Issue Four Production Post Two

Since my last post, Issue Four is chugging along. No renders right now—my energies are on the scene creation front. Hopefully within the next few weeks the scenes I've built will be ready to render and will give me some teasers I can post here.

On the digital comics end, ComiXology rejected Maya and the Outer Reaches. Can't say I'm totally surprised, and frankly I'm a bit relieved that the ComiXology saga is over, at least for now. Granted it would be great to be on the same site as the big leagues, but waiting nearly eight months (!) just to receive a rejection reply is a bit much for me to build my brand. I could pursue a further investigation as to why, but in the end I don't want to wait months just to get that rolling again, and who is to say the others wouldn't face the same fate? Which brings me to my next piece of news...

After some searching, I have found a couple of intriguing outlets for digital sales, the first of which I have actively joined! The site is Sellfy.com, which allows Paypal checkout for easy sales, and I'm all for that. Uploading of PDFs is painless, the process takes just a few minutes, and best of all, it's free to join! They provide a readymade url for your product; what else do you need? Sales, that's what. So check out Maya and the Outer Reaches. Maya's waiting.

Thanks, and enjoy!

And thanks to Ryan Estrada for this great post on digital comics and ComiXology Submit. He provides some great ideas, talks you through pros and cons, and introduces other comic creators to Sellfy and Gumroad, the two sites I've researched as alternatives. Thanks, Ryan!

Issue Four Production Post One

I have begun building a plethora of new models and locations for Issue Four. Issues Two and Three relied on previous assets or hardly any at all, but the upcoming comics are requiring brand new stuff and that means extensive preproduction. The cast in this issue is the largest yet, with many speaking parts and the return of two guest stars from Issue One, along with many scenes and locales. The plot is fast, the action is fierce and the villain is someone I've been waiting over two years to put into play. Agent Maya may have just met her match....

ComiXology update: Tumbleweeds and crickets on the email front. Six and half months later and getting a bit short on patience.

Issue Three Production Post Two

Well, midway through 2014, and Issue Three is complete! I'm excited by how well it all came together; improving my handling of Daz Studio enabled me to utilize Photoshop less for postwork and more for compositing. That being said, I basically had two to three renders for each panel—and sometimes four or five—owing to the complexity I am putting into each issue now. When I began Issue One as a novice, I had no idea I would be producing such involved artwork by Issue Three!

Okay, enough blabbing, here's the goods—two full-page teasers:

ComiXology update: Five+ months and still no email...well I'll keep the production line chugging along.

Issue Three Production Post One

All right I'm back to post more production news—as the title says, I'm well into work on Issue Three. Currently I am working on better lighting and camera rendering, utilizing f-stops and focal distances to achieve the cinematic panels I have aspired to since this project began. Below are two teasers.

Still some ways to go but every render I do pleases me more...I'm finally achieving the look for Agent Maya I've had in my mind's eye for nearly a decade now! Obstacles are being overcome and each issue now is many times improved over the last. The story for Issue Three scratches the surface of the overarching mythology for Agent Maya, and just maybe a few questions will pop up to make you think what exactly is going on in the Solar System. I promised more thrills and exciting new vistas for each successive issue, and I'm ready to start delivering. Now I just have to bide my time until ComiXology approves Issue One—hopefully just another six weeks or so to go....

Issue Two Production Post—Ready For Liftoff

While I was away I finished Issue Two! I seem to be making a bad habit of forgetting to post every month as I had been, so forgive me for that. But work has been steady on the latest Maya adventure, leaving me just the cover to design and the interior credits, etc. to edit. Having put myself through the gauntlet of Issue One, much of the post-production and individual page editing for Issue Two has been quite easier, as I didn't have to recreate the wheel this time around.

And speaking of Issue One, Maya and the Outer Reaches, six weeks ago I uploaded to ComiXology the digital files for their submission process. The waiting period is lengthy, often a few months (and five months for one creator I came across online) so it will still be some time before I can announce it's on sale. I'm crossing my fingers that I receive that email soon!

And returning to Issue Two, I'm very pleased with the beta version; my reader over at Crow Greetings will be sure to give her very best critique. I'm happy to be well on the way to its release so soon before Issue One makes into the world.

I'll leave you with a few teasers and news that preproduction work on Issue Three has begun....

Issue Two Production Post—Working For The Holidays

Sorry all, haven't meant to leave the blog fallow for three months. I promise I have been working hard on Issue Two; just a few more pages of renders to do and I will be done with production. With barely a week-and-a-half left in 2013, I plan on racing to the finish line to complete all my renders by then. Compared to Issue One (and the aforementioned delays I've experienced) this issue has been a breeze! I'm steadily improving my render setups so as to reduce the amount of post work I've had to do in the past and also discovered techniques requiring no post work at all. Also my 2.0 versions of various models have turned out quite well, pushing my satisfaction level quite higher than Issue One.

I can't believe a year has gone by since I started rendering Issue One, and Issue Two is nearly done. I've learned so much that I surprise myself reflecting on this year's production posts at just how much I've accomplished. I promise you when you finally see Maya and the Outer Reaches in 2014, that Issue Two will be even more polished. And when I finally start production on Issues Three, Four and Five, each will blow the others out of the sky! Every successive issue ramps up the tension, action, scenery, drama and characters. I can't wait!

Update (Yet Another) and Issue One Production Post 8

Waiting for the resolution of yet-another kit failure on my Mac, this time one of my RAM modules, so I have no renders of Issue Two to show off this time. I was working on lighting new scenes when my Mac kept giving me kernel panics, which it had never done. Checking it out, I had only half the RAM I used to, annoying me quite thoroughly, since this is the second unexpected shutdown in production I've had to do. Meanwhile I've been writing Issue Six to keep me busy, which will be in a prospective "Second Season" in three or so years, depending on finances and interest in the First Season when it's complete. Or my attention span; it has a tendency to wander!

I have readied a nice, first-draft cut PDF of Issue One for beta reading. I'm pretty confident that it's as close to final as it'll be, but I'm still tinkering a bit with the dress (outside and inside covers). If I'm able to shake out a few pennies to do a print run, I'll need to up the page count to 24 (story count is 22 pages), so I'm deciding on what I want to fill the gap. I've thought about a two-page poster or perhaps some of the sketches from 2004-2005 I drew for the 1.0 comic I abandoned. Choices!

And since I don't want to post empty handed, here's a teaser for the (for now) cover of Issue One, Maya and the Outer Reaches!