Bones' UO Comics
Well, I figured I'd jump on the bandwagon and create
my own UO-based comic strip. Well, I don't think it was
a bandwagon, because when I started this strip I only
knew of one other. Now there are many comics sites to
choose from.
I often make my jokes center around counselors, GMs, and seers.
There are a few reasons for this. For one, they're easy to
work with since they can be created with a simple body
form and skin color, and thus don't require fiddling with
items. Secondly, I think they're particularly fun to make
fun of, or use to make fun of other things (and having
been in the robes certainly lends some perspective). :-)
You may also notice that my style of humor can range from
the bizarre, to the absurd, to the irreverent. I hope you
like it. :-) These comics were not originally designed to
be a "comic book" style storyline, although I have started
to introduce a few on-going characters (including Lord
British, Lord Blackthorne, Osso, and Ossis). Osso and
Ossis are actually the "main characters", even if they
don't appear all the time. I may begin to focus more on
them as time progresses. While the plot may be an on-going story,
the whole point of these comics is to be funny, so I try to
find silly twists and turns to any storylines I introduce.
Of course, there are only so many ways to get characters
killed, so I try to avoid the the "talk, talk, talk, die"
pattern (though I often fall back on it when in a rut). :-)
But I'll bet the real question you have is "How did you
do it?" Well, here's the gist of how it goes...
What I typically do is just think up an idea, and then
log into UOX or FUSE. Originally I used UOX because I could
have dumb NPC's standing around that I could dress-up, but it
has some serious stability problems (in fact it sometimes does
something that causes the client to bring windows to its knees),
so I use FUSE whenever I can. In fact, I've been using FUSE
almost exclusively since strip #7. Since FUSE doesn't support NPC's
yet, I have to either pose as each character and then paste
them together into the scene, or paste characters in from
InsideUO (which is what I often do for monsters and animals).
I paste all of the text in afterwards (extracted from screenshots,
and selected with transparency) and then brighten the color of it
usually. Various pyrotechnics, spell effects, and even
creatures I paste in later as well. This pasting technique is
very important also in being able to have more than one
character speaking at once, since I can only do one "line" at
a time. I find many programs of use in the process, inluding
InsideUO, UOX, FUSE, Paint Shop Pro (for easy cut-and-paste,
extraction from screenshots, manual touch-ups, color changes,
and file format conversions), and Corel Photo-Paint (for it's
layering, object manipulation, some color manipulation, and
transparency).
Each strip takes anywhere from 1 to 2 hours depending on the
complexity, and any technical problems that arise. Usually
it's only an hour or an hour and twenty minutes though. During
the first week and a half since the creation of these comics, I
added an average of 2 strips per day (sometimes one, sometimes
3, but usually 2). Including set-up time, and some
minor planning, that was over 3 hours per day. I'm not keeping
up that rate anymore, obviously. Lately, including the submitted
comics, I have been posting only a few per week at best, often
far less.
For information on the individual episodes, be sure to check out
the "Annotations Page". Enjoy!
If you are interested in making your own comics and would like
some advice, please read my "Comics Tips"
and also look at the "Submission Rules"
for some helpful guidelines. Since I can't teach you how to use
graphics programs, and I don't have the time to explain every
little detail of comics creation, please don't e-mail me with
questions on this topic. They will be ignored.
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(Bones' UO Comics (C) Copyright 1998, Ed T. Toton III, All Rights Reserved)