[Comic] 29/09/08 (Project Future Pg. 32 remixed)

[Ren Gaulen]

I've got something related to Joshua's misadventures (as a fridge ) in my art thread.
http://clockworkmansion.com/forum/index.php/topic,4158.msg194745.html#msg194745

[Jack McSlay]

is the fact the ward looks like a wedding ring to save even further problems?

and -42 is the OUTSIDE temperature right? o.o

[Tapewolf]

is the fact the ward looks like a wedding ring to save even further problems?

Probably because it's easiest to draw...

and -42 is the OUTSIDE temperature right? o.o

Apparently the lowest temperature recorded in Earth's Arctic region is -68C.  So it could be worse.  Needless to say, the door is some kind of airlock or bulkhead rather than a direct link to the outside!

**EDIT**
Yes, that display is showing the outside temperature, not the inside temperature...

[GabrielsThoughts]

um... I have a complaint. The wall color on the third panel in the second row makes the temperature gage look like it's floating off or through the wall.

[Tapewolf]

um... I have a complaint. The wall color on the third panel in the second row makes the temperature gage look like it's floating off or through the wall.

Do you want to elaborate on that?  I can't see it myself.

[GabrielsThoughts]

the imaginary line and the gauge intersect with the though bubble and the intersection seems to create a sunken wall effect. or, the angle of the floor is also identical to the on one the and creates an unintentional MC Escher effect.

[Jack McSlay]

I didn't think of it as a sunken wall. just a section of the wall that's better lit than the rest

[Tapewolf]

the imaginary line and the gauge intersect with the though bubble and the intersection seems to create a sunken wall effect. or, the angle of the floor is also identical to the on one the and creates an unintentional MC Escher effect.

No, I still can't see it.  I had assumed it was probably the shading effect on the wall, but my brain just can't turn it into a broken perspective effect...

[GabrielsThoughts]

well, the effect is created by the shading.  like in a old dos  Videogame,  the  imaginary line that seperates the wall and floor is the  back of the wall, whose angle is identical to the cross lines of the tile. As the tile merges into  linolium there is is this scoreboard thingy just hovering there in the middle of the wall.  It wouldn't take much to fix it just draws your eye to the corner.

[Tapewolf]

Oh, I think I get it - you're extending the lighter section of the wall as though it was part of the floor?  I might tweak that.

[Gabi]

Holy mother of what? None of the English swear words I know would fit that sentence.

[Tapewolf]

Holy mother of what? None of the English swear words I know would fit that sentence.

Keaton knows.

[Gabi]

Ah... thank you.

[Tapewolf]

Ah... thank you.

Apparently that's what Abel was originally going to say in strip 537, but Amber decided against it at the last minute.

[Tapewolf]

Okay, the new age is up.
New page, even.

Since it didn't come out very well, the panther has 'L-TRK' on its leg.  Make of this what you will.

[Ren Gaulen]

And here's a little parody of the third panel of this page!

This joke originates from the webcomic "Last Days of FoxHound".

[GabrielsThoughts]

I vote the above comic belong as part of the storyline.

[Zedd]

Those kittys have looks that would kill

[Ren Gaulen]

Those kittys have looks that would kill

Sure, considering how they have eye-lasers!

Just kidding.

[Dannysaysnoo]

Those panthers look fantastic.

[Tapewolf]

Those panthers look fantastic.

Yes, Ren really came up trumps with them.  These are actually the second generation panthers - the original ones had a head which made me think of the Smash potato robots. 

I redrew the head thus:
http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k216/tapewolf/projectfuture/panth_c.png

Colourised it looks like this:
http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k216/tapewolf/projectfuture/panth_c2.png

Building them takes about 4 layers, though most of these are backups or staging areas for colour conversions.

In this strip, the only problem we had was with panel 3, where again, I redrew the head:

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k216/tapewolf/projectfuture/panther_p17-3.png

In the redraw, I worked off a jaguar head, which unfortunately made the creature look slightly different in profile compared to the other frames.

I'm still not sure I should have included the teeth in that frame.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Hmmm.

I think Joshua thinks very differently to the way that I think.

My personal response would be "that's a very limited voice address system. Is that a deliberate choice, or is that as far as you've got?" sort of approach.

Of course, I'd also be likely to brazen out the "not very smart" thing, rather than sweating and hoping like hell it didn't attack.

What the hey. You can only die once... *cough*

[Tapewolf]

Hmmm.

I think Joshua thinks very differently to the way that I think.

My personal response would be "that's a very limited voice address system. Is that a deliberate choice, or is that as far as you've got?" sort of approach.

Maybe, but it wasn't really laid for that to work - if you've read the rant, you may have noticed that this was put together somewhat rapidly and thence with very little margin for error.

Note also that Joshua is whispering when he says the "not very bright" line - while the original script had him saying it out loud, it struck me as stretching it a bit that he would just blurt that out after the thing intimidated him in panel 3.  Again, I wonder if it would have looked better with the sweatdrops and teeth removed...

**EDIT**

I'm also assuming that Panther L-TRK is leaving piles of snow and footprints everywhere because he was called in by Kris, and that this is not a normal part of the patrol.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Oh, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying he _should_ think like I think.

How he reacts is how he reacts, and my comparison shouldn't be taken as advice for how to change him - anything but - more as just an explicative of how I see him behaving in ways I don't understand.

Much like the rest of the human race, in that respect...

[Tapewolf]

After many false starts including Mac looking at Kris instead of Josh and a message on the website saying "Don't read this yet", Page 18 is up.  I might point out that Panther R-MAC originally had teeth in panel 7.  This made him look completely psychotic, as can be evidenced here:
http://www.project-future.org/strips/outtakes/pf18_9.png

**EDIT**
And the speech bubble was coming out of Mac's neck instead of his face.  So I've had to tweak it yet AGAIN!  Still, I guess it is Friday the 13th.

[GabrielsThoughts]

shapter...that wasn't a chapter, that was a scene. boo. Just kidding. I like the story.

[GabrielsThoughts]

out of curiosity when you were designing the panther droids were you going for a more artificial or a more lifelike appearance?

[Ren Gaulen]

out of curiosity when you were designing the panther droids were you going for a more artificial or a more lifelike appearance?

Tape told me that the panthers should look more robotic than lifelike, so I tried to go for a sleek "mecha" look. But in my first drafts I tried to make them look similar to robots from "Megaman Zero" games, which didn't work out well..

[Tapewolf]

shapter...that wasn't a chapter, that was a scene. boo. Just kidding. I like the story.

In some ways I regret chapter 2, but it was necessary to lay the groundwork.  Chapter 3 should kick more ass.

Anyway, if you're curious about the panthers, here's the reduced lineart for page 18:
http://www.project-future.org/strips/comic/pf18_lineart.png

[Jack McSlay]

the name woudn't suggest the panther runs on MacOS, or would it?