TransFormers Adventures on Planet Arus

Cool. Reshooting is a pain in the aft, but sometimes it is better that way.

Yeah, explosions can be a real pain. I tried a few different "looks", but in the end I did what was easy. I just use a custom Smoke/cloud brush that one of the tutorials on here showed me how to make, and add my preprogrammed "fire" glow. Maybee a blur or two. But it is much faster than some of the things I tried before.
Personally I would go for segments. Keeps it managable for you, and leaves us wanting to see the rest.

So we are moving our other conversation over here, right?
Yeah. I just don't want things to get out of control with people arguing and such. Personally, I don't mind the long conversation. We are on a message board after all. That's kinda the point. To each their own I guess.
Yeah, i had to edit some too. I regularly pm a few members around here, Only a few issues with the character limit so far.


Yours looked pretty darn good....considering all the obstacles you face.
Man, I don't even want to think about trying multiple transforms in one shot. That's a crazy headache. I think my worst panels to do were some of the multiple bots flying shots, and the aircraft carrier sequence. That thing was a pain to chop out with everybody standing on it.

I typically get the best results when i just bite the bullet and do it by hand with the pen tool. Basically a "go around the object and connect the dots" method. Whenever I try out a different method....I end having to do some cleanup work.

Sometimes things just happen that work out well. Of course, you seem to have an aptitude for learning gimp.


Yeah, copy and paste is a wonderful function. lol


I managed to snag the season three set from rhino. Pretty much have it memorized at this point. I saw all of season one when it was in reruns. But tv reception was spotty back then. Watched it "through the fuzz" So I'm pretty excited at the prospect of the whole series being released again.
Yeah, I just don't know. Walmart wasn't around in my town. It was a fred meijers I saw mine at. I remeber looking at it with some birthday or holiday money, and passing it over for something else. Ghostbusters Probably.

Yeah, It would be epic, but way out of my price range.

I wanted MP grimmy so bad. But I only saw him that one time. My collection is sadly in need of Grimlock. The only one I have is the weird titanium War within one.


This is true. I always loved the original Rodimus Prime. All he needed was articulation and he would have been great.







Yeah Depth charge is pretty cool too. I actually got that messed up original universe repaint of him just because the toy was soo cool.

Yeah, he's still pretty off from the show. But the fact that they managed the wheels at all was amazing to me at the time.

Yeah they would balance each other out in a way.



Oh man gameboy. Wow. I'm pretty sure there is one floating around here somewhere-doubtful that it still works.

My issue is as a gamer, I only tend to play "licensed property" games. Like I only bought my original x-box because of star wars battlefront. lol all my games pretty much match whats in my comic.....terminator,star wars, alien and predator stuff.
Dang. I guess if people are still willing to pay it.
Wheew. That's a lot of gametime. I think the last "long game I played was star wars knights of the old republic."

I am going to have to ask you to use the "[spoiler]" tag on the things I black out here, otherwise it's pointless to do so. I don't want someone to jump in at the end this close to the update & read what happened before reading the comic...

Well, my fights were short & dark, so I felt a reshoot is required to do it justice... & a LOT ended up added (beyond the fight, like what the others were doing, why Classics didn't land, etc.)... I might have to split it into 3 updates in itself. @.@ I'm 'shopping it now, & 6 panels in I'm still not back to the fight... I have a few daring things I tried w/ Drift... The pics came out nice, but LOTS of cutting him out for his stunts...

My smoke just uses Gimp's Galaxy brush, & just looks right somehow... The simplest of my effects. I don't know if it's something I'm doing or luck, but it works. ^_^

The question isn't so much being managable, as it is the wait between posts. Mining the URL for each pic would be the most problematic for me. I use a .txt file to hold them all till I'm ready to post them to the comic.

I figure why bother w/ PMs if they aren't big enough to hold both sides of the conversation? Especially when I have my own thread now... I still don't get why they were arguing. It's your thread, & your conversation... & I feel there's a character limit for a reason...

For me, flying is actually easier than the transformation panel, as it's just ONE object I have to cut out. My only issue is getting the perspective right...

My condition makes doing it by hand nearly impossible. But, Gimp's scissor tool is pretty much go around by hand, but it treis to connect the dots for me, usually fairly well... But since it goes by color regions, if there're multiple colors in an area (like Octane's wings), it typically traces the wrong color for part of it, but you can drag sections to the right region.

It's more I have an aptitude to understand computers & programs. It helps that the tools have pop-up tips if you hover the mouse over them, that either identifies it or gives a little explanation.

I wouldn't try this comic w/o it. Mining the URLs would be impossible w/o Copy/ Paste.

It's amazing that the people who made Beast Wars managed to get it into G1 Continuity, considering they didn't even know G1 existed when they started... They went to the Fandom for details, one actually getting an onscreen consulting credit.

& I understand about watching through fuzz. Didn't here, but when I worked in another town, I'd stay at my mom's some nights to watch her cable, as she lived closer, & I watched TechTV's Anime Unleashed through fuzz... Eventually got some of those series... Want all but 2 or 3, really...

I saw the Op I found right before G2 hit shelves, I think (got the G2 Op. not long after). & I have it from Hasbro itself that what I saw wasn't theirs... One defining feature of that Ops. Trailer was that the rear doors both split & could fold down like a ramp; no Op does that! & I remember how it worked, the hinges could seperate.

You've seen both Grimlocks I have. He'd have a fit if he "upgraded" either way, as one is toony & the other smaller...


I wasn't a huge fan of Rodimus (loved Hot Rod, the little he was in it -- really cool car), but why have a toy w/ a Rodimus Robot & the ability to have the Wennabego, w/o the Wennabego?

Both my Rampage & Depthcharge were gotten while the orignals were still out.

Rattrap was probably my favorite Beast Era TF. That said, I can't not use him for the comic... & I know how I'm going to already...

Well, they'd only balance sometimes... Depends on what they're charged w/ making... ^_~

Unless it got trashed or soaked, chances are it still works. After the NES, which the one I have DOESN'T work, nearly all Nintendo systems since can survive nearly anything. X-Play once did a durability test between the PS2, GameCube & X-Box: PS2 died after having a weight dropped on it; both the X-Box & GC survived a mallet hit; but only the GC still booted after being dropped 2 stories! (I'm pretty sure they kept using the same consoles, so accumulated damage... & the GC still looked like it could work!)

I've been dedicated to Nintendo since Mario/ Duck Hunt. Zelda keeps me loyal... & that MS screwed stuff up I liked... & Nintendo isn't as expensive as the others, either.

I actually recommend the GC version of Twilight Princess: Link has been a Lefty his entire existance till he hit the Wii. GameBoy games had him ambidextrous due to either making the sword a button item you can pic, or due to sprite quarks. For the Wii, for some reason, they flopped/ mirrored THE ENTIRE GAME! @.@ & the Wii is the first & only fully ambidextrous console in existance, so i don't get why they don't use it!

I like RPGs, I'm on disc 3 of a friend's FFIX right now... But decided to play Zelda: Twilight Princess again (it's an annual thing I do), & then got the ideas for the comic, which put both on hiatus...

Well, I got the Grimlocks' battle finished! Still need to 'shop Drift & Bludgeon, & probably shoot an ending... The fights wound up longer than I had planned, but Grimlocks' looks cool, & I hope Drift is even better...

Pretty sure I got all the flame effects, so no worries there...

This was shot last night, & I didn't feel like mining the URLs before I went to bed.

I present to you:

Update 4: Grimlock vs. Grimlock















































Well, this was my first melee, drawn out battle, let me know what you think.

I hope to use what you say to better Drift vs. Bludgeon, if anyone thinks that's possible...

Not sure how long it'll take me to get Drift's up. Though I have most of it shot (& probably some pics I'm not going to use), there's ALOT of cutting out & 'shopping, more than this one, & I still have to reshoot the end...

BASH BRAINS> = Awesome

Well, it is a classic Grimlock line, so I was obligated to use it... But as soon as I thought to use both my Grimlocks, I just had to have both utter it simultaneously, & set up their fight! Really, it wrote itself, & I'm glad you liked it.

First, never expect an update this long again... It was shot over at least 3 sessions, 'shopped over more, but I didn't want to split it up... But mining that many URLs at a time is tedious...

2nd: I know little of Drift & Bludgeon, so I made most of it up... I hope you enjoy it.

3rd: There are a LOT of effects in this update & I would like some feed back on them...

& now I present:


Update 5: Drift vs. Bludgeon, Encounter 1





















































































NOTE 1: I had read about Drift's sword, & I think you'll like the twist & effects on it...

Note 2: Tenko Muso-ken
That is Japanese. Tenko Muso is what the Kanji on Drift's Great Sword reads: Strongest Under the Heavens.
Ken is Japanese for sword, as in Kendo (Way of the Sword) & Kenjutsu (Method/ Technique of the Sword).

Note 3: Yes, every panel I had to manually rewrite/ retrace the Kanji & apply the glow effect... I say panel, as the one where the Kanji appears twice I copied it, for that panel only. I can't duplicate angles for shots due to my head injury...

Note 4: I take Drift using his spark to charge the sword (looked that up on TF Wiki.net) similar to how the TransMetal 2s' Sparks were used for powers in Season 3 of Beast Wars... It does drain Drift w/ every use, & if he uses it too close together or too often, he'll suffer a worse fate than BW Dinobot, as his Spark will expire & not join the Matrix... His Spark is also exposed while it is visible while charging the sword. No Mary Sue here...

Note 5: Drift fully expected to go offline w/ that last attack... & he really hates letting the Autobot's Mad Scientist do maintenence on him, but w/ how that attack affects his Spark, Wheeljack is the only 'Bot who can try to stablize him.

Note 6: I'm not happy w/ the Spark-wave effect, let me know what you think of it... Not totally happy w/ Drift's missiles either... Tips?

Note 7: I've had the idea that Bludgeon could still use his Cannon/ Sword hilt in robot mode ever since I bought him... Anyone else?

Note 8: This update would've been up sooner, but my head injury interfered at various times, either requiring me to abandon a shoot, during 'shopping, or not letting me start when I wanted to.

Note 9: Yes, Bludgeon is THAT tough! & THAT scarry... It's the only reason Starscream didn't recall him!

Note 10: This is Chapter Zero because I had no plans to do anything before the ACO Review & Running Batlte...

Sorry drift, bludgeon is still better than you when it came to... everything

Been a hectic few days, sorry I'm behind the times here.

Dang..that was pretty sweet. I would have never thought to have Bludegeon's sword cannon fire while in "sword mode". Nice. Drift charging up his sword with spark energy was pretty nice with the symbols glowing. And Bludgeon survived it! Also, I loved Slag charging Straxus in the update before.

Doh! Sorry about that. I had intended to...then I somehow just forgot.



Well , you finally got it all together. Looks like you had a lot of cutting out to do for this one. I too hate when i do a larger update...and then I'm hunting for the urls for what seems like forever.

Yeah, for doing this kind of comic, sometimes the simplest way for an effect is the best.


Yeah, I hate searching through my flicker to copy all the urls.




Yeah. This is probably better, considering our conversations tend to be longer. I mean, I can kinda understand there side of the argument, as having to search through pages and pages to find an update kinda sucks. but still...


This is true. Getting the angle right is kinda iffy. That's why when i was doing a lot of flying I put most of the shots into sky only pictures. Kinda cheated in that way.



Hmm. Still sounds like some work. Photoshop has a "background eraser" tool....but it never quite works right. It always leaves a haze of random pixels around the object....and it irritates me cuz it will always pic up and object's shadow as part of the object. So i just do it by hand.


That's helpfull. Photshop has a help section...but i typically just search for tutorials and hope i can understand what is happening.



Yeah, that's for sure.




Yeah it really is. I find the parralels in the series opener astounding. The writers had no idea going in, and g1 and beast wars both open with the ships shooting each other down on earth. My little brother actually was watching it from the beginning. He always tried to get me into it. I never really understood what the show was about. I was just like "so they are just on this planet i don't get it" He finally hooked me when the g1 cast showed up....and the full nature of the time travel aspect was revealed to me. Been a fan ever since.

I got really good at watching things through fuz. To the point where my dad was like "why are you watching this-I don't see anything"



Hmm. interesting. I don't think i payed enough attention to that kind of detail.



Yeah. One would be very jealous of the other.



Yeah. That's a good point. But i will suffer without the trailer, as a us release is pretty much my only hope of getting one at this point.

Oh, i meant depth charge was awesome enough to buy twice. I have both. The universe one is a bit of "why did I buy this again?" But it was depth charge, so i got it. Of course it helped that is was back when kaybee toys were clearanceing universe a lot back then.

Awesome!


Lol this is true. but one would hope Rhinox would at least try to "reel in" some of wheeljacks more questionable experiments.



That's insane. I have a snes that still works most of the time. My N64 still works...but the controllers are shot. Now one of my brothers on the other hand, he has like three SNES's and two NES's and just boxes and boxes of controllers for them. He is rough on controller so he just buys them whenever he sees them cheap on ebay. Went over there one time to play games. I sad "this controller doesn't work" out he comes with this box that prolly had about 20 different controllers in it. Was the funniest thing ever.

This is true nintendo is a lot cheaper. But I pretty much don't game that much anymore.
Weird...that doesn't even make sense! Why would they do that?

I have to say it's an impressive comic given your condition. Making webcomics with effects is a trial when I'm healthy, can't imagine doing it with a head injury.

As far as Drift's missiles, there are a few different ways. The best looking I think is to use the Supernova filter with a smoke trail behind it. An easier, but cheaper, alternative would be to use the brush with a circular shape, light color, and have it fade. Then just paint it and it looks light a projectile with a particle trail (like a comet).

Good job on the Kanji, too. I meant to do that in my recent comic but the pic was just way too blurry. I thought the special attack he did was good. Motion Blurring could've made it look better, but that can be tedious.

Nice work, man!

New, responsive, reader! Yay. ^_^

I wanted to show just how powerful Bludgeon is in my Alternity... He's dangerous enough that Starscream, who is stupid enough to pick on Straxus, a huge threat himself, which will show up as I get to Decepticon politics, lets the leash be a bit longer...

2 new, responsive readers! The head injury makes standing hard, but I can crawl around & move toys... How long I can go taking & 'shopping pics is an issue & varies, unpredictably. These 5 updates about 20 panels at a time works... I split 5 up into roughly that as I made it, but wanted to post it all at once. I'm also using a Cell Phone for my camera, which is an obsticle in & of itself... I'm using Flashlights for lighting... & my head injury screwed w/ my memory too, so I sometimes forget I can change the exposure of my "camera"... though, I like how the shadows enhance this fight... I think...

& finally, some tips & more specific analysis!

No clue what a Supernova filter is... New to photo editing in its entirety & I'm using Gimp. Smoke trails, as you can see, I can do nicely. I probably could've done the missiles better, but I think my headache kicked in near then, which halted production till it calmed down quite a while later. I can duplicate the color of the missile, it's getting the shape right... This time I just tried to manually shape the warheads, but that was harder to do than I anticipated...

A few shots in the sequence were too dark or blurry to see the Kanji, so I had to create them from scratch each time... I had the sword near me & was familiar enough w/ them to replicate close enough that the glow will obscure any errors w/ them... I was trying to think of a way to show the sword itself was charged, & the Kanji glowing hit me immediately.

The Spark-wave effect I went to a tool effect that I've been using a lot in different ways, & tweaked it some... That was actually my 2nd attempt, the first was just a glowing wedge that didn't look right...

Thanks for the tips & praise.

That's ok. I know that most people have a life to manage... I used to...

As soon as I saw that's how he stored his cannon extention in robot mode, I always imagined that's how he would have a projectile in robot form... It was nice that I managed to work out a way to not only portray him sheathing that sword (interesting articulation), but to fire the cannon... I like his blast effect... & easy to duplicate. ^_^

Well, one of the few things I did know about Drift was that his sword draws power from his Spark. Before I 'shopped the battle, I checked the TFWiki to see if there were any details w/o going into the comic history (where details like that tend to be scarce), & it just said the power was drawn from his Spark & it's supposed to be a drain on him, so I fell back to Beast Wars for FX to show it... & though it's a pain to do Kanji w/ a "digital paint brush", it's a really nice effect & well worth the effort, & so obvious that I had to do it.

I wanted to show just how big a threat my Bludgeon is... I'll get to how big a threat Straxus is on Planet Arus... Both are EXTREME threats... As I said, I intend to try a 3 way battle between Drift, Bludgeon & Staxus, but that's going to be a nightmare to try to 'shop... & stage, as Straxus has loose legs...

I only had Slag ram Straxus the first time 'cause I left him & Swoop in a panel on purpose (shopped them out of one or 2 others) for continuity (so people don't ask where they are), & he looked lined up for a ram... & I wanted to revisit that Slag had the munchies for metal... Dang it, I forgot to include Swoop THIS update... not that I really had a place to put him, but I had intended to if I could... Oh well, Swoop was just having fun flying over the carnage, watching.

I actually wasn't going to have Slag ram Straxus a 2nd time, but he wound up in one of Grimlocks' shots in the background (heavily shadowed), & I figured it'd be a nice laugh to go out on, rather than shopping him out. Good thing fire is easy for me to do, somehow...

It's OK... Just try to remember if I have anything blacked out in the future.

I could've split the update after Drift launched his missiles, but I really didn't want to split the fight there... Plus, I never intended for the fight to be that long... & it could've been longer if I couldn't pull off believable one panel transformations... Though, I tried it w/ Bludgeon at the end, but the shadows made it impossible to see, so I broke it up... Though, I think it's better like that... & the visible, minimal damage was easy to replicate...

Aside from cutting stuff out to fade in another panel, most of my effects take no more than 3 steps. Many are just one, actually... or a smudge of a Spammed Tool...

I don't have to search, but I do have to open each pic, open the right click menu & copy the shortcut (which gets me the right URL), then I paste it into a text file, to hold it till I have them all, & delete some code on the end of each, then paste all the URLs at once into my post.

I understand their frustration a bit too, but it's your thread... They really shouldn't complain if you're having a conversation in your own thread...

That's why I put mine in a night sky background myself... I chose night due to the darkness of my panels... It's an exuse for the darkness as much as a cheat for perspective. But there's still perspective issues w/ having paratroopers jump out of it... I got it close enough I think...

Yeah, cutting stuff out is one the of harder & more time consuming effects I do... But most of the time it works out nice & looks cool, or shortens the panel count.

Gimp has a Help function too, mine just doesn't work... @.@ Missing something I think... The Help Files aren't d/led w/ the program, it has to be done seperately, & I don't know how to integrate them... yet... Not really important, there're only a few tools I've tried using that I can't get to work... & I don't really need them...

The writers were presented w/ continuing G1 (Optimus Primal = G1 Optimus; Megatron = G1 Megatron), BLIND, & defied Hasbro & created their own story, w/ new characters, which they manage to linked to G1, w/ few continuity problems/ errors... The first wave toy bios reflected that. I prefer how they actually did it... Trying to continue G1 w/ Beasts made about as much sense as Cybertron/ Primus being turned Technorganic.

The fuzz was bad enough at mom's that I couldn't tell some shows were part CG. @.@ When I first watched Last Exile when I bought the DVD, the quality & CG suprised me!

As I put in my TFW Tech Specs, my mind is engineering, science & computers; they come naturally to me, always have. I don't know why I noticed the hinge thing, but I was quite facinated w/ a trailer door that acted like Optimus' actually did in the show

I wasn't thinking jealous so much: more like Animated Grimlock would hate to be smaller, & Classics Grimlock would hate to look cartoony...

If the US release is all that's out when I have money again, then that's what I'll get... But when I have money again, I'll be able to afford the trailer too.

I think I caught that, but wasn't sure if that was what you meant or not... It is a nice TF... It just has the ODD issue of "transformation kibble", rather than 'bot or altmode Kibble, like most... (his kibble being show accurate otherwise)

Well, Rattrap is, nearly, single-handedly responisible for MOST of the mechanical euphemisms used throughout all TF fiction, fan or official, since Beast Wars... & I really like his TransMetal toy... Just wish the backpack flipped... Debating whether I should shop the backpack to be right or not... But that would be A LOT of work... At least as much if I decide to use my MP & G2 Ops as a stand in for a Clasics Op. (kinda like 'shopping iGear's in when I don't have one)

Rhinox can only stop what he's aware of... He can't do anything about exeriments he wasn't around to stop, & at this point in time, the different factions hadn't intermingled except for council duties. That has changed w/ Combat Squad dropping in to save the AEG's hides... & Energon & the Movie toys providing medics for the Bruticus reivew, which is next, as outside of Rhinox I don't have that many "medic" 'bots...

My brother's N64 controllers all have loose joysticks, but MY N64 controller I kept works fine. ^_^

Still have the original SNES & GC controllers too...

NES controllers broke constantly...

It seems Nintendo remembers who's going to be buying their systems: parents w/ limited incomes & college students, for the most part...

Nintendo's thinking was that most people who would be playing the Wii would be right handed, & they thought they had to invert the entire game to get certain weapons to work right w/ the Wiimote... Unfortunately, they're making Link Right-handed in Skyward Sword too (Wii original), instead of having a handedness option... I'm essentially ambidextrous, so I'd prefer to use Left-handed controls... Though, my head injury did affect the level of control I had w/ my left arm...