another Flash experiment

my second attempt at Flash animation - this time i converted preexisting artwork into animation-elements in Flash (symbols) and used it all in a more straightforward 2D manner...

getting animated...

check out my first attempts at Flash animation:





https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=183795415016415&saved#!/video/video.php?v=183795415016415&oid=12409603113&comments

(video upload directly into blogger wouldn't work for me, for some reason)


these are all flat shapes moving entirely in 2D space to simulate volume...

jungle action

WIP panel for the big battle sequence staged in the rain forest:
HOPE pursuing SHAWANNA (or is it the other way around?)

"whatever"

an attitude study for the travel sequence:

quick update

sorry for the long period of silence, unfortunately 'life' has the habit of intruding and demanding attention - at the moment i have to admit that i have a difficult time of focusing on the comic, be it story or art - i'm confident, though, that once regular ('normal') daily life has returned, that i will be able to come back to the world of HOPE with renewed energy and dedication. In the meantime, i WILL be posting bits and pieces, stuff that i'm able to work on during small pockets of time, just to maintain peace of mind and keep up some sense of progress.

For starters here is a page that i worked on during the last couple of days, this time in stages of progress (caption/dialogue not final):

pencil:




color rough:





inks:





and the final artwork:

character design

here is a quick sketch as well as an expression-sheet of one of the supporting characters of my graphic novel: Cal O'Reese, nickname 'MB', (short for 'MegaByte/Bite')
he is the fastfood-loving computer expert of the MIDGUARD-Initiative - not only a supporter from the very beginning, but also a very good friend...

more expressions...

... this time featuring SHAWANNA, the villainess of the upcoming story 'HOPE and the secret of the hidden temple'

good exercise for working out the kinks in the design -
i played around a bit with overall proportions as well as some of the smaller details, like the exact shape of her mouth, the elements making up her eyes etc...

HOPE Xpressions

here is a sample expression sheet for HOPE:

it's an overview of the range of expressions for the characters
in "the adventures of HOPE: the secret of the hidden temple"

quick action study

...watched highlander again yesterday, and, well...

but seriously, a classic action pose, suspended in mid-air - plus, i changed the shape of her 'wrist-unit' a bit, and gave her a traditional katana-sword instead of the more 'made-up' shape as her holographic weapon...

cover prelim

given that i'm STILL working on the script, i'm painfully aware of the fact that this is putting the proverbial cart before the horse, big time...

but nevertheless, here is a first pass at the cover, all in all a big old homage to the classic covers of the series i'm constantly inspired by: tintin, spirou, asterix, blake et mortimer etc., promising fun filled adventure stories for everyone young at heart.

it's an extremely lofty goal, and i must be insane to even attempt something like this,
as these bodies of work are the best of the best as franco-belgian bandes dessinees go,
but hey, as the saying goes:
per aspera ad astra...

;)

m

odds and ends

here are a couple of character sketches, stuff that i'm still working on:

a 'bot with an attitude' to go with the two more recent character studies of HOPE and SHAWANNA

a shot of HOPE enjoying a bowl of her favorite noodle soup

another iteration of the baby orangutan - he plays a supporting role in the story


next up is design work on the remaining cast of supporting characters...



and i'm still working on the story - slowly, but surely...

;)

The books are in!!!

YAY!!! My 28-page ashcan "HOPE workbook 2011" has finally arrived, fresh from the printer -
and it's looking really good - i'm sooo excited.
It covers work of the last two+ years, basically everything on this blog
in the form of a magazine-sized comic-book.
Now i'm fully equipped for Emerald City ComiCon on the 4th, 5th and 6th of March, to be able to hand out these goodies to fellow artists and interested editors - see ya there!!

quick character sketch, pt.2

... of SHAWANNA, the main villain character in the story i'm working on at the moment, "the secret of the hidden temple". this is a 'companion piece' to the HOPE study i did last week, as it pretty much captures SHAWANNA's attitude of arrogance and mischief, as well as depicting her a bit older than i did before - it works very well, though!!

quick character sketch

of HOPE, the lead character in the story i'm working on at the moment, "the secret of the hidden temple". she came out a bit tougher than usual, which i LOVE! this is what she will look like during the action sequences, whereas the slightly younger, softer hope will be the model for everything else - i'm pretty happy with this development!! i'll try a quick study of shawanna next, her nemesis...
on the writing front things are going slow - i do have the treatment for the story 99% done, but those pesky 'regular life' circumstances have conspired against me at the moment, so i don't have much quiet (AND awake) downtime plus the energy left to sit down and write - hope this'll change again soon, and i'll actually be able to write even just a couple of pages of actual script to get started on with thumbnails and layouts...

i'll keep you posted

rumble in the jungle

finally, everything comes together in this preview image from one of the major action sequences of the album: SHAWANNA pursues HOPE through the depths of Pulan Batang's rainforest.

This image defines the look of the characters in motion, the holographic weapons and their effects as well as the lush forest background. Lots of questions concerning shapes, line quality and colors got finalized working on this. There are of course a ton of more things to consider and problems to solve, but now i feel confident to actually tackle the sequentials and address the challenges in continuity as they come up in the story. I WILL work on two outstanding character-designs while i keep hacking away at the story, though - so stay tuned...

martial arts training

Hope is getting used to her new holographic sword - some additional training and exercise required!!!

Nighttime in La Pacifica harbor

i updated these two panels to reflect the change of time of day for the beginning of the story:

HOPE "ashcan"...

i'm trying to get it done in time for emerald city comicon

http://www.emeraldcitycomicon.com/index.php

I've gone through all the supposedly 'easy' steps of 'just' compiling what's already there, and have been doing that since christmas, basically - which is why there weren't any updates of new material during the last three weeks...

anyhoo, it's 28 pages, everything i've been posting for the last two years collected between two covers, and it's off to the printer - let's see how that goes...

i'll keep you updated, and i'll hopefully get to new stuff soon!!!

oh, btw, the script is going well, i'm taking my laptop and i'm writing on the bus -
the plot/scriptment stage is -almost- done!!!

Technique and training

"One of the most neglected elements of martial arts is the physical workout":



after the holidays (with way too much food), including a couple of days off from work, regular postings shall resume!
i've been putting together a comic book (ashcan) for the upcoming con-season, showing off all the stuff from the last two years, including the webcomics and all the preparatory work for the upcoming graphic novel - it means lot of re-formatting and layouting, and that doesn't go as smoothly as anticipated, as usual. It's also keeping me away from developing new stuff, at least for another week!
I'm also still diligently working on the script, still plotting and developing the 'scriptment', the step inbetween the treatment and the actual script - but i'm clearly no writer, this is really difficult for me - well, it's the first one, so we'll see how this goes...