Time! Dun deedundundundun...)

RebelVampire

oh that makes sense for the color vs. B&W thing

AndreaRosales

Hehehehe.. nice! @MathTans

RebelVampire

i really admire the city sho4

the city shot

MathTans

^.^ Indeed. Apparently there's a lot going on in backgrounds too.

RebelVampire

my cat decided to jump on the keyboard in that moment

annemagnew

I love your cat

JudgementScythe

It's one of the things I love. Too many artists ignore the background

Like I can't name the amount of comics I've read or been pitched that had no detail. Comics need detail

annemagnew

Andrea never skimps on the details :)

AndreaRosales

Thanks! Detail drives me crazy, but once I start getting into it, I REALLY get into it.

JudgementScythe

And there are a lot of people who ignore that element

AndreaRosales

OH MY GOOOOOOOD DO I TRY

I TRYYY ALL THE TIME

MathTans

One thing I've noticed a couple times, placement of words balloons doesn't quite flow... like, I'll read one, and then the next one I read I'll realize for context should have come first. It doesn't happen that often, and it might just be me not deciphering heights properly, but thought I'd mention it on the side.

AndreaRosales

Here's an early concept painty of Wanda! March 2015!

MathTans

In your institution?

AndreaRosales

@MathTans Yes, in my institution

I'm so happy I got to throw He-man Hey YAYAYAYA in there

Originally, Anne and I had talked about having Wanda and Sari go to karaoke.

and I wanted Wanda to sing that

MathTans

Heh. I used that meme myself once, kinda. I can't do backgrounds though, I can barely draw characters. So, mad props.

AndreaRosales

Like the joke would be that that was the big Euro-pop jam

DracoPlato

Ah yeah Math I had that same issue

with the speech bubbles

a lot of times i felt like i'd missed a page or I was somehow reading it wrong, the dialogue was often really confusing

MathTans

It happened more in the early pages, I feel.

Celes, the Sun of the Universe

@AndreaRosales that looks amazing!! (both the painting and the comic)

DracoPlato

yeah definitely more earlier on

JudgementScythe

speech bubbles are hard. You can see it took a while to get used to. It's one of the reasons it drives me crazy that letterers are so underpaid

AndreaRosales

Sketchbooks on my desk at my old apt./studio space!

JudgementScythe

same with colorists

MathTans

Fair.

AndreaRosales

Ahhh!! Thank you, @Celes, the Sun of the Universe !! I'm barely figuring out digital painting!

I've never taken a painting class in my life!

I'm wingin' it.

DracoPlato

ah I guess, generally it's good just to find the line of eye movement with them when reading

AndreaRosales

I studied graphic design and minored in animation in college.

Graphic design is my passion.

(actually no, comics arting is)

DracoPlato

like you should have the bubble you want read first higher than the next one

AndreaRosales

Lettering is HARD.

MathTans

Yeah. Though sometimes it was higher and yet my brain still tracked right to left.

JudgementScythe

like colors and lettering are incredibly difficult. And yet industry standards are like under $30 a page for colors on an indy book.

AndreaRosales

@JudgementScythe was really on my case about it at first.

DracoPlato

yeah same

AndreaRosales

He helped me get so much better at it

Coloring is super hard too.

MathTans

It's all about improving.

AndreaRosales

I've got MAD respect for colorists too.

I thumbnail, pencil, ink, shade, color, letter and do all graphic design/social media art for Nine Twilights.

JudgementScythe

and that's one of the things I love about the book. Look at page 1 and the latest. You can tell it's the same artist, but it's so good to see the growth she's gone through since the start

AndreaRosales

It can be a lot. Luckily, @annemagnew and @JudgementScythe are super great to work with. They're always looking for ways for making things easier for me.

MathTans

Much like the protagonist? ^.-

AndreaRosales

Oooh

I'll post page 1 and the most recent page!

Celes, the Sun of the Universe

@AndreaRosales you're welcome <3

MathTans

The website, also, good job on that. It even sparkles over the links. O.o

Sometimes it's the little things.

JudgementScythe

Yeah there are some things I really want to do with it to make it a little easier to update. But I'm happy with how it came out.

DracoPlato

oh with the website I had a lot of difficulty reading on there. Your Archive isn't up to date, and the clicking the image to go to the next page stopped working around where the archive left off, and your next arrow is at the top of the page and not the bottom, which makes me have to scroll back up to go to the next page which is super annoying

and it'd be super helpful if clicking the arrow keys would go to the next page and previous

i think i have a code for it if you want

JudgementScythe

Those are exactly the updates I want to make

DracoPlato

yeah I think it super needs it cause it was almost unreadable

AndreaRosales

Hey thanks @DracoPlato ! That's our next big project. Making the site easier to navigate.

JudgementScythe

well. It's also set up to click on the page takes you to the next page. But yeah currently there are nice things but boy howdy do I want to fix a lot of that stuff

RebelVampire

@AndreaRosales yeah comparing the pages you can definitely see so much growth in the art, and that's just super great~!

DracoPlato

yeah we were clicking the pages but that stopped working after awhile

MathTans

Really? Huh. I guess I only clicked on 'Next', so I didn't see a problem.

Though the scrolling back up for the next is something that could be amended.

JudgementScythe

oh I'll have to go back through and make sure all that is fixed up this weekend.

DracoPlato

yeah would love a next arrow button on the bottom of the page or the side

http://www.smackjeeves.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=15038

Oh i think this is it for the keyboard arrows

AndreaRosales

Oh gosh... thank you so much @RebelVampire ! I'm melting! I really push myself a LOT to get better and better with each page. Do let me know if there's things that I can work on that improve the readability of action, backgrounds, etc.

AndreaRosales

Behind the scenes look! I ink my pages on my cintiq whilst jamming to Star Wars OST, or some other random video game OST...

MathTans

The amount of extra detail in those pages is crazy. Like night and day. Which... is almost a pun? Meh.

AndreaRosales

Awww.. I'm so proud! @MathTans

RebelVampire

@AndreaRosales i think math and draco both pointed out the most major issue already with the speech bubble flow. otherwise i think youre on the right track.

MathTans

Also, kudos/props for consistency in that first year and everything. That can be tricky.

Like, in terms of updates.

DracoPlato

yis~!

AndreaRosales

We have these super cute buttons of Baldur, pouty Wanda, Sari and Zora we sell at conventions! They're my fave.

MathTans

Those are cool.

AndreaRosales

Thanks so much for the advice, @RebelVampire !! That is so super helpful!

I was super worried about posting consistency

it's probably one of the biggest reasons why I was reluctant at first to join the team. I didn't feel confident that I could keep up.

MathTans

It'll be neat to see where things go!

AndreaRosales

I'm super glad that I was able to make it work, even when I got super sick this past winter/spring.

JudgementScythe

Yeah we didn't miss an update. Then illness and other things ate our backlog which is why we've switched to wednesdays and are taking a little time off to keep things from completely overwhelming her

AndreaRosales

I had to get surgery this past April. It was no bueno. I'm much better now though.

MathTans

It's all good. Make sure to stay healthy. Whoa, surgery even. O.o

All the best going forwards.

RebelVampire

glad to hear youre doing better~!

Unfortunately, the scheduled Comic Tea Party is now complete~! Thank you everyone so much for joining this week’s chat~! That being said, if you would like to continue discussing the comic, we encourage you to do so~! We want to give a big thank you to Andrea Rosales, Anne Mortensen-Agnew, and Chris Hansbrough, as well, for volunteering Nine Twilights for our reading queue. If you liked the comic, please be sure to support the team’s efforts. If you have questions, concerns, or suggestions about CTP, please feel free to PM me, or e-mail me at [email protected].

With that said, next week’s Comic Tea Party will focus on The Changeling’s Sister by yondoloki. Please use this week to read as much of the comic as you would like. Hope to see you next Thursday (September 21st) from 5PM to 7PM PDT~! Until then~! Comic: https://tapas.io/series/The-Changelings-Sister

#comics #webcomics #indiecomics #ctparchive #comic tea party #comicteaparty #ctp #start faire #startfaire #comic chat #comic discussion #bookclub #comic bookclub #nine twilights #andrea rosales #anne mortensen-agnew #chris hansbrough

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webart-studio · 6 years ago

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9 Suggestions for Designing an E mail Signature in 2019

It’s no secret that electronic mail signatures have a serious influence on this planet of electronic mail advertising and marketing. It’s additionally clear that they’re one of many best methods to re-engage together with your current prospects, with out spending any (or little or no) cash.

Profitable companies are utilizing the untapped energy of their electronic mail signatures as a result of they know that choices are all about prioritizations primarily based on invested effort vs profit.

Let’s check out how one can revamp your electronic mail signature for 2019 to offer it that “pop” issue.

1. Create Your Signature with Cellular in Thoughts

It’s superb how many individuals utterly skip over this step, with out understanding the implications. Mobiles account for 46% of all electronic mail opens, that means that testing your electronic mail signature for cellular compatibility is crucial.

A typical false impression is that your electronic mail signature will probably be appropriate throughout all electronic mail shoppers. The unhappy reality is…it received’t. Though I might like to blame Outlook for this, the reason being really that almost all electronic mail shoppers (cellular included) use totally different HTML rendering engines and which means all of them show electronic mail signatures in a different way.

As well as, cellular screens are a lot smaller than PC shows, and so they additionally use scaling. Due to this, vertical layouts work a lot better on mobiles. Utilizing a large format on cellular units may cause your signature to look squashed and the pictures to be scaled up which makes them look blurry.

2. Embrace Solely Important Particulars

The main points a school scholar contains of their signature will probably be so much totally different to the small print a lawyer contains. Solely embody the small print that are related to you. For instance, if you happen to’re a school scholar, you’ll most likely embody the college you’re attending and the topic you’re finding out. You wouldn’t embody these particulars if you happen to’re a lawyer.

Most individuals aren’t thinking about understanding your favourite band, or shade. Your electronic mail signature ought to embody the data wanted to contact you, and some other related data. When you’re not sure, ask your self “Would I give that data to a enterprise affiliate I had simply met?”.

Listed below are the most well-liked fields to incorporate in your electronic mail signature:

Full Identify

Job Place

Firm

Cellular Cellphone Quantity

Workplace Cellphone Quantity

Workplace Deal with

Profile Image and/or Emblem (or each)

Social Icons (elective, however beneficial)

Promotional Banner (elective)

Disclaimer (elective)

Particulars which aren’t wanted solely bloat the signature and make it laborious on your recipient to search out the small print they really want.

3. Contemplate Fonts

A font can utterly change the appear and feel of an electronic mail signature. The identical could be mentioned for the colours and spacing. You must by no means use a number of fonts in your electronic mail signature. The one exception is that if your emblem makes use of a unique font to your signature.

By way of font sizes, you shouldn’t have greater than 2-Three totally different sizes all through your complete signature.

4. Use Colours Which Mirror Your Model

Like fonts, preserve your choice to round 2-Three totally different colours. Any extra and also you danger creating that “rainbow electronic mail signature”.

It’s necessary that the colours match your emblem as a lot as potential. In any other case, your emblem can look misplaced, or your signature might have that “template” look which you don’t need.

5. Use Stunning Photographs

In sales-based roles (corresponding to actual property brokers) the place you’re dealing straight with the general public, utilizing a picture of your face can add a private contact to your signature. When you’re not too keen on utilizing a profile image in your signature, you possibly can simply use your organization emblem.

Solely use good high quality pictures which have been professionally taken.

Use PNG or JPEG kind pictures for max compatibility and at all times make sure you compress them utilizing a software like TinyPNG.

PNG’s work greatest for logos and while you want transparency in your pictures. JPEG’s are greatest for profile photos the place the colour high quality must be good.

Keep away from utilizing GIF animations (extra on this later).

6. Tweak the Spacing

Behind each nice trying electronic mail signature is constant spacing. When you’ve obtained 10 pixels of spacing above the contact data, then it’s best to have the identical spacing underneath the contact data too. The identical goes for all sections of the signature.

Constant spacing makes the signature look skilled and clear, even at a fast look. It additionally makes it simpler to identify data that you simply’re looking for.

7. Maintain an Eye on Measurement

With electronic mail signatures, there’s 2 sizes to test. The scale in pixels, and the scale in kilobytes (KB).

Measurement in Pixels

The scale in pixels determines visually how massive your signature is, and whether or not it’ll match cellular screens. Remember the fact that narrower signatures look higher on mobiles due to display screen sizes and scaling.

For desktops and bigger display screen sizes that don’t use scaling, the beneficial most electronic mail signature dimension is 700(w) x 300(h) pixels.

For cellphones which have smaller screens that use scaling, the beneficial most electronic mail signature dimension is 320(w) x 600(h) pixels.

Checking the scale of your signature is so simple as opening your signature in an online browser like Google Chrome, proper clicking on it and clicking examine ingredient. You must then be capable of hover over the outer most desk, and it ought to present you the peak and width of the signature.

Measurement in KB

The scale in KB is the quantity of disk house the e-mail signature will take up when it’s saved on a mail server. When you ship roughly 30 emails a day, your electronic mail signature will probably be saved 30 occasions in your server, which may take up invaluable house in the long term. And that’s solely with you sending emails. You probably have a number of workers sending emails, it will probably add up in a short time.

You must purpose to maintain your electronic mail signature underneath 50KB in dimension. There usually isn’t a have to have an electronic mail signature that’s any bigger (even if in case you have a promotional banner).

8. Check Your E mail Signature for Compatibility

Keep in mind earlier we touched with reference to electronic mail signature compatibility? To make sure your signature seems the identical in all electronic mail shoppers, you should cross check it between all the favored electronic mail shoppers. Simply because your signature seems good in Outlook, doesn’t imply it’ll look good in Gmail.

That is an instance of how cross testing ought to be finished:

Sending from Outlook 2013 to Gmail

Sending from Outlook 2016 to Gmail

Sending from Gmail to Outlook 2013

Sending from Gmail to Outlook 2016

…and so forth.

Hopefully, now you possibly can see what an infinite process cross testing could be if need your signature to be appropriate with the highest 10 electronic mail shoppers. Simply because you’ve gotten finished cross testing, it doesn’t imply that your electronic mail signature will work flawlessly in all electronic mail shoppers. For instance, Gmail inserts gaps beneath pictures, and there may be nothing you are able to do about it.

Generally you possibly can repair compatibility points, different occasions you merely can’t.

9. Issues You Shouldn’t Do

Don’t make your complete electronic mail signature a picture

When you’re contemplating making a elaborate electronic mail signature, however you possibly can’t do it utilizing HTML + CSS, then both change the design so it may be coded, or don’t do it in any respect.

No matter you do, don’t make your complete electronic mail signature a picture, as the scale (in KB) is often massive and your recipients received’t be capable of copy your cellphone quantity or different particulars out of it.

Mainly, it screams “I care extra about seems, than I do about performance”.

Additionally, you possibly can’t do cut up testing on issues like CTA buttons, and you may’t simply make modifications to the signatures.

Don’t Over Complicate the Design

A easy design goes a good distance. Don’t consider your signature as needing to cram as a lot data into it as potential. Easy designs are simpler to code, and still have a a lot larger likelihood of trying constant throughout all mail shoppers.

Don’t Insert GIF Animations

Animations are enjoyable to have a look at, however more often than not they don’t work with electronic mail signatures. Along with probably being perceived as immature, animations don’t at all times technically work with electronic mail shoppers.

Some electronic mail shoppers convert GIF animations to nonetheless pictures. So, if in case you have an animation of your head shifting round, your recipient may see a nonetheless picture of the facet of your head…not look.

Don’t Use Inspirational Quotes

There isn’t sufficient room for them, and the concept is to maintain your electronic mail signature clear and litter free. Keep away from utilizing quotes in electronic mail signatures, until it’s one thing like a CEO quote that enhances the model picture.

Conclusion

Creating an electronic mail signature is kind of straight ahead so long as you retain the following tips in thoughts. Hopefully, now try to be absolutely outfitted to make a very nice trying electronic mail signature that will probably be appropriate and on the similar time have all of the options you need.

Featured picture through DepositPhotos.

Supply hyperlink

source https://webart-studio.com/9-suggestions-for-designing-an-e-mail-signature-in-2019/

#start up #entrepreneurs #new business #online marketing #wordpress websites #productivity #sm

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eryncreedmgfx · 7 years ago

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17th April Feedback and Trello

Got to have a meeting with Jason today for some help and some feedback and it went really well thank god. It is nice to know that I am on track with my project. Its also been really great to actually go and get some feedback on my work for once as this is something I never do.

Initially, Jason was sceptical about some of the timing and lengths of scenes in my piece. However, once I Had explained to him that these were editing choices of mine in order to be considerate of the graphics, he understood and agreed that there was more opportunity for sound sync with my motion graphics. It was nice to know that he does like the video, the song choice and the grid so far though without the added motion graphics.

Another thing Jason picked up on was the scenes that flick back and forth between two cast members; Emma and Ffion - 16 seconds in and Nicole, Saamii and Eleanor around 35 seconds in. He wanted me to make some sort of change here because although he understands what I was going for, he doesn’t think its quite working. We discussed this for a little while and decided that i should still use the same women, but have different footage of different poses used to keep it exciting.

Next, I had asked for help with the wording of the text scenes at the beginning and the end of my piece because I have been struggling with them for ages now! We talked this through for a while and definitely agreed that the statements needed to be bolder and say exactly what I wanted the video to say.

We came up with this in the end

Beginning Statement 1 - Art and Design Courses Are Dominated By Women Statement 2 - A Fraction go on to work in the Creative Industry Statement 3 - Only 11% of Creative Directors are Women Statement 4 - We Strive For The Women Of Tomorrow

End Statement 5 - Gender Equality Is Changing Statement 6 - Lets Celebrate the Women In the Creative Industry

These statements are much more suited to the piece and have the hard hitting elements that I wanted, while still being informative.

Finally I asked both Jason and Geraint for some advice on both my concept idea and my design choices. Geraint agreed that it was a hard choice between the purple and the gold, but said i should test using both. They also agreed that the first text design was a better layout as the artist title is striking. When it came to my concept design though Geraint wasn’t a fan of the iris idea, which is a shame, but he made some good points on how hexagons look a bit too sciency. He did say though, that I should keep the designs in the corners, fade them out more and only stick to circles, squares and triangles, and that will work great.

So after all of that, I have my trello board for the day. Some of these things I may have to take onto tomorrow but thats okay.

#Y3FMP

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stevepascoe-blog · 7 years ago

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Human Actions - Illustration

Drinking

A focus on a bottle that was used in my photograms became apparent in my illustrations too. I needed something other than cereal. The bottle can be used in the human action of drinking, it’s part of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs which is part of the physiological need; shared by food too (cereal).

Just something to consider, I need to identify why i draw characters wearing missing shoes or reasons for their attitude. They do have a confident, smug or arrogant mood. They seem to be chill or confident anyway. Maybe i’ve subconsciously illustrated my own moods or other peoples moods. I see people around me, more than i get to see my own face. So i’m inspired by whats around me surely.

I have friends ages 16 - 21 who I see frequently and we all have similar taste in fashion. Also the 1980s/90s retro fashion is recurring in teens.

I do really like the aesthetic of retro clothing, possibly because it was once popular, and has a great appearance; but now it’s grown back into fashion because you can find vintage charity shops dotted around all towns. And you can go on ebay and depop and purchases a nice branded retro piece of clothing for half the price of something popular today, and materials are getting cheap and less durable. It’s not just because some vintage accessories are cheaper, it also has a great look. Just something that isn’t popular and unique looks great, because it’s new.

We all get bored of repetitiveness and when you recognise something is new, we get a positive emotion from it. Like listening to a new song that you found; you play it on repeat because it sounds great and it’s a new melody. Everything is ephemeral and sometimes the ephemeral things can recur.

When you have a strong passion for something, it becomes a trait, it stays with you for your life it may even become a stronger than it currently is. I’ve always loved to draw and be creative, but it’s just until i became 18 that i was interested in pretty much anything creative.

I am curious about cinematography and directors; even though i don’t direct or have an interest in filming. I admire work that requires a creative mind. If i watch an animated film, I get distracted by the fact that I can see the efforts in order to create this visual. Or if something is choreographed in a great manner, i just get inspired by the use of shots and visuals.

I have friends that don’t pick up on certain things like the use of camera shots or don’t look at things the same way. I only really started getting inspired by films, comics, games, music until now. I started reading ‘Tank Girl’ as i loved the illustration style of Jamie Hewlett, furthermore the narrative and delivery of story is so compelling and action packed.

I always just think about maybe one day I can publish a comic or be part of a big company designing a game or concept design.

Sequence ‘Gun Shot’

This sequence features a graphic action in a form of a sequence. So first off thats look at this piece. It’s all in comic panels, however some visuals merge into each other’s panels; by doing this it was a close link to merging which is a process within collage.

I used onomatopoeias as a way to create sound and to reflect an emotion of distress from the gun shot victim. It’s also inspired by the use of typeface in the image and communication workshop too, so they both have an influence on the use of words.

The layout of the “SWOOOO0000ooosh” shows us where exactly the bullet travels and the source of the bullet.

The layout of “Ahhhhhh” slowly decreases in size, which visually represents how the noise also lowers in volume.

I feel as though i can create a series of different actions in the form of sequenced panels like this example, presented in an a4/a5 zine.

“Be real, Eat cereal

I drew this whilst eating breakfast before college, it was cheerios too, which inspired myself to draw my own action into one of my characters

This piece has a relation to other experiments in my sketchbook. I was illustrating the action of eating cereal and as doing so, i was thinking about the Image and Communication workshop, where we made a sentence relating to our work out of typeface and backgrounds that were printed in a previous workshop.

I thought about slogans, as they are relevant to what they want to sell, however it can be a fun way of advertising or creating a jingle. I thought about words that ended in “real” because of ‘ce-real’. Immediately the word “real” appeared. So then i thought of what i could say.

The character is eating cereal, so I thought i’d include eat cereal and another line for my slogan. I was thinking of a positive image and “Be real, eat cereal” became a slogan. It’s short and sweet and has a good message, however it might suggest to those who don’t eat cereal that they’re not real?

Being real is another way of saying “be serious, be honest, be realistic” it’s something you say to someone when you need them to respond to yourself positively and to get them to act honestly or seriously. So “Be real, eat cereal” is a way to say “eat the cereal, be realistic, it’s part of your daily servings”

Illustration Style

I know my style is distinctive, however the style developed in April/May when creating a comic in my last final major project which was about gang crime in the 1980s in London. I was inspired by ‘1988 Akira’ and the style grew from inspiration around me, I watch a lot of adult swim animated series, and have a great interest in retro fashion and the recurring fashion trends which led to my characters to be wearing branded clothing. What I draw is also a reflection on my life in some ways, however If it’s about violence or drugs then that’s not the case. I just enjoy illustrating fun characters with 1980s/90s fashion in a distinct style too.

I’m not too sure whether I have to base my style on something like another artist, however I know that i should get inspired by another one’s processes. Mimicking a style is like trying to act the same as someone else. I’d happily do observation if thats considered a style; but I usually reject the observational process as i don’t consider it to be fun, looking at something and drawing it.

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livlochmuller · 8 years ago

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Evaluation

14/05/17

- Evaluating and reflecting upon my thoughts and the design processes of both projects.

When this brief was launched, I was most excited for this because its a field that I’m most interested in. Choosing a talk admittedly was a long process at first, as I took notes though each talk, picking out bits that I found interesting and now I could incorporating a visual concept. After sometime, I selected the building TED talk because I felt that I could create some nice imagery for my editorial spreads. After noting down ideas for some visuals, I was drawn to the idea of a buildings perspective as well as thinking about the brutalist architectural movement, which was the theoretical side to my research. My visualisation research consisted of artists and designers as well as architects that utilise this idea of a simplistic architectural style which would then help influence the photos I would be taking in order to create my line drawings from. I was inspired to approach the brief this way because I thought that by incorporating simplistic imagery wouldn't distract so much from the typography going alongside, thus making it a balanced set of spreads. By using a line drawing meant that the architectural structure would show through effectively. In terms of layout ideas, my research consisted of mostly magazine examples containing a monochromatic approach as well as spreads that incorporated architectural imagery. Admittedly, at the beginning of when the title sequence brief was handed out, my research was not very focused as I needed time to investigate the different artistic approaches that could be created. Selecting a short story and transforming that story into a thirty second title sequence was something I was not comfortable with at first due to animation not being a field that I’m most confident in unlike editorial design; a field that I thoroughly enjoy. However, despite this obstacle, I continued researching for inspiration and it wasn't until my ideas for imagery that my research became more relevant to my approach. Research that consisted of dark and eery setting and atmosphere was what shaped my design decisions for this brief. Although, initially my approach was to be in a silhouette or collaged style but quickly went off this concept. Title sequences that contained the idea of a fairytale context alongside serif typefaces were the main ideas and inspirations behind the creative approach and pathway I took in the end.

Initially, the design of my magazine was to be only monochromatic. However, through the help and feedback of group and one to tutorials, it was then advised that I should experiment with spot colouring as the spreads could look a little too flat and non-dimensional. Changes to my spreads that I made were mostly to do with the overall layout and composition of my chosen text and how its relationship to the image was very important. A major change was of course the colour spotting as well treating my spreads as double spreads in order so that they could compliment each other effectively. In particular trying to have my imagery bleed across the two pages so that the spreads didn't feel as restricted. A major change that developed my spreads was definitely utilising the coloured lines to guide my pull quotes which changed my design of the layout completely as well as the general aesthetic. As a result of these changes and alterations that I made meant that my spreads development proved stronger each time over the duration of this brief. Like with the editorial brief, over the duration of the sequence brief, it only underwent a few changes. Firstly, making sure my imagery was dark enough in order to communicate the eery atmosphere and feeling of the story and since the ending was positive, it was advised that the last scene should be brighter than the other scenes. Another change was to focus on smoother transitions and to ensure that the last scene was not showing through throughout the animation as it was becoming a mild distraction and not making sense. Another change I had to think about and alter was the typography; the positioning of each phrase I chose for the video were all different, making it seem very mismatched. It was also advised to add the possibility of a drop shadow to make the type stand out a little more to the viewer. Making all these changes has made my development process thorough, and has made me evaluate my progress effectively.

As this was a creative field I was largely interested in, I managed my time extremely well in order to create an outcome that I was sufficiently happy with. I used the miniature deadlines in our handbook to ensure that I was producing the required work for my tutorial sessions. I tried to print off my prints at regular intervals to ensure that I was gaining an accurate perspective of the progress my designs were going through. As the project went on, the time was easier to manage as by that point, I was only having to make minor changes to my spreads. I was also maintaining my research at this time too to save time right before the critique. Time management again alongside the editorial brief, was not too much of an issue, except for this brief I made sure I gave myself plenty of time to produce an outcome that I would be happy with as I was not familiar with after effects, whereas for the editorial brief, I was comfortable with the programme but wanted plenty of time to experiment. Initially, I was a little concerned about how much time I had to go myself in order to create my title sequence but I pleasantly surprised myself. I wanted to leave a sufficient amount of time to look up and research the techniques I wanted to use before adding them to my sequence. Again, I found as it got towards the critique, because I had a solid idea and knew what needed changing, I never had to rush any elements of my title sequence. Thankfully, both projects didn't cause a lot of stress time wise.

Throughout the duration of the editorial brief, we underwent group tutorials as well as the final critique. By receiving constructive advice and feedback from fellow peers, it helped me to understand where the improvements were most needed. I felt that feedback was the most important at the beginning of this project because thats where the ideas need to be most developed before the designing can begin. Since I had gained solid ideas for imagery and had already gathered an idea for layout and composition, my feedback was already very positive at this stage. In addition to that, receiving the feedback also helped to aid my general progress of the project and I treated it as almost milestones to help get to where I needed to be each week. In terms of feedback, having the tutorials, both group and one to one helped me greatly, especially as this brief being a 30 second moving image piece was most definitely out of my comfort zone. I made sure to write down every single comment and improvement I needed to make to make sure that my final outcome was most effective and to a standard that I was happy with. Having made the suggested changes to my title sequence helped to gain more confidence with my ability to this brief. I felt that overtime i responded to any feedback I was given, it was a definite learning curve. Both projects generally well received advice and feedback which helped aid my development process.

Admittedly, there aren't many aspects to my design process that I felt needed more practice. I was comfortable with both the brief and using indesign in order to create my spreads. Maybe the possibility of trying not to make my spreads layouts as heavy as they started out to be. I felt that maybe I was trying to hard and that less is more the majority of the time, whereas, having to produce a 30 second video or animation was difficult in my eyes and so a result I think an area that I would want to improve is simply broadening my horizons in the moving image field. I would like to gain better, more effective skills in after effects too, as I may have played it too safe with my video but nevertheless, I was happy with what I had achieved. I want to able to produce a more complex and challenge outcome next time we are set a moving image piece in the near future. Also I think by simply playing with more effects, Im starting to broaden my technical ability too.

A large aspect and something I will take on board for future layout projects is that less is more. Having too much on the page makes it more difficult to work with and therefore the design process becomes much harder. Once I took out many of the design elements and narrowed down my choices, I was much more pleased with my outcomes. I learnt a few new things in our indesign session such as looking at paragraph and character stylings and to just think about the smallest typorgraphicall elements in general that would eventually make a lot of difference to the spreads. In this unit of study I have learnt to carefully plan out my storyboards at the start , in order to make sure that my ideas were clear on paper before I could apply the on the computer and in my research. This makes the process a lot easier and to develop from too. The programme itself (after effects) was a massive new skill to me as well, learning about all the different things you can do to your animation, especially from what I learnt in the workshops. Although the elements I learnt in the workshops didn't quite tailor to my idea, I have gained a few tips tricks to the programme either way. Theoretical knowledge was an aspect in this unit that I most definitely took away a lot from because at the start I had very little knowledge on the subject which is why my research was so broad at the beginning.

Overall, in terms of any changes that I would make, I think I would have looked into my first double page spread in more depth as I found this spread the hardest to work with due to the imagery I had created to go in. However with perseverance and regular feedback, it was improving week by week, but admittedly still not my favourite spread of my design to this day. There are no immediate improvements to my sequence that I feel I would change, however I could have added a few more elements to make a little more interesting such using a couple more images as I only made my video simple because of the little skill set I have with after effects so I wasn't able to produce anything massively complicated as I wouldn't know how to go about in the first place. Expanding my technical knowledge is the only element I feel would need improving upon. I’m not confident enough yet to develop a good character design, so maybe I need to practice this in order to add little more dimension to my animation all together. Despite this, Im hoping my final outcome is enough to communicate the idea i was getting across successfully.

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