The Wannabe Pirates

[TheSpleen]

love the set and lighting

[largento]

Thanks, guys!

 

Ken, there are story reasons as to why it looks like a prison and why Flemm is lit the way he is, but I won't spoil 'em here. :-)

[HomeSlice]

Nice atmosphere Largento.

Do you have an actual dwelling now? Inquiring minds want to know!

[largento]

Thanks, HomeSlice! Yes, I'm moved into my sister's house. Hopefully I'll be able to find some work in the next few months and move into a new place. (Fingers crossed!)

[TheSpleen]

So you just gonna leave us hanging?

[largento]

About what, Gene?

[largento]

Coming up soon is my first chance to have a sea battle. Flemm is going to come up against some evil monkeys at sea. I think this is going to be a lot of fun. Since my buffer is nearly exhausted, I'm having to model quickly, but I love the fact that with A:M you can model quickly.

 

Here's the model for the Monkey Ship. It's 50% of the size of the Sea Anemone, but where I could, I've incorporated parts from the Sea Anemone.

 

 

And here's a turnaround...

 

monkeyship.mov

[MJL]

Love the style and look of the whole Wannabe thing, Mark. This boat looks really good, but it's gonna be hard to top the chickens. They were the epitome of stylistic distinction. Keep it up.

[TheSpleen]

great style!

[HomeSlice]

Can't wait to see it populated with evil monkeys!

[largento]

Thanks, guys!

 

Now I have to finish the monkey model! I only ever modeled the head and that was a loooong time ago! (December of 2007, according to my files!)

[largento]

Wow, today's strip is Part FIFTY of this story! I can't believe I've done that many already!

 

I was plugging numbers into my calendar (which helps when it comes time to upload them to the site, since the file is named for the date, but I also need to know the strip # for the post title) and was just getting overwhelmed seeing how many strips I'm going to have to do to keep up the 5 day a week schedule!

 

March 22nd is when I'll reach 100! By the middle of August, I'll have done more 3D strips than the 2D strips we did in over a year and a half!

 

After a couple of years of doing so many, I might actually get good at doing them. :-)

[KenH]

Well done. I donated a nominal amount for all the enjoyment.

[largento]

Thanks, Ken!

 

And much thanks for the donation! It is really appreciated and I'm honored that you would do so!

 

You're a great friend!

[largento]

 

Admiral! Thar be MONKEYS here! :-)

 

Still need to put in some simple facial poses and add some props to individualize the crew of the Monkey Ship, but I'm getting there...

[HomeSlice]

Awwww ... they look too cute to be evil monkeys

[TheSpleen]

Great looking monkeys!

[largento]

Thanks, guys!

 

Awwww ... they look too cute to be evil monkeys

 

That's one of the things Flemm struggles with. He thinks monkeys are cute little things and can't quite come to grips with the fact that they aren't friendly... despite the fact that his every encounter with them reinforces that they are evil. :-)

[Rodney]

I know this will be more work than necessary unless you have good control of your organizational skills but I think you do have those skills... you've demonstrated them over and over again... so I'll offer this.

 

There must be some fairly simple way to differentiate the various monkey from each other more... just a little bit.

My first thought is to suggest making multiple copies of the monkeys, placing them in separate folders and modifying each just a little bit (one a tad more light brown) (one a very little bit different in the eyes) (one slightly thicker in the middrift).

 

You don't necessarily have to keep track of them all... your readers will do this.

The reason you want to save the different models is that somewhere down the line you'll WANT to expand on the different characters a little. You and your readeship will have fleshed out their personality quirks a little more by then.

 

I'm thinking Tin Tin here and the two guys with the different hats and mustaches.

Never could figure out which was which but I know others did.

 

Perhaps they could all be exactly the same except for a unique prop (hat, bandana, glasses) attached to each of them.

 

Still need to put in some simple facial poses and add some props to individualize the crew of the Monkey Ship, but I'm getting there...

 

Of course, if I'd have just read the text along with your image I would have seen how you are already in full control of this.

 

Great monkeys Mark!

[HomeSlice]

It is actually pretty easy to add little differences like color and minor mesh expanding/contracting in poses. Then you don't have to manage ... a whole barrel of monkeys.

[largento]

Haha, thanks anyway, Rodney!

 

Stylistically, I like that all of the monkeys are identical except for items they may be wearing... and there is no plan to have recurring monkey characters. The monkeys are a concept rather than a collection of individuals.

[largento]

Working on strip #60 today and I have a panel where Flemm is going to get doused with banana creme. Thought I'd play around with achieving it using A:M's fluids.

 

Still mostly guessing with many of the settings, but after some tests, I got something I think will work. Since I'm working with stills, I'll be able to render elements separately and have many frames to choose from for the final.

 

I eventually stumbled on the way to get the fluid to do what I want by constructing an invisible funnel with a trap door. This allows the fluid to build up enough so that when it's released, it gushes down all at once. Some fluid does escape the simple trap door, but that won't be a problem for the still image.

 

Here's the test video. If you scrub through the frames, there's some funny ones.

 

glooptrapdoor.mov

[KenH]

Heh. Porridgey. Interesting technique!

[Gerry]

Great effect Mark!

[largento]

Thanks, Ken & Gerry! (Have you guys ever considered making ice cream?) :-)

 

After the initial drop, I had a whole strip where the gloop is around them. For this, I put emitters over the heads of the three characters:

 

 

Then I rendered out a clean version with no gloop to use as a background plate. Took both into Photoshop and with some selective deleting, got the final look. *Very* glad this was only for one strip!

 

[kwhitaker]

That is a very cool effect. well done Largento, gloop aplenty

[largento]

Thanks, Kat!

[largento]

It hardly seems possible, but this Monday, February 1st, will mark The Wannabe Pirates webcomic's 2nd anniversary!

 

I'm going to put up a blog post about it on Monday. As part of the celebration, we're going to have a drawing for two cool items: a 20" x 30" poster of The Wannabe Pirates and a signed copy of the original 1997 graphic novel, "Greyhawk and the Starbucklers of the Caribbean!"

 

See the blog post on Monday to find out how to enter the drawing!

 

I think we've finally got everything in place and this third year will hopefully be our best year yet!

[largento]

Been having fun today working on an over-sized strip for Tuesday. This one's all Flemm sword-fighting with monkeys... :-)

 

[Rodney]

Now THAT is cool.

[KenH]

He....looks so happy!

[MJL]

The one with two swords looks like he might be a Ninja monkey!

[largento]

Thanks, guys!

 

Could be a ninja monkey, Myron ...but if he was really a ninja we wouldn't be able to see him. :-)

 

Ken, Flemm is having the time of his life!

[largento]

Just a reminder that today is The Wannabe Pirates webcomics' 2nd anniversary!

 

Be sure to read the blogpost on the site and enter to win the poster and graphic novel!

 

And if you're really feeling generous, vote in the link below!

[TheSpleen]

I love your style

[largento]

Thanks, Gene!

 

Today's strip is the oversized one with Flemm and the monkeys sword-fighting!

 

[KenH]

Saw it today. Oddly there were two instances I thought didn't sound right in this one.

 

Have at it. Is this a pirate saying? I would have expected something like "Take that."

 

There's always one guy who takes it too far until someone gets hurt. I don't think it needs the "until someone gets hurt". But I would replace "until" with "and".

 

Just a personal preference. The ideas are great!

[largento]

Thanks, Ken!

 

You misread the first, it isn't "Have at it," It's "Have at you."

 

"Have at you" is great old Errol Flynn sword-fighting talk.

 

Here's the definition of it from Wiktionary:

 

have at you

(dated) an exclamation indicating that one is about to strike the person addressed, typically with a sword or other hand-held weapon. E.g., "Dark and sinister man, have at thee." Barrie, Peter Pan.

 

I actually did write out the dialogue with "and" the first time and then decided it didn't sound right and changed it to "until."

[NancyGormezano]

I ditto "Good ideas!"

[largento]

Thanks, Nancy!

 

Here's a quick prop I threw together today for the next couple of strips I'm working on. The idea of this was part of the original animated story McCrary and I worked on. This is the Indescribable Treasure of the Coconut King. Big thanks to the MatCap shader. Really makes the gold look cool.

 

[KenH]

That is good looking gold! The wood could use....something?

[largento]

Yeah, it has the same gold material, but since the patches are flat, there's nothing interesting to see. For the final in the strip, I added some roughness to achieve contrast that way.

[largento]

And I keep rolling merrily along...

 

Here's another one of the Starbucklers of the Caribbean characters: K'Bor!

 

 

K'Bor's a sort of gentle giant character and Greyhawk's protector.

 

Had some trouble figuring out how to do him and ended up working sans rotos and just starting with the eye and working my way out from there. A very different approach than what I normally do. Big thanks to Ken H. I Frankensteined the legs and arms from the Giant Gorilla model Ken did for me.

[NancyGormezano]

He's a charmer, he is!

 

(love your water - how's that done?)

[largento]

Thanks, Nancy!

 

In this case, it's a plugin for Photoshop called Aurora 2.1 from here. It lets you create custom skies (including water) complete with 3D clouds. I found it on sale through another site a year or so back and picked it up. I haven't used it enough to unlock it's full potential, but it has presets you can use as starting places. (This image is actually scrunched up since I just stuck it in the camera at the last minute.)

[jakerupert]

>Here's a quick prop I threw together today for the next couple of strips I'm working on. The idea of this was part of the original animated story McCrary and I worked on. This is the Indescribable Treasure of the Coconut King. Big thanks to the MatCap shader. Really makes the gold look cool.

 

Reduced 80%

 

1280 x 960 (355.53k)

 

 

Very good stylized and unique and interesting!

 

Especially love this treasurechest.

[KenH]

Aha. So the Starbucklers are going to be similar design to the Wannabes. He looks cool! I could see these guys inside something like a chocolate egg that you have to assemble. lol Those are large tusks though! You'll have to watch the camera angles to get his expressions across.

[largento]

Thanks, Jake!

 

Ken: the way I've been explaining it is like the old DC Comics multiverse. We can call the version of Earth that Flemm is on Earth F and the Earth that Greyhawk is on is Earth G. So, this would be the versions of the Starbucklers that live on Earth F. Presumably there's a realistic version of Flemm on Earth G (if he's managed to survive this long!) So the designs will match Flemm's world. It also gives me some freedom to not stick exactly to what we have in the Greyhawk strip... specifically some of the elements of Greyhawk Island.

 

K'Bor's tusks definitely prevent him from doing too much with his mouth, although it does extend enough to allow for some movement of the corners of his mouth. his "eyebrows" and body language are going to have to carry most of the weight when giving him facial expressions.

 

Glimey is the one that I think will present the most challenge that way. His eyes are up on stalks and his mouth is kind of turtle like.

 

The last of the characters (on the Starbucklers' side) that I need to do is Greyhawk. He presents his own challenge in that both Greyhawk and Flemm were based on McCrary and so look very similar (besides hairstyles and Greyhawk has an electronic eye instead of an eyepatch.) It's not part of the plot that they look alike, so i'm thinking the way to go is to try to make them look different. Although it would be much easier just to use the Flemm model and change the hair. :-)

 

Maybe I should change the plot. :-)

[largento]

 

I'm loving using the Technocrane camera rig! It really gives you a sense of control and it's fun to play with the focal depth, too.

[TheSpleen]

 

I'm loving using the Technocrane camera rig! It really gives you a sense of control and it's fun to play with the focal depth, too.

Your skills are shining brightly Largento.