Steelblood

Postby **Retten** » Thu Jan 08, 2004 3:22 pm

inkhana wrote::lol: The Shinjinator! LOL

Talk about scary!!!! :lol:

Postby **inkhana** » Thu Jan 08, 2004 3:25 pm

LOL @ Gypsy!

Nah, I don't care. Keeps my thread bumped and makes sure no one leaves CAA without having seen it at least once... :evil:

You knew I had ulterior motives, didn't you?

Postby **inkhana** » Tue Jan 13, 2004 9:26 pm

~~~UPDATE TIME! ~~~ (actually just copied and pasted from my newsletter)

Yup, this is a big update all right!

First of all, I wanted to apologize for the delay. It seemed like every time I turned around, I realized that the story would benefit from yet -another- page, so I decided that it would be in the best interest of the story to spend more time and do it right. And thus - the current update is 24 pages long. Hope you enjoy!

But before you head off, I've got a few other things I want to tell you about.

//Steelblood is now part of the Cognatio manga webring! Find out more about this webring here:

http://www.psychoteers.com/exchange/

//added new section "character origins" - This area details some of my reasoning behind and the events surrounding the creation of each of the principle characters (so far, anyway). Find it under "Fun Stuff."

//Changed the header logo...for a while anyway. The previous one was getting pretty old...

//added a handful of new link banners to the "link to me" page, including one banner made for me by WhiteBlaze...^^ Thanks!

//added new fanart by Calbhach, Aywren, and Gypsy! Thanks for the beautiful work!

//updated my concept art area. Lots of new characters that haven't even been mentioned in the story yet have pics there now. The concept art area has been renamed also, since it isn't really just a concept art area anymore - it's Assorted Art and Concepts now, I believe.

//anything else I forgot...

and last, and, for me, the most exciting:

//We now have our own domain! Yay! Come visit us at http://www.christianmanga.com from now on! In case of emergencies, I will keep the old site, http://www.krazyboodle.com/ink/ updated for a while, but there is the possibility that site will go down pretty soon. Anyhow...this domain is truly an answer to prayer (it came about the day after I prayed for a way to make it real)! I'm sharing the site with my sister, who is also starting her own manga (at the concept stages at this point, so the "Quest for Mellenei" site is incomplete).

If you guys would be so kind, would you please let me know how the new server runs for you as opposed to the old one? That way I can make sure that everything's all right before I totally change everything over. Also...I'm sure I broke some stuff in the process...^^;; I checked around but I didn't see anything damaged right off so if you find any crazy 404s, I'd appreciate knowing about it.

Also, in the process of the move, I seem to have messed up my guestbook...^^;; It still works fine, but the old entries are no longer there. I have them, but they're just not on the site. You don't have to go resign or anything, but just wanted to let you know that they were not lost.

Postby **inkjet1987** » Tue Jan 13, 2004 9:44 pm

Awsome! I already read it all! Nice job!

Postby **Mr. Rogers** » Tue Jan 13, 2004 9:49 pm

yay! *goes to read it* :sweat:

Postby **inkhana** » Tue Jan 13, 2004 9:49 pm

Wow, you're fast...^^;;; Wish I could turn it out that fast and keep the current level of quality...whatever that is...XD

Postby **Locke** » Tue Jan 13, 2004 9:51 pm

w00t! waitin for it!

quick Q: i get confused when i go to sign up for the update e-mail ! it gos to another site and im stuck on wat to do there !

Postby **inkjet1987** » Tue Jan 13, 2004 10:03 pm

Yeah same here. I'm not sure what to do? Do I fill out the other form?

Postby **inkhana** » Tue Jan 13, 2004 10:17 pm

Yeah, Topica is my mailing list manager. If you want, just create a profile there and it will sign you up. If not...well, I post updates here every time anyway, so you aren't missing anything.

Postby **shooraijin** » Wed Jan 14, 2004 3:59 am

Whee! Great work, Ink!

Postby **Mave** » Wed Jan 14, 2004 5:42 am

wooohoooo!!! I haven't been to this thread for a while but I must say, what an accomplishment! 24 pages??!! Very nice! Wish I could do the same with mine...my schedule... too busy..can't find... time [dies], why God why? :bang:

Enough personal whining already...

let's see what constructive criticism can I give? None really coz I believe you learn best from experience. only one thing, it was a bit weird seeing b&w and color pages together. But I guess you're practising around ^^

It's nice to see new characters (well somewhat 'new' since we haven't seen them for a while..) Ah bad guy is so mean, I wanna bash him. Jerrrkkk!!!! Get you stinking paws of the good guys!!!!

It's also great to see some action pages...bet all the shonen junkies are a little tad happier today. Do you have a model for action panels? I haven't done action stuff yet but my current model is the manga Rurouni Kenshin aka Nobuhiro Watsuki-sama's works. That would help with getting the best out of your action scenes. ^^

Congrats on your new domain! yyyyeeahhh :dance:

And lastly, I wanna do fanarts of your manga..can I can I? :brow:

Postby **ShiroiHikari** » Wed Jan 14, 2004 6:31 am

Yay, good job Ink! Stupid Cael...hehehe

Postby **Retten** » Wed Jan 14, 2004 7:17 am

Great update its awsome as always!!!! Chapter 4 is really good I like how long it is

Postby **wiggins** » Wed Jan 14, 2004 8:17 am

Postby **inkhana** » Wed Jan 14, 2004 8:49 am

MichiruT wrote:let's see what constructive criticism can I give? None really coz I believe you learn best from experience. only one thing, it was a bit weird seeing b&w and color pages together. But I guess you're practising around ^^

Yeah, still working on it...^^ I've got no established method for the color panels' appearance yet, so I was like "well, maybe it's only flashbacks" but then I realized it wasn't only flashback pages that had it...XD

It's nice to see new characters (well somewhat 'new' since we haven't seen them for a while..) Ah bad guy is so mean, I wanna bash him. Jerrrkkk!!!! Get you stinking paws of the good guys!!!!

Gyyyyaaaaaah! Agreed! As my aunt would say (typically speaking of roaches, however0 - DIE WRETCH!

It's also great to see some action pages...bet all the shonen junkies are a little tad happier today. Do you have a model for action panels? I haven't done action stuff yet but my current model is the manga Rurouni Kenshin aka Nobuhiro Watsuki-sama's works. That would help with getting the best out of your action scenes. ^^

Rurouni Kenshin's action scenes rock!

I love Nobuhiro Watsuki's work. I wanna be as good as he is someday...so yeah, I reckon there was at least a little influence there. I don't own that much manga so I have a small pool to work with, but I think I'm -fairly- good at drawing action (anyone feel free to correct me here) and I'm getting better, at any rate.

And lastly, I wanna do fanarts of your manga..can I can I?

If you want to...^^ I'm not gonna argue with you about it! LOL

Thanks guys!

Postby **TheMelodyMaker** » Wed Jan 14, 2004 11:21 am

Looking good as always. The server's working good, too.

Postby **Psycho Ann** » Wed Jan 14, 2004 11:48 am

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!! I lost everything I just wrote!! Stupid browser!!!! I absolute *loathe* it when that happens >_<;;; Now I got to write everything over again... *grumble grumble*

I was gushing on your new update and the appearance of action! Yes! And I love the smell of thickening plot! Go go go! hehe I always loved the extreme close-ups you do; you can tell so much emotion from manga eyes XD

Anyway, I remember you asking something about exploding tones? Have you tried a radial gradient with a zoom blur thrown on it?

Also, I'm not sure what technique you used with the speed lines, but here's a quick way you can make them in Photoshop using the single column marquee (have I said this before???).

1. Fill a blank page with "speckled" tone; basically anything with black and white dots, lines, scratches, noise, grain, etc.

2. Select the Single Column Marquee Tool and throw it in the middle of the tone (you will get a vertical "marching-ants" line now).

3. Press ctrl-t (or go to Edit > Free Transfom) and drag the line either left or right (it should be obvious by now what that does) to the very sides.

Wala! Instant speed line! It does wonders for colored speed lines of backgrounds (slightly blurred), a nice easy techinque. But remember to practice doing manual lines--nothing beats good old fashioned ink and ruler! ^^

Ah, also becareful not to overdo the speed lines. Sometimes too much concentrated lines will clutter up the composition and would even give the feeling of "unnecessary speed". Like in RK, Naruto, DBZ, One Piece, Ranma, Inuyasha (especially the last two since Takahashi-san is female like us) you will find that speed lines that fill up a panel aren't that concentrated and are in the background. While the lines that are on the subject usually are short and slightly more concentrated but on the parts that are moving faster than the whole.

For example someone dashing forward while swinging a sword will have a background SL (speed line) in the general direction of the dash. Then there will be a curved and short but intense SL following the arc of the sword. Some extra concentrated SL will be found trailing after the person (on the edges of the subject) in spaced out places.

These smaller and more intense SLs will give the reader a more clearer feel on just what is being moved rather than just the general direction of everything. In Naruto, Nishimoto-san does this wonderfully--he's really got down movement with subtle SLs (personally, I find his work one of the best regarding action scenes). BLAME! by Nihei-san is also a favorite since he relys heavily on the visuals rather than real words--really great use of line and ink. Then Togashi-san (Yu Yu Hakusho, HxH) is also a master of movement--when he's feeling up to drawing decently that is ^^;; But amazingly, I find his "doodle quality" fights strangely natural and exciting O_o

It all really depends on just what type of "shot" you want to give your readers. Dramatic shot? Slow mo? Sped up? But for now you're doing great Inkhana! Those are *really* good actions scenes for someone claiming not knowing how to do them ;P

I personally would prefer less concentrated speed lines in the backgrounds and more concentrated ones on the subject (when swinging the weapons, dodging, etc). And maybe more space or contrast between panels that stick together--I tend to get lost when panels are only thinly divided by a line and both panels have the equal amount of contrast ^^;; It's a mistake I struggle to keep avoiding since I use to confuse myself and spend more time wondering what panel I'm on >_<;; (I would also like to see more black to balance the tones of gray but that's just me--the b/w freak)

And sometimes I get lost on the speech bubbles too O_o;; Nothing serious, just sometimes when speech bubbles from different panels sorta intersect (ex: 04-13; when Cael spoke I went down and nearly skipping the two smaller text of his lower left) . Keep them in the order of top left to lower right and everything will be just fine ^^

And here's a nice way to improve readability for black text on gray or black lines:

1. Right click the text layer and select "Blending Options..."

2. Go down to "Stroke", check it and click it to bring out the 'Stroke' option menus.

3. Set the color to white (it usually isn't) and set the stroke size to whatever you need.

Ahhh, I think I covered as much feedback as I can this time. To make up for the lack of feedback in previous chapters XD Man, what a rant!! XD Hopefully, there's something in this pile of words that can help ^^ (and not confuse anyone O_o;; )

Postby **inkhana** » Wed Jan 14, 2004 1:33 pm

Wow, thanks...^^ I knew there were problems with the arrangement of speech bubbles; this came a lot from the fact that I had to rewrite (and I ended up with more speech per panel than planned) and it's something I'm working on getting better at. Also, you're totally right about the gaps between the panels in action scenes; I'll work on that too (a full whitespace of about 20-40 px around each one should do better, I think).

Also, thanks for the tips about the speedlines. I used a premade screentone I got off the internet for what I did. I hadn't thought about doing it the way you suggested because I usually use PS 5.0 LE instead of 7 (and the former doesn't seem to have a free transform mode) so I'll give that a shot next time. Also, I do need to do some more studying on action scenes for general composition; this (I think) is my first real effort at it.

I need more manga to...er...study! That's it! XD

Postby **Gypsy** » Wed Jan 14, 2004 1:46 pm

Yay! It wasn't a false alarm this time! *puts down chair*

Awesome job, Ink! (I'll be sure to tell my mother that you updated.) It was cool to see Sydonia start thrashing things around. :evil:

So when is the next update? Tomorrow? *innocent look*

Postby **Kite** » Wed Jan 14, 2004 3:43 pm

You know I like it so much that I have most of it saved on my harddrive.

Postby **uc pseudonym** » Thu Jan 15, 2004 1:28 pm

I finally got a chance to read this, and I'm glad that I took that time. It was good, and I'm pleased to see a fight scene. I honestly didn't expect one this time at all, but I won't whine about it.

Postby **inkhana** » Thu Jan 15, 2004 4:06 pm

uc pseudonym wrote:I finally got a chance to read this, and I'm glad that I took that time. It was good, and I'm pleased to see a fight scene. I honestly didn't expect one this time at all, but I won't whine about it.

Well, for as much of a fight scene as that was... :sweat:

LOL I mean, it was what, two pages before...
[spoiler]Rivey got blown out the window...XD[/spoiler]

But I'm glad you liked it. I'm still ironing out fight choreography, like I said above, and...well, manga fights are a whole world removed from written ones...

Lots of adjustments to make...I'm sure I'll get it right someday though.

Postby **Shao Feng-Li** » Thu Jan 15, 2004 4:13 pm

man ive really gotta make time to read SB.... your art's amazing

Postby **madphilb** » Thu Jan 15, 2004 6:16 pm

inkhana wrote://We now have our own domain! Yay! Come visit us at http://www.christianmanga.com from now on!

Hey Ink.... you should edit your signature here on CAA... it's still pointing to the old address in your sig banner.

I'm gonna see if I have problems tonight with the large images (I have in the past, but it's something on my end for some reason)... if not I'll have to look at it over at my Mom's So far it looks great!

Postby **inkhana** » Thu Jan 15, 2004 8:45 pm

Yeah, I just hadn't gotten around to editing it yet...^^;;; I also didn't want to do anything to it til I was sure the new server would be ok. But since everything seems cool, I guess I can change it now...^^

Postby **Mr. Rogers** » Thu Jan 15, 2004 8:59 pm

i just finished reading the new chapter today. i loved it ^_^ cant wait till the next one.

Postby **Will Smith, Jr** » Sat Jan 17, 2004 2:35 pm

As WillieDoc steals away from the hectic pace of the medicine wards, he reads Steelblood and is throroughly impressed. Great chapter, Ink! Waiting for Chapter 5 now.

Postby **madphilb** » Sat Jan 17, 2004 3:07 pm

That's right... I had intended to track this post down and respond too....

Read through the new pages just fine (woo hoo), looks really good (though as you have already admitted, some of the 1st "action" panels where a little busy on the motion line side of things, but it's not too bad. There are quite a few published ones where I had a hard time picking the scene out from the motion lines).

Really looking forward to more (when you get them done). Keep up the good work Ink.

BTW, when are you going to do some Wallpapers for your fans? hmmmm?

Postby **inkhana** » Sat Jan 17, 2004 3:26 pm

To MadPhil -

http://steelblood.christianmanga.com/wallpapers/index.html

Have at it...XD I actually do not have one for Sydonia yet...I haven't been able to come up with a lineart pic of her I wanted to use. O.o For some reason, if I sit down with the intention of drawing something for a project like a wallpaper, it comes out substandard...but if I'm just doodling, it comes out fine. Go fig that, huh?

Oh, and a smart person would change the title of that page from "fan works" to "wallpapers". But I am lazy...

And besides, there are some fan wallpapers there...

Guess I'll correct that in the new layout I'm working on.

Postby **Lochaber Axe** » Sat Jan 17, 2004 4:08 pm

Have I ever said that I love Steelblood? Well, I do...

There is one itsy bitsy problem (at least to me). It is on, I believe, 4-18 in which Cael is lunging at him. Besides a matrixy feel, if he actually lunged like that he would have easlily overbalanced and fall flat on his face. The sword is too heavy for lunging. Sorry, I wouldn't change it but keep weapon weight in mind in battles.

Steelblood

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