Sketch of future Thinginess scene
Scotch and a nice stick. What more could he ask for?
Category: webcomics
Initial stages of new location: Mr. Wang’s Kosher Deli. A couple other random shops are planned to go on either side, with parking lots out front.
Poly count, about 270.
Second up, status update on the storage facility.
Poly count: Over 9000!!
The buildings are more or less complete apart from texturing, and of course walkways, driveways, and lights. The next major stage will be the underground Fulcrum facility which goes right under the storage complex.
Okay, I lied. Another render today. This is the more continuity-correct version of the storehouse.
I like using 3D rendered sets because while some might argue they don’t go well with hand drawn art, I like their utility.
What I like most is being able to lay out a set, shoot it from any angle, and keep things geometrically accurate. And this business with the ambient occlusion is only for stuff in the untextured WIP phase. With toon shaders on everything this stuff fits comic strips pretty well.
There are a few main advantages and restrictions I find to using this.
Pros
1. Geometrically accurate shots from any angle. I can model something once and render it from any angle. To keep things consistent in hand drawn backgrounds I have to draw maps of the various places. I found that modeling the whole thing in the first place wasn’t much more work than keeping up to date maps of the locations.
2. I think it actually helps me draw characters in interesting perspectives sometimes. Often I’ll draw a thumbnail of a panel from a relatively humdrum perspective, and when it comes time to render a background frame I’ll end up finding a more interesting angle, so I have to draw the characters in at such an angle.
Cons
1. About 60-80% of the work for a location has to be done before it can be used. An outdoor location has to be mostly complete, while an indoor location can get away with several unfinished rooms if they’re closed off from the viewer. At any rate, if work is slow on a new set, or even on a new part of an existing set, I have to slow the story down to avoid moving into those parts until they’re completed. Sometimes it works, sometimes it’s annoying. In an ideal universe, I would have a scheduled daily time for 3D work, and when I’ve mostly completed the current set I would get to work on the next one and have it done by the time I need it. In reality, I slack off, especially when I get a set completed and I think I can coast for a while.
2. There’s a really delicate balance between what should be drawn in and what should be modeled. On some levels it’s clear — backgrounds are modeled, characters are drawn. But there are objects the characters have to interact with. Doors and furniture seem good modeled, but it’s tricky to figure out which way to go with the smaller objects that people move around and handle.
First off, two test renders related to my webcomic Thinginess of Chaos. For those unfamiliar with my process, I create a 3D set in Blender with all the stuff that doesn’t really move around, and if it’s a large object I put it in even if it does move. I try to use toon shaders for everything so that it doesn’t totally clash with the hand drawn elements.
The first guy is supposed to be a statue of some kind of king– the head’s all there is at the moment, and the crown will of course be replaced with a better one. I don’t want to give too much away as this model is intended for a set I’m not going to need for a while yet.
Second up is a storage complex. Yes, this is supposed to be the same facility as the one at the beginning of Chapter III, which started while I was still drawing the backgrounds, and the astute reader would notice that I drew the buildings as having four spaces in the front and four in the back, while the ones here each have a single row of six buildings.
I didn’t realize that until I checked after getting this far, so that means I’ll probably have to scrap this whole thing and do it over. It’s a pity, but the most complicated thing there is the doors, which are rigged with shape keys for nice opening and closing. And I can save those.
A couple unrelated renders, first, a Cluebat. It’s The wood material on this turned out rather good I think, for a procedural material. And second, a sort of Borg-like rhombicuboctahedron. I couldn’t figure out a good angle to really get a sense of the scale, but those little dark oblong bits around the outside of the sidewalk are supposed to be benches. This image I made for the Uncyclopedia article Rhombicuboctahedron. Coming up next time, probably some 2D stuff.
