Ad Astra!

[ABB]

Ok, here it is, Ad Astra #1, the unofficial traveller stuckfigure webcomic.


http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d25/tanhauser/adastra001r.gif

I'm doing it in inkscape .46, and the files are way bigger than they should be when compared to oots images. I also have the same problem with backgrounds appearing black then turning grey upon zoom in that early issues of oots had.

Any feedback is welcome and appreciated, as long as it's constructive and not abusive.

I could also use pointers on inkscape. I do each panel seperately and zoom in on it after creating it as a rectangle. I have no ideas about "layers" yet. This took me forever to get done, most of it spent on the ship and coming up with the jump gate effect, which I'm still not happy with...

[Nameless]

Good art. :smallsmile:

Kinda reminds me of Stargate. :smalltongue:

[Dallas-Dakota]

Only that it's a circley hole. Otherwise it just looks like Warp-travelling..thingy.

And : ANOTHER COMIC?:smalleek: You guys already forced me to stop reading all of them....

[Nameless]

Don't look at me, I was the third to make a comic, I didn't come with the mass'. :smalltongue:

[Lyinginbedmon]

And mine's the earliest still running, with it's own website nonetheless :smalltongue:

The complex ship design kinda conflicts with the traditional Burlewan designs but looks good, hopefully the characters themselves will look just as good when we get to see them.

[Nameless]

Wow, does that make mine... the seconed still running?

...

Yay. :smalltongue:

[Dallas-Dakota]

Yes. I think so....

I'l need a update of this comic to determine the oots quality art...

[Oregano]

That ship looks totally awesome.

And my comic's new but it was before the 4 or so that have posted in the last week.

[Hoplite]

I like it, you do know that you can just shrink images, there is no need to create them as a picture first and put them in again.:smallwink:

If you need any advice on how to use inkscape, I am sure many of us here can help you. I like the start of this though.:smallamused:

[Nameless]

Yes. I think so....

I'l need a update of this comic to determine the oots quality art...

*feels important* :smallcool:

[Dr. Simon]

So... which edition of Traveller are you using? :smalltongue:

Seriously though, looks nice so far. I like the way you made the 'jump point' similar to the Imperium's sunburst insignia.

[ABB]

So... which edition of Traveller are you using? :smalltongue:

Seriously though, looks nice so far. I like the way you made the 'jump point' similar to the Imperium's sunburst insignia.

AHA! At last someone caught that! Thank you!


I chose to make the jump effect look like an imperial sunburst to reflect the idea that the sunburst might partially be based on a jump effect as jump drive makes the imperium possible.

Don't worry about it being "too serious", BTW. The serious writer in my just had to set up the opening, but if/when I get to issue 2 things will get funnier.

As to what edition, that's going to be a running joke. I was thinking of having the team assigned to pick up a NPC or something, then having him start to "fade in" at the meeting point, then suddenly collapse, die and disappear while someone makes a remark about "must have died during chargen", then they have to wait for another NPC to fade in.

[ABB]

I like it, you do know that you can just shrink images, there is no need to create them as a picture first and put them in again.:smallwink:

Um, actually I don't know that, I'm interested in learning how to get the image sized down without losing quality, of course. I save as a png, then covert to gif in another program. I know my images are over twice the size of a typical oots issue, so I'm doing something wrong but have no idea what.




IIf you need any advice on how to use inkscape, I am sure many of us here can help you. I like the start of this though.:smallamused:

"Do I need any advice on inkscape?" As Gene wilder said to Clevon little in "Blazing saddles", "Oh, all I can get." ;)

ANother trick I need to learn is how rich gets them to save on a white background. I note I'm having the same background problem he did in the early issues of oots.

[Lyinginbedmon]

ANother trick I need to learn is how rich gets them to save as a white background. I note I'm having the same background problem he did in the early issues of oots.

Save as a white background? :smallconfused:

Could you elaborate that a bit please?

[ABB]

Save as a white background? :smallconfused:

Could you elaborate that a bit please?

Ah, my bad. I should have said "on a white background".

Look at some very early issues of oots, and you'll see that the panels and title have no background and are whatever color your image viewer's background screen is.

Now look at later ones and note there is a white background surrounding the page.

See the difference?

I think failing saves had that problem too.

[Lyinginbedmon]

Ah, well personally I avoid that in Remember by just having perfectly rectangular borders, but you can also change it by going to Document Properties (Either via the File menu or by clicking Ctrl+Shift+D) and clicking on the General -> Background slide, then increasing the transparency ("A") to 255 to make it opaque.

[ABB]

Ah, well personally I avoid that in Remember by just having perfectly rectangular borders, but you can also change it by going to Document Properties (Either via the File menu or by clicking Ctrl+Shift+D) and clicking on the General -> Background slide, then increasing the transparency ("A") to 255 to make it opaque.

Thanks! :)
BTW, I'll go check out "remember"...

EDIT: I tried your tip and it worked, that helped a lot!

[Shas aia Toriia]

Ooh, I can see this being interesting. I'll read!

[ABB]

Ah, well personally I avoid that in Remember by just having perfectly rectangular borders, but you can also change it by going to Document Properties (Either via the File menu or by clicking Ctrl+Shift+D) and clicking on the General -> Background slide, then increasing the transparency ("A") to 255 to make it opaque.

PS any tips on doing perspective? I'm getting it in some ways but have trouble in others, like for a screen or display monthed on a "slanted" wall, one that narrows down across the picture to simulate depth.

I have poor depth perception, BTW, a major problem here, I guess.

[ABB]

Ah, well personally I avoid that in Remember by just having perfectly rectangular borders, but you can also change it by going to Document Properties (Either via the File menu or by clicking Ctrl+Shift+D) and clicking on the General -> Background slide, then increasing the transparency ("A") to 255 to make it opaque.

Say, do you know how to change the stroke color easily, I mean I can change the fill color just by clicking on a box, but I can't do that with the strke color in inkscape yet...

[Lyinginbedmon]

Say, do you know how to change the stroke color easily, I mean I can change the fill color just by clicking on a box, but I can't do that with the strke color in inkscape yet...

Select the object and then Ctrl+Shift+F and then go to the Font tab.

[Holammer]

Waiting for #2, c'mon you can do it! :smallsmile:

[ABB]

Here is is, Hol, you would NOT believe how many houra it took me to do this, I must be doing something wrong, and then again inkscape tends to gie me problems a lot too, like trying to edit the fill texture on some objects like the vent, wasted hours on it and couldn't do it.

Lemme know if it was worth the effort, I had to make the vargr from scratch as the original concept didn't work.

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d25/tanhauser/adastra002.gif

I'm still obviously experimenting with font types and sizes, any ideas just let me know. I think that font type may be more important that size, right? I like serif fonts for various reasons, but wonder if they're practical here....

Edit: I changed it to a link because the file is big and needs to be that size to be readable. Now I need to work on sizing and such. I wonder what size I should start out at and if inkscape's default is too big...

[Dr. Simon]

Only seeing the first two panels that you posted before in the example thread.

And, yay! Vargr!

[Dallas-Dakota]

To many details.....

[ABB]

OK, here's the two I did while the forums were down, sound off if you want to:

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d25/tanhauser/aa3-1.gif

Still had beaucoup size/scale issues here.

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d25/tanhauser/aa4-1.gif

Starting to get them resolved by now....

[Dallas-Dakota]

Derived from oots style...... Getting a bit interesting and getting a bit backstory...

[ABB]

So, how'd issue 4 look to people?

BTW, as for looking like OOTS, thanks. I take that as a compliment.

I am aiming for some differences, like the square male bodies and the rectangular word bubbles, just because I think they make the strip look more "technological" in some way, and of traveller is meant to be a tech game setting.

Also rectangular word bubbles seem more space efficient to me.

[Hoplite]

Personally, I think the style is too chaotic.

[Dallas-Dakota]

Personally, I think the style is too chaotic.
True, and some rather detailed things. Which is exactly what Rich didn´t want to do with OOTS style, details.(Feel free to point me out wrong if you read this Rich, or any moderator) So it takes more time. To chaotic, especially since sometimes there´s just a inch of head contacting with the body or sometimes almost half the head. And never a neck. Weird....

[Maulrus]

True, and some rather detailed things. Which is exactly what Rich didn´t want to do with OOTS style, details.(Feel free to point me out wrong if you read this Rich, or any moderator) So it takes more time. To chaotic, especially since sometimes there´s just a inch of head contacting with the body or sometimes almost half the head. And never a neck. Weird....

In my opinion, the best thing about the OOTS style is that it can not be more than simple and clean. It's really hard to make a bad-looked Burlewan (<_<) character.

I had more to say, but I forgot it D:

[ABB]

True, and some rather detailed things. Which is exactly what Rich didn´t want to do with OOTS style, details.(Feel free to point me out wrong if you read this Rich, or any moderator) So it takes more time. To chaotic, especially since sometimes there´s just a inch of head contacting with the body or sometimes almost half the head. And never a neck. Weird....


Well, my characters don't have necks, and neither do rich's, so could you clear up what you're talking about a little? I appreciate feedback, but am not sure I'm getting what you're saying.

[Dallas-Dakota]

I tried to mean that how much the heads are laying over the body. Sometimes it´s very little and sometimes its almost half of the head. When Rich moves a head for nodding or looking down, he turns the head. (As in a angle.)

Hard to explain. Sorry.

[Dr. Simon]

Hm, I'm, not seeing anything "Chaotic" about the style. It's a different stick-figure design to OOTS but that isn't a bad thing in itself. There's no inscribed law that says "Thou shalt not deviate from the style of Rich Burlew".
Find your own style, I say. Sure, there's a bit more detail but not to the level of detracting or confusing what's going on in each panel.

I'm liking the little bits of background humour - the "battle" in Part Four had me chuckling. And I like your use of layout, too. The slow pan onto the ship in Part One, The darkening skies mirroring the voiceover in Part Four. The increasing intensity of the sound effects in Part Three. I shall watch thi one with interest.

[ABB]

To paraphrase roy in an issue I'm sure some of you will remember: "Your approval fills me with joy."

I need to get some perspective/angle view techniques down, but I'm working on it.

BTW, the storyline here is called "Red zone blues", in case anyone was interested...

[ABB]

Submitted for your approval, AA5.

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d25/tanhauser/aa5.gif


I hope people get the joke at the end. Let me know if you don't.

[MrEdwardNigma]

I personally didn't get the joke at the end of five, and the laughing at Traveller referees was pretty much lost on me too because I haven't played the game.

I thought strip four had a serious decrease in quality compared to the others and wasn't very interesting plotwise either.

Strip three on the other hand was awesome and even managed to make me laugh, sort of, at the end.

I like the details, but not per se the design of the characters. Then again, that's probably something I need to get used to. Anyways, I like rich environements, like in strip two, where the clock was always showing how much time had passed and where there were several sort of interesting signs to set the mood. The joke at the end of two was pretty lame to me on the other hand.

[ABB]

AA6.

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d25/tanhauser/aa6.gif

[MrEdwardNigma]

Conferences, the solution for everything!

[ABB]

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d25/tanhauser/aa7-1.gif

Getting a little faster at these. Have a lot planned for the series.

[MrEdwardNigma]

Hmmm, so if the captain's right the satellite might decide to shut down the whole ship?

If that were true, why hasn't it yet? I mean, I presume they aren't further away from the satellite than the planet, and they don't have all that atmospheric interference to protect them that the planet does have. Interesting...

[ABB]

Hmmm, so if the captain's right the satellite might decide to shut down the whole ship?

If that were true, why hasn't it yet? I mean, I presume they aren't further away from the satellite than the planet, and they don't have all that atmospheric interference to protect them that the planet does have. Interesting...

In Traveller, the jump drive can't bring a ship closer to a planet, due to gravitic interference, that about 100X the planet's diameter. So, the earth is about 8,000 miles in diameter, so a ship with jump drive would have to drop back into n space about 800,000 miles from earth.

The moon is only 240,000 miles away from earth.

So they're still one hell of a distance from the satt since they haven't approached the planet yet and are still around 800,000 or so miles away.


The satt is probably orbiting romero at a distance of several hundred to a couple thousand miles at most.

Hope that helps....

[ABB]

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d25/tanhauser/aa8.gif

[Lyinginbedmon]

I can't help but notice a distinct design difference between the shuttle the main ship...

[ABB]

I can't help but notice a distinct design difference between the shuttle the main ship...


Well, yes. The ship is meant to be an interstellar vessel, the air/raft is meant to more or less be a flying jeep/truck. It's kind of like the differences between a 747 and an ATV.

BTW, the original air/raft was opentopped, and I was going to use that but it was a lot easier to do the cab version and I've always thought the 'flying jeep" version wasn't so practical for a vehicle meant to operate on a variety of planets and in space.

[Dr. Simon]

Like those droyne.

As for "Romero", I've got either George A Romero (Dawn of the Dead etc.) or Cesare Romero (The Joker to Adam West's Batman). My gut instinct is towards the zombies.

[ABB]

Like those droyne.

As for "Romero", I've got either George A Romero (Dawn of the Dead etc.) or Cesare Romero (The Joker to Adam West's Batman). My gut instinct is towards the zombies.

Your gut is wise, young padawan. Trust your feelings.

[ABB]

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d25/tanhauser/aa9.gif

Submitted for your approval...