Comments For Page 295

Sorry to be posting late again. Things just aren't going as planned. There isn't enough time in the day to get everything done and somethings got to give. Unfortunately that means I need to post poorer quality pages or put in a few fillers so I have more time for my school work. The term will be over in three weeks - not much time to do everything I need to get done.

In order to make the fillers meaningful, I'm thinking of doing a page of other people's characters and sending it to them. With luck they'll put the picture up on their site and people will come check me out. I really need to get more traffic on my site and this is one way that might work. At least it will give me practice drawing other people's characters, which is a great way to develop your own style.

If I don't do fillers, Page 300 will hit right when many of my projects are due. By doing a few fillers, I can push the page into the next week where I'll have more time to do a good job on it. It's a win-win for me that way. If anyone has a character they want me to draw, then I can give a few of my loyal readers a gift as well. Everyone wins!

The way it looks now, Monday will be a regular page. Wednesday will be a filler (It owe Bardsworth a picture for taking his mini-posting window idea and putting it on my own site). Friday is a holiday (Good Friday) So we'll see what happens there. Easter Monday should be a regular page. The following Wednesday will be a filler and that Friday will probably be a filler as well. After that, I should be able to post regularly again.

Comments For Page 294

Yeah, another late entry. Wednesdays are just not good days to get anything done. I really should have started this sooner, but well, I do have school work that needs to get done as too.

How do you like the girl on girl action in the second panel? Okay, so maybe it's not really that erotic, it's still kind of neat to draw.

Note that Racheal's not in the pile because she knows better then to stand under the portal. Ann has wings. So that only leaves Toi. Were is Toi? You don't suppose she's under Bunny, do you? Find out on Friday.

I got my rough 3D animation done, so now I just need to put in a few walk cycles and some lip sync and it will be good to go. Well, there are some other movements that need to be smoothed out and the lighting fixed and, well you can mess with the animation for hours if you wanted to. There is only a few weeks left of classes so I really need to get moving on the project.

See you on Friday.

Comments For Page 293

I got both the new page and a new card up today. I'm doing pretty good so far. We'll see what happens Wednesday. I hope to keep ahead of my work so I can get stuff done, but who knows what will happen.

I seem to spend a lot of time drawing these nice looking static pictures. I really should spend more time animating. Being a good artist is a good thing, but animating drawings is a whole new ball game.

Give me a vote this week and get a nice Obitckert picture and some stats about him. Next week I'll do the elf. Lots of new information about him to find out.

Comments For Page 292

Here's page 292 - soon to be 291 since technically this page should come before the last one. I'll wait until I post on Monday to switch the pages so that everyone will get a change to view the current page before I switch them around.

Anyone following the story will recognise the scenes shown in panels 2 and three. I'd link to the pages, but I don't know if it's worth sending people to the old pages. If you're really interested, it happens pretty early in the archives, so take a look.

Aaaaaaaaagh! I hate my server

Recently my web server put in a new computer to take care of the heavy traffic load, which in itself is great. The problem is that the new computer locks out any ISP address the it doesn't like - and it only takes one little mistake for it to hate you. When I went home I couldn't get on the site at all because the computer hates my home address due due to the many problems trying to log in. Now I just messed up my school account and I can't post from school either. This is so frustrating. Who ever heard of a system totally locking out an entire ISP account because on ONE error. Three errors maybe, but one? I mean if it just closed you out for an hour or even a day, okay. But locking you out forever because of one little mistake? That's just insane.

I can contact them and get it fixed, but for some reason I can never log in from home now. The only reason I could post at all is that I can get in the back door by logging into the control panel. However, at school the control panel has always been locked out by the schools computers. I'm sure it's some firewall issue, since I can't use control panels from any other server either (I edit a site for someone else as well).

* update*

I got an email this afternoon stating that they have changed the FTP site it make it easier to log on, so hopefully this problem will not occur again. If it does, they say they will replace the firewall with one that is a little less temperamental. I can upload to my site now, so that problem was taken care of at least. I hope this won't occur again, but we'll see....

Comments for Page 290

Sorry for the delay putting this page up here. It's been on my main site since Sunday night but I forgot to post it here because of all the work I need to do to make up for the lack of production over the break.

I tried messing around with the design of the wall to make it stand out more without distracting from the main images. Slara looks ready for action in the last panel. That took a bit of work to do.

I'm not sure how long Slara's dress is supposed to be. It looks above the knee in panel 4, but below the knee in panel 5. I'll split the difference and make it knee length in the future. That's the problem with drawing without a reference, things can change sizes and lengths on you if you're not careful.



Comments For Page 291

I know I said that 292 would be the next cover page - and it would be if I followed the story, but I'm just so busy right now, I figured it would make more sense to do the cover now and post a full page in Friday when I'd have more time to work on it.

I'm working on a Renaissance-like painting for life drawing class and used some of the elements from the design work here. This picture actually didn't take that long to put together despite the detail. I like the way the shadows turned out.

Comments For Page 289

Now why is Slara so uptight, I wonder. Find out on Monday when it's finally revealed why the group is in such a hurry to get to Slara's home.

Like the subway train in panel one? See I can do nice backgrounds if I put my mind to it. I suppose I could have reused the train in the other panels instead of leaving them blank, but most of the panels are pretty full as it is and I think it would have been distracting.

Since I'm headed back to school Monday, I'm going to have to find a way to speed up the process of making each page which means I won't be doing too many more backgrounds for a while. Either that, or the whole page will be a background with a few characters and nothing else (similar to what I did on Page 278 - Mega Mall (this is basically the cover for the chapter about the mall, which is just finishing up). Page 292 on Friday will likely be a full page cover showing Slara's homeworld. I need to plan for page 300 to be something special as well. Maybe I'll do a double-page spread like page 200. It will likely depend on how busy I am at the time.

I'll be done school at the end of next month, so if I don't have a job by then you can expect to see a lot more effort put into these pages. Keep reading and I'll keep posting.

Comments For Page 288

Here is the newest page. Racheal is one sly woman, or maybe she's just a little crazy. Either way she had Suzy confused long enough for Ann to come to the rescue.

These high quality comic pages are really taking a lot of my valuable time. Once I get the new outfits drawn a few times, I should be faster at this, but it's really taking a long time to get the look just right. I suppose that's why a lot of artists never change they characters look. Although, I heard that the real reason is that most artists only have one male face and one female face, so the only way to tell characters apart is with their clothes and hair styles.

I suppose it's true that I don't have a set face for each girl, but they are so different in other ways, you can still tell then apart. Ann's one eye is bigger then anyone else's as well, so she'd look different even without the horns. Horese, Bunny, Toi, and Racheal all have noses that reflex what animal they are. The only two that look similar are Angel and Terra, since they both have human features. Terra does look younger then Angel, so I try to keep that in mind when drawing the two of them. Terra is however much older then Angel (older then all the characters except Horese) and has some control of her appearance as well.

I'm really going to try to get some voting incentives done up this week, so I can start putting them up next week. This is your last chance to get the current incentive, though I'm sure anyone who cares has it already. Keep those votes coming.

Comments For Page 287

Look! A new bigger thumbnail image. Now you can see more detail without having to open the web page with the full size image on it.

I was really late putting the page up today. I could blame my service provider for putting new security on their servers so that I need to register any ISP's I use. Since I'm home for March Break, I need to set up my home computer. When I get a job and move somewhere else, I'll have to register that ISP as well. It is a bit annoying.

However, the truth is I was taking it easy this weekend and didn't even look at my webcomic until Sunday night. It took most of the evening just to set Manga Studio up in the new format, so I really didn't start drawing the comic until today. It was just my luck that it would take most of the day to draw and color everything while making adjustments as I went, so it was after supper before the page was finished.

Wednesday's page will be on time, since I'm going to start it early tomorrow. Hopefully, I've gotten most of the bugs out and I won't have any problems getting the page done. I have other work that I need to do and I can't spend all day working on my web comic.

Comments For Page 286

Sorry for the delay. Hopefully it will be the last one for a while. I'm off on March Break now, so hopefully I can get my act together and do some of the things I promised. You'll know by Monday one way of the other.

Not much else to say, except to remind you that Monday will see the girls in their final outfits (Actually I may save some for Wednesday since the page will be pretty crowded with everyone on it. I'll see what happens when the time comes, but expect some final outfits to appear on Monday.

Comments For Page 285

Sorry I'm late posting again. With everything going on, it's hard for me to find the time to get my comic done.

I hope you like the fur coat. I'm not really getting politically correct or anything. It's just the idea of someone who is all ready half animal wearing another animal's skin is a little weird to think about. She does look cute in that coat, though.

Friday is the last day for outfit changes. On Monday, I'll have Manga Studio back into operation which will lead to a new look for the page and a new story for the gang. You'll also see their final outfits as they will be forced to make a decision pretty quickly (Find out why on Monday).

I also plan to start putting some new voting incentives up on TWC and Buzz Comics. There is only a little over a month until School ends for me and I'm going to need to either get a job or start finding ways to entice my readers to support me. That means offering my services as an artist and animator to whomever needs them. I have a new idea for a company to make money on the side, which I'll talk more about as I finalize it and I hope to start offering animated shorts of my web comic to people willing to pay extra for them. I have lots of ideas, I just need to focus my time on getting them done. Voting incentives will be first. After that we'll see what happens.

Comments For Page 284

Sorry for the poor text and other changes to the page. I know I promised some changes, but this isn't what I meant. The problem is that my portable hard drive - the one I keep all my ARW stuff on - crashed and I lost everything I've done in the last three months. That's not too much of a problem since the more important stuff is already up on the website. The real problem is that my copy of Manga Studio was on that hard Drive as well along with all my format settings.

I suppose it won't be too hard to redo all the changes I've done to the settings. I was planing on making a few more anyway. The problem is that my backup copy is at home - 150 miles from here. Fortunately March break is next weekend, which means I can get my backups and have time to work on the formating as well. The problem is what to do until then.

Well as you can see, I decided to keep making my comic without Manga Studio and am using Photoshop instead. Now I'm sure a lot of you use Photoshop and it is great for altering excisting images, but I'm not used to how it works. I spent much of the weekend figuring out how to get the look I wanted and you can see the result isn't pretty. I'll try to do better for Wednesday.

My hard drive was a least kind enough to crash on Friday so that I had time to work on an alternative. Otherwise, you would be looking at a filler comic now of me ranting about my broken hard drive. Did I mention my broken hard drive? my hard drive? hard drive? hard drive? (check out "Stuck in the Drive Through" by Wierd Al if you don't get the reference).

Comments For Page 283

I've really got to start work on these pages earier. I've got a lot of school work to do. Business plans to write, 3D models to build, paintings to design, and web comics to redesign.

That's right, I plan to re-design the webcomic page. I've been meaning to do this for a while, and I want to get it done now before everything gets too crazy. I've been playing around with what the program can do and there are several features that I really should use. If all goes well, there should be a new look to the page come Monday.

Bunny seems to have the right idea about what people should wear on a long hike, but really, would you want the girls wearing flanel shirts and jeans? Well, would you? Because you do get to vote on what the final designs look like. Expect more designs next week and the final designs the week after. Once the designs are done, the girls can begin their greatest adventure so far - the hunt for the twelve! Don't miss it.

Comments For Page 282

Sorry for the lateness of this post. It takes a lot longer to make these pages then it used to. The biggest problem is the new costume changes. First I have to design then, then I have to draw them on the characters. I also need to assign new colors as well. My line quality has gotten to a point that I fuss about every little mistake. What a change from last year.




Here's a picture I did near the end of Feburary of last year. I thought it was pretty good at the time. Ann looked pretty good jumping into the air and riding that monster. Too bad most of the other pages weren't as good.





I'm keeping up with my school work. Nothing to report yet. Maybe I'll have something new for the weekend. See you Friday.

Comments For Page 281

How do you like Ann's new outfit? It's not neccisarely her final outfit, but I though it was an interesting design.

Suzy an interesting character. I'd like to use her beyond this side story but she doesn't really fit anywhere else. Maybe the gang will visit her again some day.

My job interview went well today. I wasn't really prepaired but they seemed to like my work. I'll have to wait to see who gets the job, but I think I have a good chance at it.

Comments For Page 280

Sorry this is so late going up, but it took a long time to create this page for some reason. I think I'm a little out of practice after all the simpler styled pages I put up for the flashback. The other reason might be that I had to draw Suzy different every time she appears. The reason for this will be explained in Monday's page along with a few other things about Plymorps.

By the way, the name comes from Pliable Morpher. I would have spelt it Plimorp but that looks too much like plim-orp and I didn't want people to be confused about the pronunciation. FYI, Slimorp is short for Stimulate Morpher.

I have a job interview on Monday, so I don't know what quality Monday's page will be in. I was hoping to get some stuff done today but that's not going to happen now. I'll try to get a lot done Saturday so I'll have Sunday to work on the next page, but previous experience tells me that's not going to happen.

Comments For Page 279

Sorry that this page is Black and White. I'm experimenting with a new format and it takes a while to set everything up. I'll see what I can do for Friday. I may go back to the old format and then have a really good looking page starting Monday. I'll see how much work I can do on the page format between then and now.

I'm going to put more or my digital art on my Deviant art site (see side bar for the link). Most of them were done using Coral Painter 8, and are very nice looking if I say so myself. Painter doesn't have all the bells and whistles that Photoshop has, but the brushes are amazing. ArtRage 2 is another program I've seen that uses similar brushes and it's only $20 US! I think I'll do my next painting using ArtRage and see how that goes. I'll put those up on Deviant art as well.

Comments For Page 278

The girls have finally reached the mall. What will they find here? What new outfits will they try on? What new look with the girls have when this is all over? You get to deside. Send in your suggestings and design ideas. Post a message about that you like or don't like. All feedback is welcome.

My weekend was pretty quiet. I played this new Virtual Village game (BigFishGames.com) , which was kind of neat. You have to help a group of islanders to survive.

I'll see you all Wednesday when the first new outfits arrive. I hope you like them.

Comments For Page 277

Horese's story is finally done and a new chapter of the story will begin Monday. I plan on changing the outfits of all the girls (and maybe the guys as well), so if anyone has any suggestions or design ideas let me know. I'll probably have the girls try on a few outfits before I finalize anything, so feel free to say what you like or don't like about any of the clothing. Remember the girls are going on a long trip into many different enviroments, so they need to dress appropriately.

Classes have been kind of sporatic lately, so there hasn't been much to do except work on our big animation project - which is good since the term is nearly half over and we've barely got the story finished. My model just needs some blend shapes for facial expressions and it will be ready for texturing. Next week we'll have to start modeling the backgrounds so we can start filming the actually animation. Using 3D to animate is easier once all the models and sets are designed, but the process of creating everything can really eat away at your time.

Comments For Page 276

Have a Happy Valentines Day, everyone. Personally, I'm not one to celerbrate Valentines Day since I don't have any significant other in my life, but I hope those that do are doing what they can to show how much they love their partner.

I had a really busy day yesterday and that's why this post is later then normal. Our class went down to Halifax to visit several of the animation studios there. We went to Collideascope (Flash), Copernicus (classical + Flash), Halifax Film (Maya 3D), and Electropolis (Stop motion). It was interesting to see the different approaches to animation as well as the work ethic of each studio. Collideascope just finished Johnny Test (WB network). Copernicus is working on a new George of the Jungle cartoon. Halifax Film was making Bo on the Go (an exercise show for 5-8 year olds). Electropolis was working on Lunar Jim (another kids show). It was all very interesting and well worth the visit.

I was suppost to have a major project due today, but no one was finished on time so we have it extended until Monday. I should go and try to finish it anyway. See you Friday for the conclusion of Horese's story.

Comments For Page 275

Oops! Horese has fallen over the cliff. Can she survive the fall? Well this is a flashback so you know she does, but what else will happen to her? Come back Wednesday and find out.

Took the weekend off and relaxed so I'm a little behind in my school work. Not much else to talk about.