Well, the 7 day payout window on my last “I Thought It Would Be Zombies…” update post expired about an hour ago, so it’s high time to move onto Update #6!
What Exactly Are We Updating Here???
First, a quick recap for those new to our unfolding drama! “I Thought It Would Be Zombies…” is an independent comic book created and in production by yours truly, Bryan “the Imp” Imhoff. It follows a ragtag band of adventurers through the aftermath of a “magical apocalypse,” both humorous and horrific; beautiful and terrifying.
Fundition is the first dedicated crowdfunding platform built on the Steem blockchain. Supporters can back projects with direct contributions of cryptocurrency, or by simply “liking” the posted content! On the Steem blockchain, your votes have value, and Fundition is designed to tally this value over the course of an extended campaign.
“I Thought It Would Be Zombies…” is utilizing the Fundition platform as its source of funding, so friends and fans can earn rewards simply by upvoting update posts like this one over the course of the months to come!
OK… So, What’s the Update?
The “I Thought It Would Be Zombies…” Fundition Campaign officially started on August 14th, 2018 so at this point it has been running for just over a month and featured 6 total posts in the series. To date these posts have generated 167.988 Steem for the project funding. In addition, a number of individuals have also donated Steem tokens directly, to the collective tune of 53.266 Steem, for a grand total of 221.254 Steem of funding! At the time of this writing, that is equivalent to about $167USD. You guys all rock, thank you!
There is still a long way to go but the finish gets closer every day, both in terms of funding and in relation to the actual creative process of the comic book. I expect funding and production to finish together nicely in 2019 for the launch of issue #1 of “I Thought It Would Be Zombies…”
Enough With the Accountant Impression, Let’s See Some Comics!
In recent posts, (like this) (& this) I’ve been showing a lot of the layout process that I’ve been working on which involves planning out pages using a combination of thumbnailing and then moving on to 3D modeled layouts in the Clip Studio Paint software. In the last few days I got the urge to move onto some actual illustration tasks, primarily due to seeing new work from @kommienezuspadt. He and I do our best to share work with each other on a weekly basis and it really does help with motivation. I’d felt bad coming to the table for a couple weeks with no actual “drawing” so I dove into the beginnings of translating a page from the 3D layout stage, into the pencils and inks of a comic book.
Surprisingly, I’m rather pleased with how this is coming out. In a long endeavor like this, it’s nice to have those moments when you sit back and think, “Yeah, I can do this…” There are many rival moments of “Omigod, this looks terrible, I can’t do this!” so I’ll savor the wins!
I’m learning on the page. There comes a point when you can't sketch and study anymore, you just have to produce the work, ready or not. With luck the comic won’t be a stylistic and quality mishmash and actually appear unified, but I fully expect to get better as time goes by. One of the changes I’ve been working on implementing is taking my drawings a bit more “cartoony.” I want this story to be very animated and expressive and I think that’s really coming across well with the ladies on this page, Sarah, and Julie.
The below image comes from a prior update, but just so you can see the 3D figures that have been “replaced” so far and get a feel for the evolution of the page…
I am slow… I get to be meticulous and a bit obsessive in my drawing. Just the drawing portions seen here took about 3 hours so far. (I had Toy Story 1 & 2 play through in the background as I worked… it’s a good gauge of time. I can use movies as my time clock punches!) I’ll personally be very curious to see what the time totals start looking like on my first few finished pages. Between layouts, drawing and inking, colors and lettering… I’m guessing 20-30 hours per page will be in the ballpark. Comics can be brutal, but when you love ‘em, you love ‘em!
Hope you enjoyed another look behind the scenes! In the near future I’ll also be working on further developing the official ithoughtitwouldbezombies.com website, as a centralized source of all the previews, art, news, and Fundition backer information! Just have to make some time… maybe if I didn’t re-ink the same line 9 times I’d be a bit more free. But what the hell, that line looks really good the ninth time around!
Still need to make more people interested in your project to get more funds for what it takes! On the other hand looks great what you've done to take your time to do is a great job, I hope to see more about this soon :)
Thanks! There's plenty of time for the word to spread, especially as the Steem community grows. I'm very excited by the results so far. You'll certainly see more regular updates coming!
I'm adding a link to this in my next #readinglog, hopefully that will help a bit. I'll admit I haven't looked into how fundition works, I'll do that as well when my brain is a bit more awake.
Thanks for the free press! Fundition is actually a lot simpler than it will seem at first, I'll give you the short notes.
It's still a bit glitchy and rough, but it's got a ton of promise and I'm really loving it!
I've always loved keeping up with your process! It's funny you mention how long it takes you, because this other wonderful comics creator I follow can crank out work crazy fast. In a month, she's had what looks like hundreds of fully drawn and colored(?) pages, and I'm like geeeeeezzzzz. I don't know how y'all do it. That's why I'm just a regular author ;P
I'm glad to hear you like seeing this stuff. As a creator, I've always loved behind the scenes looks... but I never know how much that sentiment is shared by others.
There are absolutely some artists whose style lends itself to fast paced work... and I envy and enjoy them but it just doesn't seem to click with my creative personality. It's like the difference between an artist who chooses to work in watercolor versus one who is drawn to carving etchings into copper plates! Neither is better, but one can certainly be more time intensive!
Oh yeah, their style is w a y different, and that's totally okay! It's variety that gives comics that extra mpph of life. (Unless they literally change artists halfway through the comic without any sort of indication. Yeah, I'm looking at you, Ironheart.)
It's cute to see how you translated the 3D models into your drawings :). I am quite curious about this comic making process so I am looking forward to read more about your journey, what you discover and the difficulties you encounter when you're creating your comics :D.
And it sucks that we're both slow artists. But I'm sure if you commit to your schedule, you will be much much faster because I've seen a lot of artist who improve their speed significantly once they continuously make comics.
I do think my speed may improve some in time, but comics can be funny things. I recall one artist remarking how the more he learned, the slower he got... because he began considering and planning elements that he'd never even given a thought to before!
Hmmm I can understand this problem very well :D.
Maybe some artists like us can't really speed up for one reason or another, but if it's true then I hope the quality would improve a lot.
Looking good, Bryan. With Clip Studio can you save files in .psd (photoshop) format or does it use it's own save format? I saw some videos of Clip Studio and it looks super impressive. I'm looking to switch from my freeware program (paint.net).
Thanks! Glad you’re diggin’ it! I had to look, but yes, there is a .psd save option, but it does generally use its own .clip format.
The only negative is it’s a bit “clunky” in terms of UI. But it’s super powerful and can do pretty much every step in one package, and it’s pretty affordable, especially for the power.
I’m using the desktop version for layouts & lettering, and then open it on my iPad Pro version for drawing & coloring. But the software is a direct port, so everything can be done on either platform.
I did this dicking around at work when we were down. So i guess it was a commissioned piece. lol
My first Microsoft paint, you need help im freelancing? Ha!Ha!Ha...
Keep up the good work. I wanna see that comic. Ill chip in a little steem when I get home.
Ha! Looks great! I don't know where you work... but I'll wager this was a better use of the time no matter what!
It's not a power plant. Lol
MS Paint was the only thing I had access to for 12 hrs.
Did you draw this from a spaceship or something where are you lol
Now that would be Awesome!
Hmm... I'm trying to decide if "It's not a power plant." was some cunning misdirection to disguise the fact that it is in actuality a power plant...
You are super talented man. And don't forget that slow is still progress.
I am all about "Slow and steady wins the race." I am the tortoise vs. the many hares of this world...
Just discovering your fundition campaign. It all looks great so far. It's good to see progress on this project of yours! I'll definitely send support your way when I get enough funds.
I hope to launch a similar project for my comic once I reach the final chapter. Haven't found the time to draw more pages recently (It takes about 10 hours for me).
I should really get to it.
That "end of year" deadline is approaching fast! 8-o
Yeah... the end of the year is way too close for comfort! Thanks for the encouragement and support. I'd love to see you tackle a printed collection in the future.
Oh, interesting ! I didn't know you lay down the basic poses and panel layouts with 3D! that is very creative and wonderful :D A nice page, also, I love the flow from panel to panel <3
Excellent! The flow and layout of pages is probably one of the most challenging aspects of making comics. It's also one of the ways using this software has really helped me as I just sit there and play around... resizing, rotating, zooming, and rearranging to my heart's content until it all makes some sort of sense.
Such a genius way to use 3d modeling. I will learn to use 3d modeling some day, it really would be a boon. You've done it masterly.
Thank you. I was not the first to do this by any means! Although I've always been fascinated by 3D work, I actually know very little about it. All these tools are built into the Clip Studio Paint software, which is primarily a tool for illustration and making comics & manga. As such, you actually need to know very little. I always describe it as a modern version of the wooden mannequins classically trained artists use to aid their own figure drawing.
I upvoted your post.
Cheers to you.
@Pinoy
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