comic

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

Ok, i've decided to try my hand at cartoons.
However, since I can't draw, they will feature my action figures.

In two hours I whipped up 5 comics, though I have to admit I already had the scripts planned for 4 of them.

Noteable problems: The photography is terrible in most of the shots. As you can see from panel 3 of the first two strips, and panels 1 and 2 of the third strip, I figured out how to get the lighting right and the focus/detail on them right. Most of the rest of the shots need to be retaken, so please don't say anything about how badly the shot came out.

Also, these aren't the funniest ideas I had, but they were quick and easy to set up, and they set the stage for a couple running jokes I have in mind. If you think they suck, please say it in a gentle way, okithx.

I also need to redo the text. PSP 9's text feature works for crap, apparently. I'm going to have to figure out a better way to letter them.

Finally, they're too small, I know. AFTER I made them I went and checked some of the others out there. PA is 750x415 (and sometimes larger) and PVP is 850x270. even the standard comic strip size for syndication on United Media is 600x205. Mine are 600x150. and that's part of why it looks cramped. I haven't decided on a final size, but I'm thinking of something like 700x250. I might go as high as 800x300. That will mean planning shots better, so I can get focus and not too much extraneous detail and still have big pictures. I may do them in doors too, since I can't always count on the weather not being wet. But I liked the dinosaurs in the snow thing, since y'know, that wouldn't ever happen.

so, any other things I need to work on specifically in terms of composition?

[stacer]

The last text bubble of the last comic is a little tight to the figures, making it hard to really see what's going on, and the angle of the green dinosaur makes it hard to visualize quite what he is, though it might just be the lighting. But since you said you were planning on making it bigger, I'm assuming that problem would be taken care of just as the other tightness issues would be.

Good idea, SE. They're funny.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

probably the biggest problem with the green dinosaur, actually, is that the detail/focus is so bad you can't see who he is. Taking new shots should correct that.

[Skar]

That works alot better than I initially thought it would.  I especially liked the last one, (04).  I'd keep reading them if there were more.  In fact, it made me want to use my kids plastic animals and figures to do my own.  I probably won't though.

[Mistress of Darkness]

I'm enjoying it. I think you should try a font that is thinner, which will make it easier to read.

[Entsuropi]

I'd take a look at Irregular Webcomic, and maybe email the author for tips

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

well, I've read all of the IWC archives and I keep up daily
but an email wouldn't be out of order, I think.

[EUOL]

I approve, SE.  Number four is definitely the best.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

hay más, ahora

I'm doing better on the focus, and the font change and new size really helps the text look better, though I need to work on it. I'm particularly unhappy with lower case "i" and exclamation points. There's no space and they look like one long line.

However, the focus still isn't where I want it. I need to figure out how to get this thing to let me manually focus. I'm not sure why it decided to focus on the foam background instead of on the figure in that last one. It's a complete mystery. The other difficulty was the one with the penguin. with four objects, the camera just couldn't choose, I guess.

I'm pleased with my production rate. Even though it wasn't till noon today that I uploaded, I uploaded 7 new comics, which would keep me in comics for a week and a half, almost. I have my eye on an automatic updating script, so I could do this, put in comments, and forget about it for a week.

This represented about 2 hours of work, aside from the photography, which I did Friday over the course of about an hour (including phone calls). Uploading all the raw files so I could work on it at home (which I didn't) took a long time to do, but it wouldn't fit on my flash drive. Which just means that not enough of you are buying me stuff off my wish list.

I'm narrating this because I want to track my development so I can see, after about a month, if I really want to build a site and go to the world. I provide the links so I can get criticism from you guys.

I recycled a lot of images. Call me cut and paste. I originally only had one Carnage versus Carnage strips planned, but I realized that sort of thing could be a running gag, so why not start it off with a bunch of insult trading? I think if I do go live I'd reverse the order and make the first CVC strip the last one, as if he's run out of good comebacks.

I also originally planned only one batman comic with the different costumes, but when I was putting them together the one where he's wondering about which to wear came to me suddenly. Which explains why it doesn't have it's own shots and has huge spaces between panels. It wasn't planned out in the shot, so I didn't really have a lot to fill the space with.

[Gemm: Rock & Roll Star; Born to Rock]

"214" could have the dialog bubble be connected to all of them. I think that would present the gag a bit betterly.

What kind of camera is it? Digital I'm guessing, not a SLR though, eh? Getting manual focus on digital cameras is a pain. Oh yeah, friend just reminded me, use macro mode for that nightcrawler shot. That's what you need to figure out. Macro mode... how'd I forget about you sunshine.

Just work on that focus man, and I'll get you some shots of my fig's. Which includes hangable Spidey, Gimli, and Jack Skelington as well as Sally.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

That's a thought with the 214 strip. I even considered it originally. But I decided to do it as three different speech balloons because I wanted it to be sequential, hoping to play at least a little off the previous strip. I thought maybe people might think he was trying out different ways of saying it or looking in the mirror again. Now that I think about it, having the text in slightly different fonts would have helped with that effect.

I'll have to pull out the manual. It is digital, but I don't know if it has SLR or what. I'll look up macro mode too. Thanks for the help.

[Gemm: Rock & Roll Star; Born to Rock]

SLR, Single-Lens Reflex, usually means that the camera has removable lenses. Most higher-end cameras do, since they cost upwards of $500. But macro mode on digital cameras is usually represented as a little flower. At least it is on my dad's Sony digital camera.

Anything else?

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

oh, well, then I was using Macro mode. This is work's camera, not mine, so I'm still learning it. I'll have to check it for SLR.

[Skar]

CVC didn't work for me because for a cartoon with no dialogue in the first two panels there needs to be some history.  Putting it at the end like you said would fix that.

The trying on different batman costumes one would work better if we were seeing from the back as he's looking in a mirror.  I laughed at it as is, just a suggestion.

As for the focus on the Joker one, try landscape mode. (usually lookes like a couple of mountains on the dial)

Dude, you could so totally achieve an ubergeek toy-story effect if you went with the subtext that all these toys are in your house and your house is their world in which they exist as the (delusional) super heroes we know and love so well.  

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

duuuuude. I like that idea. I like it especially because I have multiple copies of several characters. I have like, three Snake Eyes, two Storm Shadows, three Scarletts, three Batmans, two Spideys, two Carnages, etc. I could have them doing a little war. For the Spidey characters this is particularly interesting, what with the clone saga and everything.

Yeah, i can see the CvC needing back story though. Maybe a comic where they both try to fight spidey and Venom or something, and then they fight over which is the real one.

The only problem with the mirror (and I agree, it's a good idea) is that I'm at work, and have limited props. However, now that I think about it, I'm getting a new mechanic's mirror delivered soon, and it's very portable. I could use that in a remake of it.