Well, I finally got the second character for Scene 3. He looks like a neanderthal. That's what I get for trying to use The Loomis Project to create anime figures. Well, it's not all that bad, but it doesn't work well with my style. More about my style in the next paragraph. But for now, I will teach you what I know about how to make a character. First, start with an image in your mind. If you wait until it's on paper or computer, you're certain not to get what you intend (since you intend nothing and will likely get something). Then, start with the jaw. The jaw is easy for anime because it's made of three steps that can be curved. The first is the chin. For guys, you want to make this almost horizontal. For girls, it must be very gentle. Then, the next step is the actual jaw. It should be 40-70 degrees from the vertical. That's a lot of spread, but I've seen both extremes used very well. Someone with a second step that is 40 degrees from the vertical will have a slender face no doubt about it. That means that the chin has to be wider and more horizontal and the third step has to be shallower. Someone with a second step that is 80 degrees from the vertical will have a wide face. This is good for girls, although at 80, they'll likely be chubby. A short second step works with 80 degrees well. The third step is the almost vertical part in front of the ear, often the cheeks. Most likely it will be close to vertical, but that depends on the second step a lot. From the third step to the hair is a semicircle pretty much. Well, this lesson should end there. I'll get on with eyes, ears, nose, hair, and mouth later.
Oh my gosh. I just lost a very long, very important lesson. *sigh* Haven't I learned yet to save often and backup even more often? I guess not. Here's the part that I want to rewrite:
This picture is to prove to the disbelievers that I really made a 3d website. I agree that it could be duped, but not perfectly without a lot of math. Thankfully, the mathematical calculations for the lighting was done for me by MilkShape 3d. It even did the rendering for me. How nice of it. But how exactly did I do it? Well, first I modelled it. I came up with a good idea and I built the thing in 2d. Then I pulled a few vertices out of the 2d plane. Those vertices look like they are bulging because they are bulging. So then in the 2d front view, I took a printscreen of it. That gave me a very nice looking object to work with. I then made some text with CorelDraw and put it onto the side and top. Then I cut it into four pieces so that it'd fit into a table nicely. Then I added the page list on the left. I really like how that works. It's an actual morphing 3d website. The morphing page list is a simple javascript code that turns on the display CSS. I like it a lot. Hopefully the poor Netscape users can see it. If not, get IE6. It's not as bad as you say...
First off, this is fan art for Exploitation Now. I didn't get permission or ask them to post it yet, but I hope it's alright with them. I'm going to ask them later. They say it's easier to get forgiveness than permission. Anyway, I'd just like to point out EN as one of my favorite web comics and I'd like to applaud them on their excellent comic which is as consistent as JF's Making Of Section. Their news isn't as consistent, but no one reads this column anyway. I've already got a bit more Fan Art on the way for EN, so I really hope they like it.
