Month: June 2008

dupdate 080630

[080630]

Ok folks, I’m going to have to pass on today’s update. The story’s a real mess right now and I don’t really want to get anything up until I’ve got it sorted out (again, really) and that’ll take some time. Specially since I don’t really feel like dealing with it atm. Luckily it’s all a matter of text/story.

I got all the drawings for the Part 2 refresh done last week, it’s just a matter of deciding what I want explained and when I want it explained. Then there’s pretty much the coordination of the various chapters such that there’s enough information for the not-so-closely following reading to figure out just what the crap is going on…

The large problem comes down to a lack of planning; I don’t exactly remember what I’ve explained and what I haven’t explained throughout the course of the story and I have to retro-actively go back and change shit such that current and future parts make sense. This process has already been carried out twice at the ends of part 3 and 4 and it just gets more complicated each time.

Initially I didn’t think I would have to make any changes to 3 and 4 in the future, but I feel like that isn’t quite the case anymore, so refreshed (though probably only through text) versions of those will come out sometime in the future as well. Hopefully with the completion of the Part 2 refresh, none of those 3 original parts will have to be modified yet again in the future. But of course, plans and actuality… well…

I’ll put up some paintings later this week if I get ’em done. I’ve got a bit work of going on due to summer class and all, but the ETA for whatever it is should still be before the end of the week. And prolly multiple comics to make up for the days that I’m going to miss comics due to this current story based snafu. So it’ll all even out in the end.

J198 – Legos: Roulette Roulette

[6/24/2008]

Fans of Sandstorm, rejoice!

*crickets*

Okay, erm, whatever. At any rate, if you remember this thing from Sandstorm:

It’s a hover-barge. As I mentioned in a previous update, the idea is that, on a backwater colonial world in a science-fiction setting, these things serve the role that tractor-trailer trucks serve in our society.

Well then, here’s an alternative rendering of what one of these things might look like — In LEGOS! Presenting the Roulette Roulette:

This one, too, seems to be based around a salvaged steam locomotive
(which was based on this picture). This one also has:

Counter-rotating propellers! For stylistic win! And also…

A continously variable transmission! For moar win!

“A continuous whadda whadda?” I hear you ask. Well, a Continuously Variable Transmission is basically a gearshift, but instead of only having first gear, second gear, third gear, and so on, it has (in this case), forwards fast, backwards fast, and every speed in between. For a demonstration, see the movie in this Brickshelf folder (it’s small, I promise).

Props (no pun intended) to anyone who gets the naming reference.

The Roulette Roulette was brought to the most recent meeting of the Bay Area Lego Users’ Group (BayLUG). If you’re in the San Francisco Bay Area, and you like Legos, feel free to come to one of the meetings! (Derek and I probably won’t be there during the school year, but you know how it is.)

What’s that you say? You want a non-Lego update? Fine then, enjoy some maid Grav!

Coloring experiment. And because I felt like it. C’mon, the extra arms/legs would totally help her on the job…

J197 – Some Restrictions May Apply

[6/17/08] I almost updated before Derek again. Then he remembered. *sigh*

At any rate, I found this comic becoming a clone of the panel layout and pacing used in this comic. Gah. And I almost used the same angles for Grav, too. I had wanted to used the same angle used in panel 2 of the older update on panel 1 here, but I resisted … and weakened the comic as a result, because now it no longer feels like Grav is talking to D in the first two panels.

Speaking of angles, panel 4 was an experiment to see whether or not I could draw Grav from approximately a left-side profile view. The main hurdles to this angle, of course, are that I’m not quite sure how that faceplate works and also that Grav, when viewed from the left side, shows no eyes, and so I get to convey all the emotion with the mouth only (not that Grav has really shown any expressions aside from “smug”).

Ah, Grav in panel 3 was great fun though. Gesturing with the metal arms/legs…