VOID
Art => THE INCUBATOR => Topic started by: ultraman400 on Jan 17, 2014, 02:37 PM
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Ref Sheet:
(http://i862.photobucket.com/albums/ab186/UltraMan400/20140426122314541_0001_zpsabee9866.jpg~original) (http://s862.photobucket.com/user/UltraMan400/media/20140426122314541_0001_zpsabee9866.jpg.html)
Avatar Picture:
(http://i862.photobucket.com/albums/ab186/UltraMan400/80973092-7d3e-4b0e-a1ad-a719ec8dc70f_zpsac8dc1ac.jpg~original) (http://s862.photobucket.com/user/UltraMan400/media/80973092-7d3e-4b0e-a1ad-a719ec8dc70f_zpsac8dc1ac.jpg.html)
Intro Story:
(http://i862.photobucket.com/albums/ab186/UltraMan400/4f4d0305-70a6-400b-a97a-917883a9493e_zpse2da6ae6.jpg~original) (http://s862.photobucket.com/user/UltraMan400/media/4f4d0305-70a6-400b-a97a-917883a9493e_zpse2da6ae6.jpg.html)
(http://i862.photobucket.com/albums/ab186/UltraMan400/50816472-bbd8-4241-bfb2-6aa65f96ce93_zpscc8e2a3f.jpg~original) (http://s862.photobucket.com/user/UltraMan400/media/50816472-bbd8-4241-bfb2-6aa65f96ce93_zpscc8e2a3f.jpg.html)
(http://i862.photobucket.com/albums/ab186/UltraMan400/36adf6f5-b697-41f0-9843-20aad6144d27_zpseeb6bdec.jpg~original) (http://s862.photobucket.com/user/UltraMan400/media/36adf6f5-b697-41f0-9843-20aad6144d27_zpseeb6bdec.jpg.html)
Bio: Not much is known about this being, only that he came from a distant planet and was the sole survivor of a destroyed star ship which he recalls was attacked by an evil empire known as the "Imperial Bot Empire". After the ship crash-landed in the outskirts of Void City, he was found and sheltered by a local dojo sensei. After his recovery, the sensei became like a father to him, raising him and teaching him the art of kung-fu. Michael was given the nickname "Cobolt" by his master for his natural blue fur and fighting style of attacking and maneuvering with lightning speed. For a few years Michael lived a peaceful and joyous life, however it did not take long for his past to catch up to him. One fateful night, Michael had arrived at his master's dojo, only to find it completely wrecked. Upon entering he found his master dead and an Imperial Bot insignia marked on a wall. After giving his master a proper burial, Michael soon learned that the Imperial Bots have set up their base inside Void City. Michael now resides as a Void civilian in order to find the Imperial Bots and put a stop to their evil plans.
Name: Michael "Cobolt" Callister
Species: Alien Android
Age: 150 years old (Appears to be 25)
Personality: Kind-Hearted, Brave, Smart, Respectful, and Charismatic.
Abilities:
-Has superhuman strength
-Is martial arts expert and a skilled strategist
-Can fly for unprecedented amounts of time.
-Can use a variety of energy projectiles and shields.
Weaknesses:
-Can be worn out if put under continuous physical punishment over the course of a battle.
-Prefers a fair fight, meaning if his opponent is only using their fists he will do the same.
-Can sometimes lose concentration and focus if he can't think of a good strategy, which can leave him vulnerable and sloppy.
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Hey there, and welcome to void! I've seen you around commenting but I never saw you actually post some art, so it's good to see that.
But before I say any critiques in mind, please remember that I'm not going to try to put you down or anything like that, I only want to give some feedback to better your work. I say this first because I have a lot to say now.
First, the design sheet. I don't know what size you're drawing on, since this is traditional, but you might wanna consider drawing much bigger than what you have now. The character is MUCH more important than his weapons, abilities, and alternative outfits, so it's best to Put your character nice and big to have a better understanding of his design. Speaking of design, he looks very...boxy to say the least? I mean I'm not entirely sure what he's wearing, is that supposed to be armor? it's very very basic, I would suggest trying to put more imagination into it, along with learning some basic anatomy to give him some more form, he's very stiff IMO.
Now if you want to put his weapons and alternative outfit for him, I suggest stretching the canvas size in height and put all that info at the bottom. Actually, instead of showing his outfit, draw him in it. Better.
For the intro pages, it feels incredibly unfinished. Your writing is incredibly messy and small, making it hard to read whats going on in this comic. Your pencils are very bold, indicating you were pressing pretty hard when you were sketching this out. Because of your pencils as they are, they feel very sketchy and unfinished. I would also suggest putting some space between your panels. That's probably a nitpick on my side, but just having lines separate your images doesn't seem very attractive to look at. Some good examples I can pull out of my playlist are:
World's Greatest Eccentric by Jongbom and Pocketmouse (http://entervoid.com/index.php?action=comic;id=4647)
(http://entervoid.com/images/allComics/4647-1/page2.jpg)
Devil's Three-Way, Mister Kent's entry (http://entervoid.com/index.php?action=comic;id=4793)
(http://entervoid.com/images/allComics/4793-3/JBvABvMG%201%20Flat.jpg)
I can't really thing of anything else to say about this character, I would just say tighten up the overall quality of these drawings and consider some better pacing in your comic pages. hope that helps!
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Really cute character. Blue foxboy? I think yes :D Super adorable. I wish he was a bit bigger though, so I could see him better~ really see the facial features <3
And I love how on top of his badass space suit armor thing, that you also gave us an alternate 'normal outfit'. Very useful. And the design for the ship, also kinda cool.
I'd say though, that maybe for your lines, draw really lightly with pencil and then draw over it with a fine-tip black marker, then erase the pencil lines. It'll look much cleaner that way.
And for your speech bubbles, I find it really good to write out the words first, and then draw a bubble around them so the lettering doesn't get squished and sort of hard to read. And watch your spelling, dude. Spelling is super important to professionalism :)
It also helps, if you read a lot of comics. Just pick one that you really really love and try to emulate their style. Maybe even do an excercise, where you redraw a page of your favorite comic, just to really nail how it goes together.
Also? Arm ion canon = hella cool.
Good luck! :D
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he looks a bit like Starfox meets Megaman ^^; but thats fine if you can own it. right now like Skulls said your lines are sort of stiff and blocky, and moreover flat, theres no depth to it. The intro doesn't give much information about him, its pretty much just "I've arrived, in a spaceship!" but i dont know who he is, which may be in part because the pencils are near impossible for me to read. I think it would be good if you added another page with a little more on the character himself because honestly all I'm getting from your info is he seems about overpowered and generic ^^; I'm not trying to dump on your character I just feel like theres more that could be done to make him stand out on his own.
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Thanks for the feedback. maybe I could re-size the ref. sheet, add another Intro page (Probably a flashback to give the character more of a backstory, if it works with you. Yeah, even I was unsure about the Intro Story. In the additional page I also try to draw him without his armor, by the way the design of his armor was intended to be boxy, although I will try to add a picture of him armor-less in the ref. sheet.), fix the writing in the Intro Story, and that probably would fix the issues seen in this character.
Update: ref. sheet is now a thumbnail which by clicking it will take you to the original pic, or take a look at its original size by right-clicking it and click: Open Image in new tab. I'll do the same for the Intro Story.
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Everyone else has kind of gone over a lot of the things I am thinking, but I have a bit of a criticism regarding the plain design he has.
As Shen says, he does remind me of Mega Man which I am going to assume is probably because it influences you? If so I regularly design things with that kind of aesthetic myself :). But in this particular case it seems like a very plain sort of adaptation along this character design:
(http://static3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110521212302/megaman/images/a/a7/MML3VolnuttA.png)
Which really isn't my beef. As I said I have designed characters taking design cues from lots of things that inspire me, I am pretty sure we all do. But your design in comparison to this is pretty lacking and plain. I get that he is simple to draw but there is also nothing unique about him either. In comparison the Mega Man design I linked above has varying widths to the tubes as well as other little details to separate him out from being totally plain. The orange backpack also helps to add a little bit of extra variety on a very blue design. Mega Man Volnutt's design is still very simple and easy but its still visually more interesting than just a bunch of tubes :).
So what I'm saying is I'd give your guy some more variety around on his design. Don't need to go overboard but give him a little stronger of a silhouette maybe and/or more defined features that if we saw them we'd go "Okay that's Cobolt!".
The other thing is did you intentionally spell his name wrong, or is it meant to be like the colour Cobalt?
Also your writing on the page is very hard to read and you could use with some cleaning it up. Also keep an eye on your writing as I'm noticing spelling errors such as "Set a couse to this Void City", when it should say 'course'. The last line to doesn't make any sense unless there is supposed to be an I in there so it reads "and I plan on keeping it". Basically I'd toss these pages and start on some new ones. Pay attention to how other comics utilize composition in setting up the panels on their page, as well as the drawings within the panels. Composition is key here and as your comic is right now I don't feel you're really utilizing the page to its fullest. It's not awful or anything in terms of your panel layout I just feel it could be a little more interesting, but the drawings within the panels don't have the best composition.
It's quite good to know some basics of composition. As I'm tired and didn't feel like totally trudging through this wikipedia article to make sure it doesn't suck, here is a wikipedia article on composition that hopefully doesn't suck (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composition_(visual_arts)). ALSO when planning out your pages make sure to think of where you want your word bubbles to go first. As it stands I feel you're not thinking of where to place your text and so it gets all crammed in and around the drawings.
Also more detail in the pages please, everything suffers from the same problem the ref does for your character in that the design is plain. Spice it up a bit! Add more creative flair and effort into the drawings, have fun with it!
That's my two cents.
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You know what, I just don't have it in me to continue on with this anymore. Its just because there is so much complex factors put into comic book making that I just can't (not even for the life of me) adapt to. For me, this was just to test my artistic capabilities. Not because I'm a terrible artist (I'm at least fairly good), its just so difficult to make a comic. I might do some fan art though (If it is okay) of some of the characters on this site, so you never know.
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you are welcome to hang around, we always love fanart! if someday you get more comfortable drawing comics, feel free to try again!
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Oh, don't give up so fast! You are starting now and you just got a LOT of advice. It can be a little intimidating and a lot to take in at first. But don't worry - nobody is expecting you to do it all at once. Just take it one step at a time, do it in your own pace.
And this is something that Kozi linked me a few days ago and I think it's a brilliant advice on how to make comics:
http://www.makingcomics.com/2014/01/18/get-started-already/ (http://www.makingcomics.com/2014/01/18/get-started-already/)
:)
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Nobody likes a quitter! =P
Seriously though, the only way to get better is to practice. I took a huge break from art for about two years and just got back into it this past Christmas when my fiancee got me some Copic sketch markers. I've been drawing every day since then and my art already looks 100 times better than it did back in December. Progress is a good feeling. Creating a piece that you're proud of is an even better feeling and you shouldn't deny yourself of it. Stick with it. You'll be impressed with what you can do.
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Don't give up! Comics are hard, but if we all stopped doing things because they were hard we wouldn't have cures for diseases, cars, spaceships, the internet, etc.
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Thing is I'm not that much of a fan of doing massive detailing for my characters.
(1) If I'm going to do a comic where a character or characters are massively detailed as the character design example pictured above, (Mega Man Volnutt) then it feels like a waste of materials and time. And being that if I'm going to make a comic character where I have to have him/her and my other characters massively detailed, I'm going to eventually lose interest in finishing it.
(2) I don't really mind doing another artist's character in great detail (check out my gallery on DeviantArt: ultraman400) because I think doing that artist's character in the same detail as his/her creator would do then that means to me that I'm doing that character good. But when comes to my characters I tend to give them simple designs because I going to draw them frequently.
(3) I'm not much of composition guy, but I'll try to work on spacing and distance with objects and characters.
(4) Yes, his anatomy with that armor on is not really all that accurate, but it's a totally different case with his armor off (a bit muscular, but not like superman or Goku).
(5) And lastly, just because I'm saying I'm done for now, doesn't mean I'm giving up on this guy. This is just a setback. I might try again by re-doing the Ref. sheet (put in some more detail for his armor, draw him in him civilian clothing, and maybe draw his body and muscle structure for anatomy), change his bio. a bit to make him look and feel less over-powered and generic (maybe give him a couple of villains to fight for Beyond Battles, give him a better motive for coming to Void other then because of "I swore on an oath.", and maybe explain a bit about his race), re-do the intro story (This time no colour, spacing between panels, put in some background work, do some distancing between objects and characters such as if I draw a character or object that's far or close I draw them in the size that represents the distance, do page about his back story, and give the characters some emotions, honestly the Intro Story is the biggest problem with him), the avatar stays the same, and draw everything a bit cleaner (no more inking, use black pencil crayon or crayon for space backgrounds or darkness, type the dialogue, and maybe give him a love interest. And that's all I can think of to improve.
I will try again just not now.
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But you won't get better if you don't try. You don't have to make a detailed character, I mean look at Nutty the Squirrel
(http://entervoid.com/images/fighters/609/nuttyref2011.jpg)
Simplifying other people's characters is fine and no one is going to be offended if you don't get every detail right on them.
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Okay I might keep his armor design the way it is just with some more detail, but I still need to do it again. When I re-do his Ref. Sheet this time I'm going to draw him in his civilian clothes, and his anatomy design keep his armor picture for editing. Quick question can I take the design of him from the old Ref. Sheet, give it more detail, and put it in my new Ref. Sheet?
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I didn't say your character needed to be complex.
That Volnutt design isn't even really all that complex either - it is just a bunch of tubes stuck together with a few bolts plastered here and there. My point was more in silhouette, rather than being about all the little bolts and stuff. It was just about making your character more appealing to look at. Nutty is a perfect example of a simple character who is recognizable on the site just by his silhouette. He has very defined shapes and the right amount of detail to stand out for the style he is in. I understand you have to draw the character frequently (its a totally valid point) which is why I, or anyone else for that matter, don't expect you to make something super crazy in detail. I was just asking for something more expressive that builds upon the simplicity you have there already.
I guess my point is take more pride in your character and give him the extra pizzazz so people are drawn to him more visually. How is that a waste of materials and time? Take pride in your art and your comics man, be manageable in what you know you can do and plan around that - but don't succumb to taking the simple way out all the time. Just because something seems daunting and perhaps a little bit more work isn't a waste of anything at all - the process you go through to make it better than anything you have done before makes it worth all the time and all the materials you put to it. Simply saying "that's a waste" is kind of disheartening to hear.
Glad to see you'll try it again some other time though. Don't give up.
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This time I'm only going to draw one view of him in the new Ref. Sheet. Because it's more easier for me to draw him in his different outfits. Maybe I can alter his leg and arm parts to make him look more movable and unique.
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Update:
I doing a sketch page showing different design ideas for the leg, arm, and shoulder parts of Cobolt's armor and also ideas for his hair style. I'll post them when I'm finished doing them.
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Just a friendly reminder that posting text updates about stuff you are drawing doesn't help the creation process. It's better to sit on something until it's done, since talking about what you're planning can trick your brain into feeling like you've actually done work on it.
Also, the only way you'll make progress on this is to sit down and start drawing.
GIT OUT DEM PENCILS
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Ok, thanks for the tip.
Oh, and that phrase "GIT OUT DEM PENCILS", nice one man.
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Honestly, I will take the maker line art advice, because ballpoint pen makes the line work sloppy and digital is not my forte. Thanks Rob.
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That's great and all, but start posting imagery. Images truly do tell more than 1000 words. In this context it means that whatever you post here that doesn't contain art and comics related to this submission is a wasted post.
You can update your pro tool sets, cool style methods and rad one-offs all you can AFTER you've posted pages. Now you're just talking the talk - time to walk the walk, man.
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Finally updating, here are some ideas on my characters hairstyle and Arm and Leg Parts. Take a look and suggest me which one of each I could use to make him stand out.
(http://i862.photobucket.com/albums/ab186/UltraMan400/20140214121255175_0001_zps854adc5c.jpg~original) (http://s862.photobucket.com/user/UltraMan400/media/20140214121255175_0001_zps854adc5c.jpg.html)
(http://i862.photobucket.com/albums/ab186/UltraMan400/20140214121632342_0001_zpse8d931fe.jpg~original) (http://s862.photobucket.com/user/UltraMan400/media/20140214121632342_0001_zpse8d931fe.jpg.html)
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Instead of drawing them separately, why not just draw them on the character altogether? You might find that while you like certain parts, you may not like them in combination. After all, a character is a sum of all of its parts, so you need to make sure there's proper cohesion between all of them.
Also, I don't feel as though you're straying too far out of your comfort zone. The "new" parts you've drawn are still basically cones and cylinders. Instead of trying to build out of single shapes, try combining shapes to get something more dynamic and interesting.
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No, I will not try combining shapes. I will only go with any of these three designs for his armor. Besides the last one I did was to step out of my comfort zone.
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Oh, well, the important thing is that you tried
Wait-
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Any particular reason why you won't try that suggestion? I mean, it's nice to...try.
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Uh, OK. First of all I have to keep my character's design simple but unique. I'll probably go with Arm and Leg Parts C) and use Hairstyle B). Second, some of these designs are a bit complex and help him stand out(mostly with Arm and Leg Parts (C)). And lastly, if I have to change my character's design, I'm going to do design him the way I want him to be. Besides, his design is not the biggest problem with him, it's his Intro story. From this point on, I'm going with the design I pick for him. I really appreciate all the pointers and suggestions, but this is taking too long to get him developed.
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Understandable, but do see and keep in mind that the armor you're going to put your character in is looking more and more like a megaman-esque design, and not to say you're ripping off megaman, but it's anything but unique.
And that should be a concern for you in the future.
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I really am not trying to, I mean I am inspired by the works of Kenji Inafune, but he is not a man-made robot. He is an Alien Android, and his Shoulder pads in (C) are not the same in shape, also his Arm Cannon is different in design. Both Colbolt's and MegaMan's backstories are very different. MegaMan was a tool assistant of Dr. light turned hero. Colbolt was an ordinary soldier protecting his planet until an evil empire took over his world, became a leader of his squad, and has a few personal vendettas.
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he is not a man-made robot. He is an Alien Android,
Well..
isn't an alien android really just a robot made by a man from another world? :|
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I feel like we're getting lost in semantics here.
Bottom line: Nothing anyone ever does is really original. You can only hope to put a new twist on things.
So what you want to do is experiment more on the shapes of the armor. YES, you are comfortable with them as they are. I'm comfortable with drawing faces the way I do, but they all look kind of the same and I'll never get any better if I don't push myself and learn THROUGH PRACTICE to get better.
If this were a character design assignment in a college class, the first thing you would do is gather an ass-load of research. Look up how "alien" tech is designed in movies and other comics. Look up how other androids have been designed before. Then, bases of what you like most and what inspires you from what you've found, you would do many sketches. You would probably to 6 to 10 versions, all different from each other. The point of this is to find the shapes that work best.
You might then take the version that works best from all tho ones you did, and combine it with some of the best features from the others. Kind of like nature creating the best creature it can by testing out attributes and seeing which one rises to the top. Sure, maybe some attributes are cooler than others, but they might not WORK right with the overall design.
It's obvious you are still learning the basics of using shapes to build up a figure and learning the craft of drawing in general. THIS IS THE BEST TIME TO DO EXPERIMENTATION EXERCISES like the one I described above. Drawing an android is also a great way to learn to draw a human figure, since you have an excuse to separate out the shapes that make up the anatomy the body.
Also, it's SUPER IMPORTANT not to take any of the stuff we're telling you as "us telling you what you can and can't do". We are "critiquing". We artist critique each others' work because most often we can not objectively step back and clearly see what needs to be worked on and changed to improve out skills and the piece itself. We are trying to help you experiment and grow as an artist, not to shit on your character.
So if you take only one thing away from this, it should be that WE WANT TO HELP YOU GROW INTO A BAD ASS ARTIST. DO NOT FIGHT US, LET US HELP.
That being said, please don't stop working on your character. Maybe try the researching and do just ONE set of new designs. You never know what you might discover.
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Well I... HUH, didn't really think about that. I'll explain more about his race. Zypherions are not man-made androids, they are a race of sentient humanoid robots that originated from a distant planet. They can reproduce but not like humans. Also, Zypherions can never age. The Zypherion race is split into different classifications distinctly for abilities. Such as: Energy Wielders, Elementals, Heavy Lifters, and Telekinesis Wielders.
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I will still use one of his design ideas. I will give him a new intro story, might have it take place in Void City. And in the Ref. sheet, I will draw him in his civilian clothes and draw his anatomy design. Thinking about changing his armor color and edit his backstory.
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The Zypherion race is split into different classifications distinctly for abilities. Such as: Energy Wielders, Elementals, Heavy Lifters, and Telekinesis Wielders.
This is an excellent place to start from to enhance the design you have right now. Based on this, you'll probably want to start with the basic human shape. Then, you'll probably want to do an armor/component design for each class of android.
If I was going to do this, I would go about it in this way:
- ENERGY WEILDERS: they probably have large gauntlets that have ports and openings on them to project and release energy. Maybe wires and tubes running around and across their body. Also, they probably have some sort of glowing thing on them to show off the power they are storing inside. Maybe look at the TRON LEGACY designs for that.
- ELEMENTALS: These sound more mystical, but if the THOR movies can have crazy ass super science that looks like magic, SO CAN YOU. Maybe this class carries "wizard staffs" that have bits of the element they control hovering about the tip. You would also want to have their overall design influenced by the element they control (flowing and blue for water, strong and segmented for earth, etc.)
- HEAVY LIFTERS: These guys sound like they're going to be big and bulky. I'd make them at least a full head taller than the other classes, and MUCH more muscular. Bigger hands and thicker legs. Maybe they also have a subtle exoskeleton reinforcing their joints. Also, more armor, or at least a badass helmet.
- T.K. WEILDERS: This sounds like you want to focus on the helmet design WAY MORE than the other classes. Special designs, or some sort of antenna array, probably also a central glowing energy emiter in the center of the forehead. Maybe more wires and more glowing piping going up from the spine to the head? Also, smaller gauntlets, but more glowing ports on the hands to show that they can direct their TK influence out there as well.
These are my initial impressions and feelings on how to design each of these classes. After this, and sketching, I would try to push the ideas further and maybe try to do something that is not normally seen in these types of designs. That's where the research comes in.
My approach to designing and creating is this: figure out what you WANT to make something look like, and also what you NEED it to look like based on what it HAS TO DO. For people, you can bend this around, like having a big tough biker guy actually he hardcore into afterschool tutoring or something like that. For machines and androids, you always want the design and look to FEEL right for it's function. If you look at a gun, no matter how rad and scifi it looks, you should still be able to say, "OH YEAH. THAT'S TOTALLY A GUN AND IT SHOOTS STUFF AT PEOPLE AND THINGS AND MIGHT ALSO KILL THEM."
For your androids, you want the same thing.
#1 - you want people to know that are living humanoids = BASIC HUMANOID SHAPE.
#2 - you want people to know that are machines / androids = ADD MACHINE SHAPES AND LINES AND SHIT.
#3 - you want people to know there are different classes of these androids = DIFFERENT ARMOR AND COSTUME DESIGNS.
At the base level, you are building off the basic human shape, adding layers of meaning and context. You want people to look at your character and go OH YEAH, HE'S A DUDE, BUT ALSO A MACHINE DUDE. AND IT LOOKS LIKE HIS ARMOR ALLOWS HIM TO DO SOMETHING SPECIFIC.
Then, when you show other members of his race that are of different classes, you can tell that he's related to them by race, because the mechanical markings on his body look that same as, say, one of the heavy lifters (it would be nice if the entire race had the same pattern of lines and shapes on their face), but he's a different class because of his size and HIS ARMOR, which would be the distinguishing feature between the two.
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I will still use one of his design ideas. I will give him a new intro story, might have it take place in Void City. And in the Ref. sheet, I will draw him in his civilian clothes and draw his anatomy design. Thinking about changing his armor color and edit his backstory.
Excellent! That will be best, to show his base design, and then also show him with regular clothes covering up all the detail.
As for the intro story, the main thing you want to focus on is how to get the important info across. You really want to hit several key pieces of info:
- Where he comes from
- that he's part of an alien android race
- why he's in the city / not on his own world
- How he got here
That is, unless some of this info is supposed to be kept secret. In that case, HINT at it through just imagery, or dropping a hint in the dialogue or narration. The best stories are the ones that string the readers along with JUST ENOUGH info, but NOT TOO MUCH.
Either way, it's your character and your intro story. Have fun! You have an infinite amount of time to figure out the design and how you want to introduce the character, so it's best to really grab this chance and apply yourself.
I'm looking forward to seeing what you do from here! And don't be afraid to ask me or anyone else on the site for advice or feedback. We will tell you what we think in nessecary to make your character stronger and your art better.
For more advice on creating the best character you can, read this post (http://entervoid.com/index.php?topic=12624.0). It's stuff that we all should be thinking about.
Draw well!
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OK, I'll try those design ideas. Since Colbolt is an energy wielder I could put a glowing crystal on his chest part and put an energy emitting crystal on the back of both his hands. And there are three different kinds of energy that E.W.s use: Light Energy (Blue or Light Blue colors), Neutral Energy (Yellow color), and Dark Energy (Purple or Black colors). Will also make his eyes and crystals glow when he uses his Energy powers.
I will use the other designs on other Ultra Heroes characters. Thanks for this suggestion for character design. This will help out a lot.
Thanks, The BenT One.
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I will change his backstory to make him enigmatic. And have his Intro Story give little info about him (ie. race, where he came from, and why he is in void). I'll explain how he came to Void in his bio. And have more and more of his origins and past revealed in Character Battles and Beyond Battles. Will that work?
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That sounds like a plan to me.
The important thing is to set up the basics for your character, so we get a good sense of him and his personality, and know that he's not just "here in void". There are lot of intro stories that show us the character, but fail to make them interssting and make us want to read the next battle to get more info on them and their story.
Granted, storytelling itself is hard to master, but if you keep in mind those goals you set in your last post, I'd say you're on your way to having an interesting character.
As for the design ideas I posted, don't just use what I wrote. See if you can tweak them any make them your own! Do something really cool!
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OK. I'll give him more than just the energy crystals. For his design I will still use Arm and Leg Parts (C), but probably change it a bit.
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Less talking. More Drawing.
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Here's a look at my progress in the comic:
(http://i862.photobucket.com/albums/ab186/UltraMan400/Snapshot_20140315_zpsfd892cc2.jpg~original) (http://s862.photobucket.com/user/UltraMan400/media/Snapshot_20140315_zpsfd892cc2.jpg.html)
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I'm very sorry I took so long. The ref sheet is up, I'll finish the Intro story when get some more markers.
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Update: 2 pages of intro story drawn and inked, begun working on third page.
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Less talking. More Drawing.
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Hey there.
Hate to sound like a broken record, but Intro Stories don't really have a deadline.
You sound a bit stressed and there is really no need to be constantly apologizing to us.
Again, no deadlines. Take your time, enjoy your comic, polish what you can. VOID won't be going anywhere.
And about the page you are showing us. I think you should get a scanner.
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First two pages uploaded take look.
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okay well.... right off the bat, the text is WAY too small. I cant read a lick of it posted as is, its like blurry lines, and when i click to fullsize it, the page is WAY too big. you dont want to have to scroll sideways when reading a comic page (-unless you ONLY scroll sideways and never down and its this infinite canvas horizontal comic- has anyone done that? anyway-). so I honestly have no idea what the text says because I could not be bothered, quite honestly. You need to big that up a bit so we can still read it at half size. In that same vein I would also recommend different fonts for dialogue and for sound effects. you can go to blambot or 1001freefonts and get a couple good comic book-y ones.
ah.... the poses still read a bit stiff and the expressions are a bit paint-by-numbers but those come easier with experience. I would recommend some life drawing and gesture drawing- you can do them at home, just find some stock photos of models on DA or whatever. Art classes would be best or that, but i dunno what your situation is and whether or not thats a possibility. another cheap way is to find an artist who draws gesture and expression in a way you admire, and just straight-up copy them for a couple pages in your sketchbook, haha. like dont post it online or anything, just see if you can figure out what they are doing and how you can learn their techniques. Do this with several artists and make your style an amalgamation of everything you love. Devour the hearts of your enemies. gain their power.
I do admire your perseverance in any case, if that helps lol
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Dude if you're able to read that text you have some amazing eyesight. They is WAAAAAAY too small - but regardless that is way to much text for each of the boxes.
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And I only JUST realised there's dialogue in the pages too they are so small - why so small? And why no balloons? Word balloons (or sometimes called bubbles) don't have to be used but they're the most common way of communicating to the read that the characters are talking .
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resize these pages and you'll see what size the text needs to be :| resize them so that when they're at 100% on your screen they're no bigger than a comic book page.
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and what size is a normal comic book page? could you tell me please?
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I'd say about 8.5x11 is the normal size. Or at least, I'd like to think it is.
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The pages I used are actually 8.5x11, but what size should it be for uploading?
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If you're scanning at about 300+dpi, you should probably reduce the resolution to around 72 dpi before adding text.
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I work at 300dpi and instead of lowering the dpi before upload (which will lose detail) I just change the canvas size to a width of 800px (pixels - don't know what that totals to in inches though)
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These pages are 791x1024 full page each. What size does it have to be?
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"In a perfect world no one's pages would be over 600X900" ; Personally I set my comics to Width 800, that usually fits well on the screen; Length isnt't really an issue thanks to the magic of scrolling
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Done, check out the pages now.
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The industry standard for comic pages is 6.625" x 10.25"
That translated well into a web format, with the width being 800px. the length ends up being around 1100px or 1200px.
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So, green light for character creation?
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Fixed the text, now you guys can actually read it. Page sizes are now smaller. And about the stiff look, thankfully at least it's less stiff than my "Other Attempt". (http://entervoid.com/Smileys/default/embarrassed.gif)
*stutters* What the hell was I thinking? Oh right, I wasn't.
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Well, everything's done. I'm still waiting for an approval.
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You need to submit your character first in order to get an approval or rejection. Navigate through 'Characters>Create a Character' for submission
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By the way. Should I resize my design sheet to make it smaller or leave it the way it is?
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I've submitted him. Now the only to do now is wait.
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I still think you could have done better, considering you had no deadline and could polish your comic way more.
Such as adding shadows, color and improve the dialogue. The wording is a bit of a cluster.
Best of wishes in the Character Approval.
Looking forward to see how much you can improve.
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Me too. I really hope he gets approved.
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Well, he got declined. NOT gonna continue with this. Was thinking of making a comic series about him on DeviantArt. But for here I'm not gonna have him as a character.
Might try making a new one though. Sorry about this.
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Sorry to hear that. :(
It's admirable that you're still going to make a comic with him at your dA. Don't give up!
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Yeah, because I'm the kind of artist that doesn't care about being perfect. I'm going to start the comic with an edited version of his intro story.
Next time I make a character, he will be different.
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No one was telling you to be perfect. Don't pin it on the staff. U__U If you don't care about showing effort, that's a different story.
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Don't let it get you down. I got declined with Angie 3 times.
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Don't let it get you down. I got declined with Angie 3 times.
Yeah, I got declined too with Lesdai. :)
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I didn't say it was the staff or anyone's fault it's just that when it comes down to it I'm just not good enough right now. I will not be submitting this character again. And I was showing effort this time, so at least that's something I'm proud about.
No matter how much people talk about how I or others draw, this topic is over.