Fan To Pro - The Blog of Professional Geekery

Launch or Be Lunch, Day 1 - AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!!: Last Minute Doublechecking

Give me just a second.  I need to get something off my chest.

Launch or Be Lunch, Day 9 - Crunchtime Continues: Rendering

Okay, can I let you in on a little secret?  Neither Ayne nor I know how to do technical illustration.  What that means is either she or I are trying to draw a helicopter, it tends to look less like a fully armed Apache helicopter and more like a bulbous sausage with a plate above it and snow skis below.  That's not saying that I don't know how to draw, nor does that say anything about Ayne's skills (especially since she's the artist).  What it means is that our skills lie far more in figure drawing, curves vs. lines (or what we here at Megami tend to refer to as "organic" drawing vice the technical "inorganic" drawing).

Okay, now that I've gotten that off my chest, are you ready for the rest?  Neither can anyone else.

Launch or Be Lunch, Day 10 - Crunchtime Begins: Design

Hello and welcome back.  We've finally reached the point where we're 10 days before launch, so things are just a tad busy around here.

 

Launch or Be Lunch, Day 11 - Lrn 2 Advermatize and Market (At Least Better than HP. Ouch, Lawsuit in 3...2...1....)

Aside from merchandising, one thing that you may want to look into is A&M (that's Advertising and Marketing, for those who didn't stay awake during Business Ed.)  If you want your endeavor to be successful, you have to get the word out there; it's rare when they come looking for you from the very start.  So you have to make the effort.

I'll get this right out of the way: advertising and marketing sucks.  It's a specialized skill, and not many have the knack to do it.  There are a very few who are a natural when it comes to it and they usually find new and unique ways of approaching it (my favorite is Scott Stratten's UnMarketing methodology).  Chances are, you're like me and abhor it.  Well, it sucks but it has to be done, and with that in mind, let's get cracking.

(Oh, and forewarning: due to the examples of just sheer wrongness people do, this post is slightly NSFW.  No naughty bits, just lots of language.)

Launch or Be Lunch, Day 13, - Realism vs. Reality vs. Realization vs. Real Estate? (Quick, Come Up With Another Word!)

As we discussed yesterday, research is the key to getting everything right - or at least plausible - in your works.  But in all that, there's a question that should really be asked.

Why?

Or rather, does everything need to be true and accurate in all details?  Yes, it helps to know that the point end of the sword is not the part that you hold, and that the moon is not made of green cheese.  But what it if was?  What if ol' Luna were composed of Swiss? (sorry, couldn't come up with a gouda enough variety).  What if there was air in space?  What if we just threw the book out?

And, of course, it goes without saying that some things just don't mesh well in a realistic setting.

Launch or Be Lunch, Day 14 - Research, Research, Research!

Ever read something that felt like it was cribbed from the Onion?  No, seriously.  I had the "pleasure" (if you can call it that) of reading a cheap 99-cent Kindle book that was theoretically a sci-fi book.  And I mean "theoretical" in the same way I mean that D&D LARPs are authentic period depictions.  The book was about a crack team of scientists trying to save the Earth from overheating, similar to the film The Core.  The difference was, it regarding the sun.  And the author had all these great ways about how the Earth was in danger...yet couldn't quite tie it to the sun.  At one point, he even tied it to "iceberg shifting" though I don't think that was intentional.

About halfway through reading it, this Onion article seemed more plausible than the author's plot.

Clearly, he didn't do his research.

Launch or Be Lunch, Day 16 - Inspiration is Where You Get It (or Something Like That)

Ah, insipiration, that fickle inspiring inspirative that inspires inspiration.  Yeah, whatever.

The fact is, most of us tend to get our inspiration from what we're exposed to the most.  If you read books, books are your inspiration.  If you watch TV, you get it there.  If you're a cinephile, most of your works will have a cinematic quality.  If you're an otaku, guess what?

Well, I'm here to give you yet another bit of information that will likely annoy the crap out of you and earn me yet more hatred and contempt (just performing a public service, folks!) from all my potential fans.

Stop.  Stop what you're doing now and Get Your Own Damn Idea.

Launch or Be Lunch, Day 17 - Originality is SO Original, Part 2: Composition is Not a Crime

Aaaaaaand we're back.  Yesterday, we talked about the concepts of originality vs. unoriginality, and why unoriginality isn't rated high enough or that originality is overrated; in the end, it's how you treate the unoiriginality in an unoriginal manner.  In a sense, it's like the concept of Fair Use in copyright: it's the transformative and new meaning to the source that counts.

And now it's time to get into that little shibboleth. Hang on to your pens and pencils, boys and girls, because what I'm about to say is probably going to turn a few heads at best and floor people at worst.  Also, because I could go forever on the subject and all its different permutations, I'm only going to stick to how it related to manga and comics; I'll acknowledge that it happens all too often in other media and others can cover that better than I can.  

So with that, let's get started.

Launch or Be Lunch, Day 20 - Fonts, Part 3: Obstructions and Constructions (and Occasionally Destructions)

Yesterday, I was talking about how to choose the appropriate font for your webcomic.  Today, we're going to go one farther.  I'm going to sucker you show you how to create your own font.  Everybody go yay!

Launch or Be Lunch, Day 23 - Beach Blanket Bingo, Office Edition

As I mentioned, here we are on the post of scheduling.  Scheduling is important.  Why?  Because I wrote yesterday's article one day late and should have done this one earlier.  Yes, bad writer.  no cookie.

But aside from that, I highly recommend Cupcake chardonnay for anniversary dinners it is vitally important that in the process of your work, you do not let other stuff slide by in the day to day things.  Yes, you're in charge of a vitally important part of the wheel, you can't afford to let anything slip.