Which style do you prefer for a comic?

genejoke

Or rather, which of these styles do you prefer? Be warning there is blood in one or two of these pages. And mild nudity, but nothing to get excited/upset over.

Rendered, as it comes mostly.
http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Lore/5452997/

Rendered and tweaked, slight blurring of overlay image to soften it.
http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Lore/5466054/

Or poster edges type effect?
http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Lore/5470416/

Personally I prefer the second but it seems many comic readers prefer the third. So, over to you guys.

ShawnBooth

IMO (as a self publishing comic book creator) the first is better, however, I feel your lighting in all examples can be improved a lot. Also, with this style of comic art (3D), the traditional word balloons do not work. They're completely distracting. They don't fit into the page or unify the art. Instead, they clash and distract. I have been working on a different approach but haven't yet found the solution.

The third option you have kinda begs the question, 'why do it in 3D then?'

Again, IMO, your biggest hurdles are the lighting and speech balloons.

FirstBastion

I have to agree, the lighting itself was the biggest weakness for all three of the examples above.

There was a discussion in the Commons about comic book art styles. http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/48578/ There's alot of options out there. Choose the one that best captures the tone and concept of your story. The art used in a dark tale of dread will not be the same style of art used in a young person's adventure tale.

genejoke

Lighting... Yeah that's something I'm gradually working on. Anything in particular jump out at you?

As for speech ballons... I've heard that complaint before but I'm yet to see a decent alternative. In another comic I use the bevel/emboss function in photoshop which gives a pseudo 3D look. Most 3D comics use horrid opaque balloons, which I personally cannot stand.

ShawnBooth

genejoke said:

Lighting... Yeah that's something I'm gradually working on. Anything in particular jump out at you?

As for speech ballons... I've heard that complaint before but I'm yet to see a decent alternative. In another comic I use the bevel/emboss function in photoshop which gives a pseudo 3D look. Most 3D comics use horrid opaque balloons, which I personally cannot stand.

It doesn't appear as though you actually lit it but rather used some generic lighting set up. I'd start with uberenvironment (set to 60% MAX), 1 distant light as the sun and a distant light (set to 20%) going in exact opposite direction as first directional light. Also, work on your camera usage and compositions within your frames. Could be more dynamic overall.

Speech balloons is the difficult part. I'm wondering if a whole new approach is needed. The white filled balloons seem outdated (when considering using 3D artwork). However, I have seen some shaded balloons that look okay.

ShawnBooth

I have been toying with using white text (when appropriate) and losing the balloon altogether with just a line instead of a tail.

genejoke

It doesn’t appear as though you actually lit it but rather used some generic lighting set up. I’d start with uberenvironment (set to 60% MAX), 1 distant light as the sun and a distant light (set to 20%) going in exact opposite direction as first directional light. Also, work on your camera usage and compositions within your frames. Could be more dynamic overall.

I've never really used uber enviroment. for those, they all have lighting. most use the advanced ambient light thingy (can't remember who made it.) I set that lower and add a distant light for out door. the indoor ones... it depends on the setting. On the last page there was several linear point lights and a low set ambient light.

with the white, or high contrast text with a line, I have seen that done well but have never tried it myself.

ShawnBooth

there is also this approach: http://iamuman.deviantart.com/art/Black-Heaven-page-2-188995397

genejoke

That's some fine looking work. I have found that my composition lacking at times. I often get caught up trying to show too much.

ShawnBooth

genejoke said:

That's some fine looking work. I have found that my composition lacking at times. I often get caught up trying to show too much.

Showing too much is fine - camera angles and actual composition are different. Once your scene is set up, find the best angle to tell the story of the panel and then make adjustments to models to fit the composition. Good place to start is the rule of thirds.

genejoke

I was looking at that page from Gods and monsters, very nice looking stuff.

ShawnBooth

Thank you! I can't wait to publish the finished version along with the rest of the issue.

Ariah

I know, it's an old thread, but I love anything connected to Poser/DAZ comics (I used to create some back in the days before DAZ Studio, when all we had was the Dork and Posette, no IBL lights and dynamic clothing... Ah, good times). Every once in a while I'm thinking of rebooting some of my old stories and i come back searching for inspiration.

- - - onto the topic

Frankly, in my opinion, anything goes as long as it's legible (you can actually SEE what's going on in the panels) and aesthetically pleasing (which is subjective at most).

Having said that, the first example you posted is too dark (illegible). It's, as ShawnBooth mentioned, all in the lights.

I much prefer the second option - it's much clearer and the colors work well.

As for the third option, I was never much of a fan of the artificial ink lines (until i found Poser toon preview mode...). So, a no from me.