Free Graphic Novel made with Daz!
djmulcahy
Posts: 42
Helllooooooo!
I wanted to share my graphic novel that's appearing on Tapas Webcomics. It's being published in installments, and it's completely free. Just pop in to the link and have a look.
I think it shows some of the cool stuff that can be done with Daz and other low-cost/no-cost software that just wasn't possible for the average scrub like me just a few years ago. A little Daz studio, and little iClone, a little Blender, a little Photoshop... and bam!
Anyhow, stop by.
It's freeeeeeeeee!
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Comments
That was interesting. I like the graphics. Nicely done! :)
Is it just the five pages so far? I found it interesting, I want to know what happens to the simple scribe. would have read on, but I couldn't turn to the next section if there was one.
edit,
take it all back, my noscript needed to allow a script I see additional pages now.
Great stuff. Very well done indeed.
Amazing detailed novel @djmulcahy A real page turner!!
got me hooked. nicely done, and great writing/characters/story. Stopped looking at is as a Daz Studio project almost immediately - became a story right out of the gate.
more please,
--ms
You'v created both an interesting character and a compelling scenario. Would like to read further.
Oh wow-- I appreciate all the kind words and support!
It's completed-- all done and ready to go. I'm just publishing it in installments because it's more fun that way. If you guys end up following it through, let me know what you think. I just put up the newest portion today.
I also want to touch on how easy this was with Daz. Like I said, I use some different software to get done what I need to, but it's not anything you're not familiar with. I wish I could claim there was a lot of artistic blood, sweat and tears, but that's really not the case. I had to learn some things and do stuff a a little different in a couple of cases, but I can't stress how fast and smooth the process went. I developed an idea, and thanks to Daz managed to put everything together fairly quickly, even though there was a first timer's learning curve to deal with.
So-- if anyone is looking to get their own stories out, make it happen! Tapas is super easy to publish with and they have a great community. You can do whole stories, a continuing saga, or just individual panels, whatever the artist inside you wants to do. Don't hold back!
Nicely done. I like the style, and you've nailed it with the story and characters. I started reading and just kept going till the end so that's a good sign. Have you thought about charging for it on amazon? It's good enough to make some bucks off of it.
Did you use a line art type filter on the camera or do that post production?
Thank you!
I actually put it together initially for Amazon-- because I didn't know of any other outlets for digital comics/graphic novels at the time. It made a few bucks, but folks really aren't going to Amazon to hunt down unknown, independent graphic novels, I don't think. So the audience was pretty limited. I originally wanted to price it for free, but Amazon has a minimum for that sort of thing. Happy I found Tapas--and a few other web comic sites--because they really just allow you to publish your stuff and people get to read it. Which is the fun part.
I do some moderate post work in Photoshop once I'm creating the panels, and that includes the filter. I'm sure we all know about that Daz "uncanny valley" thing, and the filter is really to remove that. I wanted a more traditional hand-drawn look, while maintaining some realism without the Daz-doll effect that can scare people away sometimes. I've been using Filter Forge and Toon It mostly in the stuff I've been doing.
Yeah getting noticed is always REALLY tricky. It's no different for authors trying to get their ebooks noticed. One thing you can do is add a link on Tapas for those who want to read the whole thing without having to wait. Another strategy is to release an extended edition on amazon for those who want more.
either way, it's generous of you to just put it out there for our enjoymnt, so best of luck with it. Hope you get lots of eyeballs on it.
It is good to hear there is more story chapters on the way. I think bradrg made a good suggestion. Adding the full version on Amazon for purchase using an "on demand" printing model, while slowly releasing chapters on Tapas, might just net you some sales. The story is good enough to spark interest, and might just convince some customers that don't like to wait, to purchase the book, and get it sooner. A strategy worth considering.
Wow, I'm not much of a reader, but your writing is excellent. I really like the dialogue, seems earnest and authenthic to me; the story is interesting and you created hope in me as a reader for well-being of the characters (yes, I know it fiction but still). I also like how you chose to use old salt style language for some of the more offensive things in your story instead of the more offensive modern equivalents, although I honestly don't know if that makes a difference to the folk that assign maturity ratings to entertainment, after all a rose by any other name is still the same. You might consider eliminating those things that cause mature ratings to be assigned if they don't actually contribute meaningfully to the plot so a wider audience can access them.
Graphics-wise I like the look of the characters, the sets, the expressions and most of the body posing but the style is a bit dark and overly dense in content to translate well to say a typical device that a Kindle Reader was used up. Yes, it is clear it is Poser or DAZ but it's still good just like hand-created comics of old were always a typical style, even by different artists. Your story would be very hard to see and read as it was it was a bit small much of the art to see on my 14" laptop. I think that is the biggest shortcoming in your comic. I think if you could create an easier to read visual style that works on smaller devices (realizing even as a boy printed comic books where often too densely busy for clear visual representation) it'd be ready for prime time. Well, at least I like it and many of the other readers seem to as well.
bradrg: Thanks, I hope I get eyeballs too! And I appreciate you taking the time to look at it and give me your feedback. Knowing what's good/bad, especially from other Daz fans, is really important to me.
FirstBastion: It's still up on Amazon, and gets the occasional look, but I'm not sure I'm going to promote that too much. I've got a couple of dozen short stories I've had published in various outlets over the years that I still own the rights to, and my plan is to kind of just convert them all to graphic novel format. Maybe somewhere down the road when I have enough content to promote, I'll look into making $$ off of it, but for now it's just about getting read and seeing if there's anyone other than me that enjoys this stuff.
I really like your print on demand idea-- I hadn't thought about that at all. I'm definitely going to look into that. Thanks!
nonesuch00: Thanks for the kind words! I agree with a lot of what you said, and one of the big things I've been struggling with has been the format. You're right, it is dense, and I've had a really had time figuring if it translates well into reading on Kindle-type devices, or smartphones. I'm still not sure. When I viewed it on my phone, I didn't have any real problems with a little pinching and scrolling, and the webcomic format seems to be doing well, but I'm still trying to figure things out. One of my thoughts was to go with larger panels, with fewer per page for my next project--but then that slows down the whole reading process as you're constantly flipping through more pages to get the same content. Do folks mind that? Most of the digital graphic novels I've read had even more panels per page than I do, so... I dunno.
And my stuff usually has a lot of dialog in it, so I'm always struggling to figure out where to put those blasted balloons. Some pages they're all over the place, and that forces me to change the size/placement of panels... ugh.
I'm going to experiment a little. If you have any suggestions, I'm totally all about trying new things.
Hi, I looked at your graphic novel. I am working on one two, using Daz. Which software did you use to get the "comic" look?
Hey, RA!
I ended up using photoshop, and a product called Toon It. I wanted something that retained the realism of a Daz render, while providing that hand-drawn look and smoothing over some of my own rendering errors and other things that didn't look "quite right", if you know what I mean. A big render problem like poke-through which could be a massive issue in a photorealistic render just disappears with the right filter. There's dozens of options in Toon It, so you'll probably find something you'll like. You'll have to tinker a bit, though, until you're happy.
Honestly, though, if you don't want to buy another product, the internal Poster filter in photoshop works pretty well, too. My only objection is that the filter itself doesn't have a ton a tweaking options if you want to dive in and adjust for individual panels. And if you don't want to invest in photoshop, there's GIMP, which AFAIK is still free, and does a lot of what photoshop does-- If you haven't used it already.
Good luck on the graphic novel! When you're done with it, you have a lot of different publishing options. If there's anything I can help with, let me know! Not that I've got all the answers, but a lot of what I did was really hit-or-miss, so if I can somehow help you hit more than miss, I'd be happy to.
I've never been a big fan of graphic novels but yours is intriguing. I took a look a week ago and liked it, so back for another installment. You've done a good job of keeping suspense up and the layout works well for me (viewing on a computer monitor). Thanks for sharing.