Rejects, Works-in-Progress
 

Today I spent a bit of time looking for rejects and works-in-progress... I found quite a few! So soon I will have a new gallery of rejects up (since I may as well use them for something), and will get to work in trying to "fix" some of the works-in-progress that never got finished. :)

So, works-in-progress are at various stages (some are just Paint-sketches, others are nearly finished (need finishing up, clothes, or whatever). But for some reason or other, they just sat there not getting finished! I often find it easier to draw something new than to go back and finish something I have already started (plus, big projects are just really tiring to do).

Do you guys have lots of rejects/works-in-progress that never get done, too? :D

Re: Rejects, Works-in-Progress
 

Concerning hand-drawn pictures for sprites or small/big-pics, I finish almost everything I start.
It is different with walls. I still have ~20 walls in progress. However, I have more than 300 walls/overlays finished, thus the percentage of unfinished walls is only 7%. :D :D :D

Re: Rejects, Works-in-Progress
 

However, I "rejected" several default walls I made after changing to the "enhanced" wall format... And I fear that some of my big pics will never be used because I changed the story of the helmetlands adventure...

Re: Rejects, Works-in-Progress
 

Hmm - you seem to have a pretty good success rate, though :)

Re: Rejects, Works-in-Progress
 

Time is limited (for most of us, I guess), thus I think even if you are not totally convinced of one or another picture/wall, it is reasonable to complete it and use it. Quite often, I guess, the players of your design will be happy with pictures you personally are not satisfied with...

Re: Rejects, Works-in-Progress
 

Yeah - I guess I will put up a rejects gallery soon... Might as well put it out, just in case (something is better than nothing - hopefully!)

Re: Rejects, Works-in-Progress
 

7%? Amazing! My success rate is somewhere around (and this is just an estimate) 10%. Granted, rendering is a different beast than what you guys do, but I'm counting my hand-drawn as well.

I don't think my rejects will see the light of day, though I may be putting up some unfinished (well, more unfinished than usual) in the not too distant future. I also have a bunch of "special team" graphics - small pics, walls and icons from various unfinished projects. Some of them are interesting, some are copyright infringements, and some may eventually get posted to a gallery near you. :)

Re: Rejects, Works-in-Progress
 

Yeah, there are various types of rejects, like:

Rejects That Will Never See the Light of Day (embarrassing rejects :D )
Rejects That Are, Eh, Okay (perhaps will find their way to a gallery)
...and so on...

Re: Rejects, Works-in-Progress
 

In my case, there is also:
a reject drawn by a reject ;)

Re: Rejects, Works-in-Progress
 

But will that reject be seeing light in a gallery then or what? :D

Re: Rejects, Works-in-Progress
 

I suppose I could start a gallery called "Rejects by rejects" :)

Re: Rejects, Works-in-Progress
 

Hmm - that reminds me of a storyline way back when in X-Factor that was about the Rejects vs. the Chosen (and some other middling group that Cyclops got stuck with). :D

"The goads! Release the goads!"

Re: Rejects, Works-in-Progress
 

I'm not familiar with that, but I somehow think I just got compared to a Morlock. ;)

Re: Rejects, Works-in-Progress
 

Was a nice story - basically, there was a planet of aliens where everyone was a mutant, but some were ugly (the Rejects) while the others were pretty (the Chosen - basically human-looking). Then there was a small middling group that wanted peace instead (they happened to look sort of in between, too).

X-Factor crash-landed there with their old huge ship, and each teammate got to live with the group that most identified with them:

Beast - Reject, I think
Archangel - obvious Reject :D
Cyclops - Middling group
Iceman - Chosen, but lowest caste (shapeshifters looked "ugly" in their second form)
Jean Grey - I think she was Chosen, too, but I forget! (Amnesia, or something?)

Re: Rejects, Works-in-Progress
 

X-Factor had a spaceship?

I guess I'm out of the loop. :D

Re: Rejects, Works-in-Progress
 

I've been out of the whole Marvel loop for years ;D

(I got unhappy when Chris Claremont left and some newbie artists/writers started to control everything and make weird things happen "Durr.. my LONG LOST BROTHER!!!" "Du-huh... Dead... and now ALIVE!!!" "Durrrr... my other WORLD CLONES!")

Re: Rejects, Works-in-Progress
 

I don't know which I hate worse, that they do things like that, or that they try to make up reasons to justify it. :(

I've been out of the loop since the mid-90's. I've gotten a few graphic novels since then and some trade paperback collections of the classics (the 'Essential' series for X-Men, Spiderman and Wolverine).

Re: Rejects, Works-in-Progress
 

The constant switching of authors and artists is, in my opinion, the worst thing about US comics.

You might have the most well-done, interesting comic in the world - and then they hire Bob Idiot (who works for less) and then everything goes aheee!

Japanese comics are lower quality in general, and eventually end, but the authors have most control over the content, which keeps a certain standard (i.e. no sudden new siblings will appear, no foreshadowing leading to nothing, etc.).

Re: Rejects, Works-in-Progress
 

From what I know of the U.S. business model, comic books are handled more like sitcoms then they are books. With very few exceptions, sitcoms use a stable of low paid writers that is constantly changing. It's one of the main reasons that there are very few story arcs in these shows.
The book publishing world is the other way around. It may be that certain authors have a hard time getting published (I hope to give personal insight very soon) but usually the author and her editor maintain content control and the publishers are handling the marketing side (which includes the pay out).

Re: Rejects, Works-in-Progress
 

I think that both sides (Japan and USA) have their respective systems too set in stone - it is almost impossible to create your own comic book in the US (unless you want to be dirt poor in the pseudo-manga industry), and it is nigh impossible to creating comics in Japan without going through those fat, weekly comic "magazines."

Oh, well. Maybe just doing a web comic would be more fun (although, of course, you won't make any money off of it).

Re: Rejects, Works-in-Progress
 

I think that I will do a little web comic as either spinoff or introduction for the design I am working on. This will also probably allow me (and here, the circle closes) to use my "rejects"...

Re: Rejects, Works-in-Progress
 

There are lots of comics in the US that are not with the big three. I happen to live in the same town as Dark Horse comics. :) There are lots of small cool projects. You just won't be a millionaaire (until you sell the movie rights.)

I know of a couple of folks doing web comics that make a decent amount of money, but it's through the ads and I know that some people don't like having their work associated with ads...so I guess you couldn't really make any money that way.

Re: Rejects, Works-in-Progress
 

A (convincing in terms of length, graphics and gameplay) design in DC is (in my oppinon) much more effort than doing a - let's say 32 pages - web comic (at least if you make your own graphics). Thus, if one is motivated to do a DC design, he may as well be motivated to make a web comic without making money...

Re: Rejects, Works-in-Progress
 

Well, that is true :D How long have I been working on this DC stuff, again? (Current progress of game: 1%?!)

Re: Rejects, Works-in-Progress
 

Maybe we should all be working on web comics? :D

Hmm, I'm going to seriously think about this while I should be working. :) I mean, think about this while I am working. :D:D:D

Re: Rejects, Works-in-Progress
 

Well, we could recycle our art into cheesy web comics :D

For example, we could take our icons, blow them up, and just give them speech boxes... Or we could use small pics without blowing them up, but most of us have less of these...

Re: Rejects, Works-in-Progress
 

The best way to sue the icons would be to reduce them to 256 colors before blowing them up so that the pixels essentially get larger so that we could keep that old FRUA/DC feel and still retain some semblance of respect for our work. We could just do the same with combat wilds and dungeons if we needed back grounds. :D:D:D

I want to do this! :D But, I have no time and after this evening will be back in hiding until probably December 4th or so.. :(

Re: Rejects, Works-in-Progress
 

Ha ha... What have I done?!?! (Just kidding, looking forward to anything you conjure up ;) )

I had all the ideas for this sort of thing before, actually - but nothing ever materialized!

Re: Rejects, Works-in-Progress
 

I was thinking something along the line of the comics in ToyFare (of is it ToyFair?) with the various aciton figures... :)

Re: Rejects, Works-in-Progress
 

Well - if we use icons, that gives us 2 poses (at least)... then we can do stupid things like make eyes bigger or add exclamation marks to show reactions... :)

Re: Rejects, Works-in-Progress
 

Plus there is the always humorous replacing weapons with mundane and/or contextually appropriate items. For example, we can take a fighter icon and replace the sword iwth a stop sign. :)

Re: Rejects, Works-in-Progress
 

Oh, right, forgot about that :D

Re: Rejects, Works-in-Progress
 

Now I'm thinking something Monty Python-esque could be fun, too. (Still using the icons of course.)

Re: Rejects, Works-in-Progress
 

http://img56.imageshack.us/img56/9283/bookshelf2.png http://img56.imageshack.us/img56/2294/bookshelf1.png
Unfortunately, I had no time to work on "the city" or "Helmetlands" during the last weeks. However, especially since Manikus (who probably is the most important contributor to the DC forum) is not active, I thought I should post some new screenshots... :D

Re: Rejects, Works-in-Progress
 

Wow! That is awesome! Those bookcases (and table/chairs) really adds a lot of flavor to the room... Makes one want to look for scrolls and stuff :D

Re: Rejects, Works-in-Progress
 

It's great to see the 3D view actually portraying 3d objects, even though it's not technically 3D.

Re: Rejects, Works-in-Progress
 

Well, the problem with detailled pseudo-3D objects is that one may also expect to see important items in the 3D-view window.

E.g., if an important key shall by lying... er... (is "lying" correct? :D ) on the table, with this level of detail, one would not be satisfied with an explaining text describing the situation, but expect to see the key in the 3D-view window until the key is removed...

Re: Rejects, Works-in-Progress
 

It seems indeed that without Manikus, the posting rate decreases more than significantly... :( Furthermore, at the moment most of us seem to be very busy with work and offspring (eh, Uatu?).

However, I personally am always motivated by screenshots of other designers' works in progress, e.g. I'd like to see same screenshots from Uatu... :D

Re: Rejects, Works-in-Progress
 

Ulp! I have some ideas for walls/backgrounds at this point, but I have yet to put them in action :D (I also have a half-baked scribble that hopefully will become a prehistoric animal icon, but... It is half-baked as I mentioned already :) )

I haven't been posting lately because I was away in America! But I have just got back a few hours ago...

Re: Rejects, Works-in-Progress
 

If I had not mentioned it already, I like the walls you have posted in your blog. However, I had expected you'd show some underwater-walls... :D