The Far Reaches Webcomic

If you’ve read the FR archives, you might have noticed something. The artwork tends to be a bit experimental. I’ve tried many methods and processes trying to make the comic in the least amount of time yet with the highest amount of quality. Streamlining, it’s called. You may also have heard that I’ve been experimenting in Flash. Now with page 115, you might notice something a bit different about the backgrounds. They’re all CG and slick looking. Obviously, I just can’t leave things alone and am trying a new look. I’m actually really happy with how it came out. For the first time ever (I mean ever) a background has ended up looking at least somewhat like my crazy imagination wanted in the first place.

That’s not to say I don’t like the old illustrated look I was using before. It looked nice. But several things happened that made me think a change was in order. First of all, now with the characters in Flash, they are built in a modular fashion and are somewhat reusable, at least for more common poses. So I was thinking it would be nice to have some of that modular design and reusability in the backgrounds too. I tried a tiled approach in Flash and wasn’t at all happy with the results (panel 1 in page 113.)

Another reason I wanted a change is that I don’t really enjoy drawing environments by hand. They are very difficult for me. (I just don’t like drawing architectural stuff.) They are also VERY time-consuming. Just the initial sketch takes up to an hour and a half, then up to two hours inking it. That’s for one background in one panel. If I have two panels that call for environmental backgrounds then we’re talking up to six hours, depending on the complexity of the shot, and that’s not even talking about color. Coloring said backgrounds can take up to three hours for one panel. If the background has a lot of characters in it, then it takes even longer. So let’s take today’s comic (pg 115.) To do just the first panel would’ve taken six to eight hours. Then I’d have to redraw it for the panel two close up. The thing that really motivated me to make a change was the realization that the story I’ve written is going to need a ton of backgrounds, tricky ones. I really wasn’t looking forward to all the extra drawing and painting time that was going mean.

That’s not to say that the CG version took less time. It too can be very time-consuming and until recently I thought it was a bad idea. Then I was reading in several books about essentially doing the architectural stuff in 3d and using Photoshop for all the effects, extra lighting, signs, and other details. That takes considerably less time. One big problem with the 3d is that modeling a detailed environment can take time too. Yet, really that first set (built like a movie set) in panel 1 only took me about two and a half hours to model and texture, and that was after I finally figured out how to use Lightwave’s Rounder tool so that I could bevel the edges of things. (That’s critical to a believable shot. Light has to gleam off the edges of things.) But the more I model things the less time it takes to model new things. And here’s the kicker: all these elements are designed to be modular. I can reuse all the little nurnies and greeblies and vents and hose-thingies. The more stuff I model the bigger the library of elements I have to use for future sets and the less time it takes to build cool stuff. That was the big problem with drawing the backgrounds by hand. Nothing was reusable and I had to redraw each scene from scratch. It made having the same environment in multiple panels and pages a serious pain in the neck.

Not everything will be done in 3d, just the stuff that 3d is good at. Movie effects and game artists know how to mix the 3d elements with painted elements in order to get the maximum cool look in the shortest time. 3d elements have been used in anime for ages, even Cowboy Bebop years ago used it for some things. My goal is and has always been to make Far Reaches look like something out of movie or anime. I think pg 115 kind of comes close.

The biggest problem with using 3d elements is the render time. That first panel scene took about three hours to render all the elements. It’s really annoying to hit the render button then have to find something else to do while your computer is otherwise indisposed. So planning is absolutely critical. I had to carefully plan the shot out ahead of time before I modeled anything. Starting well enough ahead of time so that the comic won’t be late is another thing.

Another big problem for using the 3d backgrounds was integrating the 3d characters into the environment. You have to be able to get the size and perspective right. Thanks to David Simon of Crimson Dark for sharing his technique of posing a character in Poser and then importing it into the 3d program so that you can actually position the characters perfectly and even see how the lighting effects them. Then I simply rendered the characters separately and used them as a basis for drawing and inking the final 2d characters. That made a big difference. At any rate, this is turning into a monster rant, so I’ll write more as the techniques develop.