Endpoint -- a Crossover Event

zolandar

A long time ago while playing City of Heroes I saw someone post a comic cover on the forums made from a screenshot. I tried my own hand at it and loved doing it. One it was creative, and two it gave me a uniform record of characters I played. The more I played, the more comic covers I did. It also drove me to do a TON of screenshots along the way. I did over 600 covers for CoH over the years.

I did the same when I tried the competition. Its not easy. Certain characters don't give you good angles because they are further range, or the graphics tend to overwhelm the image. Sometimes game elements like pickup items, boosts and the like spoil shots. Good covers can be ruined by a ill placed limb of an NPC. Other characters tend to go through the same animations a lot, making covers too similar after a while.


Lately now I have been doing a lot of Champions Covers. AND I got to seeing DC doing another crossover event (Convergence) and Marvel doing theirs, (Secret Wars). So I decided to do one for my CO toons. IF all goes well this will be over 60 covers. I've already got 23 done -- but I've still gaps to fill in the sequence. (3 crossovers and one aftermath issue per toon along with the mini-series itself)



and the covers of First wave.

zolandar

Had to do two messages due to limit of pics in a post.

zolandar

Final addition.....For Now.....

themightyzenith

I really like these, nice one!

epelesker

Ah, lookit it's a CN!

Good to see you're still going at it.

agentcanada

Very nice, I'm not sure why but Red Beast and Chessman really resonate well.
AC

friezaliveson

This is pretty impressive.

nextnametaken

This is great stuff. Good translation from the widescreen game format to these pulp comic format ...posters? They should be posters.

Lose the bar code.

The "guy from the back" on Chessman cover is awful composition. "here's this unimportant victim of chessman's power---center page!" Everything on that page scaled so Chessman's hand is high and center frame right would be ideal. Applying the Rule of Thirds where is the focal point on the current cover?

Another thing that is noticeable is the common heroic stance, if you are looking at enough of the comic covers at one time.

[Do you use /demo_record and the -demoplay feature?]

You can get glorious screenshots with that. freeze frame on the action and monkey around with the field of view. Get closer close ups and even render in a blue screen-ish environment or noodle with the lighting.
Still end's up being a struggle for the perfect shot, especially to fit a horizontal panel.

If you wanted to ever print your own comics here's some production tips:
The Endpoint Crossover logo is too close to the edge of the page. During a print run the paper can shift at the cutter, and you could lose some lettering,oh now I am noticing also some logos and titling end up being right on the page edges. The real world result would be several hundred copies of lost value comics, posters or whatever it is you are printing. Always leave at least 1/8th inch border for the trim and the fold, that's pretty safe at quarter inch borders it's all on the printer if something gets folded or cut where it shouldn't, ie, he'll have to fix the run.

Excel...lent stuff.

zolandar

Nope - Everything is IN GAME. Demo record isn't used -- I've got a Razer Naga MMO mouse and have keybinds set to the numpad to take screenshots. Its easy to move the view and get shots of action with one hand and use powers with the other. Getting GOOD shots can be tricky, I'll admit. For every good screenshot I've got 5 to 15 throwaways. Bad angle, bad effects, blocked subject, bad timing, etc.

biffsmackwell

You should look into using Demo Record (it's a built-in part of Champions, the program linked just lets you view the files easier). That way you just record your session, fighting and stuff (and the files are tiny, they're not video files, just a file that records all your actions and those around you). Then you can advance or reverse time and freeze at just the right moment, and move the camera around to get better angles than you can get in-game.

It'll save you tons of time, honestly.

zolandar