Here's the very beginning of my entry this month. This is the pencil stage of just the top half of my page. More to come... --Alex
So here's some progress. I inked the top part i showed the pencils for, and also the middle part which I hadn't posted the pencils for. there is a lower part yet to come, but I don't want to spoil the surprise. Couple weeks left. I'll need them! --Alex
Very nice! So is this all hand-drawn traditionally, or is it fully or partially digital? Just a bit curious about your workflow here.
So far all hand drawn except the frames which are augmented in PS CS5 (extra simple marquee selections with a wide stroke). I've been toying with drawing the lower part with vector selections and strokes as it's meant to be more mechanical, but it's not working out quite how I liked and I'm beginning to think it might be quicker for me to just whip out the french curves and do it the old fashioned way. Basically I pencil it at 2:1 scale which would theoretically make the page 11"x17" but as my scanner is not that big, I draw on two regular sized sheets and stick them together on the computer. After I ink it, I erase the pencil lines and scan it. Then I clean up the scans using the Image>Adjustment>Levels tool in PS and then paste all the parts onto a digital space that is 11"x17" at 300 dpi. Any little errors in the inking can be cleaned up here. Once all the line art is there, it's time to color it, which will come soon. To do that, I set the line art layer to Multiply and color it on layers beneath that. Normally I prefer to really go painterly on the coloring and shading, (the link in my signature line will show you some stuff like I mean -- check out my portfolio*) but I think for this image I'm gonna try something more graphical like a cell-shaded approach. To make the .psd ready for the web, I save it as a .jpg and change the image size to 100dpi. Then I load it up to Imageshack and paste the link into TrekBBS's reply box. I hope that covers my workflow. As I mentioned I think I'm probably just gonna hand ink the bottom part, it'll probably make the whole thing seem more consistent anyway. I'll certainly have more to show by next weekend. --Alex *Note, I just tried to access my website, goldtoothstudio.com and at least Google Chrome is having problems with it. My bill's paid and everything on the end where I change things is working fine, so I don't get it. Maybe it'll work for you. --AM
^ Sounds similar to what I do a lot of times (draw/scan/cleanup/color). As for your website, I'm getting "The Url is not resolvable." through Firefox/work portal.
Okay, so I made a bit of progress. Most of the coloring is done but there will still be more detail added to the station. As you can see something bad has happened to Starbase 8! I won't say what exactly until the final installment complete with word bubbles! That'll be done on Sunday. If not Sunday, then not at all, as that'll be my last chance at working on this thing prior to February. I decided to go with a sketchier take on the shading. This gives it some texture and, I dunno, maybe makes it feel like something somewhat emotionally charged is taking place. Something bugs me though about the shading technique I used, and that's that is didn't do awesome things with the color of the bridge walls. I'll think of something to punch that up a bit. The bridge "set" if you will just seems to flat to me so far. Also if you recognize some of the overhead screens' images that might be because I nabbed them from random places I found using a Google image search. I just want to fess up that those particular bits aren't mine, though I don't really know who to credit. Some of them are from Drexler's bridge re-creation for "In a Mirror, Darkly" and others aren't. But as I'm not making any money off this, hopefully no one will flip out. Anyhow, enjoy. Comments and constructive criticism are welcome as always! --Alex
Really nice work, Albertese! I love the the expressivenesss in the woman's tears and the station at the end. Looks like I've got less than a week to put up mine against some stiff competition here. hmmm--lol Again, great work.
Great work! Especially like the panel of the two crewmen reacting to the science officer. Very subtle.
Thanks for the kind words! In answer to you question, Bernard Guignard, it probably doesn't matter since this page won't show the exterior of this ship, but I had imagined this aboard a sister ship to the Antares as depicted in the second version of the Star Trek Concordance. The bridge design is my own, but I suppose it would be a smaller set-up than the Enterprise would need. In case you don't know what ship I mean, here's the image from the book: Anyway, I hope I'll have time to finish this this weekend.. I have a lot going on so it might get a little dicey... --Alex
All right everyone, I managed to get a bit of time today, so I finished this up. Here you go: Enjoy! --Alex
Thanks! And at this point, you're not likely to ever see more of this story. I've been toying with this idea since I was in High School (and in a bit over a month I turn 32!) so I doubt I'll get to it any time soon. There's an oft speculated conflict between the UFP and Klingon Empire known as the Four Years War, with varying details depending on who you ask about it. FASA had a whole supplement for it for their circa 1980's role playing game and I know the Star Fleet Reference Manual stuff but I don't think they are the same as far as the details go. This is my take on it, where the opening volley of the war was a massive Klingon fleet warping in beneath Starbase 8 and blowing it to smithereens on it's way to targets further in Federation Space. The destruction was almost immediate for two reasons. First, the whole fleet warped in and started shooting at the same moment, and, second, they did so at 23:59 on the night of 31 December 2253. They knew that a majority of the crew would be celebrating the Human New Year and distracted by drink and party thereby making their reaction time slower. Anyway, like I said, I doubt I'll ever get time to actually tell this story in meaningful way. But it's fun material to draw from when this sort of challenge is presented. --Alex
I thought this might have had something to do with the Four Years War. Though I prefer the date of the start of the war as September 29th, 2246. Its nothing personal, it's just that FASA is at least semi-official. I see nothing wrong with saying that this was the Empire's response to the Federation's demand to withdraw their ships, exactly one month after the Battle of Axanar, though there would have been quite a few Klingon casualties, as well as most ships assigned to protecting Starbase 8, or happened to be docked at the time, which would have also been heavily out-numbered. The chaos would have been caused by the sudden attack, and ships trying to un-dock while under fire, while any ships on patrol would suddenly have to return to Starbase 8 in an attempt to stop the attack.