^ 6 Comments...

1. Jeff RH
   January 14th, 2010 at 12:05 pm

   I’m going to repeat myself here. But before I do that, I want to say I’m really enjoying your work. I’m bummed when events cause delays, and always look forward to the next installment.

   You are making a comic. Even though you are using high-tech tools to do it, in the end, what you have here is a comic. I would take a look at some action-oriented comics that you enjoy reading and see things that the artists do to the characters to convey the sense of motion. The latest sequence involved a whole lot of movement on the part of the characters, but the individual panals didn’t always communicate that sense of motion ot the reader.

   I’m not asking you to draw squiggly lines around your characters, but a good example is the Big Brute That Just Fell Hard. The arrows that hit him delivered a force that should have rocked him somewhat, and pain that should be reflected by motion and on his face. Unless they were coated by a fast acting poison that hits 5 seconds after entering your blood stream, it makes no sense for him to

   a) stand there as he’s being hit
   b) stand there as he examines the arrows in him (doesn’t he consider there may be MORE coming?)
   c) stand there as he pulls one out
   d) be fully on the ground out/dead

   Moving 3-D models can be a pain, and adding motion makes the creation of your story that much more complex. But also that much more immersive What if:

   a) leaning into his swing, he get hit by the arrows
   b) falling to his knees (mid-motion), while the axe drops from his hands, he looks down at the arrows
   c) on his knees, he pulls out an arrow
   d) crumpled to the ground out/dead.

   I will say again…I love your work. The artistry is wonderful. Keep doing it. But consider some of these things as your work evolves.

   –JLRH

2. Joe
   January 14th, 2010 at 10:23 pm

   Well, the abruptness of the fall can be explained by the arrow having hit him in the heart. He made the mistake of pulling out an arrow that had pierced his heart, which is almost instantaneous death. That’s what happened to Steve Erwin.

   Of course they’re in a period with medieval technology. You get hit in the heart, you’re dead, period. It’s just a matter of when you decide to pull out the arrow and die.

   So, riding high on the adrenalin of battle, I could see him standing until until he pulled out the arrow. Then comes the heart blood, massive system shock, and he’s probably dead before he hits the ground, literally.

   The same thing can happen if you puncture a kidney. The poisons released into your blood stream to your brain can kill you before you have time to fall down.

3. Jeff RH
   January 15th, 2010 at 11:44 am

   Ah, but you miss my point. I’m not arguing medical reality. I’m commenting on the lack of his motion, lack of action if you will, while all that goes on. We, as a rule, don’t stand stock still by nature. To do so in the midst of a fight is unreasonable. In those three frames you get a little movement on the axe, but his bearing doesn’t change until he is on the ground.

4. Replier
   January 19th, 2010 at 12:23 pm

   Well, lack of action in this instance is easy enough to pass off as the shock of it all. The abruptness of suddenly finding an arrow protruding from your chest would demand your attention and probably leave you with a compulsion to remove it. Maybe someone more seasoned in the ways of receiving grievous injury could ignore or react without freezing up.

   That said, I agree that dramatic scenes such as fights could be improved on such as the camera angles and some of the pacing. The arrow Ara blocked in page 63 lacked the feeling of speed and danger because of how close it got then it hovered for her to block. The tough guy who died in this page could have done without his line of gloating. Gloating is cheesy, ego feeding; more importantly its for people who can afford to take the time to gloat un-menaced by other foes. The main villain gloats because they’re the center of their universe, the highwayman who is being ambushed shouldn’t.

5. PoserNieub
   January 19th, 2010 at 7:27 pm

   Interesting that only Maya remains standing.

   Stay alert and watch your back little girl! There are still thugs unaccounted for…Houdini, Wings, Caligari, the twins Modo and Silo, Newt Eck, and the one they call Auntie Alias!

   It can be surprising how a few well-crafted swoosh lines and postworked motion blur can enhance 3D comic action. I see some nice experiments on earlier pages. Keep up the good work. We all have room to improve.

6. Ken
   January 20th, 2010 at 11:46 pm

   Hi all. I do agree that the small panels need fixing. Max does sway and bend a little, but the camera angle does not show that very well, especially as the camera is moving slightly between shots. (down, I think). Also, I had to skip out on some of the effects and postwork due to time crunch.

   Tough bandit is tough, tough bandit is gloaty, tough bandit made a big mistake with that arrow. Umm, that arrow… covered in his blood.

   PoserNieub: Newt Eck, I love that one! and hey, I couldn’t have Maya die yet, how else would the comic get done?

   Ughh, I really wanted to animate this whole fight scene. Cutting it up into frames killed the momentum. But hey, I’m still learning and working on it. The director’s cut will be so much better…