[S] REX DUODECIM ANGELUS - Thread Two!

[ArtemisTheHuntress]

@Mopomoko - welcome! We always appreciate new members! And we especially need artists for backgrounds - and your art looks absolutely gorgeous!


Also, @everyone - I've finished the "Trolls on lilypads, seen from behind, staring up at BK" shot. Does it look all right?

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[Mopomoko]

Oh, great! Thanks a lot, I am glad you think so and it will be wonderful being able to work on this.
I think it looks fine.

Uh, lesse... I can do the backgrounds for Feferi VS. Dersites and the Feferidan bit, provided no on else is doing them. If I finish those soon enough, I can probably work on more backgrounds since it seems like a lot of those are still needed? I'd also love to try getting involved with Vriska (at least after the stuff I'd like to claim atm is done), in which case I will have to PM Psych, I guess.

[MoraicTrochee]

I AM BACK! No tablet yet, but plenty of internet

1. Thanks for the congratulations, guys!
2.I have been having issues with the wiki - it keeps redirecting me to other pages and crashing. Is anyone else having this issue? I will try it again tomorrow but it is pretty concerning :/
3. I agree that we should take out the cloud at the beginning of Vriska's sequence. It seems like it would be an easy omission and I think the points against it were well-argued.

PERSONAL RESPONSES:

CP - I am loving the work on Vriska's section! Don't worry about not being able to finish up Karkat. Does anyone with flash want to add meteors and Aradiabots to Karkat's ALMOST ALMOST finished section?

Legilos - Your colored hands look great! Do you have any interest in doing backgrounds? If not, we also need more black king art for the Desperation sequence - are you interested in any of that?

Tezz - Yay, great to have you! Welcome to the project. Last I heard Booom of Girl wanted to do Terezi riding the knight but she is still working on the Feferi scene so maybe we should give it to you. Booom? What do you think? (If she doesn't respond, Tezz, try PMing her.) Anyway, definitely work on the billowing fabric first!

Morphosky - Sad to lose you, but I understand. You will always be welcome when you have time again! Thank you so much for letting us know in advance that you'll be busy!! (I can't reiterate enough how important it is that people tell us when they have to back out, as opposed to just disappearing.) Could you post everything you have done so far so that I can log it and reassign the remainder? Thanks! Good luck with your work.

Mopomoto - Hooray, another new person! I am very excited that you want to help with backgrounds. Go ahead and do Feferi vs. Dersites and some of the Feferidan scenes - make sure you watch the Feferidan storyboard on the wiki so that you only make backgrounds we don't have yet.

Artemis - the staring up at the Black King scene looks pretty good to me!

PHEW. Anyway, I am heading to bed, but I'll talk to you guys tomorrow. Hopefully by then whatever issue I am having with the wiki will sort itself out!

EDIT: Just talked to DreamHazard... Gamzee's part is still in progress! However, he/she can no longer do lilypads and clouds for Tavros' section, so we need some of those. Post them in the thread and then send them straight to SidGarcia.

[deafNoisemaker]

Dilemma:

This is awesome and I'd love to be able to help it. But I am notoriously bad at finishing off pieces of artwork.

... 8D;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; Is there anything I can do that's just... Fairly... General? For example making meteors, would that help at this stage - something where even if I'm a terrible person and procrastinate it won't hold anything up? Or if anyone's working on something and it would help to have some base sketches to work over rather than having to draw everything themselves, I can do some quick sketchings to be just outlined and coloured... If not, then I'll just sit back and watch this awesome project unfold Because it is, indeed, made of so much awesome.

[SidGarcia]

So, I have some bad news.
Progress on Tavros' section is postponed (at least for now) because of computer problems. Everything is backed up though, so I'll post all the files necessary later so someone else can finish it! It shouldn't be too much work, you just need Flash, or some of you could make the assets needed so I could animate it all when I have access to Flash again.

Thanks to Lientie for sending the clouds and lilypads, too bad I couldn't make use of them right now.

So the list of needed assets + links to all the other stuff will be posted later, this weekend most likely.
I'm sorry that this happened, but I'm sure with the collaborative power of this community, it'll only be a small hurdle (PS: Please don't make assets from the storyboard before the list is posted, I changed it somewhat!)

I haven't said it much in the past, but seeing any art or progress done on this project is really fun! I hope we can continue being productive through the entirety of the project!

[Mopomoko]

Okay, so I got this done earlier for the Fef and Dersites bit. I'm sort of iffy about the lilypad they're on, so please tell me if you'd like me to edit or redo it.

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[Hatta]

Hello, I'm new too.
o:
Actually the first time I saw this thread was way back in like, june of last year? I never thought you guys were going to go through with it, but apparently you did! (sorry about that)
I'd be more the interested to help with kanyas bit and backgrounds, would that be fine with ya'll?
My gallery is here.

Going through the thread as we speak though, shh shh.

[MoraicTrochee]

Good news, the wiki is now working just fine. I have no idea what the problem was!

SidGarcia - yikes, the computer issues strike us again! I'm so glad everything is alright. I can't wait to see the finished frames! Let us know if you get things fixed

Who would like to accept responsibility for constructing the Tavros section?

Mopomoto - I personally kind of like the lilypad Plus a lot of it will be blocked by Feferi and the Dersite, so don't stress too much. The picture is wonderful! Can't wait to see the rest of the Feferidan backgrounds.

Also, right now I am the person scheduled to make the red/blue laser-eye-explosion backgrounds for Desperation, but that was just because of a dearth of background artists. Before I start work on those, I wanted to offer them to you, because frankly I am not as good at you! If you would prefer not to do them, I will work on them as originally planned.

Hatta - YESSSSS another person interested in providing backgrounds! Exactly what I want to hear. Kanaya's section right now needs every single background, so if you want to tackle some of those, let me know. Just watch the storyboard on the wiki and post if you have any questions. We also need a shot of Kanaya stepping down on the platform, if you want to do that.

deafNoisemaker - right now I think we are mostly looking for artists who can finish things... but if it looks like we need more generic art I will let you know!!

I've been toying with posting an updated art-assets-needed list, but I think I am going to hold off until Morphosky posts the finished Terezi assets so we see what needs to be filled in.

[Mopomoko]

Heee, great then! I'm glad you like it, I'll make a start on the Feferidan backgrounds tomorrow.

Sure, I can do that if you'd like. I'd honestly just like to contribute wherever I can and I don't at all mind. It looks like they'd be pretty cool to try drawing.

[Mopomoko]

Okay I have done the backgrounds for the Feferidan section, save for those for the two shots involving the Black King. I intend to do those last two along with the Desperation backgrounds.

They're posted in chronological order for Eridan and Fef's bit. Please tell me if these are acceptable or if you'd like me to make any edits on any of them. Also please tell me if I should also upload the .psd file with al the backgrounds and their respective layers.

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[Thedude3445]

Okay I have done the backgrounds for the Feferidan section, save for those for the two shots involving the Black King. I intend to do those last two along with the Desperation backgrounds.

They're posted in chronological order for Eridan and Fef's bit. Please tell me if these are acceptable or if you'd like me to make any edits on any of them. Also please tell me if I should also upload the .psd file with al the backgrounds and their respective layers.

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oh yay those are great! They look like they would fit very well, and even if they don't, the are all great for generic backgrounds too.

[Nimz]

I'm just a bit concerned that the sky in those backgrounds might be a bit too... blue? I know we were kicking around the idea of progressively darkening the sky with clouds and smoke and rain to fit the mood of the music. E.g. during Kanaya's section the clouds lift a bit, enough for a rainbow to be visible. So what I envision for the Feferidan section is more whites and greys than blues. I don't know if that's still a thing. I hope it is. The other thing that concerns me is the meteors being static in the background images. It would not be inconsistent with the style of some of the flashes from the comic, but meteors tend to be rather fast-moving when they crash into the ground.

If you are feeling ambitious, I would try something like having the meteors punching holes in the clouds. Sort of a swiss cheese sky. :P

General question for everyone - would it be helpful if I put a suggested progressive sky/battlefield chart blurb on the backgrounds section of the wiki like I did with progressive damage to 8888Yy on his page? I'm pretty sure Karkat would be down with the added chart, while Dave would be vehemently opposed...

[Mopomoko]

Ohh, I see. I can definitely grey them down, in that case. Thanks a lot for telling me! The thought with the meteors also crossed my mind. I'll try with the meteors punching through the clouds. I can also possibly adjust the meteors so that they're moving across the backgrounds and save them as .gif? I'll also show some damage of meteors on the ground, when the ground is visible, anyway, since that would probably fit better as well.

I think a chart blurb would be both incredibly helpful and also very, very endorsed by Karkat.

[curiousTerminal]

Linking the pictures to a .psd download of them would help the animators, since it's much easier to use a file with the different aspects movable, rather than having static images. It will also preserve the colors, since .gif format will convert it to 256 colors.

[Nimz]

A gif preview of the moving meteors would be fine, but maybe a psd or a fla (if you have Flash) would be better for preventing loss of image quality for the final product? I'm not the final authority on what kind of files to use; I just know for stills, png is the preferred format, and gif is basically used just for previews due to the small colour palette. Looks like you are already doing png for stills. \o/

Or you could listen to what curiousTerminal says about the image formats.

[Mopomoko]

I can definitely upload the .psd for the animators. I'll do so as soon as I just finish adjusting the skies of the various bgs.

Speaking of which, this would work better for the sky in the background?

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As opposed to

[Nimz]

I would go with more along the lines of adding more clouds than making the sky less saturated. Even when it is rather cloudy out, where the sky does poke through, it's usually still a very saturated colour during the daytime. I imagine Skaia's sky would look much the same when it is overcast. I'll make a thing where I detail what my thoughts are for the sky evolution probably in a day or two. Then there can be a proper discussion of whether the thing as a whole sounds reasonable. So for now I'd suggest the sky colour you had already, but maybe just a few more clouds than you have in the dark one.

[MoraicTrochee]

Mopomoto, your backgrounds are awesome, apart from the weather dilemma and the meteors. Once you post the finished wikis you can also link to the psd files and that will solve the meteor issue. Personally, I LOVE the grey sky demo that you posted - I feel like when things are raining they really are that grey. HOWEVER, because a lot of blue can still be seen in the Sollux/Aradia sequence which happens afterwards, I would agree that we pry don't want to be greying things out too quickly. More clouds and maybe slightly lesser saturation might be the way to go. I would say to pause the backgrounds until Nimz finishes his incredibly useful, highly anticipated chart!

Also, when Nimz is done with that I will tackle Kanaya's backgrounds.

[Nimz]

Eeek. I don't want to halt your progress...

Well, the way I see it, the weather should somewhat match the mood of the song at that point, so the clouds will roll in and out. The smokiness from crashing meteors will augment the dimness as the fight progresses, of course, but I'll try to neglect that for the moment.

Starts off with a normal scattering of clouds and pretty much stays that way through the dersites section
Karkat - Maybe a slight increase in clouds
Terezi - Definitely more clouds
Intermission I - Clouds get a bit darker
Tavros - Some scattered showers, and then the clouds lighten up a bit
Kanaya - Clouds clear up to Karkat-levels perhaps, rainbow appears, rain clouds start to roll back in at the part a little bit before the chainsaw
Equius and Nepeta - Rain clouds come back in, but no rain falls yet, or perhaps rain in the distant background
Feferi and Eridan - The blue sky breaks through again, but no rainbow this time
Intermission II - See Intermission I
Sollux and Aradia - Getting darker, but more meteors are punching through the clouds, preventing the sky from being too dark
Gamzee - The clouds and smoke are too thick for meteors to continue making holes of blue light. Noticeable rain and/or rain mixed with blood
Intermission III - The sky actually lightens up a bit here, but only because Gamzee's influence was so dark
Vriska - Some patches of rain start to put out the fires caused by the meteors, making things less smoky, but more rainy

I relistened to the song as I made this list and that's approximately what I envision. Feel free to add to or make changes on that.

[MoraicTrochee]

Great! Sticking that in the backgrounds section of the wiki for now.

For the rainbow in Kanaya's part, do we want it bright? Dim? Big? Small? Which panel exactly? Consensus? I kind of like it small and in the distance, but if anyone else has a better idea that would work too. Also, should I put it on a separate layer for animating purposes, or not bother?

[ArtemisTheHuntress]

I'm up for doing backgrounds! (Or clouds or meteors or anything.) Which ones still need to be done?


(Also, about the rainbow in Kanaya's section: I agree that it should be smallish, and kind of light or fuzzy. Sort of hopeful-looking, not a big huge splash of color, just... kind of a nice spot in the midst of battle.)

[Nimz]

Maybe something kind of like this, but less vivid?

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Hmmmn. Or how about this:


That's what my quick google image search for rainbows yielded. It's hard to not get distacted with a search like that...

As for when. I haven't thought that out very precisely. Perhaps the background for when she is revealed from the smoke of Tavros's crash landing. Possibly when she's putting her lipstick on. Certainly before the chainsaw is revved up.

[Mopomoko]

Regarding cloud coverage. This as opposed to this?

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I apologize for being such a bother with this, I just want to make sure I don't screw it up...

[MoraicTrochee]

I think that cloudy picture is pretty great! Stormy but still blueness. And I will get to work on Kanaya's backgrounds now!

Unrelated rambling under spoiler.

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Today is my birthday, and when I checked the update it was Jaspersprite meowing 'happy birthday' while holding a cake. I almost fell over. Just had to share with someone haha.

[spycomic29]

Happy birthday, Moriac!