The NP member comic discussion thread!

[Frogman]

Demon, that did seem a little harsh. Andy just wants credit for his work, and Rick has agreed to give it. I think the argument is done, we should all just walk away before any more feelings are hurt.


Edit:...Should I just stay out of this?

Not to worry man, anyone who has somehting constructive to add to the discussion is welcome to comment in my oppinion.

[RickZarber]

...No offense, but how did anyone take what Demon just said as anything but facetious? He meant "traitor" as in the traitor in the JAQ storyline (ie, in the course of the comic I had somehow hinted it was Andy who betrayed the group of adventurers to Dragonsbane all along), and then commented on his distaste for the recent bout of written comics. I thought it was pretty funny...

[Frogman]

Wow... I've read everythign on the site, and I've just gone through briskly and I didn't see anything about me in there...

[TDK]

...Andy was in JAQ? Hm, I probably didn't follow it as close as I could have, but I don't recall that...

Anyway, I think its a bit hard to take anything jokingly when we were having a rather serious...argument, for lack of a better term. I was mildly aware what he was implying about the written comics, but...

Sorry, I'm really tired. You'll have to excuse me if I'm a bit slow today.

[Frogman]

I'm in there, in one comic. Putting an Ultima-Java poster on the wall, with Qeeko and Stephanos.

[RickZarber]

Anyway, I think its a bit hard to take anything jokingly when we were having a rather serious...argument, for lack of a better term. I was mildly aware what he was implying about the written comics, but...See, I took it to mean Demon was trying to break the tension with silliness, but I guess not everyone else read it that way. I mean, if nothing else the very last sentence shoulda given it away...Wow... I've read everythign on the site, and I've just gone through briskly and I didn't see anything about me in there...Well, yeah, cause he was joking. :)

I don't think anyone here wants to be argumentative. It's just this is the internet and people can take things the wrong way, or don't always express themselves clearly. (I'm certainly guilty of the latter not infrequently.)

[Frogman]

Then it's safe to say I am VERY confused...

[Loyal]

That's because you aren't around here often enough.

To be fair though, you really should've picked up around "And I say what Microsoft tells me to". :p

[Demon with a Glass Hand]

The traitor is always the one you least suspect. In this case Forgman was not even a member of the JAQ team. So of course we never suspected him.

My last post was not to be taken seriously in any way.

Edit: Also, my name is not Ross. It is Chantelle.

[Frogman]

I'm just not used to Demon talking rubish like that... :P

Chantelle? Now I know you're a liar and custard!

[bluestarultor]

Being personally in the process of rebuilding my sprites from the ground up (pain in the ass it is), I can vouch that if I weren't such a geek and didn't have massive occasional bursts of free time, I'd darn well want to get paid for my work, i.e. there's stuff that I didn't put on my public sheet for the express reason I wanted to keep at least something in reserve. It's paranoid, yes, because I know that nobody else uses 8-bit style sprites, but trust me, dealing with Gaians and artwork drills it into you. You learn darn well to watermark stuff if your shop gets big there. Mine never did, but I learned anyway. Because if you have anything good, the first six-year-old looking for recognition will take your work and try to edit or just downright steal it. And when it comes to credit, I agree with getting it. I always made sure that places I gave art to credited me.

[Demon with a Glass Hand]

you're a liar and marmalade!

Fix'd.

[phil_]

The problem with drawing comics is it's hard. Which isn't to say sprite comics are easy, at least once a certain threshold is passed (somewhere beyond "horizontal green and blue bands plus two static sprites talking for three panels followed by violence/Robot Masters"). But when you draw comics, you have to decide if you're going to represent a person looking like herself, or more like his sprite sheet, perhaps digging into relevant RP threads and camwhore threads for direction. Then there's that whole pen and paper part, followed by scanning and coloring and all that, though one could draw digitally to skip some of that. Then what do you do with all the inked pages lying around the apartment? It seems like a waste to toss'em. Speaking of that, I need to grab a folder to keep my new comics in.

So, yeah, tossing some sprites together is generally easier. Googled backgrounds, fewer artistic decisions, and fewer places to screw up make it worth excluding people without sprite sheets, keeping up with current sheets, spending hours and days editing one's own sheet, and crediting people for their work.

Edit: Well, I guess I'd better get on my contribution. Good thing I thought of something today... or, actually, yesterday...

Oh, and it's amusing that, of the three of us, Mauve's the only one in a goofy costume.

[TDK]

Daww, Mauve's so cute in the last panel.
XD

Great comic.

[Frogman]

Does anyone know that I'm currently in the middle of producing a Mauve Mage comic?

She won a competition on the forum... ergh... about a year ago, and I'm making a 10 page short story of her, based on her winning script. Obviously seeing as I don;t acctually check here often, I don't update my comic stuff here.

But yeah, the comic is called UJ Spotlight: Mauve Mage Mauve is the Writer, I'm the peciller and colourist, and Batgirl is the inker. I update the main page with news like that but it's probably easyer to find the info if you look on the forum.

[Nikose Tyris]

...I had no idea your skirt was that short, Mauve. D: you suddenly seem less like a magician and more like a magical girl. XD

[Frogman]

...I had no idea your skirt was that short, Mauve. D: you suddenly seem less like a magician and more like a magical girl. XD

Which comic would this be? Magical Mauve sounds awesome :p

[Nikose Tyris]

The latest one in the comic thread right here, featuring RZ. XD It's in this forum, it's the NPF Member comic/poem/all that shit thread.

[Loyal]

...And the heavens opened up, and an ethereal Hand stretched down towards Mauve's home, and extended its thumb upward.

The hand also swiped Mauve's cookie jar, but it was assumed that Loyal had done it as always, and nothing was assumed of it.

[RickZarber]

Oh, and it's amusing that, of the three of us, Mauve's the only one in a goofy costume.Hooray for us having the foresight to sprite ourselves in street clothes, eh? :p

Anyways, last week I ended up at the doctors getting my jaw fixed instead of drawing my SSB/Pie comic. So mine may be a bit late delayed. It sure doesn't help that Mauve's is far better than anything I coulda come up with...

That said, I've got another comic that I want to try and get up today first.

EDIT: But when you draw comics, you have to decide if you're going to represent a person looking like herself, or more like his sprite sheet, perhaps digging into relevant RP threads and camwhore threads for direction.I like to do a bit of both: draw people in their sprite outfits while attempting to make them look like their real selves as much as I can.

[mauve]

Hehehe, thanks everyone!

Oh, and it's amusing that, of the three of us, Mauve's the only one in a goofy costume. That's because your guys' sprites have normal clothes. Oh, and I hope Zarber notices he's wearing his STUPID HOODED SWEATSHIRT that's NOT A LEATHER JACKET NOW. :P

...I had no idea your skirt was that short, Mauve. D: you suddenly seem less like a magician and more like a magical girl.

Eh?? Mauve's skirt (http://forum.nuklearpower.com/showpost.php?p=416148&postcount=1059) has always come down (http://forum.nuklearpower.com/showpost.php?p=501192&postcount=1164) to just above her knee (http://forum.nuklearpower.com/showpost.php?p=544450&postcount=1199). Even in this latest comic, it's below her knee while she's sitting down, so it's even a bit longer than usual. If she were "magical girl," you'd see a lot more leg. XD

[RickZarber]

Oh, and I hope Zarber notices he's wearing his STUPID HOODED SWEATSHIRT that's NOT A LEATHER JACKET NOW. :PHeheheh. I did notice that, actually, and it made me smile. I chose not to rub in the victory of my ideology for fear of starting the debate again. :p

[Major Blood]

Phil: Uhh... what?

[Savage Thinking]

Theory One:
Phil is showing that the ass kickery that is being displayed on the screen is being done by the pie, and not Phil. But then, Phil is all like "Damn you!" and eats the pie (If you consider having the pie somehow "fly" into Phil's general direction eating).

Theory Two:
Phil is showing that he is kicking the pie's ass, but feels that said ass kicking should be taken outside of the game (Although Phil's facial expression in panel two pretty much says otherwise). Then, Phil is all like "Mwaha! Feel my wrath!". But then, the pie is like "Aw hell naw" and proceeds to somehow physically beat up on Phil (If you consider having the pie somehow "fly" into Phil's general direction ass kicking).

Theory Three:
First half of theory one. Second half of theory two. Or something like that.

And yes. Phil's comic managed to make me post in here.

[mauve]

The pie plays as Luigi and beats the living daylights out of Phil's Ice Climbers with a paper fan, and Phil retaliates in the best way possible.

I APPROVE!

Hehehee, awesome as always, Phil. Your drawings always crack me up. XD

[Khael!]

Wait, did Phil just use Sonic's final smash? Does that make him super Phil or something?

[Savage Thinking]

I must admit, Rick, that was genious.
You actually had me going for a second there...
Pure genious.

[RickZarber]

Thanks man. It was a bit of a last minute thing, but I thought it'd be better than nothing.

The comic I told some people was going up tonight... isn't. It's taking more work than I anticipated. It's twice as long as a normal JAQ, so I shoulda realized the time involved would be more than 4 or 5 hours... I'm about 5/8ths done with the sprites, so let's say about a quarter of the way to finishing it? It'll be up either tomorrow or Friday fo' sho'.

I have my SSB/pie comic drawn, and I'm gonna ink it tomorrow at my art club.

[Savage Thinking]

Big Mac:
That just made me instantly think "Heheh, that CJ."

TDK:
First off, I'd like to mention that there's some serious improvement. Shows life with the arm positioning. First thing that catches my attention is how thick his neck is. I would recommend just adding a line that starts around where the hair is poking out from the bottom of the hood.

Also, the folds on the right sleeve seems a tad too plain. If you look at folded up sleeves, it actually looks quite busy. So maybe doing something similar may help.

Aaand one more thing. Which is the wrist on the left arm. It seems too thick. There's a reasonable amount of hand between the thumb and the wrist, and in this case, it's pretty much non existant.

Wait a second, constructive criticism? HERE?! Proposterous..

[mauve]

I said it before and I'll say it again, RZ. That was an awesome ending to the Pie Brawl Trilogy. I APPROVE.

[Loyal]

er... what sprites are we talking about again?

I did your sword already.

[Thadius]

Chinchompa. And 'Aura of evilness' on the sword.

If your memory is as bad as mine, we have a problem.

[Khael!]

Yahoo, I'm in a comic again! *feels special*

Hehe, underforums. We need spelunking gear and hardhats for down there, I think. It could be dangerous!

[Loyal]

I don't recall agreeing to do that. But I do recall telling you that any 'aura' effects are best left to filtering effects during the comic, on a sprite that small.

[EDIT]: So you're this mystery girlfriend Thad keeps going on about.

I would suggest you find some sprites that are slightly more... portable.

[Thadius]

...You didn't trust me? Like I could lie about a thing like that!

Loyal, for this, you will die in this newest series. I swear it.

[Loyal]

Hm... now that you mention it... Are you getting paid to do this, girlie? :p

C'mon, everybody, let's all come out with the embarrassing stories of Thadius. Make them up if you have to!

[phil_]

Mystery girlfriend or not, it's been a while since we've had some new blood. Though, knowing that this is Thad's girlfriend makes the comic funnier, not that it wasn't already. Also, the dragon's a pretty versatile sprite. It looks just happy, surprised, worried, and hungry to pull off all those emotions. It's certainly a different approach to spriting than most of us use.

[Flarecobra]

Shyria- Love the picture! And that is very true.

Thad- Flare doesn't have heat vision....

[Thadius]

...Well, you do now!

Ha. Comedic need for a punchline overrides reality.

Plus, aren't you like part fire elemental? I find it odd that you would not be able to read heat signatures.

[Flarecobra]

No, she can't. And the elemental would be class. Not race.

[Loyal]

Shyria: Very nice. Adorable, even. I'm thinking you should stick with the drawings, or at least get sprites for the humanoid form.
Hmm... I wonder if... *mumbles to self*
Thad: Thaddyclones! That's what I'll call them!

[GARUD]

Wow, great comics all. Although to be honest, I'm not a fan of the written work in the thread. It's not that its bad, it just seems so out of place.

In any case, GaTmilk should be on its return soon. I just need to request a sprite sheet (I've been using Squall for far too long), and see if any of the characters in the comic still want to appear in it.

[mammothtank]

Just imagining Thad's reaction to such a wake-up call is hilarious. Very nice drawing, too.

Side note: If you want/need a sprite sheet, I could name five local sprite artists to whom you could speak. I'm sure any of them would oblige if asked.

[Shyria Dracnoir]

Just like to thank everyone for all the nice words. I'm eager to see how Thadius is going to respond to this latest mess (probably once his ears stop bleeding at least)

And mammothtank, if you could get a word in to those artists to help me out I'd REALLY appreciate it.

[Loyal]

When he said "local", he meant "here on the forums". I'm sure each of them knows. ...myself included, heh.

The only thing I don't know about is the legs. The way the shirt is drawn kinda implies that everything south of the waist is draconic, but that... kinda doesn't make much sense if you think about it, eh?

[phil_]

I've been using Squall for far too longBut I thought it was funny that you used completely unedited sprites. It was a unique thing, like Skyshot's sheet.

[Loyal]

I cooked up a little something right-quick. No legs are shown because I don't know what they look like.

[mauve]

Very nice, Shyria! I too can only imagine the hilariousness of the scene immediately following this. XD

[GARUD]

But I thought it was funny that you used completely unedited sprites. It was a unique thing, like Skyshot's sheet.

So, basically you are saying that I should stick to that? I always thought it was frowned upon. I've tried doing sprites myself, but even simple re-colours are beyond me. Basically, my only intention with the comics was to just piece it together like a puzzle and generate a punchline. It was never meant to be a testimony to my capabilities as an artist.

So, I should stick to that?

[Shyria Dracnoir]

Awesome! If you need any other references just ask, but all im looking for now is a basic pose set
(the legs are just blue jeans as well)

EDIT: Back to Loyals question, sometimes I draw the legs dragon-style, but for the sprites I'll stick to the non-draggy ones. They'd be easier to do in pixels.

[Flarecobra]

Perhaps a pic of your character is in order? After all, your's isn't the only one that doesn't have the typical lower body.

[Shyria Dracnoir]

I'll be sure to get a reference pic up; theres a lot over at my DA gallery but I'll get one done specifically for art done for this site

EDIT: Got it done

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc230/Shyria_Dracnoir/npfshyriaref.jpg

[Loyal]

Och, hadn't counted on the feet. Well, the more consistent coloring will help with the filesize I suppose.

...and just because everyone has more than enough reason to doubt that I'm ACTUALLY doing anything... The progress, minus the previously unknown status of the feet.

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/4717/shyriainprogressio1.png

[Shyria Dracnoir]

Looking good so far. Thanks again for doing these

[Daimo Mac, The Blue Light of Hope]

Hopefully. I should have this movie up by the end of the week, should I do atleast 3 hours a day.

Dammit some of these sprites are hard to work with.

[mauve]

Haha! The NPF Magic cards (OF DOOOOM!!) return! Nice job, GARUD!

[Melfice]

Actually, they're Yu-Gi-Oh! cards, but meh.
And I'm somewhat surprised you haven't taken a shot at me with them, Garud.

I believe you're finally getting ready to get back into society.

[GARUD]

Actually, they're Yu-Gi-Oh! cards, but meh.
And I'm somewhat surprised you haven't taken a shot at me with them, Garud.

I believe you're finally getting ready to get back into society.

Who said I wasn't going to? :P

Besides, I think its a good concept. I think I might try and design a custom deck with these cards. In any case. On to more cards!

[Demon with a Glass Hand]

I'd say you should include me in this card making madness but who really wants to invest the time to create six cards?

[phil_]

You shouldn't be sorry for using my sprites, GARUD. You should be sorry for using my old sprites.

Still, I appreciate my appearance in a card that summons things randomly.

[TDK]

ZJ, that is awesometastic!

[Loyal]

Excellently done, ZJ...

But Rick's left cheek (our left) looks kinda... swollen. Like someone punched him in the jaw or he got his wisdom teeth pulled, swollen.

[mauve]

That just shows how badass Zarber is-- You should see the other guy!!
Nice work ST.

[Savage Thinking]

Thanks guys! Also, Loyal, I see what you mean and I'll look into it. Because of the angle of the face, it was a bit hard to get it looking right.

After looking at it again not too long ago, I realize that I have trouble coloring inside the lines. Like, seriously, I even look at it and go 'How does that color splotch even make sense there?'

EDIT: Reuploaded the picture with some much needed clean up and minor changes.

[phil_]

It's an awesome costume and everything, but who's he supposed to be? Doesn't RMB have long, brown hair?

[Red Mage Black]

Mauve was only going by the example I gave her which was a commission I had done by Morgan Parker. Nikose told him light brown hair, but yeah it looked closer to blond.

[Major Blood]

Thad: Did you save that comic in jpg form? NO! Bad Mr. Thadius man!

*Thwaps you on the head with a rolled up newspaper*

[Thadius]

It was an accident, I swear to God. It's been that long since I made a comic that I forgot how to save it. The next one will be better.

[Daimo Mac, The Blue Light of Hope]

Goddammit Thad.

Now I gotta finsih my movie. ;_;

By the way, you took off the top chunk of your fortress.

[Thadius]

Well, yes. It's plot-relevant.

[TDK]

You guys should appreciate all the little touches in there. Such as the blurring on +1 name when he first shows up. And I custom made an uppercut sprite.

It took forever, but it turned out great, so yay!

[Daimo Mac, The Blue Light of Hope]

An announcement:

As you know, I have become entwined in movie making. I enjoy it, It allows me to explore new mediums. However, I also enjoy Tales of a Torn World and one of the reasons I went on hiatus was because I was drained because I had far too many projects going on (at last count was 2 comics, 5 written pieces).

So with June 1st rolling around, I needed to make a decision, suffer for evreything, or cut my losses and invest my time for Tales of a Torn World.

I am sure you can guess what I chose.

It has been fun doing the NPF Comics and Movies, but I feel if I want to succeed in Tales, some things will be left behind.

You guys are great.

/edit. I will finish this movie however. It will be up soon.

[Shyria Dracnoir]

Sorry to hear you'll be leaving for a bit, Big Mac, but its understandable. I know I'll be happier once school finally lets out and i can do more here. Looking forward to the movie once its done as well.

Well, in whatever free time i have during finals week, i managed to do some tweaking to Loyal's in-progress sprites he posted a while back. I got the markings and colors fixed for the tail and feet, and the poses more organized

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc230/Shyria_Dracnoir/shyriahumanspritesbasiccopy.png

[Flarecobra]

I think Loyal's having a Fighter moment.

[Thadius]

Dear NPF,

I warn you all today that I am feeling perky, happy, productive, and in a spriting mood. This is likely to cause me to go on a comicing spree that may in fact crash the servers. My being caffeinated by what I have named 'Hellbrew' might reasonably have nothing to do with this.

The gauntlets are coming off, the Paint programs are open, and the plots move forward by a factor of ten today.

You have been warned.

Sincerly,
Thadius
Lord of Assassin, King of Pain(t), Master Hijacker.

[Daimo Mac, The Blue Light of Hope]

Dear NPF,

I warn you all today that I am feeling perky, happy, productive, and in a spriting mood. This is likely to cause me to go on a comicing spree that may in fact crash the servers. My being caffeinated by what I have named 'Hellbrew' might reasonably have nothing to do with this.

The gauntlets are coming off, the Paint programs are open, and the plots move forward by a factor of ten today.

You have been warned.

Sincerly,
Thadius
Lord of Assassin, King of Pain(t), Master Hijacker.

That's it...Paint.

I shall deliver the movie this evening...bring it on Overlord

[Loyal]

Dear NPF,

I warn you all today that I am feeling perky, happy, productive, and in a spriting mood. This is likely to cause me to go on a comicing spree that may in fact crash the servers. My being caffeinated by what I have named 'Hellbrew' might reasonably have nothing to do with this.

The gauntlets are coming off, the Paint programs are open, and the plots move forward by a factor of ten today.

You have been warned.

Sincerly,
Thadius
Lord of Assassin, King of Pain(t), Master Hijacker.I'll see you a Paint Spree (or maybe not, I hate Paint) and raise you a finished project!

Tonight or earlier.

[Thadius]

You two shall regret this. It is not up for debate, it is not thwartable.

You will be crying in the alleys once you see the King of Paint in action.

You have challenged me, and I am responding!

[phil_]

Quit posting here and comic you comicers!

[Loyal]

That's it - If you're so eager, YOU can do something too!

[phil_]

No! I'm drunk and tired and I don't wanna!

Later. I'll do something some other time.

[Shyria Dracnoir]

*curled up happily watching the combat of epic NPFers and eating popcorn*

[mauve]

Ah yes. Mauve shows up when all hope is lost and destroys things.

All is as it should be.

[Shyria Dracnoir]

<.=.<.......>.=.>........*throws some popcorn at Mauve* you hurt muh man >.=.<

[Flarecobra]

It wouldn't be the first time.

[Loyal]

*curled up happily watching the combat of epic NPFers and eating popcorn*

"NPF: The Dragon called us Epic. Do not #@!% with us."

[Loyal]

*curled up happily watching the combat of epic NPFers and eating popcorn*

"NPF: The Dragon called us Epic. Do not #@!% with us."

[Shyria Dracnoir]

Word l,,l,-.=.-,l,,l

[Daimo Mac, The Blue Light of Hope]

That is a sweet pic Shyria. Thank you so much.

[Shyria Dracnoir]

Welcome. Also, can I ask a favor of you in return, BM? I'd like a few more sprites done for my normal dragon model, maybe even a few for the "evil" one Loyal did. Can you do that?

[TDK]

Oh yeah, that reminds me.

http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/2218/dracnoirsa1.png

[Shyria Dracnoir]

sweet

[Loyal]

Shyria's getting quite the group of contributors.

Well, Thadius, how about it? What do YOU have to give? She's your girlfriend after all.

[Thadius]

I'm pretty sure me being the FIRST ONE to put her in a comic helps. And how do you give time spent together on a message board?

Really, Loyal, not all things we give each other need be electronic. But seeing as you're going to be pestering me for who knows how long...Then after the zombie arc (Yikes, its been months since I worked on it!) I'll see about putting her in even more of my comicry.

[Loyal]

Sure, sure. Besides, you're always pestering me, so it's only fair I return the favor.

Anyway, I have a request. If anyone has Newb's old sprite sheet - the one reasonably in line with FF6 sprites, not the 'build-it-yourself' sprites that he did - I'd appreciate it if you could send it to me.

[TDK]

Ha, that's funny, Loyal.

[phil_]

I think my favorite line was "I simply think we need to make nuisances of ourselves to... other people." Also, I'd say your bubbles are well placed and your text is a good size. I'd say you could use a more interesting font, but I'm not sure why that's a plus in a sprite comic, so I'm not going to suggest it.

Also, poor Skyshot.

[mauve]

Awwwwwww, poor Skyshot. He's been fired!!

Nice job, Loyal. Good to see you back in the comic-makin' scene.

AND ZOMG YOU STOLE MAH ART STYLE!!! You do realize that this means war.....

[Loyal]

Alright, good time to break in the multi-quote function!I think my favorite line was "I simply think we need to make nuisances of ourselves to... other people." Also, I'd say your bubbles are well placed and your text is a good size. I'd say you could use a more interesting font, but I'm not sure why that's a plus in a sprite comic, so I'm not going to suggest it.I was trying to rig the dialogue to make it sound as much like a couple's breakup as possible while simultaneously... not. I'm rather pleased with the results.

AND ZOMG YOU STOLE MAH ART STYLE!!! You do realize that this means war.....If you'll just follow through with that, then all is going according to plan...Hehehahah...

You gotta admit it looks adorable though.

[EDIT] Come on, Mauve! Where's the WAR? :D?

[RickZarber]

I made a comic.

It's gone now... my computer ate it. I would scream, only people are sleeping.

AAAARGH. :stressed:


Could I ask that the Loyal/Skyshot/Thadius storyline wait for me to remake it? It picks up right were the comics are now, and any further plot would make mine nonsensical.

[mauve]

Oh... my... gosh. THE COMIC THREAD LIVES AGAIN!!!! ^____^

[Loyal]

Hold it right there, Mauve! We still gotta work at it. We're not done yet.

Sorry to hear about that, Rick. I'll hold off for now.

...So in other news, I was working on a pixel-art picture of Nexus to match up with the Loyal pic in my avatar (I dunno, maybe it'd come in handy someday), and it occurred to me...

Nexus' hair makes no goddamn sense.

http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/6816/nexusprofilerb7.png

I mean look at it! I can't even tell what that's supposed to look like from anything other than a 3/4 angle, looking to the right. I really ought to do something about that.

[Thadius]

Rick, I make no promises. If it isn't up by tomorrow at around noon, then I WILL do my comic.

[mauve]

Yaaaaay, more RZ comics!

Well now I guess I'm obligated to contribute to this newest storyline....

[Thadius]

After me, Mauve. AFTER me.

[RickZarber]

So, uh, who else is thinking this could (or should) be the second Multi-Player Saga?

Cause that'd be awesomesause.

[mauve]

I second this idea.

[Thadius]

...*Giggle*

Loyal and I FATHERED this idea. And now that it is typed, it sounds very wrong. But still.

All is proceeding as we have foreseen.

[mauve]

Loyal and I FATHERED this idea. And now that it is typed, it sounds very wrong. Yes. Yes it does.

[Loyal]

See, this is more like it.

Now all we need to do is keep going like this... and convince the others to make some more comics.

In unrelated news, I made some goddamn sense of Nexus' hair by rigging it to the "long haired, badass warlord" style of hair... only minus the "long". More like "medium-length". Yeah...

http://img234.imageshack.us/img234/609/nexuspixelavvykk9.png

[Daimo Mac, The Blue Light of Hope]

Conidering the length of your update's Rick, can we assume this is the end of JAQ :p

Just kidding, i found it funny.

[Loyal]

Rick, every single panel of that was made of glorious win...

Al Gore! XD

[TDK]

It almost pains me to say so, but I actualled LOL'd at that. That was glorious, Rick.

[mauve]

Rick... that was even more awesome than I ever imagined.


And that's a whole lot of awesome.

[Loyal]

Three comics in one night! I'd say we're making headway.

Should I be flattered or terrified that you only now managed to find a use for that sprite, Mauve?

[mauve]

*shrugs* I haven't made a comic in a while. Definitely not one requiring that level of firetastic doom.

[Flarecobra]

Rick- I take it you just watched Family Guy?

[Thadius]

Pending my return from a weekly gathering outing, I shall post a handy-dandy comic for you all!

...That is, after we get a mod in here. The threads are all outta whack, man! We gotta get the page numbers to make sense again!

[RickZarber]

Rick- I take it you just watched Family Guy?Rick, every single panel of that was made of glorious win...

Al Gore! XDYeah, unfortunately I can't take credit for either of those. About half of the ideas in this comic were written by Demon. Mauve and I filled in the rest.Rick... that was even more awesome than I ever imagined.Hooray!

[Thadius]

I tell ya Rick, even if it was or was not the end of JAQ, even though it interrupted the ongoing saga, it was so totally worth it. And I'm sorry for not commenting on it till now, but I had to find out how to put this in words.

I swear, one day, I will round up all the awesome NPF comic makers, drain you of your Win and Awesomeness, and have enough to power the world FOREVARS.

[bluestarultor]

Well, first off, good comic, Rick. I have no idea who roughly half the people are, but it was still pretty funny.

Second off, GEEZ, people! I've been here for a year and I have no idea who half of the characters are! When did all of these guys crop up? :gonk:

Third, I'm getting closer to rebuilding my sprite database. So far, I've salvaged Khael! and made a new Mauve sprite that should keep things closer to her 16-bit appearance. That said, there are others that still need to be recovered, including Skyshot, Rick, and Fenris. 'Cause, frankly, most of the work was put into salvaging my own characters. No offense, it's just those were the ones I started with and since I generally make NPF sprites on an as-needed basis, there were just more of my guys to recover.

Then I have to figure out what to do with all of 'em. It kinda sucks having not been part of the community for as long and I was hoping to wrap up the comic con arc right before the crash. :sweatdrop

[phil_]

Do you mean to say that you haven't read the whole thread? 'Cause that's ok, since some stuff is missing and it's really long, but you should give it a try sometime.

But if you're saying that you haven't read JAQ... then this must be remedied. (http://parkercomics.com/NPF/RZJAQ.php?comicID=1)

[bluestarultor]

I tried reading through the thread once, but honestly, I don't have THAT much time on my hands. At least not in the absence of archives. I have read JAQ. I still don't know who half (well, at least a few) of the people are, but that's likely because I've been here for a year and they've been gone for more than that. And despite my having been here for a while, I just haven't had the one-on-one contact with 99% of the forumites that other forumites have had. I don't know if that's largely because so many people know each other in real life or if it's just a testament to how much I stick to public discussions, but past Khael!, I really can't claim to know people here very personally.

[RickZarber]

I tell ya Rick, even if it was or was not the end of JAQ, even though it interrupted the ongoing saga, it was so totally worth it.Yeah, hopefully it's at least partially obvious that that was not an actual JAQ comic. In fact, it was my original April Fool's day gag before I ran out of time and decided to go with that video thing instead. It's been sitting on my desktop incomplete since then and only after participating in the new series did I have the inspiration to do sprite comics again. New actual JAQ will be up either Friday or early next week.
I tried reading through the thread once, but honestly, I don't have THAT much time on my hands. At least not in the absence of archives. I have read JAQ. I still don't know who half (well, at least a few) of the people are, but that's likely because I've been here for a year and they've been gone for more than that. And despite my having been here for a while, I just haven't had the one-on-one contact with 99% of the forumites that other forumites have had. I don't know if that's largely because so many people know each other in real life or if it's just a testament to how much I stick to public discussions, but past Khael!, I really can't claim to know people here very personally.Emphasis mine. Yeah, I need to see if I can't get SithDarth interested in that again. :shifty: On the other hand, I don't know that many of us know each other all that "personally". I talk to maybe a half-dozen NPFers outside NPF on anything like a regular basis, but that's it. When chat8bit was still bustling I guess things were different. And yeah, the comic thread is kinda past its heyday of dozens of people contributing. But there's no one saying we can't bring that back! (And if there is, I'll cut them.) :p

[Savage Thinking]

You know, after reading through the entire archive of JAQ (again) and the last couple posts, it really is nice to go down that there memory lane. The sudden spike in activity in here is nice, and I just can't wait to finally get my own tablet.

What does that mean? I'll finally get off my ass and do something...

[Loyal]

I would suggest a small... "freestyle" interruption for those of us who want to contribute to the story at hand, but find little wiggle room for interpretation.

With Thadius' go-ahead of course. Just come up with a "What do you think is behind that door?" short comic. Be creative now!

[Red Mage Black]

Maybe when I can finally get off my lazy ass, I'll either make a new comic or continue the old one I started maybe... two years ago when half the people that have contributed now weren't here. That or I'll start a series of maybe uhh... half assed attempts at drawing some NPFers with a mouse. Better then nothing, right?

[bluestarultor]

Emphasis mine. Yeah, I need to see if I can't get SithDarth interested in that again. :shifty: On the other hand, I don't know that many of us know each other all that "personally". I talk to maybe a half-dozen NPFers outside NPF on anything like a regular basis, but that's it. When chat8bit was still bustling I guess things were different. And yeah, the comic thread is kinda past its heyday of dozens of people contributing. But there's no one saying we can't bring that back! (And if there is, I'll cut them.) :p

I was under the impression that you, Mauve, and DWAGH grew up together or something. :brow:

Honestly, though, it's probably less me not knowing people who are here and more just not knowing half the people everyone else used to. My contact with a lot of the featured forumites has been limited because they aren't on as often as they probably used to be. It sure as hell ain't because I'm not on. XD




While I'm at it, I'm in the process of getting more NPFer sprites accomplished, and would like to know if anyone would like some improvements to what I've used so far. The ones I've got already are Skyshot, Mauve, Fenris and Khael, plus a few accessories.

Actually, I'm pretty proud of myself, so...

SHAMELESS PLUG!


The new Mauve!:
http://i30.tinypic.com/z7qeb.png
Hopefully, this is a bit closer to her current 16-bit costume in terms of color and design. I know she made a new one that was more robe-like, but I seem to remember her saying it was too hard to work with.


Skyshot, now with staff!:
http://i32.tinypic.com/2e3mjw5.png http://i31.tinypic.com/2myomtl.png
I'll do some color stuff to the staff if necessary, and I can do more with the head later. Right now, it's just a recolor of the staves I have, and I'd have to play around with them more to get the full spiral to look good on both positions (upright not shown).


Aaaannd the same sprites I used in the comic for Fenris and Khael, minus Khael's grey wolf.
http://i25.tinypic.com/6oiw6u.png http://i31.tinypic.com/200xxco.png http://i30.tinypic.com/30dh06f.png
If he comes back and prefers the grey one to the brown one, I'll try to pull it from the GIF, but it's honestly going to need to be gone over with a fine-tooth comb for artifacts if he wants it.




For the rest of y'all, if you guys want any modifications to the sprites I used in the comic, I'm in a position to make them, whether it's to bring them closer to the originals (aka undo some modifications), bring them closer to the style I'm using for my own (taller, with 5 colors and black), or to make some improvements/new poses you'd want, I'll work with you on it.

Same goes for the ones I already have. Any improvements/changes/overhauls may as well be done while I'm doing them. If Mauve prefers a robe or Skyshot wants me to fast-track his staff, etc., I'll try to work with you guys.

[mauve]

I was under the impression that you, Mauve, and DWAGH grew up together or something. Nah, we're just so amazingly awesome that we're forced by the laws of nature to chat together online (when the damn instant messenger decides it actually wants to WORK). It's physically impossible for us to resist said laws. Honestly, I tried once and I almost lost an eye.

The combined forces of our awesome would probably overload the planet and make the universe explode if we had grown up in the same community.


It's a scientific fact.


Also-- WOoooooo!! I'm 8-bit!! Looks nice, bluestar!

[bluestarultor]

Glad you like it. :)




Edit: Actually, part of the reason this is taking so long is I've been looking on and off for a 16-bit base to tweak around with for myself. (Loyal's surprise at my not having 16-bit sprites made me figure it was time.) If anyone can find one, I'd appreciate it. Ideally, it should contain gold, a couple shades of blue, and white. And skin tone, of course.

Unless someone has a palleted graphics program to recommend. SWB hooked me up with GraphicsGale, but I haven't been able to do a thing with it. :sweatdrop

[Nikose Tyris]

wait the archive is down or something? I mean shit I've looked in the FTP before glancingly and saw the UNGODLY CREATION that was the NPF archive but jesus I didn't know it was -down-.

http://parkercomics.com/npf

it still appears to be up.

WHAT YOU TALKIN' BOUT, WILLIS?

[bluestarultor]

Noooo, no no. Parker is fine. I meant the thread. All 457098345-some odd pages of it. Just a bit much for me with the time I have handy. XD

[RickZarber]

Yeah, I was more suggesting that SithDarth needs to finish the archive, not that it wasn't there at all. I've still been maintaining my own archive on my computer, so it's all up to date; it's just a matter of getting things set up over at Parker.

[TDK]

Courage the Cowardly Dog was the most disturbing (and awesome) cartoon ever. I approve, Loyal.

[Shyria Dracnoir]

*jibblies* I approve as well, Loyal, just as much as I approve of the fact that dragons dont have hair

[Thadius]

Y'know, let's make this a contest. Whoever can come up with creepiest, ickiest, most sanity-snapping thing behind that door gets their comic as a part of the continuity.

I get the feeling it's going to be nigh impossible to top Loyal, though.

[phil_]

That's actually an impressive sprite rendition of Fred. I approve.

Also, I've made no response to TDK's rivalry ticket. At first, it was because I somehow missed the comic, but that's not it now. Guess it's just laziness.

[Nikose Tyris]

Sith seems addicted to world of warcraft lately and a PM or 5 might get his attention. Just sayin'.

[Hatake Kakashi]

Loyal, I'd have to say that was the closest thing to comic perfection I've ever seen. You picked my favorite episode, too. *reps*

[Loyal]

*jibblies* I approve as well, Loyal, just as much as I approve of the fact that dragons dont have hairSlightly tangential (and creeps me out just slightly for some reason), but okay. Thank you.

Y'know, let's make this a contest. Whoever can come up with creepiest, ickiest, most sanity-snapping thing behind that door gets their comic as a part of the continuity.

I get the feeling it's going to be nigh impossible to top Loyal, though.Muahahah.

That's actually an impressive sprite rendition of Fred. I approve.The man deserves nothing less than the best!

Loyal, I'd have to say that was the closest thing to comic perfection I've ever seen. You picked my favorite episode, too. *reps*Thank you.

[TDK]

...Dammit, Mac. Now I need to bleach my brain.

Also, I sort of saw the last two panels coming somehow...o_O

[Daimo Mac, The Blue Light of Hope]

Blues...I am almost afraid of what is in the room.

[bluestarultor]

How do you mean? XD

[Daimo Mac, The Blue Light of Hope]

How do you mean? XD

You have unleashed the inner workings of my imaghination.

[bluestarultor]

MUAHAHAHAHA!

All part of my semi-neutrally-aligned plan! (:<


Okay, not really, but I want a few other people to weigh in before I break down and explain. XD

You know what they say... "Sometimes the imagination is scarier than anything else."



Edit: OH, and way to time it!

I just realized that I posted the comic as 1337. XDDD

Edit Edit:

OOOHHHH! Denied. I wasted it on a game post. :gonk:

[Loyal]

Hooray for the return of JAQ! Pirate battles are always a nice way to end a vacation. :)

Nitpick: Mauve's flame shouldn't be "in front" of Loyal's sword - Loyal is clearly closer to the "camera". ^^;

[RickZarber]

Nitpick: Mauve's flame shouldn't be "in front" of Loyal's sword - Loyal is clearly closer to the "camera". ^^;Urg. True. I'll fix it. FX was the last thing I did at the end of nine hours, so that's my excuse. :shifty:

[Savage Thinking]

Speaking of which, Mauve's face in the second panel made me laugh.

[Melfice]

Hah!
Pirates!

Would have been awesome if you made an alternate shot of the final panel as a bonus where we're all dressed like ninja. =P But I realize that might have been a bit too much on your sanity. As far as you still have some sanity.

Awesome again, Rick.
Love it.

[bluestarultor]

Nice job, Rick. :)

Just a question, but what are you using that it took that long? Lord knows there isn't a person I haven't blinded with links to Paint.NET. XD

[phil_]

I think he counted time spent recoloring the pirate sprites in that time. The ones I sent him had awful colors, based off of Buts and Co.'s pirate colors in FFV. Plus I see two significantly altered custom sprites in the main cast, and all the walking sprites for the pirates in the last panel (I only made front and side sprites). So, all that could take a couple hours. Add on text effects, focus blur, finding backgrounds, being out of practice, and the actual putting down lines and stuffing characters between them part, and it would take a while regardless of program.

Also, seems a bit odd for there to be pirates guarding the sword. Wouldn't they try to steal it? Or, are they just the illusion of pirates; a manifestation of the soul of the internet?

[bluestarultor]

I think he counted time spent recoloring the pirate sprites in that time. The ones I sent him had awful colors, based off of Buts and Co.'s pirate colors in FFV. Plus I see two significantly altered custom sprites in the main cast, and all the walking sprites for the pirates in the last panel (I only made front and side sprites). So, all that could take a couple hours. Add on text effects, focus blur, finding backgrounds, being out of practice, and the actual putting down lines and stuffing characters between them part, and it would take a while regardless of program.

Also, seems a bit odd for there to be pirates guarding the sword. Wouldn't they try to steal it? Or, are they just the illusion of pirates; a manifestation of the soul of the internet.

No offense, but I'm not exactly new to spriting, myself. Most of my work is done from the ground up, pixel by pixel. That includes the 16-bit sprite of me in my latest comic and a back pose of the same (I'm working on it slowly).

Honestly, what I learned in my effort to start a 16-bit sheet of myself was that

It's easier to start in GraphicsGale just to get the palette colors.
Once you have your colors, it's easier to use a program with an eyedropper tool.
Said second program should be one you are comfortable with, with a low learning curve.


Honestly, sprites are small. It's not that hard to make them so long as you're working in 1x, and it's better to store them that way, anyway. With a decent program, recoloring can be as easy as magic-wanding a body part and playing with the HSL or as difficult as picking a color and replacing pixels. Admittedly, it's a lot of sprites, but just to make the pirates' legs in a walking stance should take no more than a few minutes to block out and fill in each.



Not to crap on anyone's ability or anything. I'm using Rick's work (the Mirai sheet) as my 16-bit style reference. You guys are amazing. I'm just saying it only takes 5 colors to make photo-realistic metal on a Gaia avatar edit. On something as small as a FF6-style sprite, if something looks wrong, it's relatively obvious and usually can be fixed by changing one pixel.




Edit: What I'm REALLY trying to say (as much as the above probably made me sound like an ass) is that based on my own experience spriting and my own experience with finding backgrounds and actually building comics, most of it is spent staring like a zombie at Google page after Google page looking for the perfect background, and barring that, one that I can settle for, and then using them to put together the actual comic. Doing sprites, especially largely pre-built ones with modifications, takes a lot less time.

[Loyal]

I don't think it's the sprites that did him in as much as the background and lighting/special effects.

Though for comparison, the pixel art that's been invading my comics/artwork lately took me 1 (background elements)-4 hours (Ropeswinging Loyal) apiece, whereas a sprite sheet takes 3-6. It's more than just recoloring, it's making sure that the pixels your placing are the right ones for the job.

Spriting isn't the art of making tiny graphics, it's the art of making compact ones. You need to do what you can to ensure all the important details (eyes, major clothing artifacts, body markings, etc) are still visible, while keeping the whole thing as small as possible. Also, it needs to flow together smoothly, from sprite A to sprite B, for the sake of animations and such. That means a lot of double-checking as you do your work to catch yourself thinking, "Say, this part of his jacket should be longer than that... I need to fix it."

Note that it has little to do with Rick's comic, as I doubt he scratched together a full sheet for every single pirate, but just sayin'.

Finally, GraphicsGale DOES have an eyedropper tool. Or rather, a function. It's the right-click. Very convenient.

[RickZarber]

Okay, so it seems there's some stuff to address. First let me pluck out the points I feel most pertinent.I think he counted time spent recoloring the pirate sprites in that time. The ones I sent him had awful colors, based off of Buts and Co.'s pirate colors in FFV. Plus I see two significantly altered custom sprites in the main cast, and all the walking sprites for the pirates in the last panel (I only made front and side sprites). So, all that could take a couple hours. Add on text effects, focus blur, finding backgrounds, being out of practice, and the actual putting down lines and stuffing characters between them part, and it would take a while regardless of program.Not to crap on anyone's ability or anything. I'm using Rick's work (the Mirai sheet) as my 16-bit style reference. You guys are amazing. I'm just saying it only takes 5 colors to make photo-realistic metal on a Gaia avatar edit. On something as small as a FF6-style sprite, if something looks wrong, it's relatively obvious and usually can be fixed by changing one pixel.

Edit: What I'm REALLY trying to say (as much as the above probably made me sound like an ass) is that based on my own experience spriting and my own experience with finding backgrounds and actually building comics, most of it is spent staring like a zombie at Google page after Google page looking for the perfect background, and barring that, one that I can settle for, and then using them to put together the actual comic. Doing sprites, especially largely pre-built ones with modifications, takes a lot less time.I don't think it's the sprites that did him in as much as the background and lighting/special effects. [...] it's making sure that the pixels your placing are the right ones for the job. [...] Also, it needs to flow together smoothly, [...] That means a lot of double-checking as you do your work to catch yourself thinking, "Say, this part of his jacket should be longer than that... I need to fix it."So yeah, it's really all those things. Let me lay out the work flow for this comic for you, just so you can get an idea. There's that "How I make JAQ" video I made, but it doesn't show any of the prep work involved, nor were there any background manipulations or FX in that episode. Basically, that was an easy one, which is rare.

I start working on the comic around noon. My script reads thus:
P1: Walking
P2: Faint "Yarr..." Worried looks
P3: FW: Did you hear that? Listen! Do you smell that?
P4: RZ: Uh-oh.
P5: Room full of pirates. "Yar?"
P6: Wide angle shot of all
P7: RZ eyes narrow
P8: Battle

So first I open up the following file that Phil sent me:
http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/5701/piratespa1.png

I spend the next two hours converting it into this:
http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/7301/piratesandninja.png
Now maybe that would've taken you ten minutes tops, but I'm actually not a very good spriter. You cite my Mirai sprites, but those aren't all that far off from a recolor, really. Hell, I've got sprites for Fifthfiend that've been sitting on my desktop for something like a year now. I'm still not happy with them. There's a lot of trial and error involved for me when it comes to spriting. I dislike actually creating sprites so much that that's the whole reason I haven't done a JAQ in six months!

Then, like you mentioned, blue, I spend a very damn long time searching Google images for background plates. This involves testing lots of them to see if I can squeeze them into the right shapes or if they flow together. And not only that but I do a whole lot of background manipulation. Many of the backgrounds are from different photos, and that means color timing, and ratio and brightness/contrast adjustments, not to mention removing people from photographs, and other clone-tool manipulations (in this case extending the rock walls to cover the skyline). Also blending multiple images to create perspective (see panel 5). Quite apart from the actual work, I'm creating the layout of the comic in my head as I go. I have rough ideas in my notes (like Extreme wide angle shot on panel 6, Close-up on panel 7), but other than that the layout of the strip will be entirely dependent on the images I am able to find.

Once all the images are place I merge 'em down and place a lens blur on 'em. (Mostly out of habit at this point--it's become JAQ's "style" now, just like the Comic Sans and the six pixel borders, etc.)

Next I open a blank paint file and create all the sprite poses for the characters. As Phil noted, it's not just dropping pre-cut characters out of their sheets. I take pride in the fact that I do a whole lot of tiny manipulations, and I try to be sure everyone's expression is just right. Basically it's like I'm directing my actors here.

Now in some comics I do the sprites first. Comics like this one, the sprite sizes and positions are going to be entirely dependent on the backgrounds, so again it's all trial and error trying to see where they fit. I'm at about four and a half, five hours when I finish this stage.

I drop each sprite into Photoshop one at a time so that I can have complete control over everything. Comic's like this, where I have nearly twenty sprites in one panel alone, that's pretty important. Many of the sprites are cropped to fit the border, some (like panel 5) are blurred to create depth of field. All of this can take a very long time for comics like this one.

I should mention that at this point I had not created the walking sprites for the pirates. I waited to finish everything else first. Making the walking sprites took half an hour or so. Finding enough weapons for them all, that took much longer.

So finally all the sprites are in place, it's just a matter of adding the text and word balloons, which is another trial and error process, trying to get it to "look good" (to me). Then there's the FX, which is the biggest trial and error process of the whole strip. I just doodle around till I find something I like.

Somehow, all in all, this turns into a nine hour process. Granted, I was talking to people online for maybe two hours of it, and that slows things down, but the rest... yeah, really it's just I have to keep re-doing stuff 'till it looks right. I'm very much a perfectionist, and I hope and like to think that it shows somewhat in the final quality of the comic.

So hopefully you'll forgive me for going into rant mode, but after spending my whole day off working on this I'm just slightly defensive when you're essentially saying, "it shouldn't take that long." Yeah, it really shouldn't. But it does for me. Hopefully it's worth it in the end. I mean, I'll grant you this wasn't even that good of a comic. There's no joke, and it's basically just a set-up for the next one. But it's important to me that it looks good.Also, seems a bit odd for there to be pirates guarding the sword. Wouldn't they try to steal it? Or, are they just the illusion of pirates; a manifestation of the soul of the internet.A little bit of the latter. They're more like how random pirates in FF would be--more like monsters than real characters.

[bluestarultor]

Wow. That's honestly a helluva lot more work than I put into most of my comic endeavors. :sweatdrop

Granted, if you look at my layers, it's a mess. I'll usually have at least one layer per character, plus at least one other layer for every different effect on them in the comic. Sometimes I just keep duplicating for stronger alpha values on my blurs. After that, I have a black bottom layer and a panel layer above it. If I need to cut my panels off without moving them for more black space, I generally just use another layer for black rectangles. The real nightmare comes with my speech bubbles. I'll have a layer of text, a layer to draw the actual bubbles in, a layer to draw the bubble tail outlines, and a layer below that to fill the tails in with white. Then I'll just scribble away the line to open the bubble into the tail on the bubble layer with the pencil.

That's not including the marginal cleaning-up of objects I need. A lot of times, I'll have a background I like, or that will at least do, but it doesn't have the object I need. And since most pictures are on white backgrounds, my foreground objects might have white bits left over depending on how careful I am about cleaning it up. Magic wand tends to pick up too much of my metal, and I've noticed I make heavy use of silver and shiny things in my real objects, so I'll generally need to go in with the eraser. :sweatdrop

[Thadius]

I hereby decree that Big Mac has won due to the sheer wrongness involved in his comic.

Now, for this plot point! How does one 'fix' a Skyshot? The prize is the same as last time: your comic will be put into continuity!

[Loyal]

The real nightmare comes with my speech bubbles. I'll have a layer of text, a layer to draw the actual bubbles in, a layer to draw the bubble tail outlines, and a layer below that to fill the tails in with white. Then I'll just scribble away the line to open the bubble into the tail on the bubble layer with the pencil.See, what I do is a hell of a lot simpler:

1) Create Layer titled "Text".
2) Put all text in there where I need it.
3) Create new layer titled "Bubbles".
4) Use the Circular Select tool to highlight the appropriate areas for all text bubbles simultaneously.
5) Go into the "Path" mode and edit in the tails for the bubbles with the Pencil tool.
6) Fill with White.
7) Stroke with Black.

That's not including the marginal cleaning-up of objects I need. A lot of times, I'll have a background I like, or that will at least do, but it doesn't have the object I need.I'm too lazy to search through Google for a background, so I usually settle for making my own. The laziness would simply settle for a single line, but then I decide that doesn't look good... And I invariably end up spending more time creating a decent background from scratch than could possibly have been taken to just Google it. But since you can't edit picture frames of forum members/staff and things like that into a Google background, it's a worthy tradeoff.

[Shyria Dracnoir]

Sorry to butt in, but can anyone repost a link to Skyshot's sprites? I need them for my comic

[phil_]

Link to Skyshot's sprites. (http://forum.nuklearpower.com/showthread.php?p=289701#post289701)

[Shyria Dracnoir]

Thanks

[bluestarultor]

See, what I do is a hell of a lot simpler:

1) Create Layer titled "Text".
2) Put all text in there where I need it.
3) Create new layer titled "Bubbles".
4) Use the Circular Select tool to highlight the appropriate areas for all text bubbles simultaneously.
5) Go into the "Path" mode and edit in the tails for the bubbles with the Pencil tool.
6) Fill with White.
7) Stroke with Black.

I'm too lazy to search through Google for a background, so I usually settle for making my own. The laziness would simply settle for a single line, but then I decide that doesn't look good... And I invariably end up spending more time creating a decent background from scratch than could possibly have been taken to just Google it. But since you can't edit picture frames of forum members/staff and things like that into a Google background, it's a worthy tradeoff.

See, that doesn't work as well for me, since I use Paint.NET. There is no path tool, so I just do things with the line/curve tool. Also, I like to keep my bubbles anti-aliased, but that's a stylistic choice I made from the beginning because it's what Brian does. Honestly, what I posted for my steps is after a load of trial and error. It used to be that I'd do the text, do the bubbles, make polygons for the tails, duplicate that layer to fill in the inside, and then merge them, but then I realized that made the lines too dark on the outside. I suppose I could try drawing the tails over the bubble layer and save the scribbling (like I do with connecting bridges), but then I'd have to deal more with the fact that the line function is based on rectangles and cut off all the corners. It wouldn't be so bad except there isn't a decent polygon tool. :sweatdrop


Honestly, I wish I was good enough to make decent-looking backgrounds. Google is great, but it doesn't have everything. I've had to settle a lot with what I've found.

[Loyal]

You're getting better, TDK. Needs a bit more polish, and something to make it look less... flat. But other than that not bad.

[mauve]

That looks nice, TDK! You've definitely improved.

Also--- Did... Did I just die in that last comic of yours????

[bluestarultor]

That looks nice, TDK! You've definitely improved.

Also--- Did... Did I just die in that last comic of yours????

I think you cast Nuke. XD

[TDK]

Yeah, Mauve just asploded me because she couldn't think of an answer to the question.

Edit: Also, thanks Mauve and Loyal for the compliments about my drawin'. =D

[bluestarultor]

Not bad, TDK. Looking at it, I think there are just a few things you need to polish.

1. Some of the straight lines could be straighter. There's no shame in fixing things like the sword edge with a line tool in a photo-editing program (like Paint.NET, which can be procured here (http://www.getpaint.net/)). I'm kidding. Just figured I'd make it my "thing." XD But it is worth checking out if you haven't.

2. The feet look a little off. People rarely stand with their feet at right angles, so a bit of practice is needed there. The (character's) right foot looks pretty good, but the left foot should look more like:


| |
` `.
`.____)


Also, shoes tend to slope down to the toe, unless they're really heavy-duty, so if you do have a foot at a right angle, it should look a little longer and less club-y.


Aside from that, I see only minor anatomy flaws. I tend to hide mine with clothes, but if you're taking the hard way out, it might be a good idea to look at yourself in a mirror as a model or something.




While I'm posting here, if anyone can find the gym that I've been using for a background, that'd be great. I lost it in my crash and have been unable to get it back. I may end up either breaking down and getting a new background or ending the arc prematurely. Unless I can find some way to BS a reason to use a different setting. At any rate, you guys' help would be awesome if you have any free time.

[bluestarultor]

I know this is a double post on my part, but the last one was several days ago.


Rick, I just have to say that despite the fact that it's only one panel, it's still funny just because it's so true. We seriously have too many people running around with the same base sprites. XD

See also: Loyal and Mirai.

Edit: Plus everyone who uses Bartz/Butz sprites.

[Daimo Mac, The Blue Light of Hope]

I know this is a double post on my part, but the last one was several days ago.


Rick, I just have to say that despite the fact that it's only one panel, it's still funny just because it's so true. We seriously have too many people running around with the same base sprites. XD

See also: Loyal and Mirai.

Edit: Plus everyone who uses Bartz/Butz sprites.

I know when I saw Raiden's sprite, It looked like mine (well vicer versa) so I made the change to Sabin and I never looked back.

But yes there is alot of Setzer/Locke base sprites.

[TDK]

I know this is a double post on my part, but the last one was several days ago.


Rick, I just have to say that despite the fact that it's only one panel, it's still funny just because it's so true. We seriously have too many people running around with the same base sprites. XD

See also: Loyal and Mirai.

Edit: Plus everyone who uses Bartz/Butz sprites.

Yeah, I combat that by putting one head on another body for all the sprites I make. For the base, I mean. I edit and recolor them and such.

[Loyal]

I'm the handsomest, though!

I suppose one of these days I should make customized sprites, but then again there have been no less than six different iterations of Loyal sprites over the years, most of which unfinished or discontinued. The current edition is, minus the hair, customized enough that I find it satisfactorily different from the others. So... why rush?

Now Nexus on the other hand needs a sprite update. His "real" appearance has changed many times over the years (and in fact another is planned to give a more realistic interpretation of his warlike character, rather then the fragile cloth he's been in forever), but his sprites are still the same silly Edgar edits they've been for years. He hasn't worn a headband since... I can't even remember!

[Fenris]

Wait so Rick made a new JAQ and I didn't even fuggin' notice?

Sheeeeeeeit, son!

All the comics are looking good but of course I must pay special attention to JAQ. Rick, you're doin' good. You haven't lost your touch. Stick with it this time so we can reach the gripping ending! :p

My sprites are Loyal edits, but I feel that they are sufficiently customized to allow me to get away with it. Sabin sprites are way too underused. I think Mac's the only one who's used one since my Meister spritesheet was released about 2 years ago.

[RickZarber]

We seriously have too many people running around with the same base sprites. XDIt's not so much that they have the same base sprites as it is that a large majority are just simply recolors. Still, I mean, I don't really care all that much about all the similar sprites. After all, there's only so many Final Fantasy sprites to work from (unless you make your own, which takes more work than some people are willing to expend).See also: Loyal and Mirai.I like how you used Mirai as an example when I made that one. :sweatdrop Though to be honest the only bits in that sheet that I copied from Loyal are the front of the hair / headband and the collar.Wait so Rick made a new JAQ and I didn't even fuggin' notice?

Sheeeeeeeit, son!

All the comics are looking good but of course I must pay special attention to JAQ. Rick, you're doin' good. You haven't lost your touch. Stick with it this time so we can reach the gripping ending! :pThanks man. And to be fair, I think you were off doin' jazz camp or whatever when it hit. Did you see the double-length fake JAQ that I posted right before the real one?

[Fenris]

Thanks man. And to be fair, I think you were off doin' jazz camp or whatever when it hit. Did you see the double-length fake JAQ that I posted right before the real one?

Yes I did and I was disappointed when it was reavealed that it was non-canon. My Skyshot theory was so close to being proven until you had to go make it nonexistent.

[Khael!]

Wowee, a lot of us do have similar sprites. If and when I fiddle with my 16-bit one again, I'm givin' him a shorter haircut, as that fringe in the front clearly wasn't different enough for my liking. Maybe I'll edit the collar on the coat and the sleeves too or something.

But enough of that, you guys continue to own as always. If I ever find the drive and time to make a comic, it still won't be as awesome.

[Daimo Mac, The Blue Light of Hope]

It's not so much that they have the same base sprites as it is that a large majority are just simply recolors. Still, I mean, I don't really care all that much about all the similar sprites. After all, there's only so many Final Fantasy sprites to work from (unless you make your own, which takes more work than some people are willing to expend).

While recolours are easier to make, I do find some small joy in making my own edits to my sprite sheet. Mind you, it is nice when someone else is capable of upping the coolness factor on your own sheet*

I may have used a Sabin Base, But I can count 10 different edits on there. Some made by me, some by Blues.



Bitchin guitar done by Blues

[bluestarultor]

It's not so much that they have the same base sprites as it is that a large majority are just simply recolors. Still, I mean, I don't really care all that much about all the similar sprites. After all, there's only so many Final Fantasy sprites to work from (unless you make your own, which takes more work than some people are willing to expend). I like how you used Mirai as an example when I made that one. :sweatdrop

You didn't check the sprite sheet thread recently, did you? XD


Honestly, though, your Mirai sheet is the one I used for reference because of the jacket. I didn't actually USE the jacket part as a guide, but it was the logic at the time. I'll probably continue using it for the simple reason that it's one of two full sheets on my computer and Big Mac's has a radically different shape from the Sabin base.

[Loyal]

Wait, the jacket?

That's what you're citing for similarity? That hasn't been a part of Loyal's sprites since v4. What are you going on about?

[RickZarber]

You didn't check the sprite sheet thread recently, did you? XDObviously you do not fall under the "some people".Wait, the jacket? That's what you're citing for similarity? That hasn't been a part of Loyal's sprites since v4. What are you going on about?As for me, I took Mirai's jacket collar from that version of Loyal. I think blues just means that they're both originally based on the same FF sprite.

[bluestarultor]

Obviously you do not fall under the "some people".

XD

I was teasing. I did mine custom because a) I wanted it to best reflect the character's appearance and b) I'm used to doing pixel work.

As for me, I took Mirai's jacket collar from that version of Loyal. I think blues just means that they're both originally based on the same FF sprite.

Pretty much. The hair, headband, and boots went largely unchanged. And didn't IC also have the same base? *checks* Yeah, with the tail feathers added, of course, with an optional Shadow-head mask.

Really, looking at most sprites around here, they come mostly from the same sources for the express reason that FF6 is the only game where the battle and field sprites are the same size. What isn't from FF6 is largely from FF5, mostly Butz.

[mauve]

Man, if I had a quarter for every time Mauve's been kidnapped or had people attempt to kidnap her in these comics, I'd have like.... er... okay so I'd only have like three or four dollars. But still! Three dollars' worth of attempted kidnappings! I should really get a bodyguard or an anti-theft system or something.

[Hatake Kakashi]

Man, if I had a quarter for every time Mauve's been kidnapped or had people attempt to kidnap her in these comics, I'd have like.... er... okay so I'd only have like three or four dollars. But still! Three dollars' worth of attempted kidnappings! I should really get a bodyguard or an anti-theft system or something.

Chalk it up to your natural charisma, and being made of sex, Mauve. Everyone wants you, at least to use as bait. And if that works... well, there's obviously something there, neh?

.... 'cause from what I hear, it's not your cooking. :cool:

[Fenris]

.... 'cause from what I hear, it's not your cooking. :cool:

Run.

[mauve]

Run.
Run fast.

[bluestarultor]

Does this mean you NUKE your food? XD

I kid, but it was just too good to pass up. Honestly, I fail to see HOW the kidnappings happen, since Mauve Magic is both incredibly powerful and an exercise in extreme utility. You'd think it would be easy to just blast away any kidnappers.

[TDK]

Man, if I had a quarter for every time Mauve's been kidnapped or had people attempt to kidnap her in these comics, I'd have like.... er... okay so I'd only have like three or four dollars. But still! Three dollars' worth of attempted kidnappings! I should really get a bodyguard or an anti-theft system or something.

I volunteer. The interviews and subsequent thwarting of kidnap attempts would make a great comic series, albeit likely a short one. Multiplayer?

[Thadius]

Ah, but as the LORD of Assassin, I get a 15% bonus in kidnapping people. It's in Nuklearpedia. You should check it out.

Anyway, I try (once again) to revive the great comic thread. C'mon people, let's not let it die!

[bluestarultor]

Well, unless I can find my backgrounds again (salvage attempt = failure), I probably won't be releasing any more of the Comic Con arc, at least for a while. Plus I have my 16-bit sheet to worry about, but at least I have all the walking sprites done.

[phil_]

Well, I would be able to start comicing again, but I waited too long and Thadius got popular somehow. Now I have to rethink everything because there's no way I'm featuring a guy who's in everyone's comics in my comics. That's just not how I roll.

And, since everyone else got to brag about their custom sheets on the last page, I refer you to my powersuit sprites and Satan's Onion's sprites. Yeah, I'm awesome, I know. Well, except they're nearly from scratch, not entirely.

Also, since blue brought it up, FF6 sprites are the base of most sheets largely due to Stephanos, who worked largely from FF6 back in the day. Plus, they have a good balance between ease of editing and appearance.

[TDK]

I'm workin' on a TDK sheet in casual clothes.

And Phil_, you still haven't replied to my rivalry challenge you bastard! :p

I want an excuse to make comics.

[Fenris]

Also, since blue brought it up, FF6 sprites are the base of most sheets largely due to Stephanos, who worked largely from FF6 back in the day. Plus, they have a good balance between ease of editing and appearance.

I personally prefer FF6 sprites as they are much more flexible than FF5 sprites, and they are 16-bit, which I am a large fan of. 32-bit sprites just don't do it for me.

Also, I'm a pretty good sprite artist for FF6 sprites, and I enjoy being able to manipulate poses, although I don't hold a candle to Rick's ability.

[Loyal]

I volunteer. The interviews and subsequent thwarting of kidnap attempts would make a great comic series, albeit likely a short one. MultiplayerYou'd be putting Loyal out of a job and so I must protest.

Well, I would be able to start comicing again, but I waited too long and Thadius got popular somehow. Now I have to rethink everything because there's no way I'm featuring a guy who's in everyone's comics in my comics. That's just not how I roll.It doesn't HAVE to be topical. It could be just about anything really. Just do something! :D

Ah, but as the LORD of Assassin, I get a 15% bonus in kidnapping people. It's in Nuklearpedia. You should check it out.Oh, nobody cares about that nonsense when it comes to comics and you should know better. Nothing stifles creativity in these circles more than "Nuh-uh, this part of the continuity says you can't do that with my character!" ...I should know.

[phil_]

It doesn't HAVE to be topical. It could be just about anything really. Just do something! :DTopical? No, it was random nonsense. But it featured him as an antagonist and now it feels all wrong. If I'm gonna draw self-indulgent crap, it's gonna have to be self-indulgent crap that feels right.

Oh, right, I need to second the "continuity be damned" sentiment.

[Hatake Kakashi]

What, Thadius? No Tae Kwon Leap song to finish the comic? :eek:

Don't tell me you've never heard of it....

[Shyria Dracnoir]

People talking in movie shows, people smoking in bed! People voting Re-pub-lic-can! GIVE THEM A BOOT TO THE HEAD! (BOOT TO THE HEAD!)

[RickZarber]

...That looks awesome, ST. (It's a lot harder to shorten your name now... for some reason "ST" doesn't sound as natural as "ZJ". And just calling you "Savage" sounds weird.) The shading looks like you spent quite some time with it! Also, it just now occurs to me that I never commented on that portrait of me you did. I meant to but kept forgetting. It was really cool! (Also with good shading!) The only thing I'd nitpick is that the face looks really chubby. Looking at the photo, though, if you traced the lines that would happen regardless; the angle of the shot is such that it flattens the chin/neck line, if you know what I mean. Anyways, I continue to enjoy your art and I hope it didn't seem like I was giving you the cold shoulder there. I am just a forgetful person!

On a different topic, to all of you to whom I promised a JAQ on Friday, I am sorry. This one is taking me a very long time and it is still not done! (I actually do have the top half of the comic completed, it just doesn't work without the second half.) Not sure when I'll get the opportunity to finish it up 'cause this is gonna be a crazy-busy week at work and I don't know when my next day off will be.

[Hatake Kakashi]

People talking in movie shows, people smoking in bed! People voting Re-pub-lic-can! GIVE THEM A BOOT TO THE HEAD! (BOOT TO THE HEAD!)

Naaaaah, Naaaaah!


Yep. She's a keeper.

[Savage Thinking]

The only thing I'd nitpick is that the face looks really chubby. Looking at the photo, though, if you traced the lines that would happen regardless; the angle of the shot is such that it flattens the chin/neck line, if you know what I mean.
Yeah, the angle of the picture made it seem awkward to try to get correctly. I actually caught that myself but when I tried to fix it, it would make your face seem too narrow on one side or just completely off since it was a direct trace. The shadowing got really tricky and spent quite while on it but I still don't think I got it quite right. Same goes for the right arm.

I just thought that I'd just leave it at a somewhat lack of detail because if I tried to mess with it more it'd come out even worse than what I started with.

[Melfice]

Piro?
Not what these threads are for.

This is for comics about and involving out own forum characters.
With out own sprites (unless it's for NPC's and such, and even then they're mostly customs or recolours)

Barring that, I really didn't get that comic. What happened?

[phil_]

Dude, it's totally what this thread is for! It's for works pertaining to the forum. A comic about the Mods' power to render us impotent and destroy the fabric of our being at a whim is more than acceptable.

As for the comic, it works, but it would have be clearer that it's about the forum if you had used one of the mods' sprites instead of the Knight. Other than that, just peachy.

[pirostyle]

Barring that, I really didn't get that comic. What happened?
It was supposed to show the difference between a noob on NPF and a mod. Since it wasen't that obvious then I have failed.

[phil_]

Failure is how you learn! Don't give up! がんばれ! Keep comics rolling!

[Melfice]

Okay, sorry.
Wrongly explained, I guess.
You're right, on second thought, it IS appropriate.
Still, if he'd/you'd used one of the mods' sprites, it would have been slightly clearer. And more... NP member-ish?

And comicry improves with experience, so don't stop here with me fucking up my commenting.

[TDK]

Tip: Save your comics as PNGs.

[phil_]

Tip: If you're using MS Paint, it really doesn't matter, because even .gif will sometimes cause artifacts. MS Paint doesn't do .png very well, either. It doesn't compress .png files and thus are the same size as .bmp (according to _mike, though he can't find confirmation and neither can I) and, more importantly, it still produces artifacts. And artifacts are bad in sprite comics (also, artifacts are those miscolored dots in sprites and such, just in case you don't know).

If you're going to descend into our world of madness, I'd suggest using Paint.net (http://www.getpaint.net/) or the gimp. (http://www.gimp.org/) Though, as long as you're making funny stuff, I don't think anyone will be terribly upset over some discoloration.

This is all assuming that you're using MS Paint, of course. Please, don't be discouraged by this. We need new blood to keep things going.

[pirostyle]

Still, if he'd/you'd used one of the mods' sprites...
Like which one should I use. Some of them aren't exactly whole, or in one piece, I'll be happy to fix the comic if you can tell me where to find a good mod sprite.

[Fenris]

Well, you could use:

Mine. (http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/3156/fenriswolfsr6.png)
Meister's. (http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/9853/meisternu8.png)
Fifth's. (http://img102.imageshack.us/img102/1522/fifthfiendtd9.png)
Kurosen's. (http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/4117/kurosenbn8.png)
RaiRai's. (http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/8654/rairainw8.png)
Krylo's. (http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/830/krylozc7.png)
Shiney's. (http://img61.imageshack.us/img61/894/shineyrf4.png)
A different Meister sprite. (http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/4641/meisterff5hs6.png)
And Viper Daimao, although I doubt you know who he is. (http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/3389/viperdaimaozz3.png)

Seriously, there's a ton of them out there.

[pirostyle]

Ok, I was able to fix it and post the new version of it.
Sorry if I screwed up a few times.

[bluestarultor]

Hey, no prob. And if you ever have a question about Paint.NET, feel free to ask. I'm sure the people who use it wouldn't mind sharing a few tips, myself included.

[TDK]

I use paint for most of my comics (and certainly for all of my sprites) and I've never had an issue saving PNGs or with artifacts.

[Melfice]

It's already quite a lot clearer, piro.

What a difference a sprite makes
Sixteen little bits
Brought the comic and it's meaning
Where there used to be nought

>_>

[phil_]

Yeah, ok, .png is better than .jpeg for sprite comics. But, then, anything is. The point is that Paint sucks and I'm willing to type mean things about it even if I can't prove them.

[TDK]

Heh. Nice, Loyal.

[mauve]

Heeee, nice one Loyal. It matches perfectly! :D


Also-- Oh man I'm late to say "That's great, SavageThinking!!!" XD So uh... yeah. That's great, ST!!

[bluestarultor]

Yeah, ok, .png is better than .jpeg for sprite comics. But, then, anything is. The point is that Paint sucks and I'm willing to type mean things about it even if I can't prove them.

Frankly, GIF works just fine for simpler ones, anyway. GIF handles 256 colors and only dithers when you have more than that. Frankly, 16-bit sprites usually can be saved as a GIF or an 8-bit PNG because the lion's share of the colors fit into that 256, and the ones that don't generally can be fudged into it without majorly degrading the image. At least from my experience working in 8-bit PNG.

Really, the only reason PNG is outright better for sprites is because GIF files are incredibly bloated.

[TDK]

GIFs mess up the colors.

[bluestarultor]

It's called dithering. But I work almost entirely in Paint.NET now, where I have more control over that, so I'm probably not one to talk considering how little I use the format and that added control. :sweatdrop

[Thadius]

...Blues, you die. Slowly. And there will be fire ants involved.

Great animation work. You still die.

[bluestarultor]

...Blues, you die. Slowly. And there will be fire ants involved.

Great animation work. You still die.

Hey. No offense. Honestly, it was the first sprite sheet I grabbed that had a damage pose.

I was really hoping to do it to Phantom7 or one of my other comic characters, but I didn't have the patience to make what I needed in 16 bits.

[Shyria Dracnoir]

*holds up a jar of honey for the fire ants*
I'd contribute more, by im at animation camp now so i need to steal public computers to get on, and besides, pizza's up in like 10 minutes.
Great animation; once thad's done with you I'll fix you up

[bluestarultor]

XD

Thanks.


I guess I should explain what's actually going on in the thing. It's not Blue Magic, or even really Blue Psionics at work. Jay (Blue? Joe? Jay is the name of the character in my 8-bit comics, but I'm not sure if that should extend outside of them?) starts off with the three-section staff I whipped up last night right before making this. I updated my sheet with the appropriate items. The rest of it is Black Magic. In my 8-bit comics, Jay is a Blue Psychic, which means while he has no spells right now, he does have a couple useful abilities. The first is card effects, which deliver simple commands for problem-solving purposes but have no real attack power. The second is that he can "synch" with people close to him. The black orb you see briefly in the animation is Marie's orb, which allows him to use her Black Magic abilities. There's also one for Toshi (thief), Todd (monk), himself (Blue Psychic), John (a character I haven't salvaged the sprites for and may never, but fighter), and Troy (White Mage, but in reverse, so he only has a revival spell so powerful it explodes things that are still alive). Of course, Marie is liable to kill him for using her MP next she sees him, but for problem-solving purposes (aka emergencies), it's a useful ability to have. (This also means I may need to get on making Marie and Troy sprites in 16 bits, since I have the shirts made for their orbs.)

Overall, I'm proud of it, and I'm glad it's good. Really, I did it as an animation test, but it turned out well. It won't figure into any storylines, though. Unless anyone else incorporates it.



Edit: I'm really hesitant to allow Jay out of my 8-bit comics. For now, I think I'm going to stick with Dex, Blue, or Joe. Probably Dex.



Late Edit:

So, I'm finally getting together enough 16-bit sprites to be usable. I've mulled it over and decided that Jay is going to be my in-house character for Blue Psychic, so you guys can pretty much call my 16-bit persona whatever you want. It probably makes sense to use some variation of my username like everyone else anyway, and there are a lot of variations to choose from. XD Honestly, I still need time to recover certain backgrounds and 8-bit sprites that I had made to continue the Comic Con arc. I may just start putting together a 16-bit story in the meantime, if I ever get any ideas.

[bluestarultor]

Yeah, I know this is a double post.


Rick: You totally punked my kill! I juuuust finished making my comic, prepared to joke about the double post with the back button, and then I submit it to find yours already there!

Just kidding. Totally awesome! XD




As for myself, no, I haven't been re-posting in the sprite sheet thread every time I make progress. I'd be spamming up the place something awful. However, as the comic says, there is progress being made, so y'all should continue checking back at my original 16-bit post. Actually, I'm pretty far along right now. All I'm really missing is the raised arm poses, the single hand raised poses, and the crouched/dead poses. Those last three will probably be the most difficult, but I'll get to them eventually. Right now I have an overall functional sprite sheet in 16 bits for you all to download and use. Finally! 'Cause I thought I'd forever be alone with my 8-bit comics, making custom sprites for half you guys, never really being a part of anyone else's storylines. Now I can do 16-bit comics, without having to worry about custom sprites, never really being a part of anyone else's storylines! XD

I kid, but I don't really expect everyone to rush and write me in just because I have a functional sheet. The sprites are there for when they're needed. And as soon as I recover more of my 8-bit stuff, I'll probably continue to do Blue Psychic in its traditional style, once I figure out what to do after I finish the Comic Con arc. I really never expected it to get mixed with NPF long-term, but I can't really post it here otherwise, so I'm going to have to change course a bit and I have no idea where to go with it right now.

[mauve]

WOOO MORE JAQ YEAH WOOOO!!!!

In case you couldn't tell, Mauve approves.

[phil_]

You weren't kidding about this one being violent, were you? It's beautiful.

[mauve]

D'awwwwww, they're cuuuuuuuuute. ^__^

[phil_]

Knowing Thad (not that I do), that jar's set to explode and the ants are from Hell. Or, they're just really angry.

I look buff in Rick's picture. Manly. I guess the sprites all do look that way, since they're based on buff, manly men. I think my 8-bit sprites are a bit more accurate, as they have the belly and look goofy. Still, a valiant effort. Time used drawing at work is time well spent.

[bluestarultor]

Well, Thad said nothing good would come of it, so one can assume he's doing it personally.

I also just realized I never updated my base in over six months, but that has been remedied. Not too worried about going and changing the comic, though. I doubt that anyone is going to steal it and try to pass it off as their own any more than I'm worried about someone punking my sprites, which is to say, a lot, because NPF actually comes up first on Google with at least certain sprite searches, so I probably am going to lose sleep over it. But changing it is just paranoid, right? Right? I'mma change it.

Joking. XD

[Thadius]

Phil_, Phil_, you've got it all wrong. First, I coat it with napalm. Then I set the napalm on fire. Then I throw it in his face. THEN it explodes. And THEN the fire ants crawl out and feast on his flesh.

Honestly. It's like you've never been evil before.

[phil_]

Hey! I can be evil! It's just a different kind of evil... with less of a Black Mage bent.

[Flarecobra]

Knowing Thad (not that I do), that jar's set to explode and the ants are from Hell. Or, they're just really angry.

I look buff in Rick's picture. Manly. I guess the sprites all do look that way, since they're based on buff, manly men. I think my 8-bit sprites are a bit more accurate, as they have the belly and look goofy. Still, a valiant effort. Time used drawing at work is time well spent.

Flare's were baised off of Terra's sprites...hardly a buff manly man. :P

[phil_]

Couldn't that have been a discussion post, Fenry? Or a PM? You didn't need to get my hopes up like that. :(

Also, Terra is the manliest.

[Fenris]

Couldn't that have been a discussion post, Fenry? Or a PM? You didn't need to get my hopes up like that. :(

Also, Terra is the manliest.

I have to warn people in the thread they commit the crime in.

Well after reading some of this thread 'cause I'm bored, I decided that I want to make a series again, so I'll get on that.

[phil_]

Well after reading some of this thread 'cause I'm bored, I decided that I want to make a series again, so I'll get on that.Hooray! I choose to believe I've helped in this!

[bluestarultor]

Eh, heh, heh. Sorry, Fenris. I thought it was a little more lax with that in there. :sweatdrop

I guess I could just merge the posts, if it really matters that much.



However, in a way, it marks a milestone for me, because it means that I've finally streamlined the process. This one took a matter of hours, rather than a matter of days, to make, minus minor cleanup that I skipped to get it out there. Mostly obsessing about making the bubbles perfect and extra dinking on Troy's leg to let the chair be in front without leaving any holes.



Again, sorry, but I was really excited to get this out there, just because it finally gave me an opportunity to add a possible spell ("Swarm"). Of course, people who want to ignore it totally can, if they actually decide to use my sprite in their comics. Honestly, in a way, it's letting go of part of the character for me, because even though this is a Gaiden at best, I've really gotten used to the idea of a spell-less mage.

Plus, I think I'm getting sick, and usually the symptoms start with adrenaline, so I tend to get a little manic before I start being miserable.

[Fenris]

Eh, heh, heh. Sorry, Fenris. I thought it was a little more lax with that in there. :sweatdrop

We're not lax with that anywhere! :D

[bluestarultor]

We're not lax with that anywhere! :D

I'mma merge the posts then.



Edit: There we go.


Anyways, this is actually pretty cool. 16-bit sprites are surprisingly easy to work with. Now all I have to do is figure out where to go with it.

[Loyal]

What, am I not scummy enough for you?

...then again, if I have to share living quarters with Skyshot (which I KNOW would be the case)... Eeew.

[Fenris]

That's not the full cast, mind you.

[RickZarber]

Hooray! Fenris get's kudos points for being the first person to use my Fifthfiend sprites!

I like the premise. It allows you almost unlimited leeway with your plots. XP

[Fenris]

I like the premise. It allows you almost unlimited leeway with your plots. XP

...Plots? I'm supposed to have them now?

Hey, that might be why my series never last past the 20's!

[bluestarultor]

...Plots? I'm supposed to have them now?

Hey, that might be why my series never last past the 20's!

Pfft. Mine was never intended to last past 5. It never would have made it past ten if it had had the chance.

Not that the main series wasn't meant to last. I had TONS of stuff planned. Just none to do with NPF past the Comic Con arc. And most of it was about absolutely nothing!


GO~! BE FREE~! WRITE ABOUT NOTHING~! XD

[CelesJessa]

I approve of Fenris' new comic.

Way to turn my typo into the title of something. "NPFer Slife" =P

Wacky antics, go!

[TDK]

Hahah. Burn.

[Thadius]

Dear Fenris,

Please grow up.

Signed,

The Internet.

PS: Krylo too.

[Loyal]

...what did Fenris do exactly?

[bluestarultor]

Dunno, but I do know what Krylo did.

[Fenris]

Dear Fenris,

Please grow up.

Signed,

The Internet.

PS: Krylo too.

?

[Karrrrrrrrrrrresche]

You'd think Krylo would be the main target of that since he's the one directly insulting you.

But then again, you'd think telling not one, but TWO mods to grow up is kind of a bad idea...

[POS Industries]

Krylo's comic is funny because it's true. And ironically terrible itself.

[Loyal]

We expect precisely this, however, when we see Krylo posting in the comic thread.

So, yeah.

[POS Industries]

True, but it's absolutely necessary and is excellent guidance that a number of people should really take to heart. Last night, in fact, I was sitting here with a reply box for a number of minutes wishing to say something similar regarding one or two million of the comics posted by someone in the thread, but was told by Fenris that, while constructive criticism was welcome, that it had to be kept nice.

Now, I've since long ago lost track of where the line between "nice" and "what I normally do" falls, so eventually I had to give up and just let it go, so it really made me happy to see Krylo handle it for me.

Thanks, buddy!