JauntWorld Is Now On Behance

Quick post to let everyone know that I am now a member of Behance. You can see some samples of AGENT MAYA on there, plus other examples of recent work by me.

Thanks and enjoy.

Agent Maya Issue Four On Sale Now!

A quick plug that Agent Maya Issue Four—Maya and the Don of Venus—is now available for sale at Sellfy! 99 cents and in a full color, 23-page downloadable PDF.

Maya and the Don of Venus

Issue 5.5 Production Post One

Started work on what I'm calling Issue 5.5, the 5-page mini-comic that will be available in some capacity later this year. As I said last time, I'm producing 5.5 before I start Issue 5, as it will be a testbed of sorts for some techniques I'll try for the last issue of the season.

After spending a few days setting up the first finished scene, I did a few hours of renders and have four panels already knocked out, about 80% of Page 4. This scene has a fun tip of the hat to an '80s movie that I've wanted to do for years and I finally found the right time and place.

I'm excited by the possibility of exploring other short-form comics like this, especially after spending upwards of six months on 22+ page comics over the last three years and all the work that entails. While there is an intrinsic reward in the hard work and quality of the long-form comic, it is difficult for me not to get bogged down with the sheer amount of labor that is involved. By no means am I ready to quit the Agent Maya series as I've laid it out; I've invested too much sweat into it to stop now. However the temptation to branch out into other non-Maya areas of interest is growing, particularly if I can produce a 5-page comic in just a matter of a month to six weeks. I'll try to quell the temptation until I at least get through Season One….

Issue Four Production Post Seven

Here's the completed cover for Issue Four, "Maya and the Don of Venus".

The five-page special I mentioned last time is in prep right now—I have a few sets to throw around and some crowd people to place. Producing content while reusing (and altering) selected props, sets and characters is quite appealing, for not only do I save time but money, as well. And those two are the most important commodities of this whole deal.

All right, off to work.

Issue Four Production Post Six

I have a rendered cover for Issue Four, but without cover dress and all that entails, so I'll post that here next time. Meanwhile I'm continuing with balloon placement and such, which is the most tedious task in production, but one which needs to be done.

After completion of Issue Four, I will be producing a special five-page mini-comic (the story of which and its release to soon be apparent!) but it is within this first season's timeline, fitting after Issue Five chronologically. I'm looking forward to creating this special treat for everyone.

I'm also looking at some other spinoff-type stories, one of which stars a past foe, and another one-shot featuring two upcoming guest stars. Don't know when I'll get into production on these, but rest assured it'll be posted when I'm starting.

Issue Five will be ramping up this Summer. More details to come.

Issue Four Production Post Five

I'm finally back from the land of the undead (flu bug). I've finished all renders for Issue Four and have locked down the page panels. Word balloons are currently in placement and I need to think of a cover idea in the next few weeks. I'm pleased to at last have this latest adventure done, as it was really bogging (me) down after the holidays; I'm proud of all the hard work and the results show.

Here's a page from Issue Four to give you a taste of what's to come. Enjoy!

Photoshop Compositing from DAZ Studio

A few stream of consciousness tips for Photoshop compositing:
—Start with your render from DAZ Studio, which I do at mostly 9000 X 6000 DPI, saving as PNG (this will be at 72 DPI and consequently huge in dimensions, but that's okay as you'll reduce it later).



—PNG preserves transparencies (alpha channels), essential for compositing backgrounds, secondary images, etc., and is a lossless file format—never, EVER save as jpeg.

—Open image PNG in Photoshop, duplicate layer into new document, save as PSD at 72 DPI.

—Do all editing with multiple layers, never altering original layer; layers are your best friends.






















—Layer masks are your second-best friends; use the paint brush for opacity (white), transparency
(black) and shades of gray (semi-transparent) instead of the destructive usage of the eraser.

These are the basics for DAZ layers in Photoshop. I'll have more tips soon.