At last! We're moving again!

Maybe it's something to do with page 3's? Everything was going so smoothly with the renders for Project HERO until Page 3, Panel 1.

I just couldn't render this panel...it would get so far and then stop, every time. Eventually I traced the problem to the texture for Gawain's head, reduced the resolution and...it almost worked... So I moved Gawain behind the boat - problem solved...until Panel 4.

Now...looking at Panel 4, there was no way that I could fudge it and move Gawain behind something, so I had to solve this problem once and for all. Of course, I really should have known better, the same texture that's on Gawain's head is also used for inside his mouth, up his nose and his lacrimals (look it up!). So...I reduced the texture from 4000x4000 pixels down to 2000x2000 pixels...made sure to replace it on every part of the head it's used on and...voila!...the panel rendered perfectly.

For this page I've also added the "Pentagram" insignias to the textures for the outfits, rather than adding them in later in Photoshop. Generally, the more you can do in Poser, the better. Working on Project HERO has forced me to learn how to edit texture maps, which is a good skill to have. It means that my future work is likely to get less and less generic, and I'll be less and less dependent on off the shelf stuff. I'm still a long way off from learning how to model though!

In other news, The Young Gods was favourably received by Visionary but, after a lot of debate and angsting, Derek and I decided that Visionary probably isn't the best home for it. So, work continues on the project. We're aiming to get the first five pages complete and then we'll be putting together another submission package to send out. So, watch this space!

Finally, I booked my trip to the upcoming Bristol Comic Expo this week. I'll be meeting up with Derek for the first time at the con, and we're anticipating a couple of late night, alcohol fueled story conferences. The con's being put on "in association with" Markosia (whatever that means) so you can expect to find Derek and me hungover and hassling Harry and the gang. We'll both be arriving in Bristol on the afternoon of the 12th, so if anyone's interested in some pre-con partying, drop us a line! (Y'know...as much as us geeks "party"....). The big news, so far as I'm concerned, is that both Walter and Louise Simonson are going to be attending. I am a HUGE fan of Louise Simonson's writing. I loved her run on New Mutants (probably more than Claremont's) and, of course, they worked together for a time on X-Factor.

Well, I think that's everything for now, time for some sleep....