POW! - DEEP: Undersea Utopia

[Ilaekae]

http://www.conceptart.org/davi/deepactivities.jpg

Greetings, Puppies...

We are about to embark on a journey of discovery. Where it will end, no one knows. On may 15th, we will begin working on a new topic that will NOT involve a finished comic. A Special Challenge is being laid out by ConceptArt that will involve COW, EOW, CHOW, IDW, and our very own POW! This first part is a test to see if we can make this work. It begins May 15 and runs to the end of June 30, 2008. That's a total of almost seven weeks!

In our case, this will run concurrently with at least one of our own Comic Challenges, which will be stretched to three weeks each AND no longer overlap. I'll wait a bit to let you get started on this challenge before posting our own Challenge 11, which will include GIANT FUCKIN' BUGS, dammit! I am sooooo sick of zombies...

The topic is

DEEP: Undersea Utopia

Deadline: May 15 to June 30, 2008, 11:59 p.m. anywhere on the planet.

We will NOT be doing finished comics. We will instead do sequential pencil roughs, which could take the form of the rough pencils we're used to in comic form (reduced formats), or be done as rough penciled story boards similar to the thing used in the motion picture/animation industry. Remember, these are small rough but readable sketches ONLY. Write notes all over them if you have to to explain anything you thing needs it. No points deducted for clutter. A lot of points deducted for TIRED OLD BAD IDEAS.

The primary focus here is CREATIVITY! Not pretty art. No trite ideas that we can all spit out like sitcom scripts. I want you all to really stretch your imagination to come up with as many ideas for a story line as you can that fit the topic, which is wide open. We will NOT be doing COMPLETE stories, just enough to show the idea to someone else.

The art should be at a high enough level to get the point across, like decent pencil or marker roughs, without getting into extraneous details. I'd like to see an absolute minimum of five (more scores BIG points) very different ideas from everyone who takes on this challenge. This is big people stuff, and it's a major step for all of you towards gaining a solid idea of what professionalism really means.

You will be judged on the overall creativity of ALL your submissions as a whole, not on how wonderful your artwork looks. Submit as much as you want, as often as you want. Just keep it in your own post so I can keep track of it. When we get close to the deadline, Davi will set up a special thread for all the entries from all five Challenge Areas. At that point, we can either repost there, or I'll just move 'em over for you.

************************************************** ******************************

Some notes:

We are dealing with an entire world under the surface of the sea--a Utopia. It can include humans and non-human sentients, as well as other indigenous creatures and all manner of flora and fauna. We're talking about an entire biosphere kind of thing, a complete ecosystem.

Where did it come from? How was it built? How is it governed? How do they make a living, feed, entertain and school themselves? What do they do all day? What happens when a problem develops, and exactly what problems are we talking about? The possibilities are infinite. Go for the Gold on this one.

The other four Challenge areas will be doing their thing with these same guidelines, tailored to suit their specialties. There nothing wrong with checking in to see what they're doing and adapting some of the ideas to your own scenarios. While they're laying the physical possibilities for all the solid stuff, OUR job is to create the possible storylines that would allow their ideas to take on real meaning in a real world. This is creation. This is a thought process. This is going to drive you nuts, and I'm going to really crack down here if you start slipping lazy ideas in.

I want a lot of chatter back and forth...both here and with the other Challenge Areas. In fact, with a nearly 7-week time frame, I'd like to see our people here jump into the other challenges to show those suckers how it's really done, and I'll kidnap some of their puny asses to here just to show them how hard what we do really is.

Does everybody understand what we're after here? If not, ask questions. Nothing is too stupid to ask.

(Why are we doing this, you ask? To see if we can. What's in it for you? The admiration of your peers...and as the project develops into an even bigger mess and really gets rolling, the very real possibility of some really nice prizes. But don't worry about that now. Let's just see if we can pull this off first. Then we'll go from there.)

This could be the start of something grand, so good luck to everyone...

[Boolean]

I've never entered P.O.W before, so I have a few questions:

1) When you say 5 different ideas, do you mean 5 pages with a different idea of an undersea utopia on each page, or do you mean 5 different takes on the idea with multiple pages for each idea? Or do you mean just 5 rough single page ideas with one of them turned into a final comic? If so, how many pages should it be, the standard 2-6 pages?

2) So let me see if I've got this right: We are not doing complete stories with fully rendered artwork, are we just doing rough ideas of what could be turned into a comic, more like the result of a storyboard session rather than the final printed comic?

[Ilaekae]

I'll try to make this as clear as possible. If I still didn't get it across, yell at me and I'll try again.

POW! normally involves 2-6 6x9" pages finished to a pretty high level of art, time allowing.

For this particular event, we're NOT going to be going to "finished art." Basically, we'll just be doing what most of us would consider rough or semi-rough sketches, and quitting there. These could be done at a smaller size as "pages" like a comic, maybe 4"x6" or so, with just enough "info" to get the idea across--general feel, general direction the story is going in, that kind of thing.

As an alternative, you could present your ideas in the form of single panels like a storyboard for a TV commercial or movie. These are small, and fairly rough. If you've never seen anything like this, google STORYBOARDS and at least something should pop up. Each panel would show a scene, the next the next scene in the action, etc., all with the particular angle and size/distance you wanted your characters or environment to be shown at. You're thinking like a movie here, describing each scene as it happens in sequence.

In most cases, you should be able to get across the idea in "comic form" in maybe 2 or 3 to 6 pages. In "storyboard form," you'd probably need a minimum of 5-6 to maybe 10 images, but those images would be easier to do because you're not squeezing the amount of crap onto a page like you are with comics.

The important thing here is the "story." Not details, not worrying about color or specific clothing details or background details. If it's hi-tech, let me know with a few scribbles and maybe a note that it's hi-tech. If it's organic, do the same.

If you just sit down and scribble out some ideas as a list first, it becomes easier to do. What would people do in THIS case? What happens if this happens? How do we have a normal family in a place like this? How do I get to work? What do I do at work? understand? The images will come easily once you get the hang of it.

And you don't have to have a real start and a real finish. We're not so much telling a story as creating possibilities for stories to see if they'll fly...or float.

[Boolean]

^^

And we repeat that with 5 different ideas?

[Ilaekae]

Right. No matter what form you make your presentation, you should end up with five (if you can do it) ideas that are different from each other but all fit into the DEEP concept. Did that make sense?

[Boolean]

^^

Got it! :)

This sounds like it's going to be bloody brilliant challenge.

[vibhas_virwani]

lol , before i read this ... i didnt even know what a panel was :P

[arttorney]

Creativity eh? Are you sure?

[Ilaekae]

...piece o'cake... :P

[Oni Rem]

ok soo i checked COW CHOW AND EOW and there topic with DEEP thing has something to do with what their activity is about so with POW it's like a story line to DEEP: Undersea Utopia?


Edit: so i'm thinking this
COW-creatures of the deep
CHOW-characters of Undersea Utopia
EOW- the environment of Undersea Utopia
POW- story line(?) of Undersea Utopia

and so all of it go together to make an Undersea Utopia??

[arttorney]

Yeah. Pencil up about 5 quick underwater stories in the next six and a half weeks that don't have to be rendered out in exquisite detail. Essentially it's like we've all become a big design team to flesh out the concept of a movie or game, and POW is handling story lines and scenarios.

[Oni Rem]

yeah thats what i was thinking so i'm going to stick with POW since i'll be getting a job and my time will be limited to draw well so with POW it will be easier and fit in with what ever time i have left :D :geekg:

[Ilaekae]

You got it. We're trying to get everybody working in as many of the challenges as they think they can handle, following the rules in those challenges. In ours, we're coming up with as many possibilities as possible to develop story lines from.

The other four challenges deal with parts, we deal with the whole as we see it.

If this were a movie, we'd be the writers and art directors or story board artists. Unlike the other guys, we CAN come up with our own characters, creatures, environments and artifacts/machines. That should make it easy for us to also submit any of our ideas in the proper form to THEIR challenges, presented according to their rules.

For example, if you come up with an idea for a story line about underwater cops, you'd do a few panels of how the story might go in roughish form and enter it here. You could also develop the cop's appearance in different ways and submit to CHOW, and maybe push your idea for a vehicle the cops use to something that could be entered in IDW. Get the idea?

Our part is both easiest and hardest--we come up with story possibilities the way we come up with comics or storyboards and don't worry a lot about the specific details of exactly what everything looks like except to show it's feasible and believable underwater. The more detailed individual parts you want to play with further you enter in the appropriate other challenges.

The more you do everywhere, the more "points" you score over all. Creativity is the primary goal. Detailed execution (which should not be completely ignored) is secondary.

[cAstAwAyLOVER]

This all sounds like a lot of fun. Will definitely try to get to all the challenges since they all seem so great..and will all fit into my schedule since I'll be out of school in 2 weeks..hehe. Can't wait to see everyone's work. Good Luck to everyone!!

[MeTaL-Mike]

cool didn't kow POW existed until now :( will try to do something for this and other parts as well. cool challange!!

[CecelyV]

Quick question: When you said post as much as we like and keep it on a separate thread, does that go for all five areas? For example, for Panel of the week we create our own thread here so everyone can track our progress? Same for creature and character of the week forums? Keep our own thread within those forums, yes?

I just want to make sure I have it right so everything goes where it should. Also, are we allowed to also post in our sketchbooks, or do we need to wait until the challenge is over?

[arttorney]

Post your stories in this thread rather than making a new thread, (I'm pretty sure). Mods will make a different thread later we will put finals into but it doesn't exist yet.

I expect it will get a little cluttered in here so it is probably best to keep each little story vignette confined into a single post.

[Kmadden2004]

Hmmmmm... I stroke my chin with curiosity...

I'll try to drum up a few ideas, and see which ones can be fleshed out into fully-fledged scripts... The mind already boggles... seriously, I can hear the gears turning and everything!

[Ilaekae]

To clarify--

Any post that is meant for POW!, post it here in this thread. We'll sort it out later. To help me keep track of things, post your first images, then post any additional images you add to that same post (if possible) using the EDIT button.

Any thing you do for COW, CHOW, etc., goes in the appropriate section, the way THEY want you to post your entry for them. Okay?

[arttorney]

Break's over everyone! Time to show the slow, and the slow witted, how it's done.

[CecelyV]

Okay, I understand how it'll work now. Thanks guys!

[GRMC]

So its my dream to challenge my self to these threads. i`ll join the POW. i already thinking of my ideas & scripts, yo guys please support me

see ya soon

[Asatira]

This is cool. Going to check out the other threads and see what's up.

[Ilaekae]

A list of random ideas and thoughts...

feel free to steal or modify anything that might help.

Humans: require safe air containment structure of various sizes and/or types.
Humans: habitat could be mobile rather than permanently anchored.
Human and non-humans: Both on earth, with non-human water breathing
Human on alien world: See first two above.
Human and alien on alien world: See first three above

What/How do the inhabitants...
Eat?
Do for "living?"
Establish social constructs like marriage, family structures, raise young?
Why there--mining, colonization, accidental crash landing, lost?
Is there land at all, and if so, how do water-breathers cope?
How is farming/protein (animal), and lack of sunlight handled?
Cope with religion and political structure?
is all development tech/mechanical, or is it also organic adaptation of existing life/structures?
If air breathers, how is safety guaranteed, long range and short term?
Entertain themselves and each other?
Communicate across the air/water barrier, as well as across species if more than one?
How do raw materials get processed, especially those that involve dangerous by-products or high heat?

Add anything else you can think of if you wish...

[LeanneMGardner]

A list of random ideas and thoughts...

What/How do the inhabitants...
Add anything else you can think of if you wish...

A few of these sound similar to my plans. I'm thinking of a refugee formed civilization that is a balance between sea dwelling sentients and human refugees from the surface. The humans bring their technological advancements (ie underwater ships, rigs, etc and help to form their dry habitat). Both the humans and sea dwellers add to the civilization (Humans bring a lot of technology/ships/harvesters. Sea dwellers provide protection for the human rigs as well as offering their natural sources of food.) An idea that I'm toying with is a synthetic amniotic fluid that allows humans to breath beneath the surface while withstanding the pressure of the deep. (With each generation of human births, the dependence on air is lessened and children are often acclimated to the synthetic fluid after birth)

The sources of food are varied, both aquatic plants and animals form the staple. The sea dwellers bring their knowledge of aquaculture concerning both naturally occurring sea plants, and the humans bring their knowledge of fresh water harvesting. (A deep sea aquifer leads to pockets of fresh water in the deep-perfect for fresh water plantations, and the colony's proximity to deep sea volcanic vents provides many nutrients but that's a whole other story!)

The necessities of life are different for both groups in the civilization, but their needs are intertwined. For the humans, their priority is maintaining livable rigs beneath the sea. The sea dwellers maintain a more naturalistic approach, their priorities begin with keeping their colony secured, and keeping their food sources abundant.

"Why there--mining, colonization, accidental crash landing, lost?"
I've been thinking about this for quite a bit. It's a lot easier to explain the existence and survival of humans beneath the sea, but it is harder to create a plausible explanation for a sentient species with human-like intelligence that has evolved beneath the surface. So far, I only know the story of the humans. The first inhabitants were supposedly researchers and divers, some may have found the sea dwellers accidentally. Where our story begins, however, it is many generations since the first humans made contact. Something has happened on the surface of the planet to make it unlivable, resulting in scores of refugees fleeing to the seas.

Right now, I'm working on descriptions of the fresh water and salt water forests and the natural food web. (Hint: Chemosynthesis as a form of energy creation is a great way to support several ecosystems!)

[Sorknes]

I have kind of already managed to make my world (in my head and a few words on a paper, at least), and I'm wondering, with five panels, do you mean that I can like...

- Throw in a couple of panels/storyboards that depicts a little about how it got started (as in a beginning of a movie, then you get... "50 yrs later" after the name of the star actors and whatnot when movie "really" begins...?
- Maybe make a storyboard with a page or two that explains, f.ex. the way you mine, the way a water lock works, or maybe how some kind of annoying bacteria/algae/whatever is removed from equipment/systems/etc and/or other technical things?
- Make something that describes how a vote would go through in a senate/something alike it, how the kids would be parented, how the social life would be maintained, etc?
- Maybe make a pamphlet about things to remember for humans going down to live underwater for a while, or maybe a security pamphlet like the ones you have on the planes, or maybe just a drawn thing for people to learn how an underwater toilet works - so they don't flush out themselves?

...as well as doing comic and storyboard telling towards a proper told interesting story?

And if I get this right, I can like... make a couple of panels describing, say the first meeting between species, the first building of an underwater base, or maybe an accident happening, but without telling the whole story, but just getting the point through about that particular part of the story/scene?

Am I getting this totally wrong, then please yell at me. *lol*

[Naomi Ningishzidda]

omg I just came up with my idea and its so pervy

[Kmadden2004]

Well... I've been thinking about this for the past few days and one thing that dwells in my mind is what exactly is a utopia? Y'see, I come from the Slavoj Zizek school of thought that utopias are, on the whole, impossible.

A utopia, by its very definition, is perfect. And, in my mind, you can't get perfection without sacrificing something. For example, if it were a peaceful utopia where there was no war, then that means there can be no conflict on any level (from international incidents to children squabbling over crayons), which means everybody agrees with each other, which means there is no room for individuality. Which means, subversley, a police state of sorts.

That idea of 'sacrifice for perfection' is the one theme that's been running through my mind on a continuous loop since this challenge first appeared...

I'll just have to go away and see if I can form a story around that controlling idea, I guess. I just thought I'd throw this thought onto the table for scrutiny.

[Ilaekae]

I tend to agree with your line of thinking. Maybe also approach the idea mentally as an "attempted" utopia which would give you two contrasting alternatives.

ADD: Since the challenge allows for a "non-human" character-based utopia, one of the possibilities I've been playing with is a perfect utopia meeting an imperfect utopia and co-existing--one a hive mentality versus the "disorderly" human utopia... A hive style existence would be the closest thing to what we consider a classic utopia possible in real life.

[UCT]

omg I just came up with my idea and its so pervy

do not stray from our expectations of you. :P

[Ilaekae]

The hentai version of Ragnarok has already popped into my head... :P

[LORD M]

The hentai version of Ragnarok has already popped into my head... :P

wat :oneye:

[Ilaekae]

It's a manga joke. The hentai version of a Japanese story called Ragnarok has 90% of the population female, 10% male, as well as humanoid droids, so the humans walk around with their (typically huge and perky) boobs exposed to prove they're real humans.

[MeTaL-Mike]

It's a manga joke. The hentai version of a Japanese story called Ragnarok has 90% of the population female, 10% male, as well as humanoid droids, so the humans walk around with their (typically huge and perky) boobs exposed to prove they're real humans.

Boobs?? :D cool!!! :D

I've been doing some panels about how the utopia has come to be. but am still playing with some idea's. will upload what i have soon, keep forgetting to scan it.

Fuck man, i really can't forgive myself for not knowing about the POW, how could i have missed it???? :(

[Naomi Ningishzidda]

I'm working on mine, gotta do the script though before it gets complicated and I have to ad lib

I was working on colors for some of the enviro's and characters, now i think I have a good idea of where I want the panels to go and how to portray the world.

[S.C. Watson]

I would tell you my plans.

But then, I'd have to kill you.:geekg:

[MeTaL-Mike]

should we like post our progress?
or just do it when we're finished?

[Ilaekae]

Whatever floats your boat. WIPs are nice and sometimes help get others off their lazy butts... :P

Just post in this thread. I'll move them myself when we get into the final stages.

[Naomi Ningishzidda]

I'm still struggling through my story actually, it's like I come up with a great idea in the shower and then I forget it, plus there's technical aspects of ancient Mesopotamian history I've been getting hung up on over at Enenuru...

I bought some comic books to refresh my memory though :P I had forgotten how yucky the muscles on the guys looked D:

[Naomi Ningishzidda]

First shot, I had a 7 hour wait at the mechanic so I finished a full body CHOW sketch and some of this. How tempted am I to put a spider gag in her mouth?

Waaaay more to come :sungod:

[MeTaL-Mike]

Cool!

here's what i've got so far. I think i'll end up with much more pages than i thought. have to hurry with this.

http://www.molszak.nl/conceptart/powp1.jpg

http://www.molszak.nl/conceptart/powp2.jpg

http://www.molszak.nl/conceptart/powp3.jpg

[Naomi Ningishzidda]

good idea using the arrows like that. i like the clouds and the planet cuts. Are you going to color and ink? I want to so bad, but I might have to make some cuts to the other activities and just stop the design process so i can polish up what I've got.

Oh this activity makes me giggle. I should do this more instead of that time gobbling Sims 2 game, I can make my own damned stories by hand and practice my #%#@%ing drawing

[Rist]

I might join this although it migt be tough (I never do this kind of thing).

[MeTaL-Mike]

well since details are not a must on this one i'm going to concentrate on the story first and see what time i'll have left. i do want to polish this bit more. this is super drafty :D

color is my curse so don't know about that :D:D:D:D

[Naomi Ningishzidda]

maybe just some nice blue transparent glazes or something like they did on the Star Wars painted comics, nothing fancy. I love color so I plan on workin' it...this POW thing is a blast, It's kid of cool, doing the stuff I did back in highschool with actual drawing skills..

My question is do they ink first or color first? I was thinking color first...layers in photoshop must have changed a lot for the comic industry, however...

Well I hope I can get this done, it's a big challenge, but also the most oppurtunity to lay out the story for sure...

[Rist]

1. pencil sketch
2. clean up with strong lines (i.e. inking)
3. place that layer onto a multiply blend mode and then make a new layer undernieth.
4. Paint your colours on the layer undernieth.
5. making a mask on the inked layer and then masking out areas makes it look like the inked areas are broken up and have various line widths.

N00b tip: change opacity so you can see under that think line work and make your colours clean.

[Sir Bret]

I've never really looked at POW before, just COW and ChOW; and EOW, for this one. I'm probably going to enter this one - I have a Daler and Rowney sketchbook all ready for it. :D

After exams are over, of course... just two more weeks... and I can artify!
I'll probably link one of the ideas to my EOW, just so I can flesh it out some more.

[DoomMatter]

what monsieur madden seems to forget is that this is a) this is conceptual art and you really don't have to think QUITE that hard on it. and b) a 'percieved' utopia is a very common place for stories to start but they rarely stay that way, because conflict is necessary for story. we can all hope for a utopia where mankind has learned their lessons about war and bickering. i think one with an uninhabbitable surface (as a result of war) lends a VERY compelling reason for both under water habbitation and an understanding of why fights can't happen. people don't NEED to be TOLD not to fight because they're all stuck underwater from fighting in the first place?

[Naomi Ningishzidda]

A couple of observations: I tend to get frozen in between the narrative and the dialogue. I know most comics are not written, pencilled, inked and colored by the same person, but some are. How does one manage the dialogue. .Does it help to picture it like a movie going on in your head? Or is it best to treat each frame like a composition in itself? How does one decide on where to place frames or decide when to throw in a big splashy beauty shot that covers a whole page?

These things I want to know...I'm watching how they're doing it in Spawn:Godslayer and some of the Marvel releases this month and it seems like with Spawn there's more artistic leeway whereas with Marvel it's very cut and dry, and structured...

There also seems to be an abstract use of color montages where a whole page is like geared more towards art than the story itself...

thought, thoughts, yes please?

[Ilaekae]

You're pretty much on the right track by "viewing" it in your mind like a movie, with the dialogue and narration (if any). Just play it over and over, refining it as you go. When you have a handle on it, scribble out the copy and take a look at it in the context of the images you were coming up with. Who's saying this...or this? Are they interacting? If so, they belong in one panel. Is the main character mentally "talking" to himself about a sequence of events? If so, the visual panels should be done to make his thought process obvious.

Once you get this far, you'll discover you may not need all the images or text you thought you did, because one or the other alone makes the point in the sequence.

Example: Giant crab walks by. Thought: "Damn! I hate crabs!" These obviously belong together. Note that we probably wouldn't KNOW he hates crabs/cops/his boss/taxis otherwise...

Mermaid "strolls" by. The look on guy's face says it all, so you don't have to have him thinking, "Whoa! Great tits!"

Extremely complex set ups that require explanation probably work best as just a lot of copy broken up into three or four smaller pieces per page to make it less boring to read, while the art underneath shows overviews, sets up a scene to come, or gives the reader a sense of atmosphere. Just try not to DUPLICATE copy with art. It's boring and a waste of paper. They both should work together to create a bigger, more informative whole.

Any of that help?


ADD: Keep in mind that on this particular challenge, you don't necessarily have to work speech balloons into your art. We're dealing with an idea in rough form, so you can have a string of panels with the text above and below with a line just pointing to the character if it's specifically speech. You can even insert notes like "Looks pissed off..." or something like that.

[arttorney]

Sequence 1
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Sequence 2 has a little tentacle action. I hope nobody gets too turned on.
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Here is sequence 3 because I got bored at work.
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Sequence 10:
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[mickeymao]

I was thinking about a new episode in Gulliver's Travels, where Gulliver's ship goes down and he ends up in an undersea utopia that somehow parodies or makes commentary on our screwed-up society. I probably won't have time to really get into it, since I'm in the middle of laying out a 240-page book, but I can at least think about it. So, what to satire? Perhaps something about our waste disposal habits, or our penchant for lying. I keep thinking that one way a utopia could be possible is if everyone could read everyone else's thoughts, so maybe the inhabitants are telepathic mer-people of some sort.

[mickeymao]

Folks who are doing a lot of wordless stuff -- it can be confusing, especially at this rough stage. To help us decode what you're trying to show us, and thereby help us give better feedback, some description or notes (such as Ilaekae mentions, and Arttorney used) would be very helpful. It may even be helpful to outline your whole page/story with notes describing each shot before you draw, so as not to trap yourself in an awkward drawing or page layout before you've even established where you're going.

[Naomi Ningishzidda]

I need a good place to get comic fonts - nothing cheesy, I mean stuff like you would see in a Spawn comic or something, anyone got any useful links?

edit:

oops nevermind found a link:

http://hans.presto.tripod.com/links004.html

hehe oh, I see, I'm going to be hand-lettering, how quaint!

[arttorney]

If you grow tired of that, there are plastic lettering guides (like stencils) you can buy down at the art store. They get the job done pretty quick.

[flashrabbit]

http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p97/DkJunior/DEEP_flashrabbit_pow1.jpg
http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p97/DkJunior/DEEP_flashrabbit_pow2.jpg
http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p97/DkJunior/DEEP_flashrabbit_pow3.jpg
http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p97/DkJunior/DEEP_flashrabbit_pow4.jpg

Here is what i got so far. It makes no sense now when its unfinished (if it gets finished ;/ )
but its going to follow the characters as the story unfolds.
A day in utopia , jumping between scenes until an big event brings their collected attention.

[mickeymao]

Nice work, flashrabbit!

Ok, here's a beginning of my Gulliver idea, to show where it's going. It would be about 12 pages long, which I may not have time to lay out :(

This is how I do most of my book layouts now, drawing directly in InDesign. It isn't the most facile drawing program, but it gives maximum flexibility for making changes.

>> EDIT: New, slightly darker direction for Gulliver. I like how Swift reverses the social order in the Houynyhyms story, and I want to do something similar here. The Atlanteans, though their society is perfect and lovely for them, are not at all sympathetic toward other creatures. They 'fish' for humans and other land-dwelling creatures, and imprison them in a giant air-filled terrarium for their own amusement and edification.

Social commentary will occur in the fish-men’s responses to Gulliver’s objections, pointing out that he has no moral high ground to stand on because humans keep intelligent animals in captivity all the time (plus lie, cheat, steal, kill each other, ruin the environment and so on -- none of which the Atlanteans do).

Adventure (which was missing from my other idea) come in the form of Gulliver trying to escape a seemingly impossible prison.

http://www.garethhinds.com/ext_post/DEEP_MickeyMao_Gulliver1_01.jpg

http://www.garethhinds.com/ext_post/DEEP_MickeyMao_Gulliver2_02-3.jpg

http://www.garethhinds.com/ext_post/DEEP_MickeyMao_Gulliver2_04-5.jpg

http://www.garethhinds.com/ext_post/DEEP_MickeyMao_Gulliver2_06-7.jpg


My DEEP designs:
POW (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1813281&postcount=57)
CHOW (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1808871&postcount=367)
IDW (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1813295&postcount=3)
EOW (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1813307&postcount=9)

[mickeymao]

I'm making a separate post for my Sci-fi story. Here's a taste.

http://www.garethhinds.com/ext_post/DEEP_MickeyMao_scifi_page01.jpg

http://www.garethhinds.com/ext_post/DEEP_MickeyMao_scifi_page02.jpg

[Naomi Ningishzidda]

I'm just you know, playing around with the lettering, I think I'm going to weed out what I like and use it consistently - right now I think a drop shadow effect might work better. I do like the handwritten letters more than the typed ones, and I tried both. this seems to work.

I have 4 more panels in this story finished but not colored and two more stories in the works...stay tuned. im being a perv. right now.

http://www.dazimua.com/images/CA/DEEP/panel2.1.jpg

http://www.dazimua.com/images/CA/DEEP/panel2.2.jpg

http://www.dazimua.com/images/CA/DEEP/panel2.3.jpg

http://www.dazimua.com/images/CA/DEEP/panel2.4.jpg

[Naomi Ningishzidda]

lettering is pissing me off

how do you learn lettering?

http://www.dazimua.com/images/CA/DEEP/coloredpanels/panel2.5.jpg

http://www.dazimua.com/images/CA/DEEP/coloredpanels/panel2.6.jpg

http://www.dazimua.com/images/CA/DEEP/coloredpanels/panel2.7.jpg

[arttorney]

Don't worry. These can be roughs.

Like other things, you will probably just need to practice different styles of lettering in different media until you find what works for you. Maybe you could buy a calligraphy book and scan fonts you like. Then with lasso tool you can create 26 custom letter brushes that you could then make into different colors and sizes. I'm just talking out of my ass here, because I know my own lettering is nothing to get excited about.

[Naomi Ningishzidda]

I think the calligraphy brush is working really good

also...I don't know how to make brushes in Photoshop. i tried to figure it out once but no luck so far, do you know a tutorial to do that?

[arttorney]

Bumskee goes through that in this thread: http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=47859

[arttorney]

I think you would have to be super patient with the lasso tool so it always cuts a uniform rectangle around the letter. When you apply the brush it won't just place the letter but will also place the rectangle of background color. If they are even rectangles it will be easier to make the letters look OK as you install them next to each other. Other people can probably tell you better ways. I suck at digital.

[flashrabbit]

Updated with two more pages :)

[Saturns Gate]

Heres mine:

(sorry about the text being so small, accidentally saved the whole thing smaller then I wanted. Doh! Ran out of time though. :( )

FULL SUBMISSIONS HERE! Clicky (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=114128&page=6)

[Newbs]

This is a begining sequence my story centers around some sea witches in conflict with humans. the sea witches live in thermal vents that the humans are mining. i never got to that point with the POW, but there you have my idea.

[Naomi Ningishzidda]

Ok no final burning, im just gonna post these here then all together until it's up....

http://www.dazimua.com/images/CA/DEEP/deepthumbnail-pow.jpg

403113

403115

403117

403118

403120

403122

403123

[Naomi Ningishzidda]

Oh the 8th one, where she comes back from the astral is very perverted, but I didn't want to disrupt the challenge...

Still I can't imagine a Utopia without sex :( :( ?:|

[S.C. Watson]

I don't really have sequentials, as this didn't pan out that way. But there is a coherent theme through the entry. I guess I could argue that the story here is more about the planet and the people than a given individual or caste of characters.

This constitutes my entire entry.

All the best, and good luck to everyone!

~Oreg.

[prepsage]

Full Entry here (http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=1821859#post1821859)


Excerpted from Conversations with My Great-Grandmother, the Last Witness :

There once was a time when our people lived next to water -- not in it or above it, not dominated by its whims. Water, in those days, was contained. Imagine walking away from all this water, walking so far away that you cannot even see it anymore! You have known nothing except this world -- you cannot imagine that.

Back then the world was far more complex. For there wasn't simply the plants and creatures of the deep to discover, but the inhabitants of land as well. And it happened one day that the scientists of our ancestors decided to ask the gods questions -- fatal, foolish questions about the mysteries surrounding them.

They pushed, child, they pushed and prodded. Their curiousity crossed lines. The gods were not pleased at their attempts to learn things they were not privileged to know, and lives were taken to show this. But the scientists continued to test the patience of the gods as far as it would go, which isn't very far for all their infiniteness. It is good for you to remember that. Because eventually, with a shock of light, the gods finally answered -- and the scientists were taken for their nosiness.

But their assistants and laborers on the Minerva -- and we, the children of their assistants and laborers -- were plunged into darkness before finding ourselves very close to this world that we now call Meridia. So close were we, child, that the blue was all I could see out of the pod window.

You are familiar with the strength of this planet: the gales, the angry-dark clouds of the approaching tempest, the waves bigger than life itself. Well, dear, her embrace is just as strong, just as immense: she pulled us in, as we say, and it is doubtful she will ever let go.

Excerpt written by:
Tess-Tricks (http://tess-tricks.blogspot.com/)

http://img67.imageshack.us/img67/1156/charsheets2newux2.jpg
http://img68.imageshack.us/img68/2820/charsheetsrg8.jpg

[LateNiteHype]

This challenge takes me back- I haven't drawn comic panels in YEARS. I can't believe how much thought I put into this whole challenge. It was a very good exercise. Good luck y'all.

Anyways, these few pages show the oracles presenting the return of the INFINITY BEAST (see ChOW for some character background)...

[GriNGo]

My submissions here: http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1821993&postcount=234 .
This turned out quite short (I wanted it to be like that), and i hope it's understandable:

[davi]

Entries are now closed.
Thanks everyone for your dedication to DEEP!

We'll be putting up the open-judging polls as soon as we can, As for the Judging, that may take a bit of time since how much has been entered for the competition.

Cheers.