Sunday 6 October 2013

#24HCD calibration cobblers

well that colour cover looked fine on my Cintiq, but awful on everything else. I've recalibrated.. lets see if it makes a difference.

#24HCD 2013 - in technicolour


#24HCD 2013 -admitting defeat

Ok, I'm out. I have a shocking cold, and am Mr Wheezy this morning. I did ink up page 9, but it looked so bad I thought I'd best leave the story where it stopped... which is cool as next weekend I'm taking part in a 48 hour code jam, and I plan to finish the story there...
So just 8 pages this year, just a third of the way through. This brings my 24HCD score to 50%, 4 years 2 successes, two valiant attempts.

http://www.wychwolf.com/24HCD2013.pdf


Saturday 5 October 2013

#24HCD 2013 Timeout

Taking a break for a couple of hours sleep, no way I can manage a full 24 pages even with helpful "pro tips" on staying up all night from Dom... Who has sketched out all his comic, and now just had to cobble it together. He's doing something about rainbow farting unicorns and hippos burping missiles... Which makes my effort of demon ninjas look relatively sane.
Anyway. Page 9 is outlined, and I'll pick up again at 5 am... I might manage 16 pages?
My excuse is I'm a bit ill...

#24HCD 2013 Eight Eight and we can skate


#24HCD 2013 7

9 hours in... 7 pages down.
Not looking hopeful for a completed challenge this year.
I may have to play the 'Gaimen" variation and end it when I run out of time.
At this rate I can probably do another 7 pages, but not much more. I may have to change the story... which won't be a bad thing.

#24HCD 2013 6


#24HCD 2013 PAGE 5


#24HCD 2013 - Four


#24HCD 2013 -PAGE 3-


#24HCD 2013 Page 2, Tilgate tentacle terror


#24HCD 2013 First Post

Ok, I'm under two hours in and I have a story, and the first two pages (sorta)
So here you go.
24HCD 2013
The Lucifer Effect


#24HCD 2013 and we're off

So a bellhoy story ...something something giant squid monsters and ninjas... Demon ninjas... And maybe pirates...

#24HCD 2013 Countdown

Everything is prepped for the challenge, I have scraped together 24 sheets of DELETER A4 manga paper, tested a range of micron pigment markers, and warmed up my Mac mini.
Dom has decided he wants to have a go too, which will be a good story to add to his portfolio.

Friday 4 October 2013

#24HCD2013 preparing the way

I'm off today and Monday to prepare and recover from #24HCD.
I've been running this blog for about 3 years now, and seen some 40 thousand visitors, and the most popular post by far is the first post I did for #24HCD 2011, http://www.strangebiros.co.uk/2011/10/24hcd-first-post.html
which is odd, because it's not really about 24 Hour Comic Day, but about my previous career as an illustrator.
SO for #24HCD 2013 I'm planning to relax a little, mainly due to the Glenlivet I'm drinking to fend off my cold.
I'm planning to do a HellBoy story, and have prepared by reading Mignola's 'Baltimore'
The story is ok, the artwork acceptable, but mainly I feel "I could do that"
So  I will.
#24HCD for me starts at about 10am tomorrow.
In the spirit of #24HCD I've no idea what the story will entail, except that it'll have a big red guy in in.



Monday 30 September 2013

#24HCD2013 - crossed with Asylum Jam 2013

I'd signed up for the Asylum Jam a while back, the idea being to generate a game in a 48 hour period from 11th to the 13th Oct, NOT set in an Asylum...
That may seem like quite an open criteria, but in light of the recent Tesco and Asda indiscretions with Halloween costumes, maybe it's not such a bad idea.
SO
I have the opportunity to write my #24HCD comic this weekend, and turn it into a game next.
How can I resist.

Spooky

Saturday 28 September 2013

#24HCD2013 24 Hour Comic Day 2013 - Saturday Oct 5th

Doesn't seem like a year since the last 24 Hour Comic day.
This year I have a bit more kit to call upon in the form of a Cintiq, and a jolly little macbook air. However. I feel like I may go old school just paper and ink. One of the things I enjoyed doing the most this year in terms of artwork was the black and white flip-chart pictures for graphic facilitating the Analytics workshops.
I found the large scale flip-chart paper was really pleasing to use, and the Copic Ciao pens were really fast.
I will check to see if I have enough paper and pen power to bash out 24 pages.

As always the idea is to think up, write, pencil, ink, letter and publish 24 pages in 24 hours, NO PREP, except making sure the pens and paper are ready.

best tidy my desk....


Saturday 14 September 2013

Wacom Cintiq 12 WX testing

I've been meaning to buy a Cintiq for years, so many years that the versions that have been objects of my desire have been revised several times... so I bought the last version the 12WX, not as bright and shiny as the new 13HD, but still the model that has been on my wishlist for a fair while.
Thing is, I've been so busy doing "stuff" I haven't got round to using it till this morning.


So the Wacom is well made, but the bundle of cables and hoohah make for a fair bit of clutter. 
Aside from that it was very much like using my normal tablet... so much so that I'm not completely sure it works better than the normal tablet.
Now I have a bit more time on my hands I'm going to try and finish off the Wychwolf story which has been on hold whilst I've been finishing my degree, which should be a good trial for the Cintiq.

Thursday 11 July 2013

Graphic facilitation

We've been working up some ideas around Big Data, and as part of the process I've been taking the thoughts we've gathered and tuning them into pictures.
Some more successful than others:










Saturday 8 June 2013

Argh me hearties, Paper, from 53

I finally paid for the additonal brush set in Paper... with the aim of  using the books as a quick way of sketching out the gameplay mechanics in "Ninja Dinosaurs vs Pirate Robots" ... I'm not sure it's going to work, but it may well be easier to manage than the sheaves of paper covered in scribbles and doodles...


Friday 24 May 2013

Tentacle Games

I've just registered tentaclegames.co.uk as a domain for a game I'm working on. I've been picking the brains of various Build Brighton folk, and watching lots of YouTube clips, and seem to have settled on either Cocos2D, or Corona... with Corona looking much more fun...
I'll post details when I get the first build done.

Monday 20 May 2013

hand cramps

It's been so long since I've used my tablet, that I have slight hand cramps after working up these images...
New Cintiq13HD is looking very tempting...

Game graphic goodness

I haven't been posting here for a while, as I'm working on a my CS degree, in fact I've just started the final project, in which I'm planning to investigate cross platform mobile app (game) development.
I'm looking at a number of different cross platform frameworks, like Cocos2D-X, and aim to see how easy it is to maintain one central code base, whilst porting apps to Android and iOS.
To do this I thought I'd build a simple "infinite runner" or "platformer" using the characters I designed for the Ninja Dinosaur vs Pirate Robot book.




Tuesday 23 April 2013

St George's Day

Just back from the village green singing Jerusalem, thought it worth highlighting the #24HCD story I did on St George and the dragon...
Available as a free iBook:
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/the-last-dragon/id573251668?mt=11

or a .pdf


www.wychwolf.com/24HCD2012-the_Last_Dragon.pdf





Saturday 2 March 2013

#24HCD 2013 -date set

ComicsPRO has announced the date for this year's  24-Hour Comics Day.
From this year forward 24HCD will take place on the first Saturday in October, so this year it's on  the 5th October. More details on www.24hourcomicsday.com 
I'm wondering whether we could run an event with BuildBrighton and Dave's Comics in Brighton?