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Total Members Voted: 2

Voting closed: 23 Dec 2004, 19:05

[Gdog4evr]

Alright, I'm not trying to whore anything out, just asking for feedback on an idea I've been working on.  Basically, the idea is: Using game engines and 3D editors in order to do a comic.

I'm sure it's been done, but it occured to me that such an RvBish approach to things would allow people with good ideas to be able to express them despite having poor drawing talent.  If I had good ideas, I'd probably be setting up an actual series based on this concept, but I'm a sucky hack so I just toy with it.

And before anyone says, "Dude, with the number of gaming comics out there, your thing would just become white noise," I'm saying to make it would have to be just game comics.  The game screen shot thing is just a means to an end.  For example, if Jeph were so inclined, he could use UnrealEd to make sets, MilkShape to recreate his characters, and shoot Questionable Content inside of Unreal Tournament.  Of course, it would also be quite limiting, and it would be impossible for some of the jokes to translate from ink to reders, but it just a pheasible situation.

To help illistrate this further, I'll post a few panels of what I've attempted.  Yes, they suck, and one of the things I'm posting dosn't even contain the punchline.  This isn't about the writing, this is about the pheasability of doing this decently (by someone who was actually decent at this): (Note: I apologise if this steps over the line for whoring, I'm just attempting to get some feedback)

Two different types of text situations:



The "Just text" thing worked in the second picture, but I disliked the lines.  So I attempted this:

[Thal]

The idea could work if you try hard enough. Not the most common thing so would feel a bit fresh.

I would go for the word bubbles but with another font. I cant be clear enough on that. The one you use now (even if its only for testing) sucks. Ugly and not pleasant to read.

[Gdog4evr]

I would go for the word bubbles but with another font. I cant be clear enough on that. The one you use now (even if its only for testing) sucks. Ugly and not pleasant to read.

I have to agree with you on that, I hate what I'm currently using.  It's just a mix of Times New Roman and Ariel; I have to crank it up to point 14 just to make sure it can be read.  I think Verdana and Comic Sans might work a bit better.

Here is an attempt at using multiple fonts for a Chritmas Carol parody comic I did for another forum; do any of these seem decent?

[3point14]

this method can work....   it's a niche field though, if you use the engine to make your own comic and completely pull it out of context from the original art source, it's going to  get awkward and people will have a hard time identifying with it.

example:  



http://www.pixelred.com/ao/pages/gb_frameset.htm


Gearbox and Bob is a good example of how a comic of this type could work.   it's not as easy as it looks though.


all in all, give it a shot .   what's the worst that can happen?  you get an underground following of zealot-like forum warriors and social-misfit-insomniac crazies, willing to serve you untill death.....  wait a second....   I said worst case, didn't I?




(NOTE: yes I used this thread to shamelessly test a sig, won't happen again =p)

[Thal]

3point14: To bad that Jeph dislikes image signatures (thats why you have not seen anyone else using them) so I think its a good idea to remove it.

[3point14]

it will be done

[Lem]

Machinima Webcomicing... curious.

Though I think to make it work you would need totally new art resources (models, maps). Source might be an interesting way to go with this...

You could even go the whole hog and do a Machinima comic... give the resources as a Mod.. then add on new maps and run them like cutscenes. It would take alot more effort to do it that way though...;

[Gdog4evr]

I was just going back through the older comics and stumbled across something:



Questionable Machinima!  That would be interesting...but I think we should prolly stick to how QC already is.

[Tweep]

I think it could work, but it might be good to try to disguise where you're getting the images from.  I fiddled around with the picture you posted and discovered that applying a "watercolor" filter (found in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements) provided some interesting results (also, I replaced the background with a random photo):



The image quality isn't so hot, but that can be tweaked. I decided to stay away from the cartoony fonts for the dialogue, because they didn't really seem to fit. Anyhow, if you do decide to go the machinima route, you'll have to pay particular attention to how you compose a scene (profile shots of two figures in the same panel, over and over, will get a little old; you could do some really interesting things, however).

[leave_me_icarus]

these renderings are really very good.
x

[Gdog4evr]

Disguising the screen shots could help, although lieing about the origin of the pictures would probably be wrong.

I definatly agree with you about the angles thing though- I find that even with the petty comics I do for vg message boards, I desperatly try to put in as many different angles as possible just to spice it up visually.  

Another idea I've been toying with is using Poser and/or Milkshape for the characters.  This would provide infinatly more power to the way people are pictures, and would help eliminate the problem them being stock still the bulk of the time.

The biggest problem I could forsee with this deal is facial expression.  It's very difficult to convey a message when both the facial features and the body posture is so rigid; even the ability to change the way the eyes are looking can be powerful.  Something that might be tweeked better in a model editor than in a game.

Another key thing would be to use a better game over all; Deus Ex is rather sufficient for a comic about Deus Ex, but something like Sims 2 is much more flexible in everything from gestures, facial expresions, and character creation (as can be seen in the screen shot posted a bit above).

[KharBevNor]

It's quite an interesting idea. If you wanted to do it properly you'd probably need a team of people akin to a small mod team: A mapper, a Modeller and a touch-up/formatting artist (for cropping the shots, putting in the text, etc.) and maybe a script-writer too. This would actually be a much less lengthy process than Machinima as it wouldn't actually be necessary to make the characters animated or even boned: once you had the base model in milkshape or 3DS MAX you could simply pose it and save each one as a further static model which could then be placed by the mapper.  That would considerably save on the time it takes to make characters.

I would suggest, for ease, using either Unreal Tournament (for best balance of sheer ease-of-use with graphical niceness), though if your team had the right talent a comic like this made decently in, say, Half-life 2 would be awesome.

[czar0406]

[est]

i think that it is a good idea, but i'd strongly suggest making the text smaller & trying to make it more crisp.  it is annoyingly scene-covering and yet inexplicably jagged.

[Jiperly]

its interesting, but the humour would definately need to pic up.

More importantly, Deus Ex doesn't seem to be the place to look for a range of human emotions that are needed for comics(ie. confusion, evil grins, goofy faces, ect.)

Might i suggest the Sims 2? Their characters have a full range of facial issues, and the game would help you create a story, though you would have to cheat and end aging, or at least delay it, otherwise your characters in your comics will last about 20 comics.....

[Digs]

I'm pretty sure there are already some Sims machanima still comics out there. This is a relatively young field, though, so you might think about it. The writing needs an overhaul.

[Coyote]

Then there's the old question of... is the result going to be worth the effort, time, resources and other investments? At some point you hit that wall o' diminishing returns...