To anyone who may be visiting the comic for the first time– or for the first time in a long time– and would like to know what the heck is going on here, may I suggest the synopsis on the New Readers page? Or, if you’re game for it, you could try Fusella’s (Extremely Opinionated) “Story So Far”.
Eh, I usually prefer to do all the art in the traditional way– on paper– but sometimes I have to cave and admit Photoshop can do it better than I can. If I’d had a little more experience with the program, I might have tried a similar effect way back in the beginning, for the bridge’s holo projector (which is basically the same thing built into the briefing room table here, but on a larger scale). Maybe I’ll try it next time the plot takes us back to the bridge, what do you think?
EDIT: Come back on Saturday for a special Valentine’s Day sketch!
And you even remembered little New Zealand on that Earth! Loving the story so far. I do like the newer approach to the older one. Worth considering. Technology, sometimes it does have it’s uses.
I do think your art looks better when you avoid graytones. You’re very good at the black and white, and the graytones tend to take away from that effect, I think.
@plantperson, the hologram effect looks better this way, though, I think. I don’t know how you would do it in b&w. You can figure out what is going on in the previous b&w version of it, but it takes a minute.
I am enjoying every update of this comic! Keep them coming!
I just wanted to mention that I’m really liking your comic.
I think Scavina had better get some sleep before she falls over. And doesn’t Darvin look worried, and he’s not really looking at the projection, contrast that with Aria taking it all in, and Vessa leaning forward on the table for a close look. I think he’s seen this all already.
I think the effect here is much more clearly a hologram (as opposed to the first chapter on the bridge before the engine test), and I like the effect, but I wonder if it ought to be a bit more opaque. I’m thinking this is probably supposed to be a 3-D projection and I wonder how well they can make it out surface details with Vessa being so clear on the other side of it from the reader’s eye. I do love the light lines coming up from the center of the table, though!
“76432-69-GM” Catchy… I can see the travel brochures now XD.
Also, Fusella seems to be practicing her poker face here. Love the holo effect!
@Samantha: Check out Kristofer Straub’s time-travel effect: http://www.starslip.com/archive/20081029.shtml
It might work well for a black-and-white hologram.
@PlantPerson: that’s a nice one! Though it does suggest a sort of graininess that I don’t imagine is present in the Galaxion‘s holograms. But either way– you can’t tell me Straub didn’t use Photoshop to make that happen!
@McGig: How could I not remember New Zealand! In the earlier version of this story… well, I’ll go into that later.
@Samantha and @Scott: Thank you!!
@Wendy: I think Scavina always looks like that…
@Andrew: I suspect Vessa has an excellent poker face, but Fusella is bound to flub it sooner or later!
@Tara: Straub does all his work digitally. I don’t have a problem with a digital workflow (I produce my own comic with digital ink) but I was just pointing it out Straub’s effect as a way of accomplishing something similar without the graytones.
@ Tara: Scavina may always look like that because she doesn’t get enough sleep!
I am sure there is a flow to this that I am missing, but I think I get the gist of this. Evidently this survey ship is going to check out something that has happened to three ships previously, right? Although the last two panels make it sound like the survey ship has skipped somewhere. If I missed it someone please tell me. Other than that I was wondering if Galaxion has an entry in the Top 100 WebComics page? I looked through the first three hundred and didn’t find it, but maybe it doesn’t have one
Hi, Eddie! Well, that’s not quite it– the Galaxion (the ship they’re on) is in the middle of testing out the same engine technology that the first two ships used, sort of a v3.0. The fate of the first ship (the Hiawatha) is open to interpretation, but it’s widely believed to have been destroyed by that early technology. The story of the second ship (the Pathfinder) is chronicled in a short story here.
If you don’t mind my asking, did you already read through the archives, or have a look at the New Readers page with the Story So Far? I don’t mean to suggest that you need to, but it makes a difference to me if you came to these conclusions after reading through that stuff– I’ll have to fix it to make sure no one else gets confused!
I’m not on the TWC list yet, which is mainly because I haven’t applied. I’d have to be begging for votes from the readers, and I don’t work fast enough to provide extra content for vote incentives! I know it doesn’t have to work that way, but that’s what it seems to take to make it to the front page, which is where all the action is. Hmmm… should I think about applying anyway? I could always put up the pencils, I suppose…
Wow! what an idea ! What a concept ! Beautiful .. Amazing
Remember if there is another earth there are an infinite—or such large numbers it might as well be. So no more “the earth” to be used. Designations from the home line 000. In just three novels Keith Laumer handled the idea very well his way.