TransFormers Adventures on Planet Arus

Discussion in 'Transformers Funnies' started by Keith Prime, Feb 10, 2011.

  1. ectoneon

    ectoneon Well-Known Member

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    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."
     
  2. Keith Prime

    Keith Prime Advanced Engineer

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    I am going to have to ask you to use the "
    " 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...
     
  3. Keith Prime

    Keith Prime Advanced Engineer

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    Update 4: Grimlock vs. Grimlock

    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

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    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...
     
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  4. Rumble02

    Rumble02 Radicon of Obliticons

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    BASH BRAINS> = Awesome
     
  5. Keith Prime

    Keith Prime Advanced Engineer

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    My first "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.
     
    Last edited: Feb 16, 2011
  6. Keith Prime

    Keith Prime Advanced Engineer

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    Update 5: Drift vs. Bludgeon, Encounter 1

    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

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    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... :p 

    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...
     
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  7. Plastic_nomer

    Plastic_nomer Doing the unmentionables

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

    ectoneon Well-Known Member

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    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?
     
  9. herugrim

    herugrim N/A

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    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!
     
  10. Keith Prime

    Keith Prime Advanced Engineer

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    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...
     
  11. herugrim

    herugrim N/A

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    Supernove is under the Light and Shadow section of the filter menu. You can play with it for a variety of nice effects. Shaping the missile is a pain. It might be easier to copy and paste a missile from another figure or something.
     
  12. Keith Prime

    Keith Prime Advanced Engineer

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    Page 4 already!

    Filter Menu? So far, aside from cutting stuff out for flight or transformations, the majority of my effects have utilized ONLY the Paint Brushes, Smudging, Feathering, Opacity, cut/copy/paste & a little Blurring.

    I'm not really bothering w/ the more advanced features I don't know about/ how to use...

    I have an idea for the next time I use Drift's missiles... It's just a matter of my brain damage not making me forget I can do it.

    Though, there have been light based stuff I've thought about trying I may have to investigate the Light & Shadow filter for... I lucked out on Drift's Spark's color... It defaulted to that color when I went in to try to expierment to change the Spark Brush's color. Pain to get the right sized sphere that way though...

    *edit*

    Was playing w/ the other settings in Gimp, including Light & Shadow Filters... Thanks for inspiring me to check them out... Now I have new tools to play w/ to make my FX even better...
     
  13. ectoneon

    ectoneon Well-Known Member

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    Yeah, the shadows seem to be working pretty good in this case. Keeps the focus on who it's supposed to be on.


    I think maybe it would be better if you could make a separate file of the missile and just paste it in when needed.
    Wasn't so much things going on...I been having tooth issues...I need to get to a dentist soon. So i wasn't really in the sit down at the computer mood.
    Yeah. Turned out nice. Plus it was unexpected, yet makes so much sense.

    I remembered reading his spark charged his sword...but I had forgotten all about it until now.



    Sounds great. I can't wait to see it. My straxus' legs are okay. It's my skullgrin who can't stand up right now.


    Lol, see- I didn't even notice where you had shopped them out. Animated Snarl is still my newest transformer figure right now. So it's great seeing him in action. Still on the new toy buzz with him.
    Hey, I think it worked out well. Seems like what he would be doing.

    Will do.


    Yeah. Sometimes that works best. I smudge things alot. Especially on things like muzzle flashes.
    Flickr used to have it where you could just open up a pic and the url I needed would be there. But then they "upgraded" the user interface. Now you have to open each pic, open a drop down menu, click the size you want, click it over to bbcode, and then pull the url out of the code they give you. Cuz now they wrap it in some code that links to their site. It's a pain. But it's free and my space resets at the end of the month.


    Yeah. I don't know why it had to be such a big deal.

    Yeah it worked. It gets tougher when trying to put in more than one flyer. That is a pain.


    Yeah, I actually try to "budget" effects time based on how many things need to be cut out to how much time I have to finish an update. So if I have three or four hours..I don't worry, but if I only have a few hours....then that update won't have a lot of effects.

    Yeah. You can always search for tutorials online if you really needed to learn something that bad. That's what I do.


    Yeah. Can you imagine if they had done that. Bat optimus prime and gator Megatron were not even that good of designs! I'm glad we got what we did.


    Yeah. Then i had a big.but old tv for the longest time. It had a "ghost image" going on. When I finally got my flatscreen last year, i was astounded.

    Hmm...I'm not sure where my mind is at. I'm sorta good at a bunch of things...but I'm not really a master of anything.


    Yeah, that would be one conversation I'd like to see.

    Yeah, I'll just be stuck with the us release. But how to make him upgrade to masterpeice form without being "prime" will be the issue for my comic.

    Yeah not many toys have that particular issue. But he's darn close to the show. Me and my brother used to argue over the "best" way to position his wings and the arms they are attached to in robot mode.

    Yeah they would make a lot of extra work for yourself. I guess that depends on how much it bothers you.


    yeah, there isn't too many medics. I always think I have a lot..but really it's just my many different versions of ratchet. Then there is wheeljack, cybertron red alert, and animated ratchet....that's about it.


    I never broke m snes or nes controllers that i remember. But maybe that's because i didn't play on each system for two long before moving on to the next thing. I think my n64 controllers only broke from a couple years of moving a lot...and getting thrown in boxes and such.
    Yeah. My wife always wants to get a wii...then it just never happens. But people don't come over as much as they used to, and I don't play games like I used to, so it's kinda pointless.

    I guess that makes sense. Most people are right handed they say. I know I am. Certain things i do only with my left hand....mostly driving...but that's about it. I know i cannot write or draw with my left hand at all.
     
  14. Keith Prime

    Keith Prime Advanced Engineer

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    Well, for most of it there were only the 2 of them, except for a recycled panel, w/ the Autobots in vehicle mode hauling tailpipe. I think the shadows made Bludgeon a bit creepier... & the dialog I gave him...

    I've done that for some of the fliers I have... But Drift's missiles aren't worth making a file for, so long as I remember I can make the colored bit a "brush" & drag it to create a body... Then I get to keep the tip, & have the body the same color.

    Seems a lot of what I've been doing has been unexpected... Some invoked, some totally happenstance.

    It's going to be a while before I try a 3 way melee w/ them... I have to get a couple good fights w/ Voltron in first...

    I actually did shop a few out this last update too... I had to shop the Classics Autobots out a few times, as they were visible when they're supposed to in Skyfire... Smudging the couch's back cushion blended so well, you probably still won't be able to find which panels I had to smudge.

    I'd like the other 2 Dinobots, but they were omitted in Animated... Snarl/ Slag is nice, but he's pretty much a brick in either mode... Kinda strange for Animated, really... Enough posability to use, not enough to do w/ him what I did w/ Drift & Bludgeon...

    Well, if it didn't fit him, I wouldn't've done it... He rammed a lot of 'Cons in G1... & once I decided to actually use him, I wanted to have him pick on Straxus a bit...

    I was mostly trying to keep things simple & too lazy to explore the menus & see what all was available. W/ my head injury, best not to get too complicated... Granted, Drift & Bludgeon got OVERLY complicated... & it did worsen my headache...

    I nearly got a Flickr or Photobucket account before I remembered my E-mail provider had recently upgraded to include online storage space, so I used it... Sounds like I did the right thing...

    Have you tried right clicking the image? Windows mines the URL for you & puts it under the "copy shortcut" option...

    Some people just like complaining. :banghead: 

    If you go back & check my first panel, you'll see the Animated Twins are flying in it... Turned out nice, considering that was my first effect ever.

    I made sure to post that my updates could be erratic, to avoid a deadline I may or may not be able to reach... I didn't expect to have made a Chapter Zero, muchless have all 5 updates for it posted already. @.@

    Having done this, I have all the time I need to make the panels how I want them... But I didn't want to dwell on Drift's missiles nor his Spark-wave when I had no idea how I wanted to do them, so I went w/ "close enough for now."

    Isn't a few 3 or 4? So, you just gave 2 different outcomes for the same timeframe. @.@

    I can also use Gimp's online help file. I assume it's the same stuff as the d/l version. I also checked out the Tutorials here on the Funnies, as listed at the beginning for credits.

    We also probably wouldn't've gotten TransMetals, Dragon Megatron, Tigerhawk, Rampage nor Depthcharge... & the reason why G1 Optimus was a Bat/ Gorilla would've made absolutely no sense!

    I rather like the Character Development driven story Beast Wars had.

    I'm a problem solver by skill, so in addition to Engineering, Math, Science, Computers & Technology coming to me naturally, I can usually work out most other things too. I guess I'm a Jack of Most Trades, Master of a Few.

    I do have a Wheeljack...

    Well, he does have his OWN Matrix... You could just have Wheeljack experimenting w/ one of the Ops' Matrixes & Hot Rod get caught in an overload or something... It'd fit Wheeljack quite nicely...

    My Depthcharge looks as close to the animation model for robot mode as that toy can get when I have him in Robot mode...

    Shrinking & rotating stuff in Gimp is really easy, it's just the issue of cutting stuff out to do it... & if I went w/ using MP/ G2 Op, then I'd save every angle I use in a seperate file of layers just for that.

    I don't even think I have ANY Ratchets... Was on the fence w/ Animated, but others caught my eye, & my money ran out... My Autobot medics (most appeared, often in shadow, in Chapter Zero) are Energon Wheeljack, Movie Salvage & Longhaul (called Hoist), G1 Hoist, & Rhinox... that may be it...

    I had little sisters, & one in particular liked stepping on controllers... :throw 

    I'd like to have a Wii... There're somewhere around 16 games I want for it.

    I write w/ my right hand, but can mirror anything my right hand can do w/ my left... Though, preaccident, my left arm was a bit stronger...
     
  15. ectoneon

    ectoneon Well-Known Member

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    Yeah, it worked pretty good.
    Yeah. I usually either cut a missle out from a bot to use, or just google a missile pic. I don't have a file that i just keep for that.

    Yeah sometimes things just have a way of falling together.


    Sounds like a plan to me. I am stoked to see voltron.


    Yeah, I didn't notice it at all.

    Yeah his posabiltity is weird. But I like him just because this is pretty much my first "true" dinobot. War within Grimmy not having a dino mode and all. His actual design is pretty cool I think, if they just could have worked out some useful articulation he would have been perfect.

    So is him picking on straxus gonna be a running gag? Or was it just a one-shot deal?


    Yeah, that happens sometimes. I'll get to the editing stages and be like "wow I was ambitious when I shot this"


    Yeah, good call. The menu thing in flickr is a major pain.

    Dang, I didn't even think of that...I will have to give it a shot next update.

    Yeah.
    Yeah...pretty good. But it gets worse when you start trying dogfights lol
    I try to avoid deadlines too...but then I get into if I don't get it done on my day off....It's not getting done.

    A surprising numer of my effects are close enough for now. I did go all out when I was shooting outside for the salvation final. I hope I never try to do THAT much again.

    Whoops. I meant like 2 hours or less when I said a few.


    Yeah, there are tons of tools out there for learning this stuff.
    Yeah. Who knows how it would have turned out. What I always wondered was this-With so many non-show Beast era toys, how did they decide on the cast that they did. I mean primal and megatron were pretty much set in stone. How did they get the rest.
    Yeah. Still my favorite series after all these years. I did end up getting beast machines, despite hating it at first. It is a little better when you have all the episodes in row to watch. It definitely was a radical depature from what was the norm. If you ignore all ties to previous shows it would have worked......but the character changes...the organic stuff. Still a bitter pill to swallow. But having the whole series did make me go from "hate" to "okay"
    .
    Oh man...I'm so bad at math it's not even funny. I did great in science...until I got to chemistry and equations.


    That could work. I have a few different ideas for the "how" of it.....but with him increasing in size so much...I would want to call him prime, and that won't make sense without the trailer. Might just have to go with it. Or get reall ambitous and shop in g1 Rodimus Prime's vehicle mode.

    Well I preffered the wings sitting a little bit higher up, he preffered them a bit lower.

    Right. You'd pretty much have to. Would save a ton of time in the long run.

    I have way to many ratchets. lol let's see. Movie voyager-ROTF, night ops, and rescue ratchet. Deluxe movie and g1 colors, FAB rescue ratchet, CHUG ratchet hasbro version, Animated normal and cybertron modes. Then Energon wheeljck, and cybertron red alert to round it out. I'm hoping for generations wheeljack, and will probably lump generations Grapple into the group.
    Doh!

    Yeah there are a few games I would like to have it for...but it's just not worth the cash to me right now.
     
  16. Keith Prime

    Keith Prime Advanced Engineer

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    Preparing to shoot the next update: "Back at the Base", which will lead into the beginning of the review for the following update.

    Well, I don't want to change the shape of Drift's missile heads. I just have to remember to copy that circle, which creates a brush off the Clipboard automatically.

    Voltron won't make his apparence till part way into the Review, but the idea of haivng the Lions in a panel in the shoot I'm in the middle of setting up hit me about an hour ago, I think...

    & I'll only get better at hiding them. ^_^

    They really could've given him better posability if they wanted... I want to know what they were thinking w/ the way his Dino-head is in robot mode... That chest is a mess, really.

    I wanted the G1 Dinobots, but my parents never got them for me, even though I saw them in stores... My first Dinobot was Classics Grimlock... So I had no choice but to get the Animated Dinobots...

    I haven't decided on that yet... It just hit me the first time. It would be quite dangerous to Slag's health to keep it up... But he is a Dinobot, which means 1) he can take at least as much as he dishes out & 2) he isn't all that smart...

    Well, I wanted to do a cool battle for those 2. I just couldn't do a simple battle between 2 practitioners of Martial Arts... Just couldn't see it... Those 2 HAVE to have stylized fights!

    I also didn't like one, possibly both, of them requiring you linking back to your account...

    I started out having to open the pic, then open the properties menu... Then noticed the "Copy Shortcut" option & that it was right under "copy picture" & decided to see what it did... Lucked out...

    That comes back down to perspective...


    Well, it was a finale. Similar to my Drift vs. Bludgeon ending Chapter Zero.

    I figured that's what you meant....

    The people creating it partly took the designs easiest to animate (definite) & partly those they immediately came up w/ personalities for, probably.

    I just count it as one of the many alternate realities HasTak have set up... It was bold & interesting, but in the end badly ended the Beast Era... But comics made the Technorganized Cybertron cannon somehow. @.@ Hasbro claims Beast Machines ended G1... @.@ I understand their side, but it was a terrible way to end it...

    I'm still debating 'shopping MP Prime & using a 'shopped G2 prime for vehicle mode myself... The other Ops I have wouldn't blend well w/ Classics...

    I put the hinges for the wing tips at Depthcharges shoulders, just touching them, which makes it a consistant robot mode.

    The only TF I have that many of the same character is Optimus.
     
  17. ectoneon

    ectoneon Well-Known Member

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    Awesome!

    That's a cool feature.
    Whatever you think is best. Rushing things is never good.

    lol, yeah.

    I hated the chest at first. Then I realized I wasn't pulling the red parts his arms attach to down and out far enough. It's a little better now.

    I missed a lot of animated. If I ever find an animated Grimmy I will get him.



    Both good points.


    Yeah, that would have been kind of lame to just do a short fight.

    That too. But that is why the only pics in my flickr account are for the comic.

    Yeah. It can get to headache land real fast. There were many a shot that I thought the angles would be right when I took the pics. Then editing together just didn't look right so I had to do some clever warping of jets.

    Yeah.
    Yeah probably. Plus the cgi was crazy expensive back then.

    Yeah. They tried too hard I think. Cuz most of the stuff in the show was mandated by hasbro. They wanted all the changes.

    Yeah it's a tough call. On the one hand it would be worth it for the final product, on the other...tons of editing work.



    Oh man, I think I have more optimus Prime's than any other character. G1, G2..the black trailer one, titanium war within, Armada supercon, "bendy Armada prime in two different colors, RID, Energon, Cybertron, Classics deluxe and voyager, Both hasbro MP primes, Movie one voyager in three different colors, movie one leader, movie FAB, Animated deluxe cybertron mode, animated activator, animated voyager, ROTF leader prime, battle blades prime, WFC prime. he's practically his own army.
     
  18. Autobus Prime

    Autobus Prime Transit Former

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    :popcorn 

    Don't look behind you, Drift...

    ...or Straxus, for that matter. Never good to leave Dinobots where you can't see 'em. :) 
     
  19. Keith Prime

    Keith Prime Advanced Engineer

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    Hey! My first :popcorn ! It wasn't so much that Straxus forgot about the Dinobots as they had JUST arrived to the fight... & just so happened to be behind him, so Straxus didn't know to be on the look out for them... Granted, he saw Grimlock, & really should've been wondering where they were...

    'Shopping them now... Some how got the panel count RIGHT where I wanted it, despite not paying attention to how many pics I was taking... For the most part, I have a loose idea for how I want any given update to flow, but the details, dialog & specifics aren't worked out 'til AFTER I've opened Gimp & started making the speech bubbles. Very few pics are taken w/ specific effects in mind... Though, the Drift/ Wheeljack bit in this update is one such instance... Parts of Drift/ Bludgeon in the previous too... Kinda had to plan them for what they were meant to show...

    Yeah, it's nice when I remember it... But when I cut stuff out, I still have to rescale it, & sometimes rotate it for the right angle... But it drastically simplifies things... Though, I rarely use it AS the Brush... I normally paste whatever in as it's own layer, for the listed reasons...

    It isn't so much rushing as how I had originally planned it... Before Chapter Zero created itself... Remember, the original idea was to do an ACO Review followed by a Running Battle in Pol's threads... Still never heard back from him... To get around that, a different Alternity's Swindle requested the Review, since I never got permission to say ACO asked for a sub.

    I noticed the pegs line up w/ holes in his shoulders, so the robot parts aren't an issue... But the Dino-head not just won't, but CAN'T sit flush w/ the body, so an over head look/ shot looks messed up...

    Pretty sure all I got of the Animated line has appeared in my comic already... Animated Grimlock being nearly identical to G1 Grimlock, except for the jaw, truely suprised me & forced me to get him... & you can't just have Grimlock... Though, they're the one thing CHUGRU is lacking, sadly.

    He wouldn't be a Dinobot otherwise...

    That's why I redid Grimlocks' too: a short fight just doesn't feel right w/ those kinds of characters.


    I was trying to avoid opening a new account just for my comic... I was hesitant to join TFW as I don't like giving my E-mail addy to other sites...

    For mine, it'd just be how much of the visible sides are, well, visible. For a dogfight, I'd just put all involved near each other, take the pick of all of them, then cut them out so I can have them spaced how I want & on the background I want... It'd mostly be getting the angle of the cockpit & wings to match up for all of them.

    Expensive? It was still in the experimental/ development stage... & had better water effects than most things now do!! Depthcharge walking out of that water is a nightmare to do NOW... I can't imaging how much of a pain it would've been THEN... Makes you wonder why?

    Tankor/ Rhinox was a very messed up departure from his Beast Wars self... Even his Predacon ep. wasn't that far out there...

    I do wish the Dinobots would've appeared in the show... Thinking they were edited out of the TV Broadcast is why I got the Box Set... Forgot I have 3 BM Dinobot toys: the Stegosaurus, Triceratops & Archyopterix... Still not sure if they'll appear in the comic, but if they do, I already know how...

    Only initially... Once I had every angle for both MP & G2 Prime, it'd become a cake walk... No harder than the Decepticon scene that opens the next update...

    My Optimuses are: G2, RiD (the one that combines w/ Ultra Magnus), Armada (the one w/ the Trailer, that can combine w/ Jetfire & Overload), Cybertron (the one that combines w/ Wing Saber & the Lion) -- see the pattern yet? -- MP, Movie 1 Leader, RotF Leader (only 'cause movie 1 sucked & RotF's was as close to accurate as we were likely to get... & he combines w/ Jetfire), & TM Primal & Optimal Optimus... Which is why I put in the line about the "Council of Primes" in Panel 4 of Update 1. Blurr said it, so you could've missed it... I have no deluxe Ops... G2 predates the Class system & is as close as I have to Deluxe. Optimus is out of scale when he's a Deluxe anyway... & his larger toys tend to look cooler, be more posable, & have the trailers... Well, then...

    & I can't remember what "FAB" means...
     
  20. Keith Prime

    Keith Prime Advanced Engineer

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    Update 6: Back at Base

    This is my first use of Filters. Some work well, some still need work (the headlights could be better).

    & thus begins Chaper 1

    Update 6: Back at Base
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    Note 1: Yes, that shot of the Lions is a recreation of one of their flight screen captures.

    Note 2: I'm rather fond of my Faction change... Will probably do more later.

    Note 3:The next update WILL be the start of the Review of FansProject's Bruticus... it will be posted over several updates, as I'm not mining all the URLs at once. I'll probably start shooting it Weds. The last panel of the review will get some of the cast headed towards Planet Arus, so we're getting close!
     
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