TransFormers Adventures on Planet Arus

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

  1. Keith Prime

    Keith Prime Advanced Engineer

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    I've updated my Links Index to allow navigation no matter your Threads per Page settings, by using the [NOPARSE][POST=#]...[/POST][/NOPARSE] tags.

    Also, a progress update: I'm about 1/2 done w/ the next update. Lots of 'shopping left to do... & now we have the TFHoF Nominations to keep track of, on top of the Funnies Awards...
     
  2. Omnus

    Omnus needs more time TFW2005 Supporter

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    The effect here was quite am enjoyable change. Any chance, now that you've got it down, that you'll be adding a tutorial on animated .gifs? That one bit by itself advances the art of the TF web-strips to a new level.

    I admit I didn't notice Wreck-Gar the first time until the 2nd to last panel. My mind just pattern-completed all the other ones as Lego wheels (due to your extensive use of Lego props throughout your series). After reading your notes, though, I went back and saw he was in all but one of the panels that took place in the junk pit. Nice job. :thumbs2: 

    I also didn't even know the 2nd thing Wreck-Gar said was a quote, until you pointed it out. I know very little about the Korean conflict and they never actually spelled out "ICOR" anywhere on MASH. I think it took about an hour after I first read this post for the origin of the quote to bubble up from my subconscious.

    As to the TFHoF Nominations I paraphrase: "The Chaos is over, let the voting begin!"

    That should take up less of your time now (with the rare exception of those who didn't get Hasbro's Megatron Memo or choose to ignore it in order to make what they believe are good points, but are in fact bad fallacies).

    And for the voting, may the best Transformer win, yes... :ev: 
     
  3. Keith Prime

    Keith Prime Advanced Engineer

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    I would like to, yes. But I think I'm going to finish Chapter 2 first. Once I get everyone off Cybertron, I won't have to 'shop in every background element for every panel, so it shouldn't take nearly as long to make an update...

    Also, when I do my Tutorial for animated .gifs, I'll also include one (as I finally get around to making mine) for editing GIMP's Sparks Brush into a TRUE Sparks Brush, since orbs of light aren't the best representation of sparks, & I don't want to go Pol's route of cheating by using a modified pic of real sparks... Wonder if he'll switch to my way once I post something showing it? He already should know how, though...

    I haven't used Legos that much... Yet... :ev:  Once I manage to get a proper trailer for MP Op, I'll have a larger pool, espeically of specialized Technics, I can use. Assuming I don't just reconstitute the original ships... But the money I now have I have to be careful w/, so I'm holding off on the trailer for a while...

    But I wanted him being there as a surprise, & it worked out quite well. ^_^

    First, everything Wreck-Gar says has to be equivalent to a quote. If he hasn't heard it on TV, he usually doesn't say it. I'm just not sticking to the Shopping Channel.

    I'm not sure if it's a word for word quote, but it is something the Col. would say. Which is all one needs for Wreck-Gar's TV talk anyway.

    I also looked up ICOR to make sure I spelt it correclty, & learned it meant: Infantry Combat Regiment.

    Though I don't think the Chaos is over, it should slow down some.

    Yes, the HoF stuff shouldn't take up as much time, but I'll be getting a game I've been waiting over a year for (including development time; though, an arguement could be made for waiting since the Wii launch years ago, since I got Twilight Princess on the GameCube), The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, & that WILL take up some time... I finally have both the means to play it on (relative loaning it to me while away for a while) & the money to buy it with. ^_^

    Hopefully, I can finish THIS update before I get the game roughly a week from now.

    For the Royalty!

    And now a Progress Update:
    I've got a couple complicated, animated .gifs I want to do, so it'll still be a bit before this update is ready. One isn't JUST transformations. I hope it comes out right...

    I intend to play some FFIX tonight, but hope to get some editing done, too. I've had a friend's copy for over a year now, & really need to get it back to him at some point... I'd also like for it to be done before (or shortly after) getting Skyward Sword, as new Zeldas tend to take priority when I get them... Hopefully, my injury doesn't make playing too difficult...
     
  4. Keith Prime

    Keith Prime Advanced Engineer

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    Oh, I forgot to include (& this is important enough for a double post) that I'm considering taking some nail polish to Dinobot & some others. Dinobot couldn't hold his own weight during the TFWC-Con (actually, he's always been loose, to the point I stuffed the joints w/ paper shortly after getting him), & now I have access to some... But I want to know if what I got ahold of will work or if there're issues w/ it.

    It's called Megagrow (it's one of my sisters') & the label says it has stuff to make nails grow (& Vitamins A & E). I'm not sure if this is proper nail polish, & don't want to apply any until I know it will work.
     
  5. Keith Prime

    Keith Prime Advanced Engineer

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    Update 30: Boxed In

    I must apologize for the delay (more in the notes). However, I hope the technical challenge in this Update makes up for it. Enjoy...

    Update 30: Boxed In

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    Note1: Yes, there are 4 animated panels! Some were much harder to make than others (the ones getting Astroscope in orbit being the most technically challenging), & it is part of what caused the delay.

    Let me know how you like these .gifs. I'm considering animating Rei's door effect from now on...

    Note2: Technical challenges & my head were not the only factors in the delay, I'm sad to report. I feel I must apologize that since the 17th I've been focusing on the Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.. I am happy (really, I have mixed feelings) to report Zelda should not attribute to delays in the future. ^_~

    Note3: Yes, Tarantulas's interest in Rampage (who I've been wanting to work in sooner, but his imprisonment & the various plot developments have prevented) is for his Project Chimera. :ev:  Good luck speculating what he's up to. :p 

    Note4: Again, please let me know what you think of the shadows I'm using to try to distinguish overlapping Speech Bubble connecting lines. I think one, possibly 2, of you may have last time... I'd like more feedback on it.
     
  6. Ezilla82

    Ezilla82 Total Randomness Personified

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    I have to say the gifs on this chapter are pretty cool. As for the voice bubbles they're fine, but maybe color code them to each character would be nice, but due to your condition that might not happen, so I can live with what they are.

    As for this Project Chimera I'm not speculating I'm just going to wait patiently until it happens.
     
  7. Keith Prime

    Keith Prime Advanced Engineer

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    I have to warn you, you're going to be waiting a while... Like all of Tarantulas' plans, it'll be a while before it is properly activated. :ev:  I'm still debating if it will be Chapter 4 or 5 before I explain everything. :ev:  There's the possibility that you will have observed a part of Project Chimera before realizing that's what it is. :ev: 

    I have plans, long term plans, for Project Chimera... Plans w/ a few twists. :ev:  Bwahahaha-hehehehe! :ev: 
     
  8. Ezilla82

    Ezilla82 Total Randomness Personified

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    Don't worry I can wait a long, long time. And sometimes I'm also very observant so I might know Project Chimera is even without the explaination.
     
  9. Keith Prime

    Keith Prime Advanced Engineer

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    Trust me, you won't catch Project Chimera. The set up for this has been extremely careful. :p  :ev: 
     
  10. Ezilla82

    Ezilla82 Total Randomness Personified

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    Don't worry I'm just joshing with ya. Still I'm looking forward of what plot twists will come with this project. Thats for sure.
     
  11. JBerryFTW

    JBerryFTW The new kid on the block.

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    The gifs are so cool. I like the comic so far too. :) 
     
  12. Keith Prime

    Keith Prime Advanced Engineer

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    Yay! A new reader... ^_^ Been a while since someone new posted.
     
  13. Keith Prime

    Keith Prime Advanced Engineer

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    I wanted to say I finally got TransFormers: Exiles :D , so hopefully I'll have more material to better define Vector Prime's personality, well, once I read it. The transition can be explained by him having been isolated for so long.

    Still trying to figure out what the next update will focus on... Need to tie up all the current loose plot threads on Cybertron, as I lay the foundation for what happens on Arus.
     
  14. Omnus

    Omnus needs more time TFW2005 Supporter

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    I don't relish taking up the role of being the negative one here, but I thought 3 of the 4 animated .gifs were annoying and could use some work.

    On the upside, the one with Rei's door effect was the one I thought was done perfectly.

    The other 3 seemed to be a little too "in-your face". I'm not sure whether that's due to the animated objects actually taking up that high a percentage of the image or if it's due to the camera flash reflecting off the animated objects. Seems fixable either way.

    BTW, does the program that you're using to make the animated .gifs allow you to set the loop counter?

    Not too much to go on so far, so anything would be a shot-in-the-dark right now. I'll give it a stab, though.

    The only thing unique about Rampage is his nigh-indestructible spark. In your strip, the Voltron lions have a nigh-unlimited power source. Combining the two would give you a virtually-unstoppable warrior.

    That seems like a decent possibility, from my perspective.

    The speech bubbles were quite easy to distinguish for me.
     
  15. Keith Prime

    Keith Prime Advanced Engineer

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    Negative feedback is still necessary for me to do better. & yes, considering I'm fairly new at .gifs, some would need work. & the Minicons being so small makes them hard to work with. & I admitted to the Orbit one being quite difficult. Transformations are easier to work out animated, rather than still. & I didn't think I could've done Astroscope being put in orbit clearer w/ stills. Though, I don't plan on doing one that involved again.

    That was the simple one. Which has a reference to boot (what I recall of Quantum Leap). To make it consistant, I used GIMP's Subtract from Selection Tool w/ a Rectangular Selection, got the portion of the door I wanted, Feathered & filled it, copied the whole thing, undid everything back to the rectangle, pasted the new frame whole, did another Subtraction, this time a bit more, repeat.

    I have no flash. I'm using a Cell Phone Camera. Any lighting issues are from lamps providing light. Astroscope's color also seemed to suffer from the color conversion .gifs under-go. & as I said, 1/2 the panels I was experimenting w/ how much I could actually do.

    Loop counter? The way I try to distinguish the start & end (& I do fail at this as often as I remember to do it) is to add a few frames to the end, to hold the final frame...

    Project Chimera has nothing to do w/ Voltron. At least not directly at this point. Can't say where I'll take it once I get past what I do have planned for it, though.

    Now, the unlimited power systems are indeed what the Decepticons want... I haven't gotten into Tarantulas' motives regarding it though...

    I only wish getting the shadows only on the lines was easier. At least it has the desired effect. :D 
     
  16. Omnus

    Omnus needs more time TFW2005 Supporter

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    For being the simple one, that still sounds like it takes alot of work. Will you need to do that everytime you do the door or can you just take the one you have, save it as it's own piece(s), and scale and transform the images as needed for new instances?

    Sorry, didn't know about the flash, some Cell phones do have a flash for the camera.

    Well, experimenting is the only way to ever accomplish anything worthwhile (and sometimes discover other useful things along the way), so I hope your continued efforts doing so aren't overly taxing.

    Your technique for holding the final frame works well and does help quite a bit.

    However, animated .gifs do not need to loop endlessly. One of the parameters of an animated .gif is a loop counter which can be set to (much as it sounds) make it so the .gif runs through its animation loop a finite number of times before stopping. One can then reload the page that the browser is displaying to reset the counter and begin the animation again.

    Setting the counter to a very low number (say 1 or 2) and leaving a note about reloading the page to see the animation run again could provide the possibility of giving your animations a more cinematic feel.

    I don't know how well this would work for you, but it seems like something that might be worth experimenting with.

    If the graphics program you're using doesn't let you set the loop counter for the animated .gif, there should be at least one out there that would let you edit the .gifs properties after you've made it that would do so.

    Actually I just googled it and tried one here. It does the job, if you need it, although some of the extra steps in permissions required to install it make me nervous (anti-virus scanner found nothing and it's an older program, so it would appear to just be my paranoia).

    You may not need it, though. IIRC, you're using GIMP. If that's correct then you can uncheck the "Loop forever" box and the animation will only run 1 time. If that's what you would want to do instead of looping endlessly, then you wouldn't need anything else.

    Oh, well, my stab missed. I guess that could be considered a good thing, since it didn't spoil anything coming up.
     
  17. Keith Prime

    Keith Prime Advanced Engineer

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    I doubt I'd be able to transform each layer identically, so doing them from scratch will be how I approach each door. There are a lot of steps to it, but they're all simple & don't take that long. It sounds complicated, but I only have to make the original door outline once, & change how it fills for each frame. I could just modify how much empty space there is w/ the Subtract From Selection setting, but it's easier to be consistant doing it from scratch each time.

    Yeah, mine doesn't. It'd help a lot w/ lighting, but I don't have the spare money for one.

    All of my effects are really experiments. Before I started on my comic, I had never edited a single image.

    The problem w/ having a note to reload the page is that not everyone will read the note & therefore know the page needs to be reloaded. Also, if any pages end up w/ multiple updates, the page may lag loading (I've seen it in other Funnies), & I don't want to have to worry about it. If anything, I'll add more duplicate panels to the end. Duplicating panels is easy enough.

    It'll probably take a while for me to even get around to what Rampage's "contribution" to Project Chimera even is, so by then, even if you had spoiled it, it may have ended up forgotten... Also, had you gotten it right, there's no way I would've confirmed it. :p  But this is an honest statement that you're wrong.
     
  18. Keith Prime

    Keith Prime Advanced Engineer

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    Sorry for the long delay again. But I do have some news regarding the delay. I preordered some stuff, w/ key roles in the comic, one of which I've been working around not having. There was an ordering snaffu that has kept me from getting them, but we've finally found a work around that's fair, & I should get them in the next week or so. Since having one of the preordered bots when I get back to Op & friends will make introducing that character easier, as I mentioned before, I think I may just wait for him to arrive (either this weekend or sometime next week). I MAY go back & just do the scene where Rei & Vector finally meet (as set up in the previous update), but I've got something to do this weekend, so it may not get finished before then.

    Unfortunately, the other thing I ordered is specifically to be introduced in Chapter 3, so you'll have to wait. :p  & it isn't likely going to fit into what you think it does. :ev: 

    I also have Prime Arcee & Ratchet coming (included in the order to delay having to pay immediately, & to ensure I got those 2 hard to find figures), which gives me enough Prime figures to do the set up that will allow me to introduce them into the comic. Also not until Chapter 3 or 4, depending on how certain characters' down time plays out.
     
  19. Keith Prime

    Keith Prime Advanced Engineer

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    Update 31: Unexpected Questions

    Update 31: Unexpected Questions

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    Note1: Yes, of all 'Bots, it was Swoop that asked! :lol 

    Note2: Let me know how I did on the continuity of the background w/ the various angles I chose. Each different angle had to be created from scratch, since I can't render the backgrounds in 3D.

    Note3: I had planned Rei's being pulled into proper sync w/ the comic Alternity to be more fluid, but the file was huge! So I cut the number of frames in half, keeping the most relevant.

    Note4: & no, the conversation wasn't quite as boring for Swoop as the others expected. :lol 

    Note5: I likely won't start the next update until I get my order (should be sometime this week) & am familiar w/ the new figures. Only one of which will be introduced in the next update.

    Note6: If enough people ask, I will post a Note 7 immediately below this one of Rei's side of that conversation. :p  :lol  I'll also inform you of such an update (may include the note in that post).
     
  20. Autobot1000

    Autobot1000 Daddybot

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