Creating a new open source comic book universe with Daz3D
mike_42547761
Posts: 129
Hey there guys. My name is MIke. I'm a longtime user of Daz. I have been present around here on the forums for a long time, but only post when I'm really stuck with something. I'm very shy and reserved, mostly due to experiences with online stalkers.
Aanywho, I've been working on creating a grass-roots, ground up comic book universe comprised of public domain, creative commons and open source characters. That means anyone can create their own creative projects that take place in this universe.
I'm one guy and it's a massive undertaking, so it's going to take a lot of community support to be successful.
I'm used to being attacked online and a once bitten twice shy kind of thing, so I don't want to come in here and ask anything of anyone or try to pretend that I am as involved in the community as the people I've been reading and watching take part in the community for some time.
I am a comics and entertainment professional with over 20 years of experience, I've worked for Marvel, Dark Horse and many more.
These days most of my art is digital, created with a blend of CGI and digital illustration with programs like Daz3D, Inkscape, etc.
So, if you are interested or have comments please feel free to send them here or chat me up for more details.
I'm worried that even adding my link here might be bad form, so I'll leave it to another helpful member to comment on whether I should or not.
Hope to hear from all of fellow comics lovers in the near future!
Thanks for your time,
Mike
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2024 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
As a professional photoggraher and digital artist, it's my opinion you should never work for free. Never put your work in the public domain. A good example is pixabay.com. People there are so desparate to say they've been "published" that they give up all rights to their work. I say this because over the years I've had people request free artwork in exchange to give me "exposure." The real truth is these people just wanted free stuff for their projects instead of paying contributors. Even if it's only $5 or $10, you should receive something. It's bad enough out there for PROFESSIONALS having to compete with people willing to WORK for FREE.
As for the usual internet clowns, you don't have to care about what people say or do. Little people who hide behind a big keyboard aren't worth your attention. I have a shadow who keeps following me and posting negative responses when I post something. When this person posts examples of their artwork, it's pretty bad which only demonstrates what is really behind that particular keyboard. Only a moron tries to win an internet p*ssing contest so he/she/it gets ignored.
You are free to ignore and disagree with this post. Because it's the internet. Good luck with whatever passion your heart follows.
Thanks for responding. I totally hear you on not working for free. To clarify, the characters are public domain, but the new comics I make with them are not.
Definately, as an artist, never work for exposure. My motive for this is to prove that we can come up with a better system that doesn't abuse, exploit or steal IP from artists.
Yoiu can see the early material already up at www.mikegagnon.ca
Agree with mwokee and I won't say more than is need. As for what you aim to do, I wonder if it's a sort of content dependent 'engine' or just open source assets based on DS or sth.... more likely it seems the latter.
If it's the latter, IMHO, I think it'll be difficult to achieve... It's not like the open source Renpy project 'cause it's purely functionality-driven. 3D world is always diversified and creativity is almost its core value. Even if there could be a group of great, competent and creative people are willing to be involved, it would be pretty challenging for you to manage such an open source (free) project... I think you know what I mean...
In comparison with such a project, a crowedfunded comic project might be easier, or sth. like that... Just FYR.
If you don't know about him, David Revoy, a French artist, is also doing something similar and speaks about the whole process regularly, so maybe it can be useful to read about him. He his the creator of Pepper and Carrot: all his works is under a Creative Common Licence, done with Open source softwares and he is financing that work through Patreon and similar services.
Hi Mike, I am not sure what you are wanting to do. You say open source universe, yet there is nothing sold at DAZ that can be shared and in my experience in the gaming world, many just use the creative commons, open source or public domain tags as excuses to share assets that don't have the legal right to share (or sell). The only things DAZ related anyone can share would be presets and those are dependant on each user legally owning the same assets to make the preset work. Are you trying to create a community hub for like minded comic artists to share ideas and tips?
I'm trying to create a community for people who love to read webcomics. And don't want to support artist explotation. I am using Daz and other software to create comic books that feature public domain characters. No claim is being made about DAZ assets being public domain. In fact I have in the past and intend for this website, to list any specific assets I use. As well most licesnses for DAZ assets state that additional licenses are not required if using the asset to create flat, non-moving 2D images, such as comic books, but when and where necessary I do and will make sure assets are properly licensed. I've personally experienced corruption and exploitation on a HIGH level in these industries, so that's why I'm trying to do my own thing where no one gets exploited and no one has to worry about frivolous court cases.
Very cool, thanks. I'll check that out!
If so, I'm always interested in such a hub, and for 3D only.
Thanks for the info Mike. Since you posted this at DAZ, it was only natural that I connected the shared aspect with DAZ assets. Good to know you have a plan in place to keep things above board. I have had many experiences where a dev used licensed DAZ assets in a game only to find that the community around the game were sharing any and everything they could and the devs looking the other way. Best of luck with the project!.
You're absolutely right. It's a massive undertaking. I've had to think long and hard about this and I've tried different angles, kickstarter didn't go over. So My hope is that others will like what I'm doing and form a community around it online, as well as incorporate it into their work. Planning to publish some guides soon so that the rules for using each character are explicitly detailed. I'm doing this to pbreak away from being stuck under corporate direction for years. I want to have fun with it. If all it ever is is the small body of work that I manage to produce, that's fine I'm still having fun making comics, but is someone else wanted to use the characters they would be free to do so without having to ask me, and with the right license terms they can sell their work for a profit too, as long as they follow the terms of use.
Part of it is also that it is so competetive out there, I know from experience that you can finally get a gig at a major comic company and still never be given the opportunity to work on your favorite characters. It's frustrating. Many artists never get that claose, with very talented people never breaking in and getting their chance to work on a big name character like Spider-Man, Batman, Superman, etc.
So I want to create an alternative where everyone shares their toys and lets other artists take a shot at telling a great story with them, without having to worry about getting sued by a megacorp. Anyone can create a comic featuring The Phantom, Green Hornet and a number of other classic characters and heroes. If somone wants to come play in the sandbox, collaborate or take their own solo riff, while having it take place in the same fiction universe? Well, the more, the merrier.
Thanks man, no problem, I appreciate it. I've had work stolen in the past too, so I know how it feels.
You are my people.
Hello, Mike.
I remember seeing your post a while back at the 3D Comic Books Tips and Images forum thread (see below). Just thought your proposal for an open source collective sounds intriguing. Perhaps you'd like to share your ideas at that thread. Might rally a few like minded folks to your project.
Cheers!
Hey thanks, I appreciate the heads up, I will do that shortly!
"Branding" wise, all day breakfast seems a bit non-sequitur. That landing page needs some comicbook art to garner some interest.
I think I understand what you're getting at. With commercial comic it takes a team to produce them, a writer, an artist, an inker, a letterer, a colorist, etc. People think that creating a 3D comic should be easy, but it not. It takes a lot of knowledge in difference fields to put it off. No one person has all has all required knowledge, so a team of people with specific knowledge would be the best. But that's where the problem comes in, the people working on "Batman" or "Spiderman" were employee, they did what management told them even if they didn't agree. Without that you would have people volunteers but never shows up; or someone leaves because their idea wasn't excepted; or two members of the team end up in dispute over the direction of the comic. I don't know how you manage this, if you can figure that out perhaps you can put it off.
Absolutely, it's a massive undertaking. I've also been the guy that made comics from corporate direction. Didn't like it much. Thankfully from 30 years of creating art traditionally and digitally, I can handle all of the creative end in a pinch, not that I wouldn't work with other interested artists, but the community, word of mouth, promotion, fan, out reach, moderation, a million other things, I could always use help with.
Right? I just switrched hosts and haven't had a chance to see if I can edit that landing page or make the link to continue without subscribing more prominent. I forget it is rthere because I don't see it when I visit the site. Thanks for reminding me!
I guess I'm not really sure where you're going with this, so I'll tell what my concept of doing this that has been rolling around in my head for years. One person alone has a hard time creating a comic, there's just too much work. That's why it needs to be a group of people (maybe 4 to 6 people). Because you need to get pages out there on a regular basis to keep people interested. Here's my process for creating a comic. First I take blank figures (figures without texture, clothes, hair, etc.) and pose them for the scene with a camera setup. I save the poses and camera and render out the scene, labeling it something like page 10 panel 2. When I have enough rendered scenes, I put together a page (I use Clip Studio Paint for page setup). Once I'm happy with the page setup I take fully setup characters from a library I setup created earlier. Using the saved poses and cameras I setup the scenes once again and render them out. With the finished renders; I replace the earlier render and add in some background. Finally add in the dialog. As you can see this is a lot of work, and quite a lot time. It would go faster if the work were spread round to a number of people.
Lots of good observations and tips there. You can see what I'm doing with CGI at www.mikegagnon.ca