True Origins
 

For anyone interested, I started a fanfic comic using actual sets and figures....

And no cheesy stuff, I'm going full-story and giving it a lot of attention and time to try and do this right.

I am pulling the best logical aspects of every version of TFs series to create a cohesive universe that does settle all of the "questionable" aspects of TFs, as throughout the years, they keep being reinvented and never in a way that makes actual sense nor provide a definitive "origin" story that explains everything.

I'm up to the 6th part at the time of this post and have a few more to go for just the first chapter of the story.

I hope that you'll enjoy it!

Including my cover and the first page as a sample...(but it does get better...)

https://www.tfw2005.com/boards/threa...igins.1192951/

Re: True Origins
 

Finally got a chance to reply after checking it out yesterday, and doing it again now (and not expecting Part 7 to come up on my second read). Great work! It's a pretty cool story as it progresses; I'm curious as to what the artifact Optimus found will turn out to be. (I know; it'll come when it's the right time in the story.)

I wonder if there's a certain graphics or visual software you're using, because I'm curious about the effects you've applied to some of the photos; an effect I want to use for some of my own photography work. I'm not sure what's the proper name for the effects technique, but it's the effect and/or "filter" (if that's the right term) to give the photo a kind of weathered look with a diagonal "blur". Examples of this visual effect is the very first photo of the story ("My name is Optimus Prime, and my story begins here"), and one of the early image in Part 4, when Optimus and Cliffjumper blast their way through an obstacle.

Also, a minor question regarding for the Ark-esque backdrops as set pieces. I have the same file, but I haven't gotten around to printing my own set yet. I was thinking about going to a place like Staples or the Photo Dept. at London Drugs, but I wonder what you might recommend for printing it - i.e. if you know a lower-priced print service, and what you printed yours on.

Great work thus far; already can't wait to see the next chapter! :cool:

Re: True Origins
 

Thanks...

I JUST pushed out Part 8 tonight (this morning?)

I've been doing graphic work at a professional level for almost 20 years, and oddly enough, I am not a fan of Adobe products. I tend to use various product, but it's a really funny/strange situation that out of 3 software I was (am) using, Corel (remember Corel-Draw and Wordperfect) ended up buying out these companies.

But that said, the main software that I'm actually still using, is the last version (before the Corel purchase) of a software called Picture publisher (V.10), from a company that was called Micrografx... 20 years later and it's still working amazingly well and still has tools that outdoes Adobe or other newer software... for the effect, it's actually a custom filter that I built for this project that I'm using... under the "paint studio" effects.

I am actually applying to all the images to give them a "drawn" look...

For the backdrops,I simply printed at home on my photo printer as multi-page posters that I simply taped together, and it does the job for smaller project images, but in the later parts, I ended up getting some foam boards and orange cardboard from Dollar stores, and gluing them together and drawing the designs using imagination, long rulers and a various shape stencil... I added magnetic sections to have them hold together, but that's working in a limited way.

If you were to get some printed, I would highly recommend that you check any option for foamboards or such as just paper is a pain to hold up (I ended up building a holder for the backdrop images I've printed).