DAZ Comic: The Mask of Venus!

Okay, here we go. I finished up Chapter 1 about a month ago, but that scholar's training of mine kept me going back for revision after revision (I went back over my Star Wars caption contest entry about 5 or 6 times with minor adjustments before leaving it alone!). Chapter 2 was running a little long so I cut it in half and finished it. I am well into Chapter 3 ("last half" of Chapter 2). Overall, the story will be short, but will have plenty of loose ends to work on in succeeding installments if you folks show interest. I wanted to do this in real comicbook style--"Heavy Metal" magazine is a big influence! Normally, I like the "transformation process" more than dealing with the aftermath, but this is completely the opposite. However, I promise plenty of twists and turns to keep you intrigued. As always, any comments (good or *gulp* bad) will be appreciated!

The next pages:
Hhmm, fighting load limits and other problems!

There, I think I have it figured out!

I may have to do this one page at a time!

Next:

I'll try 2 again.

Nope, won't let me do it.

Next:

Next:

Last:

For what you are dong with DAZ from and what I have seen, you are doing a very good job with the program, I know I have DAZ too. Your light look good, and it look like you understand the plus and minis of DAZ. Give it time you will cranking out story as fast as you can think of a plot. You got to ask yourself this question, "how long has Cblack been doing this and how long did it take him to master the basic ?"

Anyway look forward to what you are going to do next.

Excellent - beautifully rendered can't wait for more

Thanks C Monster!
Yeah, lighting is going to be my bane! I get it to where I like it, and then it renders all wrong! Or it looks good in a full screen render, but when put in a smaller comic box it looks too dark (top two panels on page 4 are a case in point). Or I get glare where I don't want it, and don't get it where I do want it. Trying to get the scout to look like the power was off while still seeing the characters and the background stars was really tricky. Lots of special spotlights! If the spotlight hit too much of the control panels, they light up like Christmas Trees (I could cover the worst offenders with dialog boxes). But working around the problems to get close to what you want is half the fun when it comes off right.

Lighting is the BIG problem in DAZ that the brick wall I have been running myself. It look great in DAZ and when you render it, it start what I call a Jpag fade, its look great the first time and then start to get darker and darker you copy it. You might try a second program such a Print Shop or others to use to try to lighten up the picture. It is least a try.

Good stuff :) Look forward to seeing more of it

Alright! Chapter 2!

Next three pages!

Last three!

Look for Chapter 3 early next week (I'm on page 6)

Very nice so far.

Have you thought of using CutePDF http://www.cutepdf.com/ to create a single PDF, chapter by chapter, of the JPEG's?

Only one small problem - sorry if it seems a bit nit picky - Page 5 1st panel - you have misspelled the word Gentlemen.
Story is building up nicely - I am intrigued with how the TG transformation will take place.

nice cant wit to see more

Oh Crap! Do you know how many times I've read this over? How could I have missed that?!?

No probs -I thought you ought to know while it is still fixable...it is still fixable right?

Yep! Just fixed it! See any other boo-boos?

I have. But each page is 400kb to 700kb, a single file will quickly blow past the 2Mb limit for each post.

I don't recall any other such errors

I am also really looking forward to this story continuing. Great work so far.

I have the little fighter ship program and I played with it somewhat, I like the way you have set up the camera angle. if you are working at this level I can't wait to see what you are gong to be doing in a year.

Oh Yeah, C Monster! "Centurion Troop Carriers" and "Heart of Space" background! Indispensable for Chapter 2! And you are not too shabby with a dramatic angle either. I shelled out for "Hero FX" to add engine blasts as well. Cool Stuff!

great stuff, how long have you been working with daz? I tried it and poser, but I guess I didn't give it a fair chance. maybe I'll go back to it someday it just looks like fun.

It was mentioned here on the forum back in January, I followed it up, downloaded and gave it a try--so it has only been the last four months or so. My first experiments are here on this forum in a thread titled "early try with DAZ." I have been using DAZ 1.3.3.146, but last week I downloaded the beta for DAZ 3.0 and am using it for Chapter 3 to give it a try. Still a bit glitchy and saved files are not backward compatible, but there is a lot of improvement to render times and loading big files (the flightdeck scramble scenes in Chapter 2 have as many as 15 people and over a dozen ships and it loaded and rendered at a snails pace, sometimes over an hour and a half!)