Originally I was going to use a live action candle for this scene, but I thought this was more interesting. This was a model of an apple but I did some weird stuff with its texture and made it into the candle. The face painted on this is supposed to look like the jokers face paint from dark knight. The candle flame is a soft body made in maya with glow and the textures hidden, I’m going to be making other changes to the scene, right now its just a rough.

This is the first page I did for deep

I decided to do my pages using 3d models instead of drawing them, just because I’m alot better at that sort of thing then drawing. Anyway I pretty much went nuts with this. I got a pretty vague basic layout of what to do in the script and just went crazy with it. It was much like when Toho gave a layout of what to do with the American godzilla, specifying that it needed to have three toes when everything else besides the toes ended up being changed. The above image had a couple influences, one is the boat, I got the idea for its design after watching invader zim. I always liked those weird smiley faces all over everything in that show so I stuck one on the boat. The boat actually used to be a 3d model of a turkey dinner which I made into a boat for some reason. Also we can see the sperm swimming beneath the ocean, this was a sequence inspired by one in Urusei Yatsura movie 2: Beautiful dreamer, where we see fish swimming beneath a puddle that the kids walk by looking up at them.

Ellie meets barcode in the sewers

The second page I did for deep had Ellie meet baracode int he sewers. Barcode is a character that wasn’t originally in the script , like I said I took some liberties with alot of stuff in the script. Barcode was originally supposed to simbolise human society, no matter how hard Ellie tried to isolate herself, he’d always be there following her. The author really liked barcode and he ended up being included in later pages. The strange creature tot he left is a giant rat made out of poop.  Why is it there? Well why not?  Do I need a reason for everything I do?

There can only be one lord of the rings!

Here’s another room which would be right at home in my “Dark Place”, I mean hell it even has sleeping potato’s you know you want a room when it has stuff like that in it. In the script for this, Ellie was supposed to see a tower with a surrealism clock out of her window, I thought a regular tower was too boring so I made it into saurons tower. The grafiti on the wall is “Pururin” to get that watch “Welcome to the NHK” there’s also some other grafiti on the wall, but to be honest I don’t even remember what the other graffiti was from now.

This is the final page I did for deep, apparently Ellie see’s herself being crucified and alot of interesting stuff shows up including a man with a sock puppet hand with no head.

Anyway, I tried to take my deep pages beyond what people tend to see in 3d online comics. Usually when people make 3d comics online they look like crap to be honest, I mean they just take some poser characters with crappy rendering and what comes out is an awful mess. A good example is this book, which in my opinion tells what not to do when making 3d comics

How not to make 3d comics

Lets just look at the cover of this book for a moment, what is wrong with this? First of all, what is with the characters faces? All of them look like a bunch of crazy stoners! If it wasn’t for the fact that we can see the blue guys hands I would be thinking he was uhhh…doing something questionable. But this isn’t the biggest problem here, look closely at the creepy baby wearing a top hat. Part of his head is poking through the side of his top hat! This is an instructional book someone went out of their way to make and we have such a glaring mistake? There’s no excuse for that, even if your totally inept at manipulating character models beyond basic poses, you still can go in and erase mistakes like that using photoshop.

Now don’t get me wrong, if your making a 3d comicbook poser can be a useful tool, just don’t think it’ll automatically solve all your problems or your end work will end up looking like generic crap that only this fellow in the below picture will want to read.

Golly Gee! I sure do love me some POSAAR!

My advice is at least for important characters you should make your own character designs and make them youself. My deep pages were made using maya, 3d max and softimage, but if you cant afford that, Blenders a pretty nice free tool. If you leanr to master any decent well rounded 3d package it’ll do you more good then relying on something that uses pre made models like poser. Right now I’m probably not going to make more 3d comics for awhile since i’m trying to sharpen my 2d skills. But I am making a short movie based on the cautionary tales script which you can read here   http://defectron.wordpress.com/2010/01/19/cautionary-tales-the-movie-script/ so you’ll be able to see alot more 3d art from me in the future as I post things from that.

If you want to read the rest of deep you can find it here

http://deep.comicgenesis.com/

Also lastly if you like my deep pages I recommend you check out Urusei Yatsura movie 2, Talking head, Neo Tokyo and invader zim since I put alot of homages to those in my pages. These are 3d packages I would recommend if you want to make stuff on your own, you can still use poser for some stuff too, just dont rely on it if you want to make something that isn’t crap

High priced: Maya, 3d max, softimage, houdini

mid priced: Lightwave, Cinema 4d

Free: Blender (The reason why I don’t list any low priced 3d animation software is because blender has the capabilities of a mid priced package but is free, so why bother with a low priced package that isn’t as good?)

This is a script for “Cautionary Tales” a project that’s currently on hold for the moment, originally this was intended to be a mostly live action movie, but I’ve been considering possibly trying to do a fully animated version of this. I havent quite made up my mind, I also might try drawing a comicbook version for practice.

Cautionary Tales
Chapter 1: Labig the Movie

Rough Draft Script

Opening Shot: Close up of a single candle flickering in the darkness. In the background bach’s cello suite no. 1 plays while random kanji flash in the background.

The meaning of each kanji: Not all of these may appear depending on how much time this runs.

Danger

Contamination

Radiation

Toxin

Virus

Dinosaur

Robot

Monkey

Death

After the kanji all go by the title comes up in english fancy script “Cautionary Tales: Ch. 1 Labig the Movie”

Cut To: Animated sequence using paper cut out style animation similar to what was used in Zan Zetsubou sensei ep 8. A man is browsing what looks to be a really surreal video store, this store should actually look like a stage set made to look like a video store. Whips of fog move along the ground as he browses the videos. In the background is a girl working as clerk in the store.

Narrator (He should have deep possibly Germanic sounding voice): There was once a man named Sabastian von Azrael who lived in Japan due to his job teaching english in a Japanese school.

Cut To:

Close up of Sabastian looking at the DVD “TEETH” which is in his hand

Cut To: Extreme wide shot pan to a close up of the phrase “Cautionary Tale” in the description on the video cover.

Narrator: He always came here, this was a rental store not for the movies, but because he was attracted to Yasako the cashier girl.

Cut To: Yasako at the counter as Sabastian rents his DVD

Narrator: Yasako was a girl who was in her late teens—slender, pale, with flawless skin, delicate hands, fine-boned, smiling, submissive, and sweet, always obliging.

(as this narration goes on the focus will switch to the various aspects of Yasako being mentioned all of which are drawn pretty funky)

Cut To: Sabastian is sitting on the floor in a dark room and is cranking a large bolt on the wall with a wrench. Next to him is a balding man. The wrench and bolt use 3D CG but the rest is still 2D paper cut out style animation.

Narrrator: After his stay in Japan Sabastian got a job in his native town of Shang Re La Iowa doing menial tasks in the dark, he had a chance encounter with Hanz a professional criticism drill instructor who happened to be passing through. It turns out that Hanz too had lived in Japan not long ago as his work had taken him overseas.

Cut To: Sabastian shows Hanz a picture of a giraffe, Hanz nods in understanding

Narrator: Sabastian recounted the tale of the girl he had met in Japan to Hanz, it was then he learned something to his great surprise.

Fade to: Back to live action, a this will be video filmed of the giant aligator snapping turtle at the Grove inside his tank. This will have a sepia colored filter applied to it.

Narrator: Hanz laughed saying “Hahaha, I know the girl you speak of. She ran a “Special Movie Store”, a store specializing in videos that most people regard as bad horrible movies. But she recognized that these videos, just as a handicapped person is not bad were not bad either, they were simply special. I was so captivated by this philosophy that I married her. But our marriage was horrible from the very beginning!

Fade To: Yasako, standing next to a derailed train, flurries of snow slowly fall around her. In one hand she holds a blood staind mini scythe. To her side is a metal barrel that is on fire, this will also be done with 3D CG, the camera zooms in to the barrels contents and we see that inside Hanz’s DVD collection is set ablaze.

Narrator(as Hanz): Yes, she was submissive and sweet at the store, but most of these girls are the opposite, privately, of what they are in public. As if to compensate for that public role of helpfulness and deference, at home they’re nagging and dominant, hypercritical, unhelpful, frigid, and unpleasant. Mean with money—she took charge of my whole salary. Worst of all she would not let me watch bad movies anymore, she said there was nothing special about Bad movies. Sheburned my entire collection of bad movie DVD’s. Don’t repeat my mistake…don’t marry a cute Japanese girl….

Cut To: A live action scene, two people are standing outside a dark tunnel, their backs to the camera, for this I’m thinking of using Hells gate in the town of Diamond Indiana. One of these people is the narrator of the previous sequence Wolfgang Labig. Wolfgang should be a normal looking person for the most part, but he has a strange hairstyle ( a wig of some sort) and is also wearing dark sunglasses. The other is Mike Keiderlindquist, a man with a fake afro, both of their names will be written in captions. This segment will have a sepia colored filter applied to it as will most of the other live action scenes.

Mike: So wait, what was the point of that story?

Fade To: A frontal shot of Wolfgang Labig, he’s still wearing his sunglasses, this will be against a fully black background.

Wolfgang: For untold centuries, humans have relied on the cautionary tale to pass indespensible wisdom down through their generations. Story’s such as “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” and “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” Even today such tales are still being made. I Wolfgang Labig am a professional chronicler of such tales. Just as Lafcadio Hearn collected Japanese ghost stories in the 19th century I too travel the world collecting cautionary tales.

Cut To: Mike and Wolfgang are no longer by hells gate, they are standing in front of a wall. Mike turns to look at wolfgang

Mike: Why are you monologueing at that wall?

Wolfgang: If you talk to it, the paint will dry faster.

Cut to: Mike and Wolfgang are sitting at a table in a strange looking area nearby a local factory. A tea kettle is at the table.

Mike: But why do this? In this day and age what role does the cautionary tale have for the everday layman?

Fade To: Once Again Wolfgang is against a black background

Wolfgang: Very well then I will tell you the role of the cautionary tale by relating one of my own stories. But I must warn you before we proceed.

(A train can be seen going by Wolfgang in the background as he speaks)

Wolfgang: According to the theory of “Reality Tunnels” a subconscious set of mental “filters” formed from our beliefs and experiences cause every individual to interpret this world differently. Please keep that in mind as you listen to my tale.

Cut to: Wolfgang is in the kitchen of the pizza place one of my jobs is at he’s doing some menial task, to his right is a mysterious loaf of bread . (they’ll probably let me film here after hours, the bread will be modeled in 3D CG and added in, this first scene may or may not use real bread) Wolfgang does not have strange hair in this scene.

Wolfgang spots the bread, so far it doesnt seem to be too special but immediately he reacts irregularly to it. At first he backs away in surprise, but then slowly he reaches out, his hands shaking as if he’s about to touch god. He quickly picks the bread up. looks around to make sure no one is looking and runs away.

Fade To: In a dimly lit room (probably my room), Wolfgang is lying on bed, the CG bread is sitting next to him looking at him with a single eye. He stares back at it in admiration.

Wolfgang narration: From the moment I saw it, I was not fooled, this was no ordinary bread. No this was an ancient being, a god perhaps? An Angel? A demon an alien? An Ultraterrestrial? Maybe even Dero? Whatever it was I knew it was as far above lowly humans as we were above the apes, perhaps it was a monolith sent by an ancient civilization to advance our own. Whatever it was it didn’t matter, I knew I found my soulmate. I would lie and listen to its stories at night, it witnessed the fall of the dinosaurs come and go, the fall of the roman empire, the destruction of Atlantis, it saw it all through that single beautiful red eye.

Camera zooms in on its eye as he talks

Cut to: Wolfgang is riding his bicycle with the bread in a basket.

Cut to: Three tough looking guys watching Wolfgang ride by in disgust.

Wolfgang: But our love was a forbiddon one. I knew society would never understand. I had to keep it a secret. But then on the day I planned to propose my engagement to the bread, tragedy struck.

Fade to: Wolfgang is in a dark room sitting on a chair (I plan to film this in the bluescreen room at one of my jobs if they let me) the bread is on his lap as he strokes it. Three tough looking guys come up to him and their leader bobby speaks.

Wolfgang: Can I help you? Why are you visiting us at this time of night?

Cut to: focus on Bobby

Bobby (Speaking with a tough guy accent, maybe Brooklyn): Hey me a and the boys here are visiting on behalf of the neighborhood tough club! We don’t appreciate humans associating with the likes of that in our turf! (he points accusingly at the bread.

Cut to: Frontal shot of Wolfgang and the bread

Wolfgang: What I do with my bread is none of your concern!

cut to: Focus on Bobby

Bobby: Everyones business is my business!

He takes a baseball bat or something and tries to attack. But before he can, the bread fires a beam from its eye. His head is blasted off his body, a bunch of CG smoke comes from his neck as he falls over. Nearby a pumpkin or some other similar object lands, the bread turned his head into a pumpkin.

Cut to: The bread flies into the air taking flight, it opens a mouth full of fangs letting loose a terrifying shreik , the other members of the tough club get out of there screaming.

Cut to: The smoking pumpkin on the ground.

Cut to: Wolfgang is looking at it. He looks back at the bread.

Wolfgang narration: It was then I knew its terrible power, if I stayed with it, it would consume me too, just as it had consumed Bobbys head and turned it into a pumpkin!

Wolfgang: Hey what is that over there? (he points behind the bread, it turns to look), Wolfgang then runs away.

Cut to: Wolfgang is running by a corn field

Wolfgang narration: I kept running and never looked back.

Cut to: Wolfgang is out of breath under the Indiana shoe tree (a tree in indiana where everyone ties shoes to the branches for some reason I read about in weird indiana) For the first time he is wearing his strange wig.

Wolfgang: I did not stop until I was under the shoe tree. It was this day that I learned never to trust questionable bread.

Fade to: Wolfgang and Mike back at the table by the factory in a two shot

Cut to: frontal shot of Mike

Mike: So you never saw the bread again?

Cut to: Frontal shot of Wolfgang

Wolfgang: Nien

Cut to: Two shot, Mike and Wolfgang

Wolfgang: And that was my very first cautionary tale.

Mike (looking freaked out): I am never eating bread again! (he runs away after saying this)

Wolfgang: (stands up and calls after him): But there is another tale! If you leave now, more then just your mind may be changed!

Fade to: CG version of mike is in bed, his CG afro grows two eye stocks and leaves

Wolfgang narration: When one changes ones mind, their reality tunnel is affected, their perception of the universe may be altered in ways even they did not think possible.

Fade to: Live action Mike wakes up, he immediately notices his afro is missing he looks disstressed.

Fade to: black

We hear the terrified scream of a girl

The japanese kanji for end show up on screen.