telophase: (Genji - sneaking behind screens)
telophase ([personal profile] telophase) wrote2007-03-17 09:31 pm
Entry tags:

More Spindrift...

Because I said I'd do it, when I last posted samples of the tight thumbnails I've been working on, here's the original sketchy thumbs for pages 4 and 5, and the new, tight thumbs.







A few minor differences there, huh? What I've done is mostly work with emphasizing the left-to-right movement across the pages. On page 4, I didn't want to end with Rinchen staring left, although by right he should be, since I have the camera set up with Manoj staring right, so he's staring straight ahead and a bit down at Manoj there on the bottom. And I've placed the heads in the top and bottom panels on the left and the right to emphasize that movement. There's a bit of a Z movement through the whole page now, and Rinchen's got the upper hand since he's higher.

I think separating the heads with the big panel both makes the whole page look more balanced and makes the scene more of a BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. in pacing than the original version, which had the big panel on top and the two guys staring each other down across two panels on the bottom. I ahve more negative space, too.

On the next page, I'm working with the left -> right movement again, and made panel 1 bigger, to emphasize what's going on in it, and to keep Rinchen higher than Manoj. The different levels say something about their characters, and also make it more visually interesting. It *also* serves as a way for me to move the "camera" around so that Rinchen is now facing to the right, when Manoj was facing right in the previous page. I remain unconvinced that readers who are more intelligent than whelk will get mixed up when reading a scene if the camera shows one character facing one way, and then facing another way in a subsequent panel without any sort of transition, but then again I think in 3D quite easily, so I've got a 3-dimensional picture of the scene in my head to start with and can keep everything straight with few cues. Editors insist that you need to have transitions if you've going to ahve them facing every-which-way though, so I might as well get used to doing it.

Panel 4, with the feet, was written by SOMEONE to be Yet Another Closeup of Rinchen, and while I think he's quite cute, that was way too many pictures of heads on that page, plus it will be ABSOLUTELY VITAL to the plot later that you remember that Rinchen's only wearing one sandal, so I chose to focus on his feet for one more panel (you see them on page 3) on the off-chance that you readers will actually remember it. Through long, hard experience I know that there will still be a number of you who miss that, but at least I tried.

And to show you how small these are for real:



This is reduced to 72ppi for Web display, of course, but I'm working at 300ppi and can print a page of 9 full 2-page spreads on one sheet of paper. I zoom in really closely to work, naturally, so I'm working at exact-pixel size for the most part, but this allows me to zoom out and see the whole thing as one full composition. The next step will be to take each individual page and blow it up big - it will be very fuzzy, I assure you - and do the refined pencils on top of it. I will probably do that in actual, real pencil, since my big scanner is due to be delivered next week.

[identity profile] anderson-t.livejournal.com 2007-03-18 02:46 am (UTC)(link)
Can you email me, we need to talk.

-tanderson@elegantmadness.net

[identity profile] frostedelves.livejournal.com 2007-03-18 02:49 am (UTC)(link)
HOTSY FACE, RINCHEN. :D

[identity profile] telophase.livejournal.com 2007-03-18 02:58 am (UTC)(link)
It's all about the hat.

[identity profile] frostedelves.livejournal.com 2007-03-18 03:00 am (UTC)(link)
Bet you the hat gets a fanclub.

There can be FBI/hat crossover pr0n.

[identity profile] telophase.livejournal.com 2007-03-18 03:04 am (UTC)(link)
If the hat doesn't get slashed, I shall be sorely disappointed.

[identity profile] frostedelves.livejournal.com 2007-03-18 03:06 am (UTC)(link)
Maybe it will meet Rincewind's hat in some alternate dimension, and it can be ALL HATS, ALL THE TIME. When gender is no obstacle, we need stranger obstacles!

[identity profile] badnoodles.livejournal.com 2007-03-18 07:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Throw in the Sorting Hat for a menage à chapeaux.

[identity profile] rachelmanija.livejournal.com 2007-03-18 06:04 am (UTC)(link)
I think I will request that at the next Yuletide.

[identity profile] frostedelves.livejournal.com 2007-03-18 06:22 am (UTC)(link)
That is a fine idea, if it isn't perpetrated sooner. ...And even if it is, really. The hat is ripe for love.

Possibly also dry-cleaning.

[identity profile] benchilada.livejournal.com 2007-03-20 02:09 am (UTC)(link)
Mad props to the icon.

[identity profile] azure-reverie.livejournal.com 2007-03-18 03:07 am (UTC)(link)
Those panels look so awesome!!

[identity profile] telophase.livejournal.com 2007-03-18 06:03 am (UTC)(link)
THank you!

[identity profile] forvrin.livejournal.com 2007-03-18 03:24 am (UTC)(link)
Panel's 2 and 5 on page 2 look like its not going to be easy to add text to. I don't know if your script calls for it, but I thought I'd point it out. :P

Otherwise, its very cool. I mean, Gay tibetan monks aren't really my thing, but still. :P

[identity profile] telophase.livejournal.com 2007-03-18 03:29 am (UTC)(link)
Panel 2 has no dialogue, and I have no issues with slapping text balloons over my artwork - I actually find it obvious and somewhat annoying when a page I read is arranged so that the text doesn't touch the art. XD I'm not as bad as Death Note when it comes to obscuring art with text, but it's not an issue. :)

If I were really hardcore, I'd be drawing the text balloons in at this stage, but I don't have a good way of figuring out how big they're going to need to be, so I'm holding off for a bit. I may do the actual lettering on the pencils, if I can work out how to avoid the resizing issues involved.

And can I say "issue" again? Issue, issue, issue.

[identity profile] tammylee.livejournal.com 2007-03-18 04:19 am (UTC)(link)
Uhnn, yeah, that last panel onthe first page needs to stay.
man, how can you work that small?! =D

[identity profile] telophase.livejournal.com 2007-03-18 04:24 am (UTC)(link)
Surprisingly well, actually. :D I am all zoomed in like this:

Image

and I mostly work with a 3-pix pencil, slapping on black in the general area I want the image to be, then using the eraser to erase away anything that doesn't look like Manoj, then slapping more black on, and erasing again. And since it's this small, I don't need to worry too much about details, and can let happy accidents with the smudges that add character work for me.

We'll see how this works when I expand it for the refined pencils.

[identity profile] rachelmanija.livejournal.com 2007-03-18 05:45 am (UTC)(link)
How could I bear to focus on feet when I could be focusing on Rinchen's magnificent bitch-face?

Through long, hard experience I know that there will still be a number of you who miss that, but at least I tried.

I think that I specified that we see that he has one foot bare when the Mysterious Missing Sandal returns, but if not (because I was hypnotized by his pretty face), please add it in.

PS

[identity profile] rachelmanija.livejournal.com 2007-03-18 06:07 am (UTC)(link)
If you need me to edit down the dialogue in places, just let me know...

Re: PS

[identity profile] telophase.livejournal.com 2007-03-18 06:11 am (UTC)(link)
K. It'll be closer to lettering time when I figure out what can and can't fit - I'm also checking the dialogue before I draw the panels, so with luck I've got it right. :D

[identity profile] m00nface.livejournal.com 2007-03-18 01:59 pm (UTC)(link)
It's really interesting reading about this process, thanks for posting abot it!

Also, Manoj's hood is adorable. In every panel of his you've put up so far (naked ones aside, of course), I've been unable to stop staring at his hood.

[identity profile] telophase.livejournal.com 2007-03-18 02:51 pm (UTC)(link)
XD I had to come up with a way to design it so that it would be obviously non-modern cold-weather gear, and the point, large stitches, and weirdly-placed seams seem to do it. XD