Alias Entertainment's TwinBlades Backup Story Sequential Art Production

[mistermaxx]

Writer Adrian Todd (tmac of these forums, and my brother) has kindly asked me to produce the pencils for a nine-page backup story for Alias Entertainment's TwinBlades which, as of this writing, I hope will appear in Issue #6.

As with all my other sequential art production threads, I'll post the preliminary draft script for the story, along with the thumbnail layouts, 3D scenes, and subsequent final pencil pages.

And, as always, your comments and critiques are appreciated and welcomed.

[mistermaxx]

Here are some very, very ROUGH thumbnail sketches that I banged out over the weekend based on the script.

http://www.personaltraders.com/images/tb06_backPg01_thumbnail.jpg
http://www.personaltraders.com/images/tb06_backPg02_thumbnail.jpg
http://www.personaltraders.com/images/tb06_backPg03_thumbnail.jpg
http://www.personaltraders.com/images/tb06_backPg04_thumbnail.jpg
http://www.personaltraders.com/images/tb06_backPg05_thumbnail.jpg
http://www.personaltraders.com/images/tb06_backPg06_thumbnail.jpg
http://www.personaltraders.com/images/tb06_backPg07_thumbnail.jpg
http://www.personaltraders.com/images/tb06_backPg08_thumbnail.jpg
http://www.personaltraders.com/images/tb06_backPg09_thumbnail.jpg

[Samuelspade]

Yeah, nice man. Looks like you have a really good handle on what you want to do with the final pages. Keep on blazin' the graphite! :thumbs:

[ariel]

nice man--- always cool when guys here are doing serious work. Work a holics

[j giar]

Always liked watching this stuff happen from beginning to end. Looking forward to the 3D'S. Jim G

[JMan]

Very nice - hope to see this on the stands! One crit, the transition from page 4 to 5. Turning a page in comics translates into time, and I'm not so sure you want to separate the shot of the group falling out of the net and the shot of them landing. It's a fairly intantaneous action, unless they're WAAAYYYY up in the air, and I'd suggest puting the two panels together (most likely on page 5), leaving the cliffhanger on page 4 as the cutting of the netting. Just a thought. Good luck!

[mistermaxx]

Very nice - hope to see this on the stands! One crit, the transition from page 4 to 5. Turning a page in comics translates into time, and I'm not so sure you want to separate the shot of the group falling out of the net and the shot of them landing. It's a fairly intantaneous action, unless they're WAAAYYYY up in the air, and I'd suggest puting the two panels together (most likely on page 5), leaving the cliffhanger on page 4 as the cutting of the netting. Just a thought. Good luck!

JMan, awesome suggestion! Thanks!

[thecarrierone]

ill be watching for this...
alias is on my list of publishers to send saples to this summer
cant wait for the final pages!

[tmac]

Probably my fault- the way I worded it in the script. On panel one of page five, they shouldn't be in the air at all. They should be hitting with a thump-both on the ground. I agree, having them still be in the air after they started falling on the page before, is awkward.


Adrian Todd
Writer, Twinblades

[marco pedrana]

veeeery nice :) i like everytime you dump your quick layouts, they are very well balanced! i notice just 2 things: you have dropped the big blacks after page 2, and in the last panel of the second page i would like the character get some overposition between them.
this is a very good work mistermaxx!

[mistermaxx]

So...I've been playing around in Vue 5 Infinite with creating terrains. I've also been looking for some really nice 3D trees, and I think I found some: XFrog has some realistic looking European trees, one of which you see below in the test render from Piranesi.

http://www.personaltraders.com/images/Forest.jpg

The requirement for the trees is, of course, because Adrian Todd's script calls for a Norwegian forest, and the tree in the above render just happens to be a 3D model of a Norway spruce.

As with my artwork for "The Write Stuff", I'll be creating backgrounds using Poser 6, Vue 5 Infinite, and Piranesi so that the software does the "heavy lifting" of creating and rendering realistic environments, and all I have to do is draw in the figures...'cause I'm just lazy that way.

[mistermaxx]

City scape sample rendering for tmac.

[thecarrierone]

nice buildings and cars! ur brother did it?
did he do it all vector or was it freehand?

[mistermaxx]

nice buildings and cars! ur brother did it?
did he do it all vector or was it freehand?

Sorry I was so late in replying, carrier...my pc was down and I was busy re-installing Windows and my apps.

No, actually...I did it for my brother. The non-photorealistic rendering was automated in a program called Piranesi (think of it as PhotoShop for architects), based on a 3D model of a city street/block/cars that I assembled in Poser 6. This was essentially the image that I used for the splash page of my minicomic "The Write Stuff".

tmac just wanted to see a Piranesi rendering of a city.

[mistermaxx]

http://www.personaltraders.com/images/village2.jpg

Speaking of Piranesi, here's a non-photorealistic rendering of the work-in-progress 3D model of the village in Adrian Todd's script for the Twin Blades backup story.

I was messaging Adrian Todd today and it seems that the backup story will be appearing in issue #4, not issue #6 as I had previously thought.

So...gotta crank out the Poser scenes. I found a couple of medieval house models on TurboSquid and Renderosity, and of course the trees are from XFrog.

[mistermaxx]

Continuing with the creation of Poser sets...this one is for page 7, panel 1 (see script) where the woman is giving birth.

http://www.personaltraders.com/images/cottage_test.jpg

[mistermaxx]

Another test rendering from Piranesi, this time of the forest campfire scene from Page 8, panel 1 of the script where Bren, Bera, Eric and the dwarves are sitting around talking about who's REALLY responsible for stealing the villager's sheep.

tmac and I spent almost every summer of our youth on family camping vacations to Lake Tahoe, CA. (God's country!), so it wasn't hard to visualize this scene...had so many memories to fall back on! Sometimes our family would be joined by several other families of friends or relations.

http://www.personaltraders.com/images/Page08_01_test.jpg

I'm not comparing any of my brothers to dwarves or any of our friends or relatives to Bera or Bren...uh...I'll just shut up now.

[mistermaxx]

Whoops! Forgot I had this test rendering of Page 1 panel 1 and didn't post until just now. But you do get to see something interesting...the big rock at the right of this panel and the panel in the previous post. It's a "point of reference" that hopefully will allow readers to get a sense of place and continuity.

http://www.personaltraders.com/images/Page01_01.jpg

[mistermaxx]

News flash!

tmac has engaged the services of inking professional Mike Sellers to embellish the Twin Blades #4 backup story! :banana:

Mike, as many of you may know, is a graduate and former instructor at the hallowed Joe Kubert School in New Jersey and has inked for Marvel and DC, collaborating with the likes of Steve Epting, Scott McDaniel, Greg Land, Ron Garney, and Adam Kubert!

You can find his work displayed at Circle N Line Studios! (http://www.circlenlinestudios.com/)

I now officially have a massive case of artist stage fright.

I'M NOT WORTHY! I'M NOT WORTHY! :cry:

[mistermaxx]

Okay, a very, VERY rough Page 1...Adrian Todd wanted to see some pencils, and, well, this is all I got so far. Yes, folks, ol' mistermaxx HAS been working on the art, very quietly, behind the scenes, in between his last week at Starbucks and his first week at a local alarm/security company (the very same week, I might add!) Thank Heaven for the long Memorial Day Weekend.

But enough of my belly-aching.

http://www.personaltraders.com/images/tb04pg01.jpg

In other news, Mike Sellers had to cancel on the inking duties, unfortunately. So yours truly was a little premature in the announcement. But, the search goes on for the right guy (or gal!), and I may have some news on that front before too long.

Thanks for looking and Shalom!

[Vyper]

Try Mike Furth for inks. The man's a magician with an inking brush.

[mistermaxx]

Page 1 pencils that are in the hands of the inker as we speak, Mr. Mike Brooks, nickleboy of these here forums. Welcome aboard, Mike!

http://www.personaltraders.com/twinblades/issue4/twinblades04_01sm.jpg

[mistermaxx]

Pages 2 and 3...massive rush jobs, good thing Mike's converting these to non-repro blue before he inks...

http://www.personaltraders.com/twinblades/issue4/twinblades04_02sm.jpg

http://www.personaltraders.com/twinblades/issue4/twinblades04_03sm.jpg

[mistermaxx]

Mike sez he couldn't sleep last night so he inked...here's a sample

http://www.personaltraders.com/twinblades/issue4/sample.jpg

SOOOOOO-WHEEEEET inks, Mike.

[nickleboy]

I usually don't jump around the page like this but that's the kind of mood I was in. I need to get the latest version scanned but I scanned this in two pieces the other day and just never joined it up so here is a little something, mostly so Dwayne and Adrian can see what I'm doing.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/noface/art2/unfinishedinkspage1photoscan28x12.jpg

[Jason Berek-Lewis]

This looks gorgeous! I am a HUGE fan of Twin Blades, so I look forward to seeing your story.

[mistermaxx]

Great...Googly...Moogly...

...on a STICK.

Rock on, Mike!

[mistermaxx]

This looks gorgeous! I am a HUGE fan of Twin Blades, so I look forward to seeing your story.

Thanks for looking, Jason!

And thanks for reading the book!

[nickleboy]

http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/2978/twinblades0401inks8x116ul.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[mistermaxx]

Most Excellent Inks, Mike. And thanks for remembering some of the detailing that I forgot!!

[Caio Reis]

Nice work! Loved the angle and framing! Your inks look solid as well. I know its a little late for this, but something bothered me on panel 3: the guy was at her left on panel 1 and he suddenly appears on her right side on panel 3. That would be a continuity problem in my opinion. Other than that it looks great. I'd love to see it all finished. :thumbs:

[mistermaxx]

Nice work! Loved the angle and framing! Your inks look solid as well. I know its a little late for this, but something bothered me on panel 3: the guy was at her left on panel 1 and he suddenly appears on her right side on panel 3. That would be a continuity problem in my opinion. Other than that it looks great. I'd love to see it all finished. :thumbs:

Caio,

thanks for looking!

You're talking about the 180 degree rule, right? I think you may have the girls mixed up:

In panel 1, Eric is on the left of Bren, the twin with straight hair.

In panel 3, Eric is still on the left of Bren, the twin with straight hair (although the wind is kind of blowing it around.)

http://www.personaltraders.com/images/tb180.jpg

Although, I see what you're saying now: In panel 1, Eric is walking to Bren's left, and in panel 3 he's on her right.

[mistermaxx]

Page 4 preliminary pencils...I'll be laying down graphite over the non-repro blue, scanning, and sending to Mike.

http://www.personaltraders.com/images/Page04sm.jpg

[mistermaxx]

Page 5

http://www.personaltraders.com/images/Page05sm.jpg

[Jason Berek-Lewis]

I love the panel lay out on page 4 :cool: :eek:

[mistermaxx]

Page 6 - 9, prelim blue pencils

http://www.personaltraders.com/images/Page06sm.jpg

http://www.personaltraders.com/images/Page07sm.jpg

http://www.personaltraders.com/images/Page08sm.jpg

http://www.personaltraders.com/images/Page09sm.jpg

[mistermaxx]

I love the panel lay out on page 4 :cool: :eek:

Thanks, Jason!

My hare-brained attempt at being daring and exotic...normally I'm a plain ol' vertical and horizontal panel border kinda penciler...

[nickleboy]

Those pages look great! Here is a little wip of the second page. I'll be uploading the second and third page shortly.

http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/9599/twinblades0402bluelineunfinish.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[mistermaxx]

Nice, crisp line work, Mr. Brooks.

Mike tells me he works with a Windsor-Newton 00 brush.

Double ott! Didn't think there was anything that small...

[mistermaxx]

Another interesting bit of trivia:

Both Mike and I are in information technology.

Mike does desktop support for a school in Texas.

I'm the I.T. guy for a small communications/security firm in Central California.

[mistermaxx]

Pages 4 - 7 final pencils, sorry, still kinda rushed...these are in Mike's hands now.

http://www.personaltraders.com/images/twinblades04_04sm.jpg

http://www.personaltraders.com/images/twinblades04_05sm.jpg

http://www.personaltraders.com/images/twinblades04_06sm.jpg

http://www.personaltraders.com/images/twinblades04_07sm.jpg

[nickleboy]

http://img327.imageshack.us/img327/4307/twinblades04pginkwip8x125iy.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img73.imageshack.us/img73/6610/twinblades05pginkwip8x110yx.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[mistermaxx]

Mr. Brooks, you're doing a superb job of inking.

Keep up the good work!

[nickleboy]

Mr. Brooks, you're doing a superb job of inking.

Keep up the good work!

Thanks. I'm trying to keep the inks clean and true to the pencils. I wanna give it that nice brush feel.

[Caio Reis]

Love the fantasy genre and this work is coming out beautyfully! :thumbs:

[nickleboy]

Thanks Caio Reis!! I'm having fun with these pages though I'm multitasking on all of them all at once to get them done. I'm about to upload the WIP of page 6 so let me know what you think of it.

WIP pg 6

http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/1188/twinblades06pginkwip8x127xg.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/2450/twinblades06pginkedfinished8x2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[tmac]

Rock on! Rock hard : ) Doing great Mike (and Dwayne).


AT,

Writer, twinblades

[mistermaxx]

Rock on! Rock hard : ) Doing great Mike (and Dwayne).


AT,

Writer, twinblades

My own brother mentions me in a parenthetical afterthought??!!! ;)

[mistermaxx]

There's something that I've been wondering about for awhile:

Why, in a country that's chillingly close to the arctic circle, does a gal run around the countryside wearing little more than the Norse equivalent of a tankini?

I thought I'd play around with an alternate outfit design for Bera that would be a little more sensible in the Scandinavian climes...

http://www.personaltraders.com/images/bera_outfit.jpg

[udgang99]

Extremly interesting workprocess, mistermaxx. I love seeing the path from Poser/Vue to pencil to ink ... nothing less than facinating.
I'll keep an eye on this thread. ;)

[mistermaxx]

Extremly interesting workprocess, mistermaxx. I love seeing the path from Poser/Vue to pencil to ink ... nothing less than facinating.
I'll keep an eye on this thread. ;)

What you forgot to mention, Mr. Larsen, and which I'm sure very few people outside of globalcomicjam.com know, is that you're an accomplished Poser user yourself!

[mistermaxx]

Mike's nearly done with the inks, and Adrian says we can post any 4 pages, so we thought we'd share these four with you good people. Well done, Mr. Brooks!

http://www.personaltraders.com/twinblades/issue4/finished%20inks/page05/twinblades04_5%20pg%20inked%20LOW%20RES%208x11.jpg

http://www.personaltraders.com/twinblades/issue4/finished%20inks/page06/twinblades06_pg inked finished copy LOW RES 8x12.jpg

http://www.personaltraders.com/twinblades/issue4/finished%20inks/page07/twinblades04_07 inks LOW RES 8x11.jpg

http://www.personaltraders.com/twinblades/issue4/finished%20inks/page08/twinblades04_08 inks LOW RES copy 8x11.jpg

[ChrisMcJunkin]

Nice looking art, mistermaxx. :)

[mistermaxx]

Nice looking art, mistermaxx. :)

Many thanks to ya, Chris...from writer Adrian Todd, inker/embellisher Michael Brooks, and little 'ol me.

[RedDragonUK]

Awesome work dude love the backgrounds

[mistermaxx]

Awesome work dude love the backgrounds

You're too kind, Red...the backgrounds are the reason that I use Poser! So nice to let the software keep track of where scene objects are...