Fun Stuff > MAKE

This sounds kind of stupid, but...

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Primate:
Many schools, especially at the college level, have a web presence and many set aside space for their students. Even if they don't usually make space for their students, they might for a school project. So you might want to talk with your computer department for getting your website hosted.

For designing your webpage, you'll either need to get a program that will let you design your page and then translate it into HTML, or you need to learn HTML and style sheets. Style sheets are supported by all the current versions of the web browsers (although I've had glitches with Internet Explorer and relative positioning), and have largely replaced the spaghetti HTML code that resulted from using tables. Jeph's site here is an excellent example of how HTML and style sheets can be combined to make a simple, solid site with nice tight code. Check out my site http://www.phantaststaffing.com for HTML and style sheets with lots of image files. And check out http://www.drdevious.com for the mess tables make if the page is complicated enough.

Any pages HTML code can be viewed using your web browser. While on the page, you'll want to look at the page's source (the command is usually under the view selection). To get a look a most of the bits that make up a page, you can download it to your computer (File > Save As) and get most of the images, HTML code, and style sheets that make the page. The HTML and style sheets can then be examined using the computer's basic text viewing program (Notepad, Wordpad, Simpletext, etc.). The basic ones tend to be better at this, as the advanced programs (Word, Wordperfect, etc.) tend to want to display the webpage rather than the underlying code.

You may also want to learn PHP (a server-side programming language that's a distant relative of C), as that's what most of us use to run our comic archives. It's a lot simplier than trying to manually update pages every single day.

As for making art, it depends on how much you want to spend. You can draw them manually, scan them in, and translate the images into GIF format using the programs that come with most scanners and/or digital cameras. Or you can spend money and get a tablet (assume around $100 bucks) and a copy of Photoshop Elements (assume around $60), which gives you quite a bit of flexibility. Or you can do a combination, and scan your basic images and then using Photoshop Elements to clean them up, color them, and letter them, all of which can be accomplished using a standard mouse.

Let us know what else you might need. My email is in my profile if you want to ask me questions that would bore the rest of the board to tears. :)

Pat

meganjo23:
The actual drawing of the comic is no problem, as I have a very good friend who has agreed to be payed for drawing them. I can scan them in, and then with a mix of MS Paint and a photoshop, get them web ready.

As for the web page... that will be the main problem. I have no clue how to do that, and Primate's wonderful explaination, while it did help some, made my poor mind so confused. I wonder, if i go with Keenspace, do I have to mess with all that stuff? I'm not trying to take the easy way out, it would just be nice to have an escape route.

If anyone's interested in hearing my idea for the actual comic, then tell me, and I'll share for some nice constructive criticism.

cri:
Well, let's hear it. :)

Primate:

--- Quote from: meganjo23 ---

As for the web page... that will be the main problem. I have no clue how to do that, and Primate's wonderful explaination, while it did help some, made my poor mind so confused. I wonder, if i go with Keenspace, do I have to mess with all that stuff? I'm not trying to take the easy way out, it would just be nice to have an escape route.

If anyone's interested in hearing my idea for the actual comic, then tell me, and I'll share for some nice constructive criticism.
--- End quote ---


I'm afraid no matter where you go, you'll either have to build your webpages yourself, or get someone else to build them for you (not that unusual - if you look around, you'll notice that many webcomics credit someone else for building the site).

There are webpage design programs out there (google: web page design software), and you should also be able to find them at stores like Best Buy or OfficeMax if you're more comfortable going to a store to get them. Often, the programs are part of or bundled with a webhosting offer, which would solve the problem of hosting your site. I'm afraid that isn't the path I took, so I can't make any specific recommendations on what to use. If you go this route, remember that these programs are less complicated than your average video game, so it's not like learning them is an impossible burden to the average computer user.

The only real problem with those programs is that the HTML code they create isn't as tightly written as coding done manuaully. That wastes bandwidth, which ultimately means it wastes money. Of course, when you consider how cheap bandwidth has gotten, we're talking a difference in pennies, but I'm still a dinosaur who's online with a 26K modem.

If you want to learn HTML, most public libraries and general bookstores carry both books for beginners and reference books for every command in the language. There are also a ton of references online for the language. A quick google search turned up http://www.htmlgoodies.com, which includes primers for people starting from just knowing how to turn on the computer. The search also brought up http://www.w3.org, which is the site that maintains many of the internet standards, including the HTML commands available. It's a bit more for established programmers, but it's still useful if you're willing to wade through it. And remember, HTML started out just as a way of making your basic text files look pretty, so it is not the hardest language to learn, and is actually a much better language for learning how to program than BASIC was back in the day.

Okay, so all this is a bit intimidating when you don't have a teacher who has written out a lesson plan and is willing to drag you through it at an hour at a time, but the whether your writing a story or building a website, it will become managable as your work on it. Trust me.

On the second bit, feel free to share the details of the comic with us, but brace yourself. Even constructive criticism isn't fun. And no matter how good you are, even at your peak, there will be people who won't like your stuff. But remember, if they don't like it, that's their loss. The most important critic should be you. You're work should be up to your standards first, espicially if you're doing something like a webcomic, where there's no editor or publisher with a monetary stake in the work. The fans will find you. Just keep working at it, and you'll even get better. Produce, and you are wonderful, even if not universally admired. Try not to be completely insufferable, but I'd rather enjoy the work a tempermental artist than try to drag even better art out of someone unwilling to show it around.

Probably too preachy, but a lack of self-confidence has killed even more projects than a lack of work ethic. Share with us, meganjo23. :)

meganjo23:
You guys are so damn helpful. And since you asked for it, here's my idea for the storyline/characters/etc.

Characters- I kind of knew I needed two guys and two girls, to balence things out and basically make things easier for me with the storyline-writing part. This way, I'll have the opportunity to do all guy strips, all girl strips, and co-ed strips. (Taken out of contect, that is one odd sentence). So for the two girls (who are based off me and my (female) friends), I have Lindsey, who is the cynical, level headed, sarcastic one. Kind of like Faye, only a teenager. Then you have Emily, who's the blond. That's the best way that I can describe it. She's like the opposite to Lindseys personality. For the guys, there's Marcus and Nick. They both love video games (no, it is not going to be a gaming strip). I can't really think of how to explain them. Nick is a Canadian who has his own apartment (p.s. the strip is set in Maine, where I live). Marcus is the dorkier one, who likes the ladies but doesn't ever really do anything about it. Nick likes the ladies and lets them know that he likes them. They're all around 18, all seniors in high school. If you want to know more about the high school, it's based of mine (MCI-http://mci-school.org)

The story line is kind of hazy at the moment. What I have so far is that they're going through they're senior year, like me, and that the strip is just going to follow them going through the year and getting into shit. It's going to start out early in the school year, and go through all the events, like prom, Winter Carnival, homecoming, and so on until graduation. It sounds sappy and gross, but it's kind of based off of Loserz. Eventually, after I get some character development done, I'll start creating some tension between Lindsey and Nick. They'll like each other and all, but Lindsey's all sarcastic and jaded, while Nick, sorry to say, is a womanizing basterd. I know the story needs more development, but until I start actually getting the strips written down one by one, I wont know that much more.

So, bring on the CC. I need it, I know, and so long as you aren't a basterd about it, I'll take it in stride.

p.s. Anyone have any idea's for a title?

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