Anybody remember me? It's been a long time.

[Fulgrate]

I don't know if anybody remember me from here, I use to post a lot sometime before the mid 2010s. 

I made a webtoon using every fibre of talent I had, but I'm not sure what section to post it in, since a webtoon isn't a manga according to some, and the episode itself is 100 pages long.

https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/farsiders-call-to-action/list?title_no=792258

Well, I hope I'm not posting in the wrong section, but I just remembered this place after all these years and wanted to pass by and say hi.

Since then till now, been through a lot of different jobs, from working on in a fishing vessel in Alaska in one of the most dangerous jobs in the world, to working with, of all creatures, monkeys for 6 months, and a bunch of other jobs, always wondering when the day will come when I make my next story, wether it be manga/webtoon.

And so, that time was now, apparently.

And yes, I am using a hybrid 2D/3D style, I made all the models myself, from scratch, in blender. It's the same as drawing, but in a 3D plane instead of 2D.

[Coryn]

Fulgrate! Welcome back! Never doubt there's some crusty old fart like myself who will remember you, lol. MR isn't as happening as it was back in the day, but damnit if we're not consistent.

Glad to see you're still creating! I'm going to slide this one into the Members Manga section since it seems most apt.

I do dig the mixed art style. How long have you been cooking this one up?

[Fulgrate]

Hey Coryn, I remember you. Glad to see you guys have kept this place up and running.

Ah, thanks for moving it to the appropriate section. Wasn't sure if Webtoons counted as manga. 

Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed the webtoon. The mixed art style was theoretical for the past 3 years, around 2020, I began studying 3D vehemently since the lockdowns happened and everybody was stuck at home(working with monkeys was my final irl job.)

Then eventually I was skilled enough to test out the theoretical method, but didn't have the time or money yet, so I went into freelance Virtual Reality Avatar work, making VR vessels for money.

Then the "Call to Action" competition was announced, and I set aside an entire month with no work/games and focused solely on making the webtoon based on this method I haven't seen anybody try before(and if they have, I'd like a link to it, lol.)

And that's what happened.

Here's my twitter, where I'm mostly active nowadays: https://twitter.com/theefenders

I haven't found a place like Mangaraiders anytime I search, it's always the reddits or the discords, but nothing like a regular forum dedicated to manga/graphic novels.

[Suuper-san]

wlecome back!
I've been around a while myself (we registered almost the same time!) but I think perhaps we never overlapped in active times, at a quick glance I cant see my comments in any of your threads. I used to go by supertramp btw if you remember me.

Good to see you've been working hard at your craft!!
And super well done on starting/working on a webcomic! I know from experience that making a comic is a serious high effort endeavour. I hope you can keep it up!

Also, curious use of 3d models as an art style, I can't say I've seen anything similar myself either. Although I expect with advances in 3d modelling that it will become a more used genre at some point in the future.
Many artists have used 3d models as a base to draw over their art traditionally though. And I have also seen short anime series that are full 3d animated, often shorts at the end of traditionally animated anime have a 3d model chitchat corner or something similar.

The one problem i find with 3d models that show through to the final artwork, is that they have the tendency to lack the buoyancy/expressiveness of hand drawn characters. The 3d models cannot move outside of their range of motion, same with the facial expressions. Whereas a lot of manga, especially comedy, use exaggerated proportions in various shots to convey different things, which 3d has yet to be able to copy effectively, and so conveys a much more realistic tone regardless of the genre. Motion as well, where parts of the body become blurred or distorted can also be harder to achieve with 3d models. Just my thoughts on the matter.

That aside the comic was enjoyable. The 3d models made the proportions very accurate, including foreshortening, such as when the swords were facing towads the reader.

I felt there could have been a few more face closeups during the fight sequences, such as the surprise of the fire guy when he realizes the other guy can stack 3 techs, not 2. That would have been a good close-up "huh?" shot, as he realizes, I think.

The fight sequences were well choreographed, as well as the use of powerups and attack names was 100% shounen and felt perfectly in place for the genre, it was good.

All in all, a solid read. keep it up!!

[Fulgrate]

Ah, I can't remember a supertramp, and I didn't remember Coryn's name, I only recognized him due to his Urahara sig that was present back then as well. : D

Thanks, well, I can't say I have been working hard at it, I actually thought I would never work on it again while I was knee deep in other jobs not-related to it, which is why I kept wondering if one day I'll ever get to work on it again.

Here's a photo from my fishermen in Gulf of Alaska job, I was literally looking out into that ocean, thinking my future as an artist was pretty much over, and during my free time then, I took my final, unknown graphic novel, and was slowly uploading it to webtoons(2018), the only thing I had to do was reformat it for that style, so when ever we hit land for a day or two, I'd spent my free time doing that, before we went back out to sea for like 5 to 6 days.




These are the last times I was active when it comes to graphic novelish stuff.


I picked 3D as my new career, since I felt someday I could somehow combine it with comic type stuff,  which became the theoretical method I tested out last month with my new work. It was either that, or tell the story through a game.

Well, I can't keep it up unfortunately, this was a hail mary attempt if you will. IF I get one of the top ten spots, then yes, I'll have the funding to keep going, but if not, I won't be able to do this again until I save up enough money, which could be at least a year or two minimum till my next webtoon.

Yeah, it will be interesting to see what people do with 3D for comics. I do know 3D has been used in backgrounds for manga for a  few years now, but not for characters at least(except to sketch over like in the vid below).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuWpou1XTK4&t=220s

I did see a mangaka using a program called DesignDoll in a similar manner, basically used in place of preliminary sketches.

I wanted to take my technique further, to make a detailed 3D model in the style of 2D with the line art already done. Then do touch ups in 2D to make it look better.

Oh I wrote all that before reading you say the same thing, lol. X D

Ah, those problems you mentioned where only present for 3D models in the mid 2015s or from lesser skilled workers.

It's not that 3D models can't do it, it's that they require a lot more work to be as expressive as a 2D model. Arc System Works latest work, Guilty Gear Strive, overcame those obstacles, with models that move and stretch expressively, the way 2D animation would.

As I said, 3D meshes have always been capable of stretch and bending in a cartoony way to mimic 2D, but it's just x10 more work to pull off, and for an animation studio, before wasteful of time and resources, so they most likely just left the models looking static than to put in the work that would put them in debt.

For me, I technically did combine 2D with 3D, especially to fix up Winra, who's model took 2 days to make, so her model lacked the ability to make expressions or bend correctly, while Blazer's model took a week and a half, and could do a lot more, so his 2D editing was minimal(although nearly all his flames I drew in 2D, as seen in this vid.)

https://twitter.com/theefenders/status/1550765030311878657

(don't judge me for my music choice, lol).

Thanks, glad you enjoyed the comic, yeah that is one of the advantages of 3D, I don't have to worry about getting foreshortening right now more, I definitely messed that up sometimes in 2D. I was better off using my academic side of my brain to learn 3D than rely solely on whatever part of my brain handled those calculations...

Yeah, something I did uncharacteristically was not use enough close ups, it's funny since I used close ups often when I drew in 2D, but in 3D, I kept having the camera keep it's distance, and very few times doing close ups, I do have a close up shot of him that I cut from the comic(due to size constraints, we could only upload 100 files, which I found out too late, and my comic was 160 files total in it's original form) that I ended up using in one of the unused thumbnails of Blazer.



Thanks, I felt like I could do fight scenes well with all the fighting manga I've read in my life, lol. Thanks regarding the attack names and powerups, yeah, I'm heavily influenced by shounens, lol.

And here's the 2018 series, that I uploaded in alaska(I only uploaded half of it, the other half is still waiting to be reformated.) If you want to compare it to my 2022 work.

https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/the-rebel-knight/list?title_no=207778

[Coryn]

I feel like "who the freeze is in my ice ship" came straight off an alaskan fishing boat somehow  lol

To go waaay back to an earlier point you made. It's no outlier you encountered of getting a lot of reddit and twitter and not a lot of forums. We just aren't an appreciated space of online culture like we used to be. I think it's just easier for people to default to one place where they can get a little of everything. Although in my experience if you want to deep dive, you still have to find a little spot like ours.