Comic Strip Sets

[Montanto]

Hi all.

 

After a considerable hiatus I dusted off my ongoing project of cheating on backgrounds on my webcomic Rhapsodies (Previous attempts can be seen here) This time I started working on one of the strip's principle sets/locations, Lysistrata Books a progressive bookstore owned by one of the cast members. After a rather frustrating false start of trying to alter one of the sets in the extra's dvd I went back in treating it like a television set with only two walls (after all we never see the others) Anyway so far this approach is going fairly well with only a few stumbling blocks. These being so far trying to find the correct recipe for plate glass (yes I know 30% opacity is a good rule of thumb but should I start with any specific color? What I have now looks more like tracing paper. The other problem is that after I created it I realized I had pretty much created a mirror image of my design for the counter. Anyone know what the Animation Master equivalent of "Flip Horizontal" is?

 

Anyway It has a way to go. There are a few more props I have to do such as a few bookshelves. And I still have to master lighting and rigging to make this work right. But so far the learning curve is much more bearable then most of my other leap into the deep end projects.

 

Look forward to seeing what you all think and all comments and suggestions are more than welcome!

 

Thanks in advance

 

Bill

[Montanto]

Everything is coming along nicely I pretty much fixed the counter manually, it's just digital carpentry after all. The next thing I added was a bookshelf. At first it was pretty self explanitory (again, digital carpentry) but I started stumping myself on the books themselves. After wasting a good amount of time and memory trying to make individual books. I took a screenshot of the front and put books into it on illustrator which I then turned into a jpeg. Then I went back into AM and put a panel inside the shelves making them about "two inches" deep. I then put the jpeg onto this panel as a decal. It wasn't a perfect fit but that's what adjustable shelves are for... and besides it's for a comic strip, I'm not exactly going for photorealism.

[StormedFX]

Looking great. Keep us posted, cheers!

[martin]

Keep going... I'm reading.

[Rodney]

I like your solution for the bookshelf.

I've made a mental note about that as I'm sure your method will be of use to me in the future.

I like simple solutions... the more simple the solution... the better. It'll be easier to file in memory.

 

I haven't had time to read back far on 'Rhapsodies' but I've got your strip bookmarked!

 

Keep up the great work.

 

 

Edit: Are you acquainted with John Aquino (nyahkitty on most forums)?

I see he's done video work with Cartoonists Northwest.

[Montanto]

Edit: Are you acquainted with John Aquino (nyahkitty on most forums)?

I see he's done video work with Cartoonists Northwest.

 

Yeah, he's a nice guy. As far as Cartoonists Northwest is concerned he kind of disappeared over a year ago. Last time I saw him was this Easter at the local Science Fiction convention where he had a table at the artist alley.

[Montanto]

Okay Here's the latest progress report. I've thrown all of the components together and mostly it's looking good. As you can see with the second image I'm going to have to tinker with the glass a little bit. At this point I'm going back and looking everything thing over. From the perspective of a director I want to embellish I can think of more ways of making this into a convincing working independent bookstore, a few more posters on the wall, paperwork next to the counter perhaps a magazine rack next to the door or window... However from the perspective of a cartoonist I think I have to reign myself in and remember the KISS principle is law. There is no point putting in more props when you know that they are going to be hidden by word balloons. So at this point I think it might be better to master the finer points of the cartoon render, somehow see how I can tweak the line work and add lighting.

 

A quick technical question. Does anyone else have a problem with props moving around on them? At this point my only hypothesis is that I'm somehow animating them by mistake.

 

On another note I also started working on the outside of the store for establishing shots. So far I think it's looking all right. Based on what I've learned thus far I'm using decals whenever I have the opportunity. I think I'm going to need at least two more buildings (and any thoughts on how to cheat on them are appreciated.) Along with that headache there's still a bit of set dressing to go. Other than having to do most of the architecture, that I'm going to have to build from scratch, I have plenty of street accessories to spruce this thing up with. My biggest concern is at the moment I how to keep everything cartoony and not looking like a photograph that I ran through a few filters (Like the Volkswagen bus in the picture.)

[Rodney]

A quick technical question. Does anyone else have a problem with props moving around on them? At this point my only hypothesis is that I'm somehow animating them by mistake.

 

Bill,

Its only a guess here but I'd say yes, you probably animated the props by mistake.

 

Make sure you've saved your Project then go in and look at your Actions.

If you have any keyframes set that aren't horizontal... that'd be your culprit.

Its hard to say without seeing your project but look first at any keyframes not on frame zero.

 

Also... once you get everything perfectly placed you may want to Export your Choreography as a Model.

Then you won't have to worry about your objects moving at all.

It seems like this method might work for you well as you could easily set up various scenes as different models for use/reuse later.

 

 

Regarding the photo-look you are trying to avoid...

Computers tend to render things too perfect.

Since you are drawing elements of this anyway you might consider drawing over the top of your rendered lines.

Perhaps render to grey and use that as the outline? That would definitely lose that effect you don't want as the lines would be all yours.

 

 

Regarding cheating your other buildings... elements that you know for a fact you will not see from another perspective (say above or behind) you can model as partial objects... or... render those elements out and bring them back in as rotoscopes or layers. Here it might help to have a more specific target to attack.

 

I notice the color here on these renders. Are you moving to color comics or is this just a stage before they get converted?

[HomeSlice]

A quick technical question. Does anyone else have a problem with props moving around on them? At this point my only hypothesis is that I'm somehow animating them by mistake.

In addition to Rodney's suggestion, make sure any non-movable models only have keyframes on frame 0. Delete all the other ones.

If a model is supposed to move at some point, but you don't want it to slide around between moves, set it's Interpolation Method to "Zero Zlope".

 

I think I'm going to need at least two more buildings (and any thoughts on how to cheat on them are appreciated.)

You seem to be a good artist. Why don't you just draw the extra buildings and bring each drawing into the chor as a Layer?

[Montanto]

A brief deviation from the recurring sets this is something I threw together for the finale of one of the storylines I've been doing for half a year. It's going meant to be a homage to the first Wintermute sequence in William Gibson's Neuromancer where the protagonist walks down a wall of payphones and each one rings once as he passes it. The model was easy enough though I think I overdid it with the number of them in the set. AM was choking on it at the end and it took me forever to move the camera even a little bit.

[Montanto]

I notice the color here on these renders. Are you moving to color comics or is this just a stage before they get converted?

 

A little of both I use color for the sunday strips. And it's easier to visualize the project having it exactly as it should be instead of just white blocks. I suppose I could tinker with a grouping so I can switch back and fourth from color to plain line art. But as long as it's a cartoon render I have at least two filters on photoshop that can flush the colors fairly easily.

 

On another not I finally finished the premier piece for this set. I'm afraid it's not my funniest joke but I think it gets the job done.

[largento]

I think the sets integrated really well! Good job!

[KenH]

Yeah, nice work. I wouldn't be able to tell they weren't drawn.

[GAngus]

Hey, nice project, great "concept" here, very inspirational, thanks for sharing.

[Montanto]

Well, Folks here's the latest.

 

One of the recurring props I've been using is a phone stand in Nancy and Michelle's house (first seen here)

Anyway for the longest time I'd been using some clip art that I'd made in Illustrator (See bellow) obviously the big problem with this is that I'd have to use the same camera angle every time I used it. Finally I decided enough was enough so I just finished making the Stand and the lamp. I cheated and used a phone from the archive file (which I may correct.. I don't know if the wire is intended to be animated but at the moment I don't have the time or inclination to rig it) Anyway I think it came out all right otherwise. The only problem I had was that one of the groups wouldn't change color no matter what I did.

[Montanto]

Sorry I accidentally made a duplicate of the previous entry when editing the attachments. I haven't figured out how to delete an entry so the best I can do is change it into an apology in the edit. My Bad.

[largento]

Cool!

 

I've had something similar happen before and solved it by selecting those patches/control points, copying them, deleting the originals and pasting the new one. (Make sure in your settings that you have it set up to paste in the exact same place.