Daz Store Visual Story Writing

Visual Story Writing : From Inception to Production

Drew Spence, comic creator shares his experience on story writing for your 3D art using Daz Studio. This two part tutorial set runs for 3 hours and 24 minutes in total.

Every road trip requires a map to prevent the driver getting lost along the way. Similarly the crafting of any well told story for a visual narrative is potentially a long road trip!

On the way you may find some diverting stops and detours. You might even change your mind about the final destination.

But if you are wandering aimlessly without a plan, your passengers (or readers) will eventually get tired, hungry and grumpy. They’ll think again before going on a road trip with you.

Without a proper map there is no answer to the question, “Are we there yet?”

High quality stories tell you plainly when you have arrived at the destination. Don’t leave your passengers guessing about whether you’re getting close.

Stories have deliverable payoff points- just like like the signs along a highway counting down the miles until you’ve reached your destination. They give you a sense of scale and a growing anticipation that the end is nearing.

Part I Creating Your Story from Inception to Production (tutorial 1)

• Nailing down the “Big Idea” and inspiration behind your work as you create a vision worth investing your time and resources and being worthy of reading and supporting.
• Pro Tips and the necessary elements that you should have in place BEFORE you start creating your story.
• Breaking your story into deliverable chunks and creating incentives for support and the emotional investment from your readership.

Part II Caring for your story (tutorial 2)

• Crafting characters and creating a curve. We’ll go beyond the heroes’ journey and focus on the ‘lost art’ of storytelling through images and well, more images.
• We will tackle maintaining a production schedule along with time management and the intersection between inspiration and technical skill.
• We will provide tools to address writer’s block, lulls, dry spells, rough spots and even avoiding dead ends.

Part III Closing out your story, taking breaks and exit points. (tutorial 2)

• We will address buffer zones and creating natural gaps, a hiatus and premature endings.
• We cover the techniques to ramp the entire series towards a satisfying climax.
• We finish with the finale -After the story is done and the open-ended ending.

You can find other series that Drew Spence has created with Digital Art Live for purchase in the Daz Store. https://www.daz3d.com/digital-art-live You can take classes, watch tutorials and attend webinars and much more https://digitalartlive.com/events/

comiXology in digital format

Review Fix Exclusive: Drew Spence Talks ‘Force Six

Force Six – Blades and all…

Review Fix chats with “Force Six, The Annihilators” creator Drew Spence, to find out what inspired the comic. Revealing what else he’s working on, Spence lets us know his career in comics is just beginning.

Review Fix: What inspired the look and feel of Force Six, The Annihilators?

Drew Spence: I started creating comics as a kid and was influenced by, well everything! I loved Sci-fi, fantasy and martial arts. I watched movies, read comics, played D&D [the Dungeons and Dragons tabletop game], video games and adventure books. The Annihilators switched genres for almost every story so, as an adult revisiting this comic, I needed a universe that could accommodate all those settings and angles and still make some kind of sense.

Review Fix: What about using CGI over traditional media? Where did that come from?

Spence: I would see these robots and figures in overseas catalogues, the toys and models and wanted that exact look for my art so I started scanning the pictures and turning them into comics. That started my experiments in photo manipulation. I did a good number of comics, but I still needed more control. I filmed a season of Mark of the Griffin (a live action web series) and used the still frames to make a comic.  I came across John Byrne’s Star Trek New Visions and realized the overall potential.

Read The REST: https://reviewfix.com/2019/06/review-fix-exclusive-drew-spence-talks-force-six-the-annihilators-and-more/

2D Postwork Assets: Planets Vol I

Daz Store Product Release

Postwork: The process of taking an image, like a digital photo or render, and performing additional edits and adjustments to bring the work to competition.  These edits may include adding and subtracting elements and post-process filtering.

Want to take total control of your backdrops and outer space scenes? Have you hit the wall or run out of skydomes and HDRI environments? Rendering with the dome off leaves your main scene intact, but leaves the backdrop transparent. Once your render is done, it can be dropped into any program that supports layers and these 2D assets can be added to finish off your scene.

It can be a chore to find royalty free and useable images of alien and interesting planets. Here is where the 2D postwork series shines as it supplies numerous PNG images and plates of various planets, planetscapes and space backdrops. Quickly drag and drop these 2D assets onto your digital canvas and have total control of your space scenes or any art that requires high quality heavenly bodies.

Multi-shot planets: Single planets created at different points of rotation. This series of images represent different phases as they add a different look to any planet that might be shown more than once and needs to look fresh. These are presented as PSD files with all the different angles combined as multiple layers.

Planet Plates Planetoids: Incredible Images of planets ready to be dropped behind your renders. Available as PSD layered files AND separate PNG images for browsing ease. These are fully realized planetary images in space, great as backdrops and desktop wallpapers.

Planet Plates Surface: That “space” just above the planet gets special attention as we present 20 different images (of three planets) from near orbit and close to the surface. These are complete images that are ready to be dropped behind your Daz render as an instant epic backdrop. Can be used ‘as is’ or tweaked to your heart’s content.

Space Motion Plates: Its 23 images of that space ‘far in the distance’. These are finished backdrops that make a colorful canvas for your main subject. These are beautiful enough to be used as desktop wallpapers, but functional enough to send your art – off to the far reaches of the galaxy.

Spectrum Planets: Isolated images of planets organized by color. Of course you can alter the color, but we’ve supplied an assortment of planets that are ready to mix and match against any backdrop. Sometimes, all that’s needed is a small blue marble…or a yellow marble or…

Colorful Near-orbit surface shots: Partial planet images that would be good for orbiting space stations or events occurring just beyond the planet’s atmosphere. Enjoy a colorful patch of pretty planet parts. These are the partial arcs of a planet’s surface, place them on the edges of your scene to hint at the larger world beyond.

Ringed Planets:  A thin field of asteroids and pulverized space dust creates a beautiful band around these planets. We present entire planets and their rings. Additional media is also found in the planet plates directory.

– Includes instructional video on the various products in this series and lighting tricks for beautiful deep space renders.

Bonus Images of the 2D spaceships (used in the promotional art) provide quick-start content for your own space scenes.

You can find other series that Drew Spence has created with Digital Art Live for purchase in the Daz Store. https://www.daz3d.com/digital-art-live You can take classes, watch tutorials and attend webinars and much more https://digitalartlive.com/events/

Force Six Ace Nuckolls review

Comic writer and blogger Ace Nuckolls shares his reaction to Force Six Season I. Follow him on twitter https://twitter.com/wittyusername14 adnd support his Magnus the Brave comic on kickstarter! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/… Thanks for the look! Force Six is available on comiXology. https://www.comixology.com/The-Dynami… Support through Patreon/ https://www.patreon.com/TheDynamicUni…

Sunday, July 7th-Book Cover / Comic Book cover design by Drew Spence!

Our latest webinar on Book Cover / Comic Book cover design by Drew Spence! 3PM EST (New York) 8PM BST (London)

https://digitalartlive.com/…/how-to-create-compelling-book…/

Have you wondered…

•How to use book cover artwork for additional income?

•How do you instantly grab the attention of your readers?

•Which fonts work on a cover with your story genre?

•How different visual elements convey an instant story?

Drew Spence takes you through specific steps to create a compelling book cover. He’ll lead you through the process of crafting a story-telling cover image for your visual narratives. Drew professionally creates and publishes comic books every month so he has huge experience in capturing potential readers for their attention. As well as covering sci-fi, fantasy and action genres – he’ll also include a special mention on romance books and magazines!

In this webinar Drew will use DAZ Studio and Photoshop to craft the covers.

Webinar entry details to How to Create Compelling Book Covers

$45.00

Webinar entry details to How to Create Compelling Book Covers. Registration includes HD webinar recording and any class materials offered by the presenter.

Sci-Fi Special Effects Webinars Saturday & Sunday June 1 and 2nd

Creating an astounding science fiction universe requires numerous special effects. Want to know how to add laser swords, energy bolts, explosions, starship jets and contrails to give your visuals extra dynamics? Drew Spence takes you on a step by step journey to help you create some sci-fi vitality in your story world. He’ll use Photoshop to demonstrate the best techniques and brushes as well as other must-have resources to help you build your sci-fi universe.

Sci-fi special effects webinar entry

$55.00

Sci-fi special effects webinar entry. Includes HD webinar recording and any materials that the presenter includes for class members.

Part 1 : Sci-fi weapons

Date: Saturday 1st May

Duration: 1.5+ hours.

Laser swords : “An elegant weapon for a more civilized age.”

• Laser sword effects
• Laser sword trails
• Sabre locks : laser swords clashing
• Cutting and slashing effects
• Recommended lighting for laser sword effects
• Best laser sword related products

Laser Blasters : “Sorry about the mess.”

• Laser blaster effects
• Sci-fi muzzle flash
• Blaster explosions
• Blaster scoring effects
• Shattered glass
• Streaming phaser beam
• Best blaster/laser/scoring brushes and products

Part 2 : Sci-fi Starships

Date: Sunday 2nd May

Duration: 1.5+ hours.

Spaceship jets, contrails and damage : “I’ve outrun Imperial starships, not the local bulk-cruisers, mind you…”

• Jet effects – using authentic lighting
• Jet engine trails and high energy plasma exhaust
• Space warp/jump effect including star trails
• Battle damage : dirtying up a spacecraft in a laser battle
• Colors for jets – what works?
• Best brushes and resources for jets and contrails
• Bonus : Must-have – three incredible resources – surprising source of special effects you wouldn’t expect.

Inside a Spaceship : “Would it help if I got out and pushed?”

• Plasma tubes
• Classic Sci-fi corridors – dressing and lighting for different scenes
• Sci-fi control panels : from kit bash to a graphic dashboard

Postwork help

During the webinars (If there’s time) or afterwards in the FB Digital Art Live community group…

• We’ll assist you with your own sci-fi/fantasy scenes to give you feedback on adding/adjusting special effects

You can find other series that Drew Spence has created with Digital Art Live for purchase in the Daz Store. https://www.daz3d.com/digital-art-live You can take classes, watch tutorials and attend webinars and much more https://digitalartlive.com/events/

Panel Page and Word Balloons

Podcast Panel Page and Word Balloons Demon Division Study

Drew Spence takes a look at Demon Division’s use of panel and page layout. It’s a composition challenge to arrange the characters and their speech balloons.

This is comic is free to read on…

Line Webtoon

https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/demon-division/cover/viewer?title_no=213646&episode_no=1

ComicFury

http://demondivision.thecomicseries.com/comics/first/

Drew Spence created a workshop set of tutorials for Digital Art Live that are available in the Daz Store.

https://www.daz3d.com/comic-book-creation–foundation-course-part-1

https://www.daz3d.com/comic-book-creation–foundation-course-part-2

And Postwork-themed webinars

https://www.daz3d.com/daz-studio-postwork-clinic

https://www.daz3d.com/prime-postwork

Kit-bashing Tips & tricks and more

https://www.daz3d.com/digital-kit-bashing–easily-create-innovative-props-and-scenes

https://www.daz3d.com/digital-kit-bashing–cities-landscapes-and-structures

https://www.daz3d.com/digital-kit-bashing–space-and-spaceships

You can follow the Dynamic Universe and Drew Spence on Social Media.

https://www.facebook.com/TheDynamicUniverse/

His leading comic series can be found on comiXology

https://www.comixology.com/The-Dynamic-Universe/comics-publisher/12027-0

And Patreon. Thank you for your support.

https://www.patreon.com/TheDynamicUniverse