flash comic

[Blackaby]

Hello! I am in France! My keyboard is difficult to navigate so please excuse unsightly typos.

ANYHOO.

Blackaby's sexy-as-all-heck artist, Ms Viger, has suggested that we do the comic issues in flash using puppets, because this will be much easier for her.

I have absolutely no idea what this means. Er. Can someone explain or give advice... and do people like flash comics? Really, How Do You Feel about them?

[Dr Legostar]

i don't have much of an understanding how flash works, but I've found just like any other medium, flash has comics that are good and some that are terrible, if the comic is good, the medium isn't relevant.

[LibertyCabbage]

i think she means something like this. i guess it's worth trying out but i like how the art already is :/

and have fun in france, i went there once and it's nice =O

[Escushion]

I like Blackaby as-is; I don't see it really gaining much by using puppets.

[Phact0rri]

sock puppet comic! sock puppet comic!

okay... sorry for that outburst.

[Sput]

blackaby is blackaby, regardless. i'd love it with and without. <:3

[Blackaby]

I like Blackaby as-is; I don't see it really gaining much by using puppets.

It won't be a gain... more of escaping a lot of hard work that she does drawing it. Hehe. The question should be, can we get away with this short cut!

[Jeffy]

i'm thinkin' the best way to find out is to actually give it a try. I personally don't exactly see how doing the comic in Flash will make it easier, since I don't know how it's drawn in the first place (looks like Flash already), unless it's by using stock character images and just plugging them in, but that can be done without Flash, so again...

yeah, best is to try it, if whomever suggested it thinks it'll be easier, let 'em try and see how it turns out.

[McDuffies]

Since Flash is vector graphics, it allows you to assemble the figure from parts and then move those parts (limbs, head, etc) to the position you need, like with the paper-cutout doll. It's basically copy-pasting but with more alteration between copies. Like with regular copy-pasting, the more effort you put into it, the results will be better. If you use a few basic images, you still have, for instance, a few reoccuring head positions. It can save a lot of work, I imagine, and most of people won't notice the repetition.

[Jeffy]

CURSES!

[Mr. Caravaggio]

I don't know if I ever mentioned it, but keep in mind that the Blackaby story "The Village" was done entirely in flash.

If by puppets Viger mean copy+paste with just the arms and legs rotated, then I'd avoid it, but that's just me. I don't think I've heard the term before, if it is indeed a term. I mean it could work, but she'd better make a lot of "poses" so she can interchange them between frames.

Hello! I am in France! My keyboard is difficult to navigate so please excuse unsightly typos.

Have you been to italy? Ouch.

[Escushion]

Oh geez... I thought you meant hand-puppets or something .

When there's a lot of talk, it can be very useful. Harder for new images and action bits.

[CaptainClaude]

I fear the sterilising effect it may have on the artwork. FEAR IT.

[[AlmightyPyro]]

interesting concept though.

[Toxic]

I considered converting my comics to flash, since it is easy to convert lineart to vector and import into Flash for colouring and so on, but I couldn't figure out how to do stuff like shading and speech bubbles, in addition to a lot of other effects I frequently use. So currently I stick to good ol' photoshop and bitmaps.

[Avatar007]

I thought Blackaby was going to flash us. Oh well.

Anyway, back on topic... I do my comic in Illustrator with the rotating limbs thing and it does save a lot of time (which is good because I have nearly no time in which to do them). However, as you probably notice if you look at mine it does get a bit repetitive if you don't have a large library of poses and expressions done.

So, initial investment of time is fairly high but after you have a lot of stock images built up it will be a cakewalk. Also, if Ms. Viger doesn't know how to use flash (Or vector drawing, in general...) then that's an additional learning curve at the beginning.

[Rocknjosie]

I dunno, aside from the ability to scan and host comics, I'm agin the technologization of comics. I think too much computerization (fonts, flash, computer coloring) takes away the human element of art.

I mean it'd be much easier to write a novel if you had a program which could take basic sentences and make them sound more literary, but...

[Subhuman]

As a professional drawing tool, Flash has its limitations. I use it because a) I'm lazy and b) my hand drawings are messy. Drawing digitally lets me clean stuff up, color quickly, and give the whole thing a polished look. There are no fancy effects, though, and some artists hate Flash's vector-smoothing feature.

So...try it, but don't expect it to magically make your art better. Blackaby looks good the way it is, anyway.

[Phact0rri]

mean it'd be much easier to write a novel if you had a program which could take basic sentences and make them sound more literary, but...

You mean like Word... which can grammar check, as well as replace words with its Thesaurus?

As to the "human element" it depends what suits the comic. Sometimes Crisp mathmatical lines works better.

But being one who uses Vector graphics, aint no program in the world going to make your art magically awesome. I mean a pen tool does nothing that a french curve can't.

[Rocknjosie]

mean it'd be much easier to write a novel if you had a program which could take basic sentences and make them sound more literary, but...

You mean like Word... which can grammar check, as well as replace words with its Thesaurus?

I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic or just trying to clarify. Either way, that's exactly my point, how many kids do you know that write third grade level essays then use word replace to add in a bunch of million dollar words. To be fair though, what I was really referncing was, I used to get the dictionary.com word a day email, and it was always headed by an advertisement, and one of the recurring ads was a program which writes a novel for you. I believe the tagline was something along the lines of JK Rowling is now the richest person in the UK, don't you want to cash in on that success. *Shivers*

If you're okay with a little sterility in your art that's fine, but I think Charles Shultz just spun in his grave a bit.