Anyone Remember What These Things Are Called Like Little Cartoony Expressive Doohickies I Think They

I’m running an Introductory Animation Workshop with creative arts students this Saturday (August 20, 2016) for The School of Creative Arts Open Day at Melbourne Polytechnic’s Prahran Campus. I’ve rotoscoped and broken down some of the greatest dance gifs to their basic poses and we’re going to collaboratively design characters then MAKE THEM DANCE!!

Come down, check out the campus and say HI!

I can’t wait to see the weird animated goofs that result from this workshop, I’ll post them in a couple of days so we can all be in awe of their hilarious spontaneity! 

I don’t really think I’m that good at anatomy (or females) but this is quite a popular request so… I’m making a tutorial, and this is the part to show you what NOT to do with your fellow humans. More coming… eventually.

I suck at breast variations, but I try; see this page for awesome references: x

Lips Tutorials Row 1 to 4   Row 5: Left Right Row 6: Left, Middle Right Bottom Image

Creative Writing Tarot Spread

Writers block bogging you down? Use this 7-card spread to help jumpstart your creativity! This prompt can help you generate a very basic storyline.

First, pull a character card! Decide for yourself what this means: will your character carry the traits of the positive meanings of this card? Will your character’s conflicts be brought about by the card’s negative meanings? Will your character look like the figure depicted on the card? Will they wield the item depicted on the card? (Note: if your story has multiple main characters, you may wish to pull a card for each)

Next, pull the plot cards! Pull a card for the beginning of your story, a card for the middle, and a card for the end. Again, let yourself decide what this means. Do these cards describe your character’s emotional state(s) as the story progresses? Do these cards describe internal or external conflicts? Do these cards represent other characters your MC will meet along the way?

Finally, pull your meat cards! These cards are the “meat” of your story. Pull one card for the main or most important setting of your story, one card for the main conflict, and one card for the resolution of that conflict.

Have fun with it! Remember that these cards are just tools, and this spread is simply to kickstart your brain. If you get halfway through the spread and come up with something on your own, or if you start writing and realize your plot is deviating from what the cards gave you, don’t stress about it! You write for yourself, not for the cards. Thank them for their help and continue on with your own imagination.

Deck pictured here: The Essential Tarot by Chloé Zarka Grinsnir

Webcomic platforms can help get your comic published when you want something quick and easy to start out! They generally share a few qualities:

They format everything in a basic way so you don't have to do much set up your own space to look nice on web/mobile

They have no fee to publish your comics there, because you are using their web hosting

They may get your comic in front of other readers with mobile apps or online catalogs

If you meet their criteria, you may also be able to find hosting with digital comic stores, publishers, and collectives, and this may get you a bit more in the way of money, promotional opportunities, or editor assistance.

Even if you choose to host your website on its own webhost with a comic CMS, you might also consider finding a platform that aligns with your comic goals and "mirroring" your pages there.

In this post, we look at all the webcomic platforms out there we could find in our research!

This post may be updated as time goes on as new platforms enter the hosting arena, or other important updates come to light.

Questions:

💻 Everyone uses social media, could I just use that as a platform for my comic? - One-shot or strip comics without a continuous story that can be read in any order can do okay on social media, and people have adapted Tumblr to display a series of pages. But for continuous long-form stories, social media platforms are better for keeping your readers updated and general promotion.

📚 Wait, what if I want to build my own website and drive people there? - We have another masterlist of website hosts for that!

🕵️‍♀️What kinds of restrictions can I expect? - Many comic platforms have restrictions on NSFW content, links to other sites, or could be invite/application-only. We've tried to note those on the cards, as well as a list of comic platforms that have predatory business practices at the very end that we recommend avoiding. Always do your research!

Webcomic Platforms

Webtoon Canvas

Tapas

Webtoon Originals

SpiderForest Webcomic Collective

Hiveworks

ComicFury

The Duck

Saturday AM

GlobalComix

NamiComi

DillyHub

Shrine Comics

Dp you have any good source for clothes and fabric?

Oh yes! I have a few snippets randomly posted in here throughout the years (should be under clothing reference or fabric reference tag), but one of my favorite resources for a lot of design related things is Visual Library! Among the huge selection they provide, they have sections dedicated to clothing by type and style. The only downfall is that all the references here are drawn ones and not images taken from life. I have yet to find a good reference library for live photo references of fabric types and how they drape and fold. My solution for that has been to create what I needed from materials I had at home and take photos myself when I've needed to see how something drapes or falls. Plenty of live references for naked poses out there, which I can understand, but we need to know how to draw clothed people, too! I will reblog this with an update if I ever find a nice resource for a variety of live fabric types.

Webtoon's new age rating standards say that a comic can't be rated All Ages if it includes "Fully censored profanity (e.g., #$%^) in a few episodes". Literally more restrictive than 1950s newspaper funnies!

I'm going to have to talk about Webtoons(company) at one point, and its... impact on the webcomic sphere too. Trying to find the most eloquent way to say that these companies aren't your friends, and that I am seeing more and more creators getting chewed up and spit out when these places are done with them. I'm legit worried for how The Content Creator model is going to hurt so many more people, who have been led to believe that this is the only way to get their work out there.