The Devil Doll_Sneak peek!

 The Devil Doll. First draft concept design work of the character for the Grindhouse series written by Alex De Campi [for Dark Horse Comics] Having a lot of fun with this book already. The head twists {exorcist style] to reveal the teeth and mouth of the Devil Doll. A truly twisted (sic) creation by Alex and I love her for it.

An Old-school approach to the character was decided upon as the Devil Doll's mouth had to look proportionate to the girl's head [hidden under the hair] None of that liberal Get Out Of Jail For Free CGI nonsense where anything goes [an easier chosen route as there are no boundaries to restrict design, size or shape] We had to consider a make-up and prosthetic aesthetic [with accompanying limitations] similar to Rob Bottin's wonderful work on The Thing and it seems scarier that way somehow.

Leto. Sketch.

Leto. Portrait.

Leto. Portrait. A small study from The Irons: Hybrids. Some minor photographic reference for the coat.

The Irons: Hybrids. Madefire. Process.

The Irons: Hybrids portal chase sequence. This will be our French Connection moment. Leto chases a perp (Multon) through the planet sized city using portals to jump to other areas and time-zones. Writer and co-creator Haden Blackman and I envisioned a multi-zone chase highlighting the texture and richness of  The Irons world.

Creating one new world environment is hard enough but we really wanted to push for a variety of different areas: some more frightening and unusual than the main Blade Runner influenced world shown here. The chase allowed us so many possibilities and the Grand Central Station opener will be the money shot!

Crank zoom panels. We cut from the larger panel to these inserts and zoom to close-ups of Leto and Multon (shown in red) Should help to convey the frenetic pace of the chase? Possibility of a faux-handheld camera shake effect with the Madefire tool to add that personal 'in scene' experience.

So many possibilities are available creatively with the added sound and motion options. It really is an exciting and new approach to story-telling.

The inks shown are pencils only. Still to apply an ink draft and colour by Yel Zamor.

The Irons: Hybrids. Madefire. Process.

The Irons: Hybrids portal chase sequence. This will be our French Connection moment. Leto chases a perp (Multon) through the planet sized city using portals to jump to other areas and time-zones. Writer and co-creator Haden Blackman and I envisioned a multi-zone chase highlighting the texture and richness of  The Irons world.

Creating one new world environment is hard enough but we really wanted to push for a variety of different areas: some more frightening and unusual than the main Blade Runner influenced world shown here. The chase allowed us so many possibilities and the Grand Central Station opener will be the money shot!

Crank zoom panels. We cut from the larger panel to these inserts and zoom to close-ups of Leto and Multon (shown in red) Should help to convey the frenetic pace of the chase? Possibility of a faux-handheld camera shake effect with the Madefire tool to add that personal 'in scene' experience.

So many possibilities are available creatively with the added sound and motion options. It really is an exciting and new approach to story-telling.

The inks shown are pencils only. Still to apply an ink draft and colour by Yel Zamor.

The Irons: Hybrids. Cover process.

Layout sketches. This first stage is the most important part of the process. All the ideas are put down quickly and instinctively and a composition is decided upon. Three versions generally provide choice for the client/editor to work with and Liam Sharp decided that having Leto front and centre worked best. We then moved on with background characters designs.

A more finished sketch this time to capture the vibe of the environment. Some more playful ideas were added in the background but they felt out of synch with the overall tone intended for the cover.

Another pass refines the background character details.

Leto and two or three additional principal characters are next. Layout sketches are always done in biro. Trying to keep an energy and spontaneity in the figures by keeping the size to A4.

Pencils. Still working in ink with a brushpen at A4 for keeping the proportions and composition right. An alien krishna and Bono help fill the background. A lot of extra details are added to the figures and background at this stage and to be honest it serves well enough.

Colour work follows by Yel Zamor. These characters are for the background only and Yel cleverly coloured them with minimum shading to allow them to remain in the background and not pop or distract from foreground characters. Since they will also be reduced in size, any over-rendered textures would be lost anyways.

An alternate version below where I played with colour coded regionalised lighting on the background crowds. The seperate layers in the Madefire tools enhance the effect by providing a parallax effect.

Madefire. Hybrids: The Irons by Haden Blackman.

Madefire released their app yesterday and I am delighted to be a part of the project. Dave Gibbons, Bill Seinkiewicz, Dougie Braithwaite, Liam Sharp, Robbie Morrison, Mike Carey and many more creators are involved and I am proud to be working with Haden Blackman (Batwoman) on our collaboration, Hybrids: The Irons. Here is a teaser of what to expect with our new world environment.

The Irons teaser formatted as a page. Viewing experience will be 1.85 landscape panels with 3:4 IMAX inspired fullscreen. The Madefire tools allow for parallax views (up to seven layers for city vistas) and pans/zooms/depth of field effects. The technical approach to starting a page is very different too. It's a new language of story-telling.

Colour as always by the talented Yel Zamor.

Hybrids. Layouts for a chase sequence.

 Hybrids. Written by Haden Blackman for the Madefire digital comic.

These layouts for our portal chase sequence are the first run through of the script and generally problem solve the pacing and composition before pencils. 90% of what you see here makes the final cut. Primarily working on individual panels to a 1.85 or 16:9 ratio for widescreen viewing on the iPad and similar media. Panels or frames 'taller' than the preferred ratio are to allow for pans or zooms. They are grouped together as pages for clarity and script checking. Choices also have to be made regarding creating seperate layers within the panels and indicating motion (not shown here) to provide parallax for the motion comic element.


This digital technique proves to be a very challenging experience and rewards you with new creatives options for telling a story. More reviews next week.

 

Hybrids. Haden Blackman. City scene. Evolution of a panel.

Hybrids. Haden Blackman. City scene. Evolution of a panel.

Here are the basic four steps necessary for creating a complex scene. The layout (although rough) is the single most important stage of this process as it defines the composition. Everything that follows is refining that original idea. Details are added where appropriate and some minor changes are made but essentially it remains close to the layout. The next major creative leap comes with the colouring stage. Yel Zamor's colour adds a further more important level of depth to the final image as it creates mood and atmosphere which is not easily seen in the lineart.

Layout sketch.

Pencils.

Inks.

Colour by Yel Zamor.

Concept design. Hybrids.

Some lineart and concept work for Hybrids. This environment needed to evoke a certain dark and frightening atmosphere. Context is everything and the choices made on the decor, details on the walls and general mess of stacked magazines and canvases will explain itself when all is revealed.

Colour by Yel Zamor.

Leto. Character sketch.

Leto. Character sketch. Haden Blackman. Hybrids. Madefire