Hi, I have been experimenting with combining Blender, Krita/Gimp and Inkscape in order to make a comic. This is primarily to test out using the 3D character model i finally managed to get together in Blender after almost six months of experimenting - I wanted to use her in a project to see how it works. This is also a scene I have had in mind a while, potentially from my work-in-project story
Interview with a lonely machine.Without further ado, here's
Open The Door! I'm happy to get feedback and critique on this; I'm still learning for the 3D stuff, and this comic is also pretty experimental, being almost entirely from a single perspective.
You can find the bigger-size images on DeviantArt
here (not making the below clickable links, so you can click and zoom to read the text without getting shunted off to DA). If you like it, a fave on DA is always appreciated.
Update: After feedback, I've reworked and clarified some things.
- Made the front page brighter to hopefully better convey what one sees.
- Removed some extra images from page 01 to make it less cluttered. Spread out the 'text dump a bit to make it easier to read. Changed the garish HUD green to a darker tone across all pages, I think it feels more integrated now.
- Rephrased and clairified some terms and phrasings througout.
Frontpage
Page 1/5
Page 2/5
Page 3/5
Page 4/5
Page 5/5
Comments about the pages:
Frontpage: This is a 3D-rendered scene I did in Blender after all the other pages; it showcases the titular door with its controller. I think there are some confusing angles to it, but I hope it at least shows that the door is pretty formidably locked. You see this setup show up in the comic itself (in the HUD imagery)
Page 1/5: The comic is entirely shown from the perspective of the door. A bit of a text dump to start, but I tried to break it up with imagery. All the text and HUD elements were made in Inkscape; it just has a superior text tool and way to make speech bubbles etc than both GIMP and Krita.
While the door sentience is just using a standard Mono font, I found the font for the woman's spoken text as a Google font. I wanted something that wasn't comic sans, but also not too machine-like. This font gives me a bit of a gothic vibe, I like the thought of her talking like a human, but in a bit of a formal way. It also gives a bit of an eldritch horror vibe for me.
Page 2/5 The only post-processing I did (Krita/GIMP) was with G'MIC's scanlines filter, to give the look of her talking into a camera. I could add blurring and all extra text effects in Inkscape. Originally I pictured there was a blinking red light in front of her. That's why her face changes a bit between reddish and pale blue in these panels. I didn't emphasize this in latter pages though, so may just look inconsistent, not sure.
Page 3/5 Here we see her face in full for the first time. The background is a 360 degree HDRI image of some vaguely space station-esque interior. In Blender I set the camera to just focus on her face, and I left the background fully out of focus; it helps show she has something behind her, but I didn't want to distract. In an early concept I was thinking I could show things exploding behind her, but I decided this would be a bit too on the nose. This is a lot more subtle now I think. Her monologue here is also trying to convey her personality, and hint at how she is just toying with what is, apparently a military grade security system. I also found that her talking to it as "little one" also clearly establishes the power relationship between them. That said, she remains very civil throughout, almost protectice of the door.
Page 4/5 More monologue establishing her personality and how she personifies the door - maybe this says something about what she herself is. It's hard to make a 3D model smile convincingly, without it looking extremely artificial. I did my best here, but there's more to learn for sure. I also tested a few approaches to visualize how the door's firewalls are broken down; The garish green and red intentionally clashes with her more muted palette - my idea is to make it very clear what the security system sees "inside" and what it sees through its outside camera. On this page I also wanted to push a bit more about her 'creepy' vibe. She is not human, and I think it's fine if there's a mixed feelings about her appearance.
Page 5/5 Tying together the comic snippet. I liked to think her being genuinely encouraging to the door, despite it technically having failed in its task. She is basically about to tell it that it never stood a chance, but did what it could. I decided about not going into what she actually is; I felt it would distract more than help the story. In the last clear shot of her, I'm trying to convey light from the opening door hitting her face. I created this effect in blender by placing a long narrow light just in front of her face. Probably not realistic, but I couldn't get the effect I wanted by actually having light hitting her from a door opening a meter away.
Overall It was fun to use Blender to generate her face and expressions; it doesn't work for all styles of comics (and there's an additional charm with hand-drawing comics too), but it does speed up work tremendeously (if you already have the 3D model - as said, it has taken me six months to get her to the point that I can do this). Inkscape is a work horse and excellent for everything related to comic layout. I don't know if latest GIMP has any comic-making facilities; I know Krita does, but I just find Inkscape to be much more powerful and easy to use. The work process here was
- Blender for rendering of front page and character shots / expressions
- GIMP/Krita for using G'MIC to add scanline effect. Some minor color adjustments (but most of that can be done directly in Blender)
- Inkscape for compositing it all into comic pages (linking imported jpgs from GIMP/Krita), and for making all text and the HUD elements.
As said, I'm happy to get critique on this, so let me know what you think and what should improve!
.
Griatch
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And not much extra on DA, just higher-res images.
