Progress after finishing semester 2 of 2024

I'm going to be honest. Since my previous entry, nothing has changed, especially because of how I really wanted to focus on uni for the year's second semester. The task I needed to clear before I'm really happy to move forward is still trying to get the design for Kamilla's blaster right, and for months (or at least during the pockets of time I spent working on Project: Mydan) I felt like things were going nowhere. 

However, I strongly believe that now's the time I can actually get it done. You see, last semester, one of my courses required me to make design concepts for characters, making me experience the process of starting with various ideas evolving into a final product. Now, I'm applying what I've learnt from that experience into my own work, starting with Project: Mydan. Although I've been slacking abt in my progress (I'm just tyring to gain some momentum in this stage), I've managed to get some solid ideas down for Kamilla's blaster. I feel like I'm actually not going nowhere and just redrawing weapons, and instead using my references to get forwards in the design. I've been motivated and inspired lately. I hope to finaly come back.

Aiming for a 2024 Revival!

Hello everyone! I haven't posted here in a while. As you can probably guess from my lack of activity here (and pretty much everywhere else) lately, I haven't been doing much on my projects. And this is even though I had all of my Summer holidays to work on them. 

All that might sound worrying for most, but not for me. I know that my passion is still there, and it needs to be re-ignited with the right ingredients for its fuel. Recently, I have been trying to figure out what they are. This process may take just one guess, or, more likely, I'll have to test out multiple theories

So far, the theories I have come to a total of one. That theory is this: "If I update my project blog (and my projects Tumblr) on a more regular basis, then I will be more likely to do more work on my projects." Hopefully, this is the one. If not, that's too bad. But whatever happens, I'm looking forward to continuing my comics! ...And maybe more...?

(Also, uni's back and it's my final year, so it's going to be hell for me)

Nearing the end of the semester

If you've seen my last post, then you'd know that I had made the decision to focus mostly on my uni stuff. So far, that's been going well! Two of the major assignments that I've done in the past month are done and submitted, which means I can finally go back to the old routine. The semester is nearly ending and I only have two small assignments left to go, so I'm pretty confident.

However, although I'd just been focusing on uni for the most part, I've managed to find some spare time to really put in extra thoughts on my projects, especially Mydan. In my daydreams, I've really just been polishing some coming scenes and refining characters, mainly just so my future writing on the project won't get too messy.

I've also noticed that recently I've been taking most of my inspiration from video games, one of them being MOTHER or EarthBound Beginnings, as well as the rest of the MOTHER series. I'm not necessarily talking about how Kamilla's got a bit of her inspired by Lloyd and Ruwei by Ninten, but mainly its more game-like elements. For instance, how the protagonists are accompanied by a party that follow an archetype of some sort (although there will only be two main characters: Kamilla & Ruwei). Another, for a more specific example, is Kamilla mending broken machines overnight similarly to how Jeff does in EarthBound. I just thought that would be a nice thing to add.

Being careful with my pacing

As you'd expect, working on a long-term creative project and studying (whether it be uni or high school) is pretty much a bad idea. But, I'm still working on my projects anyway xD Although things have been slow, I've managed to make some progress in Mydan: basically, I've done all the concept art needed for the next scene. I hope to start the first scene of Chapter 1 real soon! If you want to keep up with my progress for Mydan in "real-time", I have a tag on a Tumblr blog for that which can be viewed Here.

Remember Kamilla?

Anyways, moving on to other important things: I've been trying to focus on uni a lot more lately. In the past year, my motivation to do my work has been kind of getting worse, and it sucks. And so, before I hopefully take a break for some time next year, I at least want to make my work before then have at least SOME quality. So! In other words, hopefully in a couple months, progress will start to speed up again. Wishing myself luck in my studies for now :'D

Also, I wanted to quickly mention a book that I've been completely into this year: it's a speculative biology scifi titled All Tomorrows by C.M. Kosemen. To summarise the narrative briefly, it basically follows the future of humanity and involves a lot of body horror, unique civilisations, hope and doom. It has become quite an inspiration for me and my own sci-fi writing, and has especially helped grow my interest in developing the alien civilisations that I've created for my universe. By the way, All Tomorrows is completely free to read, and there's even a nice audiobook reading of it on YouTube!

Mydan's prologue and other things

The prologue for Mydan is officially complete. It took me a couple months, but I'm just happy it's done :D Although I'm proud of how it turned out in general, there are a few things that I want to change/add to help things be a bit more clear. Hopefully, I'll find time for doing that in the future, since right now I want to get started on chapter 1. I'm also thinking about doing some ending art for after each chapter, and my next task is to get started on doing that. Anyways, wishing myself luck on future progress.

The prologue is over!

On the side, I've been coming up with ideas for, as well as drawing up, some small slice-of-life/gag comics with some of my characters. I've already completed one with some characters from Gone Unsupervised, which you can view HERE. From the way that the latest comic looks, I feel like that will be the way I'll be drawing up comics under GU from now on. I've had these characters for a long time and I've always wanted to make an ongoing, consistent comic with them. I might as well make the comic process easy, even though it sacrifices some of its visual quality.

Ben (left) and Felix (right) in their first official comic together

Also, uni's back on my tail (as expected). This means that I'll have to put my projects to a lower priority for now, which sucks big time. I only have two subjects for this semester to make things a little easier for me, but I'm still not doing too hot. All I can do now is just put in more effort into focusing on uni stuff, which is hard, therefore taking some time off my projects for a bit. That's not to say my projects are going to be totally dead for some time though - things are just going to get a little slower.

Good news

Good knews - Mydan's already started! I don't know if I've mentioned this already (especially since it's been a while since I last updated this blog) but I've already made some decent progress on the pages for my the comic. Scene 2 in the prologue chapter, to be exact. I'm really hyped to get this one going! Since it's currently my mid-year break, I've got plenty of time on my hands to be working on my projects. However, starting on the 25th of June, my classes will be back, which will make my schedule pretty tight (which I can't really say I'm ready for xD). Even so, I'll do my best to stay as dedicated as possible, especially since this is something that I'm really passionate about.

I've already reached the 10 page mark :D

Aside from the actual pages for Mydan itself, I'm always thinking about what's going on in the story. A little bit of a risky move from me, but frankly, I don't think it would bother me too much. If anything, it'll just slow me down and I'll eventually complete my first comic and be ready to start my second one by the time I retire my 9-5 job. Which I don't want. A bit off-topic here, but I really enjoy when I come across a webseries that starts off not at publishing quality. Sometimes it's just nice to just see someone's webcomic/animation that's clearly there because someone felt like sharing their stuff online. (This could be getting annoying since I've discussed something like this before in another post xD) Anyways, as I said, I'm willing to take that risk.

And... What ever happened to the fourth page of Cosmic Loneliness? Because of my whole assignments craze last semester, I put it off for a while. And since it's being done traditionally, I left my papers and my light-board in my cupboard, and haven't worked on it since xD I do hope to get back to it in the future, though. I've got plans for it that I don't want to put to waste.

Website updates!

The old Steel House site (link currently unavailable)

So a while back, I've built a website that was dedicated to my Steel House project. But for a while I was thinking, if there are more stories I've got in mind that are set in the same universe, shouldn't I just make a site dedicated to that one universe and make sub-sites dedicated to each story? In other words, I'm planning on having one main site for the universe that my Steel House project is in and each title underneath that universe will have its own site. I've already gotten started on its design!

A preview of the new main site layout which isn't ready for publishing yet!

So far, I've got the webpage for my Mydan project active. It's still a work in progress since I still need images for the site in general, as well as the dividers and whatnot. I'm hoping to get it done shortly after my homework grind is over (yes, uni is back at me again).

It's active and you can view it here: https://starpiaros.neocities.org/mydan/page.html

Not totally polished, but getting there!

Actually starting now

A lot has happened since my last entry on here. First off, I've just finished the first scene of my Mydan project which has been available to read for some time. I'll be continuing to be making updates as much as I can and, as you would expect, I'm really excited to see how this comic plays out.

Here are the places it's available to read, by the way:

• Actual web comic hosting sites (& similar)
  - Main comics site
  - ComicFury
  - The Duck

• Social media:
  - Instagram
  - DeviantArt
  - Tumblr (I'll create an index page for this series, but it's just the page for Scene 1) 

Right now, I'm starting off this comic a little more laid-back. I just want to know what it feels like to finally get something started and worry about all the more extra things that I'll end up worrying about later (like schedules and making things seem more "professional" and whatnot). 

I know it doesn't sound like the best of decisions, but hear me out: I don't want to just sit around making sure everything is perfect before take-off. I would much rather look back at my comics in months time and see how completely mediocre my works are compared to the stuff I'll produce in the future, over worrying about making it like an actual published comic book. So looking at it that way, it's probably a nicer idea.

As I've mentioned before, I'm in university and it's making things a bit harder than it should. ...I also heard at one point that it's recommended that I probably shouldn't be working on a major personal project, as well as smaller projects at the same time, while studying because it'll end up being a lot to juggle. But I don't really mind. 

Starting the Mydan project stuff and more

Huh?! What's this?

Good news everyone! Despite uni kicking my ass again, as always, I've decided to go ahead and begin my Mydan project. In other words, this is it - I'm actually starting my first major comic project, which is pretty crazy to me. I'm really excited to get going with this one and I hope this one's a success. But first, I've got to get all my uni troubles out of the way and then I'll find a way to fit working on the project in my schedule. 

You can read it on ComicFury

Also, due to beating the game Earthbound some couple of months back, as well as reading the game's fan comic The Chosen Four, I've gathered some inspiration for my comic work. Sure, there are aspects that have inspired parts of my Mydan project, but mostly, I've found that my Steel House project has been the one where all this inspiration is going. It makes a lot more sense too, since the elements of Earthbound have more in common with April and her friends than Kamilla and Ruwei xD 

Here's a little screenshot redraw that I did with April and Farqua over the Ness and Titanic Ant.
(Source: pg 35 by Darrow)

I should also mention that, once again, I've been thinking about my Cosmic Loneliness project a little more again. And that's it. That's all I want to say for now.

Dyrus' Men - Log #002

Hoping I'm back onto this soon

You know why? I've found the pencil case with all my inking stuff in it. Unfortunately, right now, I've been really busy with uni stuff. Y'know, finishing off my Winter School stuff, starting Semester 2 smoothly... It's a bit difficult to get back to this project and my other projects in general, at this time. Which sucks.

Luckily, in my spare time, I've decided to make a fan blog for the main guys featured in this project. You can check it out, >>here!<< 

Gone Unsupervised! - Log #016

My pencil case has been found!

Good news, my pencil case with all my inking stuff has been found! That means I can hopefully get back to working on this project. But first, there are some things I want to get out the way before anything…

Firstly, there’s completing all the major pages of this project’s website that I’ve been working on. You can view it >>here<<, although it’s still a work in progress. Second off, I want to be able to plan the first few pages’ scripts, too. I don’t want to come into this unprepared again.

I should also mention that I’m working on my final assignment for Winter School, which is keeping me pretty busy right now. Not to mention, the new semester’s starting, and I don’t want to come in disorganised, either. Yeah, life’s a bit busy right now. And that’s all I want to say, really.

Project: April and Friends - Log #038

Really busy.

It’s Winter School assignment week and the new semester’s just started. In other words, I’ve been really busy with life stuff, so I haven’t really been working on this project as much as I hoped I would. I don’t really recall anything major happening, other than letting my brother proofread my scripts. That’s it, really.

Project: April and Friends - Log #036

Once again, I’m over a week overdue

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this already, but I’m currently taking on Winter School right now for script writing. This course is pretty important to me, so it’s bound to hinder my progress on this project.

Good news, though: I’m still working on the project in my spare time, especially with story planning n’ whatnot. I’ve especially been focusing on the more internal aspects (as in character arcs, themes n’ stuff - basically, the stuff that’s not the main action) because it’s pretty all over the place right now and needs some refining.

I’ve also got some future plans to help me with settings, too, since I’ve barely touched upon those compared to other elements. These are going to be based off the writing exercises I’ve done in my class today, which all had to do with setting/environment/location. Let’s hope I get started with that, soon.

Gone Unsupervised! - Log #012

No more homework!

Now that my uni stuff’s started to cool down, I can finally start working on this again! Unfortunately, I hadn’t really thought up many ideas for this project in between breaks, but I’ve got some plans for the week.

First, I wanna complete the website I’m building for it. I forgot to mention this last week, but this project’s getting it’s own site, now. You can view it >>here<<. Second off, I should definitely redesign this series’ title since it’s different now. 

In the meantime, I should also organise the scripts I’ve got for them. And maybe, I might redraw some old pages when I get back to drawing this series up!

Project: April and friends - Log #034

I am free!

I’ve just recently submitted my last assignment! I’ve got a bit of a holiday now, which means now I’ve got some time to work on my projects.

In between my homework sessions though, I’ve still been thinking about this project. For this one, I’ve mostly been thinking about title-related stuff. I feel like I might *actually* just make the title of this project the idea I had before (it was “Steel House in the Prairie”). I think I’ve grown attached to it. For the last time, let’s just hope it’s here to stay…

Also, bonus! I talked to my friends about the characteres of this project again! Mainly it was the rooftop robots of the main/secondary cast. I’m really happy that they like them.

Gone Unsupervised - Log #011

Uni’s kickin’ my ass (and that’s probably my fault)

As I should've mentioned already on this blog, I'm a student at university. Right now, due to some of my bad working habits of mine, I've called off some project work. But, I have tried thinking of ways I can improve on that, which is good.

This week, I can't say I've done much on this project because of uni, but I do recall writing up a few scripts for some of the chapters I've planned out. Hope to continue my progress once uni stuff's cooled down.

Again, I apologise for the lack of progress this week!

Project: April and friends - Log #033

I need to up my uni game

If there's anything I want to get out of the way, I've been very busy with uni work this week. And that's due to some really, really bad homework habits that need fixing, and fast... But at least recently, I've found out my "golden hour(s)" for homework, which is good.

Now, on to some comic stuff. Because of uni, I've decided to sacrifice some time off my projects. But, I've managed to finally think up another title idea for this project! I'm thinking about titling it "Steel House in the Prairie". 

Sorry the quality’s not very good, but I hope you can see the basic shapes I’m trying to go for.

In my free time, I've been playing around with how it'll look on paper, and it's looking a bit like a rock band's logo. Not that that's a bad thing, though - I do recall saying at one point that (my interpretation of) rock music and its subgeneres has influenced the whole feel, aesthetics and tone of the story. I do feel, however, that I could tone down its edge. The story doesn't go all that hard.

Continuing on with some more uni stuff... I've made a death wish. I've decided I'm going to take on a Winter class for screenwriting. I don't know exactly how this will affect my projects, but I'm sure I'll manage fine. And maybe, it'll teach me a hard lesson on self-organisation. Who knows? It might make or break me. Haha...

Anyways, that's all I have for this week.

Project: April and friends - Log #032

This doesn’t count as slacking!

I’ll admit that this week I hadn’t really been working much on my April and friends project. But! I’ve just gotten a boost of motivation for working on my other smaller projects, especially my Gone Unsupervised project (previously named “No Adult Supervision). 

As you’d expect from what I just said, nothing much happened this week. Hoping to get back to this project this following week, though. I *might* aim to finish my current chapter by the end of this month, except, that’s also when one of my uni due dates is… So, probably I’ll set my next due date for this project to be within a week after that one uni due date. Man, I’d kill to get that chapter done any time soon!!!

Project: Clonerion - Log #019

 

I have not forgotten to log my progress!

I know it’s been a good two weeks but I am not dead! Nor am I not making any progress whatsoever on this project. (Although, uni’s hindering the progress a little…)

Anyways, with that aside,  I’ve got a couple updates to get out. First off, I’ve finally completed writing the script for the prologue! With that, I can finally get started on that “thumbnails without concept art” project.

I’m also planning on starting on trying to draw up concept art of the locations pretty soon, now. I’ve already noted down my ideas on the types of feels that I want the locations to be like, plus the imagery and stuff, as well.

I feel like I want to change up the latest chapter that I’m working on, too. I honestly feel like it could be better because it’s currently a bit similar to the previous scene. I feel like it could focus more on a non-physical/emotional(?) arc because we’ve had a lot of focus on the main goal lately, and I kinda want to draw less attention on that for this bit and give the audience some breathing room.

That’s it, really!

-Chocco

No Adult Supervision! - Log #006