Hi all, for my pre-game project I would like to put out some comic books/ graphic novels. The thing is, for characters I like Daz3D and for environments and “B-Roll” I like Unreal Engine 4. The comic books/ graphic novels will be the “concept art” for the game and set up the possible backstory, characters, locations, plots, storylines, etc.
I’m not an artist but will be more of a writer/director. So I’m kinda grasping around at the moment. Obviously I’m not going to be able to spend tons of time on each panel compositing the characters with the background perfectly. Nor do I need to, I believe.
However, it looks like I might be able to get a bit of a “Sin City” or “300” look(?), but I still haven’t nailed it down yet. Of course camera angles and lighting should match, but not necessarily perfectly?
I’m not too obsessed about this being a blockbuster graphic novel that gets sold to Hollywood, but I do want to do it as best I can within the timeframe, Lord willing.
Any feedback and advice is appreciated on best compositing styles, references, etc. that would make sense. Thanks!
Full B&W. I don’t mind this but a bit sad to lose the colours. Probably the easiest way to “cheat” the character and background compositing, but retains the depth and stylisation?
Semi B&W. Perhaps more believable yet stylised for a graphic novel. Needs a lot of thought to decide colouring and what to pull in/out of B&W, etc?
Full colour. Doesn’t appear to gel well. The eye doesn’t know to look at the character or the background?
If you’re looking for a Sin City stylization, you need to get some intense lighting contrast. Character’s tend to get a decent amount of backlighting to them, which makes them pop out of the background and let’s things get focused on them. On top of that you need a lot of harsh shadows, so your highs and lows are pretty extreme a lot of the time.
This is a tutorial, just the concepts alone will help you out.
And here is an example of applying their concept to a poster art for some of my own work
Cool, thanks for the links. So it looks I’ve been too conservative thus far, indeed for that look it is important to “push” the composition, lighting and contrast much further. B&W works but a dash of colour here and there as the tutorial and as you have done, completes the look.
I can see that in my above tests it’s neither here-nor-there, it’s neither photoreal composited neither stylised enough in the framing and angle of the character vs the background.
I was most afraid of the “disjointedness” of the characters and the background but as you mention and now that I think about it the success of movies like “300” is such contrast, style, and emphasis on the character even though they are in lush backgrounds. I suppose the artifical(?) depth between the characters and the background creates a surrealism that photorealistic compositing lacks?
Nonetheless, Praise God, it looks like I might be able to pull off my pre-game comic books/ graphic novels after all.
There are of course a lot of critics of the “Sin City” look but hey, if it works… plus strangely it dovetails with the concept of my project.
“We are ALL living in Sin City.”
(see Romans 3:23)
Hi. Here’s a video if you’re still interested in that. Sin City’s style is particularly good for this method, as there only two palettes, B/W and red.
