The Energon Pub

[Susha]

If someone reads this
lemme know what you think please.

Title: Nightwalking
Episode 1: To the kitchen! And Beyond!

Advised soundtrack

1) Cardigans; my favorite game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nl4mWD-KEi4

2) Shel Silverstein; have another Espresso
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK7nupvYi28

3) Ugly Kid Joe; everything about you
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byEGjLU2egA

4) Smashing Pumpkins: We only come out at night
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHSPVNbF5lY

Edit: Sorry about the small text, for those who are actually interested in
reading the bubbles you can try downloading an adobe pdf from my public dropbox folder:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/209 ... ion1.2.pdf
lemme know if it doesn't work.

The hyperlinks don't work, copy paste the url adresses to your browser for the 'soundtrack'.

[Susha]

Episode 2: Xmas Special Cybertron Blues

suggested soundtrack:
Alman Brothers "You don't love me"
suggested soundtrack: Alman Brothers - you don't love me; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRW1Sl23A2g

[Susha]

Episode 3
Suggested soundtrack:
Mercedez Benz, Janis Joplin

[Susha]

[Susha]

[Susha]

Preview:

So it begins...

suggested track: Theme From "The Warriors" - Barry De Vorzon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydL3svXFQ84

[Susha]

soundtrack:carmina burana
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GD3VsesSBsw

[Susha]

finally managed to finish this episode, here we go again...

soundtrack: Marilyn Manson - Sweet Dreams
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHRyMcH6WMM



marilyn manson beautiful people: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scg4tGpBXKc



Cherry's dance of death; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdoZxU5gOZw



Took me a while to finish this. special thx (and appologies) go to madeus prime. hope u enjoy... and.. ...ignore the mispell on panel 2



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4PxzdotW9Y

[Va'al]

Welcome to the photocomics gang!

I have to admit, I like the washed out contrast style of the panels, but find the text really really hard to read. Any chance you could make it bigger, darker, or thicker?

[Susha]

Hi Va'al thx for reading it through and your thoughts on it:)

as for the hard reading I also had the same prob. so i put it on a adobe presentation and put it on a public folder on my dropbox (which is on atm) and added the link at the beginnng of the post. I'm not sure the link works though, let me know if you can, i'll see what I can do. As a fullscreen presentation I find I can read it, however, that might have to do with my resolution (1920-1080) I dunno if it still is readable on a smaller monitor.

edit. I did try reading it on my samsung galaxy and found I could read most panels without probs exept a few.
As for making the images here more readable, I could either
write on top of the existing text (kinda long..)
or try and upload bigger images from my dropbox; like the very last 2 panels..

I'm not sure which is best and more convenient for others, I find the adobe solution to work and also to make the comic more appreciable as the space/panels are where I want them to be rather than just how the forum happens to put them.

I'll try and take all the above in consideration for the next part of the story for now and see if I can improve the existing part later on.

thx for the advice.

ciao

[Va'al]

I was able to read the PDF version of the comic, and it is a lot more readable!
Though I still think the text could be made more visible, possibly just by using a bold font rather than the rather spindly one you have at the moment.

As for the story itself, I think less text would make the dialogue flow better (though there are some good exchanges in there!). Especially in some of the initial scenes, as later on it appears to work a lot smoother.

I really enjoy your sound-effects, do you use some sort of software for them?

[Susha]

the sound effects are obtained through the same software that i use for the rest of editing
(www.befunky.com)
it allows you to choose the size, colour, boarder colour, inclination and transparency %. It does not allow you to bend the text etc like for real comics but it does the job fine for my necessities.

just in case you meant the actual sounds those are mostly taken from mtmte IDW repertoir of sounds.


and yes, my wife, farther mother, friends, all have told me at some point i need to be more succinct. i keep working on it and then forget->repeat/loop.

i really did like that font, it gave the impression of a diary and added personality to the character. Initially i was planing to give each character a different font, but of course it made it even harder to read.
I settled for giving each character a specific colour for their speech bubble, but as you point out it still isn't easy to read the text. I have considered using a more basic but more readable text but would prefer to find another option eventhough, i am afraid i'll just have to give up on this.

[Henry921]

I'm actually quite in favor of the washed out look. It's very visually distinct.

But I also share Va'al's concern about the dialogue being hard to read, especially when the text is smaller. Did you script the panels beforehand or create them on the fly? Your text bubble design and usage is quite elegant, but the text is almost illegible when the letters get small enough.

[Susha]

I'm actually quite in favor of the washed out look. It's very visually distinct.

But I also share Va'al's concern about the dialogue being hard to read, especially when the text is smaller. Did you script the panels beforehand or create them on the fly? Your text bubble design and usage is quite elegant, but the text is almost illegible when the letters get small enough.

unfortunately be funky while letting u choose font, inclination, color and transparency of your text, it does not include options like italic or bold. I'll just have to use a clearer font, thanks for the advice!

[Madeus Prime]

Wow, nice work!

[Susha]

Wow, nice work!

cheers
more soon I hope.

[Madeus Prime]

Wow, nice work!

cheers
more soon I hope.

Good, if you need any help with the story or jokes you can come to me, since I technically started the trend of photcomics on Seibertron here

Again, fantastic work!

[Va'al]

Wow, nice work!

cheers
more soon I hope.

Good, if you need any help with the story or jokes you can come to me, since I technically started the trend of photcomics on Seibertron here

Again, fantastic work!

Oh you little impertinent fool.

Don't let Burn hear you.

[Susha]

aside from the inside drama I would appreciate if not need
some help with the dialogues. As for now they are the last thing I deal with.
So if i think the story, take the pictures, modify the photos, add empty bubbles for conversations, add vintage colour filters and finally I do the dialogues. The affinity with my grandfathers (1930's marx brothers) humor REALLY DOESN'T help either.

still i can't think of a method operandi on how some1 else other than me could work on the dialogues. At least not without skype or some more fluid method of communication.

having said this, and being a geek myself I tend to be terrified of other geeks and have rarely developed functional social relations with other geeks. pls do keep this in mind if you approach me: i intend no offense, im just shy about my geekness....

[Va'al]

I don't think you need to change the type of dialogue, but rather make it shorter!
As I've said before, there's some really good exchanges, but too much text at times.

And don't listen to Madeus, he still doesn't proofread his own stuff.

[Susha]

I don't think you need to change the type of dialogue, but rather make it shorter!
As I've said before, there's some really good exchanges, but too much text at times.

And don't listen to Madeus, he still doesn't proofread his own stuff.

LoL! poor madeus: i've found some spelling mistakes in some of my photos int his post


anyways i'll take the advice as gold, but my education never worked towards being brief. I have trouble diluting concepts into few simple words, and while I recognize that a simple, brief exposure of ideas is synonymous of a brilliant mind, I am well aware mine is not capable of it if not with great preparation...

it' will probably take a "couple of issues" until i get a better hang of it.
But how do you guys handle the dialogues? As i said for me it is the last part in the line of production. I also do not work with a script, I find it is time consuming enought to edit the photos, make them etc, and just keep it all in my mind. How do you guys do it? any advice besides a good glass of tequila before writing?

[Va'al]

I started a thread so we could talk about it!
How Do You Photocomic?

[Susha]

final update for this story arc.
Took me a while to finish the season finale.

will be posting the new episodes on a new thread soon,
might update this later on though...