Comic 18: Shadows and Dust

Friday! Comic 18 day! Woop woop wooooopppp!!!!
This is a good one. Oh yes indeed. Oh myyyyy.

120 pages: you'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll wet yourself. There's plot, but it's not slow. There's love, but it's not cloying. There's boobies and willies and bums and all sorts of nice moist things that go squelch.

Enjoy! Let me know what you think!

DOWNLOAD FOR FREE >>>
(or from g.e-hentai here)

Lovely to have this out by lunchtime, eh? You're welcome; a little gift to the world from sunny England! Cor blimey mate!

Just rendering the cover...

So after much deliberation (ie. none, it just seemed right about 6 months ago or whenever it was I was pondering the plot), the next comic will be called ... Shadows and Dust.

< This is part of the raw image for the cover, rendering out. I tend to put slightly more effort (& raytrace bounces, all that tech crap) into the cover for obvious reasons. Can't be doing with depth of field for most of the comics pages; places to go, people to see. But for the relevant pages and the cover, depth of field adds some lovely ... well ... depth.

Looks from the progress of the render above like I'll need to sort out the tomato-coloured light on her face, but that's no biggie.

Anyway, back to the comic title: it'll be clear from the plot why it's 'shadows and dust', and I've done the usual thing of obsessing over lighting to really get into the chiaroscuro mindset - kinda difficult because you're always tempted to add more lights and reveal more of the object you're rendering, but I guess that's sort of the trick; knowing when to stop.

Not that I know, but it does make lighting this stuff an interesting challenge in discipline.

Not that I have any of that.

So, update-wise, I still need to photoshop the little errors and improve the contrast on all 120 pages, so seriously don't hold your breath, but given a few days peace and quiet from the tumultuous craze of my life we could be seeing the final comic online by ... well ... Friday/Saturday maybe? Be nice to get it up in time for the weekend, eh?

Definitely by next weekend, anyway.

The final straight

The closer she gets, the harder I become...

Heads up - we're nearly there - 105 pages done! Yeeaaaayyyy!!!!

Just need to do about 10 more renders and put together the last little bits and POW! It'll be new comic time :D

So this one [as always] is a bit different. There's no real consistency is there? I mean there's a bit of character consistency between my comics I think, but like some of the comics themselves are all-plot [Spymaster], some are all-boobs [Fairy Good Deal, Bum Deal], and some are kinda weird daydreamy sequences stitched together [Breakfast in Tacspace, Daydreaming, Pilot Plaything]. This is a new type of comic, where the first half (like 40 pages or so) is all plot, and the second half is ALL TITS. Wow, imagine a whole spaceship filled with tits and you open the airlock door wondering why they haven't been communicating and then there's just like this tsunami of breasts pouring through the hatch and you're like AARGH!!! Scifi is hard yearrghhh!! Make it staahp!!!! DO NOT WAAANT!!!

But I digress: HALF PLOT! YEAH WOOOOP! "We freaking love plot!", I hear you cry. And yeah, plot gives me a major boner too, I know what you mean. Damn, if only more sexy comiccy things were just pure plot and chatting and arguments, wow we'd be having so much more fun I can tell ya!

OK I'm being sarcastic, nobody likes plot when they're after boobies and willies, but listen it's all part of the story, this one.

And anyway once the background's setup, the build-up gets some explanation; the words die down and the clothes drop off, and the serious stuff begins in earnest.

Funny thing about 40 pages of no sex, though, let's face it, is some people are going to flick through the comic looking for some quick pr0n, and be disappointed. Their nursed semi will disappear by page 10, and by page 20 they'll be like NOPE. I have to admit it gives me great pleasure not to care about that, safe in the knowledge that my real fans will read on, get drawn into the strange little spacey world I've conjured up, and then the payoff will begin.

"Shit. Guess I can keep it in my pants one last time."

Couple of things to note [slight spoilers]: (1) Ix and Xho do not get it on properly in this one. Sorry about that. Just a little more flirting to make the main event more believable. OK and a little bit of touching. Remember touching and your heart sets your face on fire? That. (2) I didn't really have space to go into what happens with a couple of the crew members who haven't met before, but there's some nice suggestion if you read slowly. (3) I'm aiming at finishing this plot thread properly in comic 20, so each comic [18, 19, 20] has to fit certain things in before we're free and onto more independent whacky plots [thousands of Ixes, Tom's birthday surprise, stuff like that], so don't expect too much craziness.

Do expect boobies, willies, bums, kissing, little hints of things that aren't explained but will make sense later, full-on intercourse, tentacle sex, some horsing around, stupid gags to do with English politics, some major teasing, pinched bottoms, and a lot of fudged physics jokes.

YASSS!

Oh, also, don't sit here hitting refresh all night: it's going to take me at least until next week to finish it so don't get too excited yet.

Derp-ression

Ah, this time of year is so dandy, eh? I've had my fair share of moody bluesy January/February sad times, but this year hasn't been so bad.

Well it has been a little bit dark, which is why the new comic's not out yet. Basically I've had lots of opportunity to complete it and plenty of time and would like to get it done, but then those grey skies and windy trees [in my brain] whisper to me, they whisper much.

And they say "Hey, PB, don't lift a finger, don't open your laptop, just sit there and scratch your butt. A little lower. Lower. A little lower. OK do it from the front. Come on, both hands now, do it properly..."

Which is never very productive. Until I have a MASSIVE amount of work on, like I have this week, and then my brain is like "Hey PB, you know all that stuff you have to do? Don't do it! Your laptop's open; do some work on the comic instead!". So I've done that and here I am writing a blog post for the first time in ages, and now I'm probably a few weeks away from completing the comic too haha!

Yay!

This is assuming I don't get into massive amounts of trouble for not completing my work, because if that happens then I'll have to do even more work, and the comic will slip and slip. And not in the good way. Not in the trouser-filling, skin-stroking, suggestive, intimate way that some things slip and slip. No sir. What the hell am I talking about? I've lost myself and I'm the one doing the bloody typing.


Sooooo ... skip the blue text if you don't want to read about mental health :)

There's always sad suicide stats for this time of year - particularly for young men - and as there's a huge proportion of young men who read this blog, it's worth chatting about eh. Why don't bloody blokes ever open up about this stuff anyway arrgh! More hugs, that's what's needed. Hugs and boobs. 


Basically I've got my own story of self harm and MH issues, but through discussion with a few girlfriends a while back, things have changed for me - I managed to break through a bit of a cycle. This is good! And a nice story. So this was the cycle: (1) I'd do something crap [like hurt myself somehow, let's not go into details] > (2) Feel like that was stupid and I am therefore trash > (3) This is at odds with the good things I do, therefore feel **total turmoil** inside, therefore go back to to (1).

This sounds like a stupid cycle, but the truth is it's very easy to ride that negative spiral for a few years, it turns out, and despite all the intelligence in the world, it's very difficult to fix. If anything being pretty intelligent makes it harder because you're like "I should be able to fix this and can't! I must be total garbage!". But I learnt that one thing doesn't have to lead to the other.

Something wonderful happened. I guess about a year or so ago I learnt (through friends and, subsequently, counselling) that you don't need to fix any of the points (1), (2), or (3) - you can just prevent them from leading onto each other, and then the points lose their power and eventually just piss off. For example, instead of doing (1) and that leading to (2), I'd think "Hey yes that is a weird thing to do, but it's also pretty common, and not a bad way to express turmoil, because turmoil after all IS BAD, so (1) DOES NOT prove the theory that (2) I'm trash. Cycle broken temporarily, done.

And at other times when I'd feel like trash, or randomly want to hurt myself, or just have this unexplained turmoil going on - by disconnecting (1) from (2), and (2) from (3), through deciding that the logic didn't need to lead from one stage to the next, it totally took the power out of the cycle.

Magic. Amazing.

Anyway, it really affected the way I processed complex feelings about myself, because one thing no longer led to another but happened in isolation. So if I was feeling super down, I'd think "This is ok, it will pass, it doesn't mean I'm stupid, I actually do have value. No need to go to (3)". Which sounds really obvious, but in practice can be very difficult to do when you're in it. And if (2) did accidentally lead to (3), I leant to realise that didn't mean total failure, just an organic thing from which you could move on.

So there we are. This last year has been full of more joy, more freedom and more OK-ness than any year for a long time.

Finally on this subject, if this is at all relevant for you and you've never spoken to anyone (BLOODY MEN TALK TO SOMEONE OR I SWEAR I'LL COME AND KICK YOU IN THE SHINS), I'd totally recommend talking to the doctor. Doctors are amazing and mine pointed out they deal with it all the time for all genders/ages and it doesn't mean we're trash that should die, it just means we need to dismount from the NEGA-PONY, and here's how blah blah blah blah.

I put nega-pony in capitals because I like the idea of it being the nega-pony who carries unsuspecting people to bad places.

So my doctor and my close friends were totally cool talking about it; and talking really does help. And if your doctor's a dick about it, or makes you feel slightly like it's your fault and you should stop wasting their time, just go straight to reception on the way out and ask for an appointment with another doctor. Some doctors don't have a clue about mental health in the same way that some plumbers rob from their clients - just try a different doctor, seriously.

Anyway it's getting sunnier. The seasons are warming up a bit. The blossom's nearly here. My next comic's almost nearly here too. Good times.

Having done all the speech-bubbles on the upcoming comic, I've noticed there are more question marks than ever before, in this one. So that's something to look forward to as well; ample punctuation. Phwoarrrr I love a bit of punctuation, mmm chukka-bawm-bawwwmmm. Seriously though, there are loads of question marks. I have no idea why? < AARGH THERE'S ANOTHER ONE

There's also 90 pages complete now, which is good, and renders for a further 5 done, which is also good. In fact I only need to render about 20 more images and we'll be good to go. And I know what the title's going to be, so we're ahead of the game there too.

Other things, what else eh? Well, things in Bellerophon World continue as normal despite the grey winter months dragging the heck out of everything. I'm in love, which is nice. I have a fairly good opinion of myself for once, which is also nice.

I did even get into keeping fit for a year or so (hint: exercise famously helps with MH issues, and 100% totally true in my experience), so I'm feeling trim and svelte, even, which is pretty good except last week I twisted my ankle really weirdly doing spin class (if you don't know what that is, don't ask. It's like setting yourself on fire for 30-40 minutes), so I can't now exercise and I've got that sinking feeling that my body is prepping to absolutely balloon up and I'll have to roll everywhere supported only by hot dogs and ghee.

YE SHITS THIS BLOG POST IS TOO LONG.

Just ignore every other paragraph and it'll be about the right length.
Byee! xxx

Wake up, Belle! Sitrep!

First off: if my blog ever goes to sleep and you get locked out, it's nothing personal. Chances are I've moved the URL / account and you'll just have to fire up the Googlebox to hunt me down.

Anyway, it's the exhausting festive break of you-know-what, and I haven't mentioned the upcoming comic for a while, so here's where I've got : - 70 pages all done! Just need to put the text on! Hooray!

It's a good one, but 70 pages doesn't mean it's imminent, no siree! In fact I do believe comic 18 will be the biggest, longest, firmest comic to date, probably weighing in at about 100 pages, and with more penetration than you can shake a stick at. Hooray! Penetration! That's *the best*

No penetration for our current awkward couple-of-the-moment though; the delicious twins Ix and Xho need a little more ripening I'm afraid. I couldn't care less how much whining the internet does about not much happening in comic 17 between those two: I want it to be believable when it does, and that'll take time. Sweet, delicious, sexy time.

So don't hold your breath on that one. Do remember, dear reader, that my personal preference for sexiness is a fair amount of believability. If you wouldn't walk into a room and just hump a person in real life, then nobody will be doing it in my comics. Well, hardly anybody. Maybe Becky. OK definitely Becky. For everyone else, the tease is part of the fun, just like it is in real life! Remember dating? Remember trying to figure out who likes you? Remember that dance? Sexy A.F.

Anyway, rest assured once the teasing is over, the payoff will be entirely believable, slowly epic acts. Just like the first times in real life - it takes hours. Porn is wrong, nobody fucks in 20 minutes when it's the first time with someone. You savour it, you devour every touch, every awkward conversation, you think it through a million times - consider your responses, your eye contact, everything.

Yum.

Yum.

Yum.

In the meantime, there'll be plenty of business occurring between the other characters anyway! Yay!

As I mentioned a while back, I've written all the scripts up to comic 20, so I know exaaactly where we're going, and it all comes together very nicely by comic 20 (in my opinion...), including explanations of a few long-buried facts from earlier comics. In fact after some re-working this week, comic 19 is possibly the greatest conversational one ever. Ever. Like, soaking pants o'clock just reading through. Always a good sign.

So that's something to look forward to. That and Christmas. And Star Wars. Again.

Maybe I should blog about Star Wars. I need a sleep first though, this season always takes it out of me.

Right, everybody out! Wake me up in the New Year x




>>> This isn't Lost in Translation, >>>
but what a great film. She was ruined in The Avengers, poor girl, Hollywood again pretending to know what equality is and failing massively.
</hobbyhorse>
</rant>
</gin&tonic>

Sexy ghost jumper

Happy Nearly Christmas! Have some test renders...

Normally wouldn't upload this sort of render because it's awkward and she has an annoyingly vacant expression and there's awful clothing poke-through, so it's very beta.

But then, look at them, how can we not like Ix eh? Even in an imperfect CG setup.

So here she is, getting ready for comic 19, where it's all going to kick off. Big time.

Tss, if only I was faster at turning my ideas into comics, I could churn out 20 per year and it'd be like the most escapism-involving space ding-dong wonderfulness ever! Well, it wouldn't be bad.

 

Woops, forgot to re-show Ix after I sorted out the reflections.... so here's just a jumper:

SEXY GHOST JUMPER BIDS YOU ALL A HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!!

Late night = legs night.

*Wanders in*

*Blogs up non-spoiler comic image*

*Wonders out*

*Wanders if it's wonder or wander in this context*

*Shrug*

*Gluhwein*
 


[Massive kudos goes to 'blackhearted', who made this custom 3D V4 body morph {GND4} which I've always used - the body shape is juuuuuust perfect.]

Fashion and hair and subtle lighting. Afternoon well spent.

Eugh, now, I've been having trouble with my google account so if this blog suddenly dies, then find me on tumblr or deviantart. Let's call ditching Google entirely Plan B.

In the meantime I'm here and I've had a few hours to play about making an attractive little top for Ix. This one's a special one because it unzips! Hooray! It's kind of a weird top because it'd have to be boned in order to be supportive (not that Ix particularly needs support for her breasts, but it'd need to be boned in order to maintain that top line at least), but I designed the boning (yes I'm into plausible fashion) and the structure kinda ruined it, so we'll have to stick with the 'scifi fact' this is some new material which simultaneously provides support, and looks a bit like flimsy/stretchy cotton.

*Insert obvious boning jokes here*

Memory cotton then. We've been here before, haven't we? This using futuristic fiction to provide the excuse not to quite stick to real-world physics. I like this excuse. Hey, they're my toys, I can play with them how I want :D

I'm not going to show the unzipping fully in action, because it's more fun to tease (we know this: it's established fact), but I'm pretty happy with the semi-reveal version below tbh.

So: feedback time: new hair? Yes or no? Did anyone notice the hair? No. Ah well. I think it's cute. And assuming Ix meets Luce at some point in the not-too-distant-future, she's bound to get some styling tips from our gothic femme noir.

Because hair is important. Yes it is.

New hair:

Old hair:

New hair:

VOTE! 

(Project Bellerophon reserves the right to completely ignore the outcome of the vote, but you know: shits and giggles, eh?)

Listen, Goog...

And now, after that brief intermission...

Hello! As those determined enough to find me will have discovered, I gave Blogger a couple of weeks cooling-off period after some faffing, but now I'm here! Hello again!

Sorry about that awful "You've been locked out, this is only for special people" landing page that Google puts up - it's not very welcoming is it? If I could edit it, it'd say something a bit less confusing like "This blog is bloody well closed to everyone until the whole internet pulls its jolly great finger out, please. Thank you."

Just popping in to check how the internet is coming along. Good, good. Could you guys maybe stop trying to hack into my emails please? Many thanks x

Anyway, I had a chance to get on with some comiccy stuff recently, which I wasn't expecting, even to the extent of thinking about a new haircut for Ix (pictured above), and to create some unusual props for a few comics' time. Like this cigarette (Also pictured, but you noticed that, didn't you? Yes you did).

Funnily enough, although Ix might well try that haircut for size, she is not going to take up smoking - it's actually going to be a spy-type device for general making-of-mayhem purposes. Lovely, lovely, don't we all wish we had more spy-type devices for general making of mayhem? Yes, yes we do.

So then.

There's also a new bunch of unusable renders which I could put on this blog (and would love to, because they're amusing errors like Ix's whole arm poking through someone's torso etc), but then looking at them there's some pretty severe plot spoilers going on, so I can't. Which is a shame.

I guess what I've learnt from all this comiccing is to keep the plots simple, cos when you get twisted up in a running plot, you bloody well take ages unravelling it all and closing every plot hole and it all takes blimmin ages! It'll be worth it though. This upcoming comic is a good one, but the one AFTER that - OMG. And the one after that? Number 20? That's the killer. That's the Oscar performance right there. OK, maybe not an Oscar, but at least a GNVQ Level 1 in storytelling.

Blimey, it's almost like I never closed the blog, eh? Happy Friday everyone!

The renders that never made the cut...

I thought it would be a good idea to occasionally post some of the renders that didn't make the cut.

You know - cos of bad lighting or the wrong expression, or when I render it and a random eyeball is staring out the window (always funny), or their arm is poking through a wall or the perspective makes it look like everyone's got bamboo spine or someone's haircut is hovering six inches above their heads or whatever.

Sounds stupid, but every one of those things has happened in my renders over the years. Yes, it IS a stupid hobby. But we forgive its stupidity, don't we? Yes indeed. Yes siree. With this utopian flesh on display, we forgive it its foibles.

So instead of unleashing a swift "bugger!" and tweaking it and rendering again and binning the faulty detritis, I'll post it on this blog. Because why not, eh? It's a laugh.

And certainly in this case it doesn't particularly reveal anything spoiler-y about any upcoming comic.

This one didn't make the cut because ... and yes I do consider these things ... in the crew's timeline, Tom has just an hour ago (ish) been bumming dear Becky's little bottom, and here we notice his tallywhacker about to enter Zan's mouth ...

Stop Zan, STOP! You don't know where that thing's BEEN! We, dear reader, may consider these things and lucky for me I realised this before Zan was left with a chocolate moustache and convulsing tummy muscles as she realised the error of her choice of mid-space-battle amuse-bouche.

In reality, of course, Tom would be too much of a gentleman not to keep his meat in tip-top hygienic condition, but as this is comic land and I don't want to bother writing in a dull scene with him showering and/or disinfecting said meat, it's easier to just change position and smooth over that possible social fauxes-pas.

And no, Xho is not about to grab Ix's arse, he's just holding a cup of coffee.

And yes, I did position the lighting to carefully but subtly annouce said arse.

Phew, what a hobby, eh?

Such nonsense.

Scifi screens...

Gotta love some dual-layer glowing tech screens!

This monitor graphic is ruthlessly grabbed from an article about Prometheus, and is probably massively in breach of something blah, but you know. It's out there. People are using it, I don't feel too bad.

There's also some gag screens in the upcoming comic too. Stupid gags, mind; nothing too high-brow here, mate.

Anyway, just plopping it here for interest. Bit of carbon fibre, bit of touchscreen interfacing, bit of flesh, a little underboob, a touch of belly button, all good.

The infinite variability syndrome

So it's like a few weeks since I've posted anything. Figured I'd update the world on what's happening in Bellerophon world!

OK, it's not a world, more like an occasional fap-based hobby, but still.

One interesting thing that happened was I read through all the comics from Dive Into The Dark up to the recent one, and I have to say I now rather like the recent one.

It was easy at the time to take the criticism that not much happened (which is true), there was no actual sex etc (which is also true), but to be honest I think it's sexy as hell! One of my favourites now. And knowing what's coming next it's all part of the build-up, so will make more sense to one and all when the next one hits the streets. So I'm happy once more, safe in the knowledge that my little project hasn't derailed, and is actually alright chugging along its cute little awkward path :)

While pondering the whole thing of "They never eat or go to the loo!" (a point which I raised a month or so back), I got to thinking of all my awkward real-world conversations in kitchens at various parties over the years, and realising that actually a kitchen/galley is indeed a valid setting even for a battle-hardened scifi space crew.

So here we are, a couple of obsessive lighting renders, where I'm trying to figure out how the hell to light the scene to give it the right 'feel'.

Bloody hell lighting makes a massive difference - check out these renders - those who've followed my blog(s) for a while will know I always do this - change things minutely, testing every combination of infinite possibilities before I stick with what I want.

It would make FAR more sense to spend that wasted time investing in some decent rendering software so I could render lifelike scenes outside of Poser, thus improving the comic by infinity percent. HOWEVER, I am a bit of a dick when it comes to adopting new techniques, and thus I'm sticking with what I know, and enforcing a quality -ceiling in the renders, totally ignoring the possibilities of the incredible render software out there and shoving my head well and truly into the sand.

Ah well.

Shits and giggles, eh?

Comic 17: Space Tits Ding-Dong Rub-A-Dub

Comic 17!!!! Woop woop! Finally, after work and conferences and hotel wifi and lost laptop chargers and every flippin thing got in the way, it's finally online!

So this is 84 pages, the biggest comic ever, and is the result of ... well ... lots of wasted 'hobby' time, let's face it. I'm pleased with it, though. There's plot, there's sexiness [in my opinion!], there's a little awkwardness, undressing ... all the good stuff.

Boobs, massive willy, even some solid lesbianism in there (it's been a while for me, but let's face it sometimes some proper les moments are pretty priceless). Heck, it's the first comic with everyone making an appearance. The crew's even coming together! Squeeeeee!!!!

Download the zip file of jpegs  >> 
(zip download link is at the top of that page)
(or view on G.E. Hentai here)

Here's some sample pages:

Comic's not done ... give it a week

EDIT: woops, next comic's up to 82 pages now! Comiczilla.

Argh sorry guys/gals I've been totally hit by a massive work project! Damn I was so close to completing and spaffing these lovely CG beans all over the interwebs but alas! I am delayed.

You know what it's like with hobbies - sexy and fun and veeery nearly complete though they are, occasionally the real world avalanches in like a torrent of fists and dick-punches all your hard work off the desk and onto the floor, and slams down reams of very-important-must-complete-now-or-world-will-die type emergency red alert this-is-happening-now things.

So I'm taking my desperate ten minutes break to claw out a quick blog post - thanks for comments on previous article, but in case you are checking every day, and desperately trying to keep that erection alive, I'd say let it go.

LET IT GO.

For about a week or so. Then check back.

To keep you going, here's a couple of non-spoiler pages from it. Yes the Wraith is out of port and in space!

On the edge ...

OK, so to break with tradition I've actually CHANGED MY MIND a little bit and the new comic is not going to include the scenes I meant to.

This is because to do them justice (and oh man they need doing justice), the comic was getting into the 100-pages region. Which is crazy. So I've made a reasonable chop and will just add some of the funtimes to the next comic.

No biggie, and it means the new one will be out sooner :)

We're at about 75 pages currently; all that's left to do now is a little 2-page conclusionary thing and a few comicy tidy-ups; speech bubbles that sort of thing.

I've even done the cover, which I normally stress about till the end, but in this instance just sort of appeared during one of the rendering sessions - "That's the cover right there", I thought to myself, which keeps things easy. I think I can probably even reveal the title though: comic 17 will be called [drum roll ...]

SPACE TITS DING-DONG RUB-A-DUB

Catchy huh? And not hugely mature. But who cares, sometimes the best ideas come from a childlike freedom to do stupid stuff. To be honest, normally by this stage in the comic I have a good feel for how good it's going to be. This is definitely a good one - well, I think so. It's subtle and sexy and stuff happens and everyone's involved somewhere. It's a bit like Bum Deal except with more people and more plot-motion, which is pretty much what I was hoping for. Good times :)

Behemoth

OK so I've finished 90% of the rendering for the upcoming comic and we're at ... 70 pages!

Blimey. That's a lot.

If I were selling these things, I'd be splitting it up into three mini acts, milk that cash cow for all it's worth. But I'm not motivated by money and let's face it the plot could do with some proper things happening so I'd prefer to release it in one big comic spurt and stop fannying around.

Things that are resolved in this one: not everything, but the stage is finally set and the shit well and truly kicks off. Also thingy and thingybob finally get a bit closer. But they probably don't do the actual thing with the contorted faces and the lots-of-backwards-and-forwards-hips, so don't hold your breath that'll have to wait until an undefined time in the future. They're the best, those undefined times!

Phew!

Anyway. Watch this space.

Ish.

Could still take a fortnight to finish, but we're thinking about almost being nearly there.

So watch this space.

But not too closely.

I dunno, fly casual.

Scenery works in progress..

Alright, it's time to sort this fiasco of a comic series out.

So far our crew have been drifting in their high-tech crate, stranded for the best part of a year, bumming around and not really achieving anything. It's time to sort that out.

I've written the plots and scripts for the next four comics, tying everything up, bringing closure to this years-and-years of general dicking about.

About time, right? Previously I've just made one comic after the next, in fact in the early days I'd just make one page after the next and decide what people would say as I put the renders together on the page in photoshop. Zero planning, just spamming it out as my brain liked. Up until Dive Into The Dark, it was just a general flow of unplanned shenanigans. When that hit, I quite liked the fact there was a more traditional sci-fi thread running through, and decided comics after that should have a bit of thought going into them.

Particularly since Bellerophon Wakes and when I came back with Pegasus' Wraith have I been working towards little plot tie-ups, a hint here and a tattoo there.

So now rather than have a general fantasising session before a comic and 'plan' it that way, I've written the lot; up to Comic 20. Rather good fun. All this plot does require some new scenery though, so I've been building CG spaces for a bit, customising free CG models and modelling a bit myself, playing with lighting and planning some mayhem.

Here's some test renders :)

There's a couple of other totally out-there scenes too, but I'm not putting them here - gotta limit the spoilers

Looking into the middle distance

Old skool

Little bit of character development. No he's not going to join the crew, but he is a badass in his own way. This guy's a goodie, for sure.

I'm doing that thing, you know when you're halfway through a thing and instead of concentrating on that thing, you do the thing where your mind wanders to three things ahead and you start to plan and build the sets/required bits for that thing? I'm doing that thing.

It's fine, seems to be part of how I work, a nice little brain-relaxation technique I guess, stops me getting bogged-down in the current scenario and lets it run free in the hills of a possible future.

So here we are, an old bloke in a white Dr No suit and no doubt some comfortable slippers. Nothing to prove, this guy. How he fits in with our plot will become clear in the fulness, but suffice to say (and as always..) don't hold your breath. These things take time, and unlike the weekly comic artists whose job it is to produce comics, I am more like a couple-of-comics-a-year kinda person, they come in flurries and then go very quiet. Sorry about that.

Work, eh? Can't live with it, can't live without it. Well you can, you just have to get used to exclusively eating pulses and that's not a commitment I'm willing to make right now. Much happier being able to afford unusual beers and ironically needing to plough through them to relax at the end of an insane workload of a day.

It'll chill out though, always does. Seasons of woe and stress do tend to tail off and that makes living in between all the sweeter. So I'm holding out, knuckling under, and letting the little brain do some wandering through the forests for a bit.

Also on the cards: bamboo forests. It'll make sense in the next-but-one comic, I think. Little bit of Zen required for our crew I believe. Time for some closure and some taking stock. It'll happen. Probably not in the upcoming immediate comic, but it'll happen.

That's the best bit really, slipping into some comfortable trousers and flipflops, and padding through the woods, letting the stress leak out of you like water from a porous vase. So I've been creating bamboo forests and wise old men, hoping that one day when my workload calms down, art and reality will meet and I can slip into the bath of contented rest.

AAArgh work explosion!

Don't you just hate it when things are trundling along nicely at work, and then they triple? Like "Hey, oh you, you enjoy your job? Here's three of it!"

Man alive I could do with a rest and a cold brain enema or something. It's like stress piled on a headache rhumba these days, where does it all come from?

Well. Time to chill out. Time to shower the stupid working-late grime off my exhausted, rigid body and try and bend it into a sleeping, relaxed sort of pose and hope all the spreadsheets and general work crap whimsy leaks out of my face while I'm asleep.

Thought I'd put some clothes on Ix for once...