Comments For Split Shift Page 12

I'd be nervous too if someone was grinning at me like that. I wonder what Amy's up to.

Sorry to disappoint anyone who was expecting a cat fight between Amy and Misty. It will take more then that to make them come to blows. Besides, Misty would kick Amy's ass.

I love that I can put up a Split Shift page so quickly. I edited several images this time and still got the page done in under two hours. Yeah me!

Comments For Page 416

Did they really think they could scale a city wall and not get spotted? The question is, is the spotter a friend or foe? Racheal's not helpless by any means, but a fight could bring the whole town against her.

I was playing with the textures. Like it? I wanted the walls to look like stone. I think I did a good job expect that the wall should be made of lots of stone blocks instead of being a solid stone wall. How can the wall be so smooth and flat? Magic.

If anyone's wondering where the rope came from, the girls acquired it from one of the nearby farms. Check the overhead view on Page 400 to see what the area looks like. There are several farms around the city walls.

Comment for Split Shift page 11

Looks like Amy and Misty might have their first fight. Silly Misty, thinking she can ask someone she hardly knows to put her up for a Month without paying.

The only image that's new is the first one. Even then, I just altered an existing image. This sprite stuff really simplifies the creation process so I can concentrate on the story and the jokes.

I really should spend some time figuring out the story before hand. I know the basic idea behind the story, but as I said before, this was really meant to be a humorous comic strip and the story was secondary. Stick with me, it can only get better here on out.

Comment for page 415

Racheal wants to stuff Birhena is a bag? Well, it is a magic satchel. Still, it seems a little cruel. Who knows what happens to things stored in the bag.

Still playing with the shading and trying to get it right. The hair is looking better but the triangles in Racheal's hair in the last panel don't look right. I'll have to stick to bands of light like in the first panel.

I like the way Racheal's face came out in the last panel though. I had to redraw her several times because she didn't look quite right and then all of a sudden she looked great. I guess it's true that line placement can how a profound effect on how an image looks. This is the first time I tried to do a front on drawing of Racheal in cat form. Snouts are not easy to fit on a face.

I just have to keep practicing my drawing and my writing and hopefully I'll keep getting better. There is lots of help on the Internet right now and in books, so I just have to find the time to learn it.

Keep on reading and I'll keep on trying to get better.

Comments For Split Shift Page 10

Wait, I didn't know Teddy bears had hearts. I thought they were filled with cotton. The things you learn in a web comic.

Okay, I'm just kidding. The scar is just a symbol of the heart being removed. Nothing was actually removed from the bear.

Just to be clear, in case anyone is confused, the bear was still in one piece when it was given to Leslie. The cut in the bear's chest was put there by Leslie after her boyfriend left her. I'm sure most people could figure that out for themselves, but I'll write it here just in case some people think her boyfriend was cruel enough to give her a damaged bear.

It's late, so I'll wait until Sunday night (when the next page of ARW goes up) to talk to you some more. Take care.

Comments For Page 414

Looks like Balap and Birhena are down for the count, but will either of them recover? Birhena should be fine, since she's a token animal, but it might be a while before she can get free. Balap on the other hand is a fragile creature and may not make it if he's even still alive. At least there's no sign of blood.

It took me almost 2 hours just to shade the characters. This is mainly because I messed up while trying to fix one of the drawings. Actually, some of that time was spend fixing some of the images after they were drawn. A big mistake. I need to make sure everything looks right before I start coloring.

I was looking at the way hair is colored in other comics and decided to try something different. I think this looks better then the usual way I do hair (not that there really is a usual way since I change my style often). Balap's hair is always a challenge since I want to show how messy it is without spending a lot of time drawing each strand of hair. It's an improvement but it still needs some work.

Comments For Split Shift Page 9

Amy has a room mate already? I wonder what she's like? She must be pretty weird judging by her door. Where did she find a pink skull?

I have enough different faces for Misty now that I can put up a whole page without having to draw a new head. I'm sure I'll need a new expression now and again, but I can use the same basic ones over and over again.

I hope people don't hate me for trying to save time and reuse the same sprites over and over. I'm not as bad as some people who use the same images over and over without any change of expression. This comic is meant to appeal to people who might not like my other comic. I plan to spend most of my time working on ARW. If this comic becomes more popular then ARW I may start spending more time on this comic, but until then I want to try to finish ARW first.

Comments For Page 413

A punch in the nose is all it takes? There has to be more to it then that.

I like the affect of Toi flipping through the air; although, I probably should have shown her turning around in the air. Maybe even if I had the action lines follow the spin it would be better. If you follow the lines it looks like she should be landing on her head.

I'm getting better at coloring and shading now. What's still taking the time is the drawing. There is a lot of action on this page and it takes time to get the poses looking right. I could never have done this a year ago although I have attempted action poses in the past. All this drawing practice is making it easier to get the posing down with proper detail and proportion.

The best improvement in my art is that characters are looking the same from panel to panel now. For the longest time I couldn't draw the character the same way without a lot of redraws. Now I'm paying more attention to where the facial features are placed on the face of the different characters so that they look the same from any angle. That's not to say I'm perfect at it, but at least it's not as much of a chore as it used to be.

Comments For Split Shift Page 8

So Amy's Bi-polar. That explains some things. Misty is on the wrong track though. Being bi-polar has nothing to do with being polish.

I have a friend who's bi-polar, so I know somethings about the condition. Misty's disorder is similar to my own, only more server and of a different category, but close enough that I can relate to it.

I guess I need to walk a fine line making fun of mental illness while at the same time helping people understand the condition. I want the comic to be fun and silly at times and I don't want to get too technical or preachy. I just want to show that even though people act weird that doesn't make then less of a human being. They might have to struggle harder to do some things but they can see things in a way normal people miss.

Keep reading my comic and I'll keep trying to make it better.

Comments For Page 412

Looks like Racheal wants to play a deadly game of cat and mouse. Toi will need to think fast to survive.

The major problem with transforming is that the alternate form tends to take over. In this case, Racheal's cat instincts have taken over and she's attacking the nearest moving creature.

I kind of like the portal Oricarl created in panel one. I was just messing around with different layers and the process created something pretty cool looking. I'll have to remember what I did so I can repeat it sometime.

I might be a little late with the next Split Shift page because I want to do another picture first. I was hoping to get it done earlier but I just haven't been able to focus my time properly. I'm going to force myself to do nothing but the picture tomorrow and so I might not have time to work on a Split Shift page. With any luck everything will go smoothly and I'll be able to do both.

Well, I better get to bed. I've got a lot of work to do tomorrow.

Comments For Split Shift Page 7

Special double wide Weekend edition. We finally get to see what happened on the bridge.

I spent more time on this page then I wanted to but I did make some useful new symbols that should speed up production in the future. I re-use the same image of Misty's back three times, although I do have her kneeling in the second panel. The artist in me wants to change one of them so they don't all look the same, but they all fit the situation so there is no reason to change them. If people can get away with stick figures, sprite art, and photo panels, I should be able to get away with a few reused images. The important thing is that the story is clear.

With this plot line out of the way, I should be able to go back to the original story and focus on the interaction of the characters. I wanted to do a humor strip but a dramedy (dramatic comedy) works better for me. I like telling stories.

Comments For Page 411

Looks like Racheal and Toi won the battle. But what about the others? Stay tuned, and find out next week what happened to Slara and Balap.

Looks like I'm doing better with the shading, unfortunately it's still talking a long time to do. I was busy yesterday, so I didn't get a lot done and ended up doing most of the work this morning. Still, I do better work when I'm not tired.

Not much to report. I'm still not getting much work done outside the comic, which is annoying. I keep trying to do stuff and I keep running out of time. I was suppose to write this post three hours ago and only just got back to it now. I was going to post about the other comic as well and didn't do that either. I've really got to manage my time better.

I'll see you Monday, hopefully with better news.

Comments For Page 6 of Split Shift

That's one crazy looking dog. Fits Amy's personality though.

Sorry I didn't post yesterday. I'm still working out the kinks in this story. I plan to put up a Sunday style strip on Saturday and explain what happened on the bridge. Then I can get back to telling jokes. Keep on reading.

Comments For Page 410

Racheal's immune to magic? Or is it just her current form? Either way, she has an advantage now. How long will this last? Find out what happens Friday.

I've given up the idea of putting fur on the characters. It's just too much extra work. I'll use the technique when I do some wallpaper or other special art, but not on a regular comic page.

I like the new process but it does seem to take longer. The background is on it's own layer now, which makes it easier to color, but it feels like extra work even though it isn't really.

Each of Oricarl's tentacle legs have to be shaded separately, which is a pain. This is likely the only time you'll see them. I'll stick to upper body shots from now on.

Not much else going on. I'll see you Friday.

Comments For Split Shift Page 5

I asked for some feed back and some people felt that the flash symbols were not done well, so I though I'd try straight line art.

I do like the color, but it takes extra time.

As is predictable, Amy and Misty will become room mates. Originally they were going to start the comic as room mates, but I though it would be more interesting to see how they meet.


Some people though the jokes just weren't working and that I need to establish the characters a bit more. I'll spend the next few strips letting the characters get to know each other. I'll try a more cartoon approach and see how that works. I think I'll use this comic to experiment with for a while and see how it goes.

Comments For Page 409

So that's why he's called a butterfly warrior.

More experimentation, this time with transparencies. Both in the fade in the third panel and in the wings in the last panel.

I also added a motion blur to the paw in panel two.

Racheal's head is modeled after a real panther's head. I tried to mix the two together in a realistic way. I think I did a good job of it.

I posted a topic over at HalfPixel.com about Social bookmarking and promoting your comic. I don't know if I'll have time to promote myself on all these sites but if you want to be well known this is what you need to do.

I don't really have anything to add. I'll see you Tomorrow.

Split Shift page 4

What just happened? Did Misty just beat Amy up or did something weirder happen? This story is going to keep getting weirder, you just watch.

What really happened will be explained later, but for now you get Misty's view of events. Because of her foggy mind, she's as puzzled as you are as to what happened. You'll learn what really happened when Misty does, and that's when Amy tells her.

Amy's confession of love in the last panel will need to be dealt with at some point as well. Is this just a casual remark or is there more to it? Keep reading to find out.

Can you tell that only the first picture is an original. All the rest of the page uses reused images. Of course, most of them are edited, but that last image of Amy is almost identical to the last panel of the previous strip. Only her facial expression has changed.

I hope you're enjoying the comic so far. There's plenty more story to come, so please come back and check it out every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. I'll put something up on Sunday as well. I've got lots of art to work on.

Comments For Page 408

Well, Racheal's a cat again. Darker and more furious then ever. The stakes are higher this time. Will she come to the rescue or do more harm then good? The meaner she gets the less in control she is, so anything could happen.

Sorry for the late update, but as you can see I've attempted to improve my Photoshop skills once again. I've learned a few tricks from Al Mackey's Photoshop Tutorial this time. He teaches some neat tricks with fur I wanted to use but the update was getting pretty late as it is. Next time, I'll use some of his fur ideas to improve my art further.

This isn't as big of an improvement as last time since many of the techniques are the same, I'm just using them in different ways. The overall quality is nicer.

I also added some noise to the backgrounds so that the colors weren't so flat. The only other option is to draw all the blades of grass, which isn't really an option at all. Maybe if I was doing a poster or wallpaper, but not for a comic page.

Heeeeeere's Amy. Now where did she come from? Up on top of the bridge likely. But why was she up there and why is she falling into Misty's arms? Find out on Saturday.

Once Again, I'm posting my Split Shift info with my ARW post. I had fully intended to put it in it's own post but somehow I forgot again. I was actually surprised when I noticed that I hadn't posted anything. I though I had at least posted the comic.

Flash is nice in that you can color with the fills and get some good drawings done quickly. The edges don't always smooth properly but you can adjust this. The idea of this comic is to have something I can create quickly to fill the time between updates of my regular comic. ARW's isn't as popular as I would like and I'm also hoping that this comic might become more popular. Once I do a months worth of pages or so, I'll see how well it's doing and decide if I need to dump it in favor of something else or start updating 5-7 days a week and bump ARW down to once a week or so.

I want to keep doing ARW whatever happens, at least until I can finish the main story. My art style has really improved as a result of this comic and I like the story even if others don't like it. Maybe a nude scene would liven things up. Nay, I don't really want to go there. We'll see what happens.

Comments For Page 407

Eep! It just keeps getting worse and worst. Is this the end of Racheal? Well no, she is the main character after all, but it is time for her to transform once again. What will she look like this time? Wait and see on Friday.

Toi seems to be doing fine. Don't worry, the tables will be turned on her soon enough when Arlancy reveals his true powers. Totoroi has a few more tricks up his sleeves as well.

I've mentioned before that I set the dpi to 1200 to draw the page but I didn't mention that I have been leaving it at 1200 while coloring the page. A lot of the reason that coloring has been taking longer then normal is due to this fact. Yesterday I smartened up and set the dpi to 300 once all the line work was done. This sped up coloring a lot . I was a bit late getting started yesterday but because of the increased speed I was still able to get the page done on time.


Misty's just a little distracted. She's not normally this forgetful. OK, maybe she is, but she isn't stupid just fogy headed.

Misty kind of an unusual character as she is the combination of three character ideas I had. Each idea was interesting but not really good enough to carry a story. By combining all three, Misty is now a well rounded but very strange individual. You'll learn more about her as the story progresses.

Amy will appear in Thursday's comic. I'll tell you more about her tomorrow. In the mean time enjoy the Meez versions of the two characters found on the main page.

Comments For Page 406

Oh no! Birhena has been turned to stone and Balap has been blasted across the field. How are the last three girls going to deal with this new threat?

This page didn't take as long as the last one. I guess that battle scene really ate up a lot of my time. The only thing that took time to do on this page was the image of Birhena turned to stone - and that had more to do with the computer slowing down while trying to place the stone effect on the skin.

I tried to make it look like she was changed mid-swing. I sort of accomplished that, but it doesn't seem quite right some how. It looks more like she's posing then that she was really in mid-swing. Maybe she should be leaning forward with her arms being pulled by the weight of the hammer. The narrowness of the frame kind of pushed the hammer in toward her more then it should be.

This is the first time you see Oricarl's back, so you might miss the fact that Balap was trying to sneak up behind him, not realizing that Oricarl's skin blotches were really eyes.


Here is the first page of my new Web comic, Split Shift. Misty is a strange character so it may take a while before you understand what's going on with her. Be patient, all will be revealed in time.

In case you can't read the middle panel (I was trying to show that her voice was not normal at this point), it says "I'll fire your trash." Not the best grammar, but it works for the character.

This comic was created in flash and all the objects are symbols. That means I can reuse them over and over in different ways throughout the comic. It is my hope that in a few months I'll be able to create each comic strip in less then an hour and be able to do daily updates. I'm hoping that a joke a day story comic will appeal to more people then my current comic. By creating it quickly, I should be able to work on both comics and still get my other work done. If I get really busy, I might have to drop ARW for a while, but Split Shift should continue as it's simple to put together.

Comments For Page 405

Whoops, Balap got interuped (and nearly killed). We'll have to wait a while to find out why he's magic is stronger now.

Double whoops, I forgot to post in my blog today. I have a million things on my mind right now with the new web comic, Split Shift, starting on Sunday. I was a little late putting up the page and that just pushed the whole day back.

The magic shield spell is kind of simple but it works. I'm still new at doing VFX in Photoshop, so my techniques are a bit primitive. By the time this fights over, I hope to get better at it.

The fight will only last a few more pages. I'm not one to drag things out. Don't expect an easy win for the girls though. There will be at least one casualty before it's over.

Comments For Page 404

Oh no, what is going on with Oricarl? Looks like the gangs in trouble, unless they can somehow defend themselves against magic.

I'm getting better at starting the pages early so I'm not up late trying to finish. Or worst, having to spend the next morning trying to get them done.

I put some secret info on my forum for anyone who wants to look. I will tell you I'm working on a new web comic to do on alternate days with this one. I'm creating "symbol art" using Flash so that I won't have to spend a lot of time drawing the comic. It will take a long time to build up the library to the point there I won't have to draw at all, but I can already see how this will make it easier to create nice backgrounds for every panel with very little effort. I'll need to use all the tricks I learned in animation class, so this will help me with my animation as well.

Not much else to say. I'll see you on Friday.