TopHeavy

Daily Update 11/15/24

Alright, so now we come to the end of the cel-shade pass. Since this is a step in a larger process, it's ok that it's a little sloppy. The goal here was to establish lighting. Looking at what I've posted I think some values are a little off, so tomorrow's weekly update will have levels and value adjustments. If the end result was going to be cel-shaded my next step would be to refine the edges and clean up details.

In this case, the next step is blending. I moved so quickly so that ...

Daily Update 11/14/24 (Weekly update will be on Friday or Saturday)

 So today, I broke a rule and it really slowed me down. I redrew a panel. But it was a panel in desperate need of retooling. The thing is, the redraw took about half the day so I only got two pages done. We are still on schedule though, and it's the last page that truly needs redrawing.

 Part 3 - Chapter 5 - Page 15

Part 3 - Chapter 6 - Page 15 Original Drawing

2024-11-15 00:48:15 +0000 UTC View Post

Daily Update 11/13/24

I've completed another four pages with basic cel-shading. It's still sloppy, which I find super unsatisfying, but I'm trusting the process and focusing on the broad strokes. I should have all the cel-shading done by this Friday. From there, I will slow down for the blending stage to ensure everything is done right.

Part 3 - Chapter 5 - Page 13

 Part 3 - Chapter 5 - Page 14 2024-11-13 22:58:25 +0000 UTC View Post

Daily Update 11/12/24

We continue with the basic (kind of sloppy) cel-shading. I plan to return to cel-shading for comics after Toph Heavy, but I still don't like moving this quickly. I feel like I'm making a lot of mistakes. It feels like taking a few steps back aesthetically, but we have a schedule to keep.

Part 3 - Chapter 5 - Page 11

Part 3 - Chapter 5 - Page 12

2024-11-12 22:34:53 +0000 UTC View Post

Daily Update 11/11/24

4 more pages. I broke my rule and did a slight redraw in one of them. I actually like some of these cel-shaded pages, which bodes well for the render stage. Final page is a little rough because I had a health problem towards the end of the day. Nothing to worry about... I hope.

Part 3 - Chapter 5 - Page 10

Part 3 - Chapter 5 - Page 11

2024-11-12 00:16:02 +0000 UTC View Post

Daily Update 11/10/24

We keep moving forward. Today, I took a slight break. Instead of 4 pages, I only cel-shaded 2. We'll be back to 4 tomorrow.

Part 3 - Chapter 5 - Page 9

Part 3 - Chapter 6 - Page 9

Daily Update 11/9/24

Another day, another 4 pages of step 1. I think 4's my limit. I was hoping I could do 6 or even 8. I want to get through step 2 as quickly as possible so I have enough time to make steps 3 through 5 happen. My hope is that I'll have enough time to at least get Step 3 done, and then this will all look much more presentable. Of course, there's the possibility that you disagree and think I do better work when I'm rushing, I dunno.

 Part 3 - Chapter 5 - Page 7

2024-11-09 23:10:13 +0000 UTC View Post

Daily Update 11/8/24

I got as far as I could with basic cel shading today, but I only finished four pages. I know I need to work faster, but my brain is fried. That step where I soften the transitions and make them more painterly actually takes a while. I'm also not sure about their quality, but this is what happens when we rush. Oh well, I'm getting practice with cel shading, and that will be great for future content.

 Part 3 - Chapter 5 - Page 5

2024-11-08 20:57:43 +0000 UTC View Post

Weekly update 11/7/24

Well, shit.

Before I go into my plans for the next couple of months, I want to be clear about something. It is quite possible that nothing changes and I keep producing what I'm producing. That is the ideal outcome. That is the outcome I would prefer. This post is about preparing for the worst outcome.

We have a deadline now. January 20, 2025.

Here's the plan
Step 1: go through the rest of chapters 4 and 5 and do a quick cel-shade pass for each page.
Step 2: add i...

Build-a-Comic- Round 1

OK, so we may have to do an SFW pivot. (Don't worry, I'll still be working on Toph Heavy for now.)

 I want to include you guys in this pivot as much as possible so over the next few weeks I'm going to ask you to vote on elements of it. The only thing that I am for sure going to do is make the main character a busty woman. Gotta keep the branding of the Patreon afterall. When I say busty, think Baiken or Panda Delgado. Huge, but probably not as big as Toph in a few of the pages so...

No update today

Today there was an election. As of 11:16 PM MST, it's not looking good for the Democrats and I am liquored up. I am both too inebriated to draw and very concerned about whats happening. Not just about all the stuff you've probably heard about, but about my art as well. The Right's attitude and proposed policies towards adult content could spell the end for this entire thing. I obviously can't predict the future, and it does no good to give in before anything has happened. I took a break toda...

Daily Update 11/4/24

So today I had to do a couple of "redraws" and a fix to the 180-Rule. The 180 Rule is a rule for movies but also applies to comics. The idea is that when you have two characters facing each other in a scene, you have to imagine a line that runs through the two people, and you can't cross that line. Google can probably explain it better. Anyway, I noticed more than a few pages in Chapter 6 violate that rule. So I spent some of the day fixing it in finished and current pages.

Also,...

Weekly Update 11/1/24

Hey there. These are the next two pages from Chapters 5 and 6. If you've been following the WIP tier you'll notice some DRASTIC differences from where we started. To begin, I realized that the anatomy and perspective in the final panel were just straight-up wrong. So I redrew it. I then realized there were three problems in the first panel. The main problem with Toph's anatomy in the first panel was that I made her legs too skinny. It wasn't necessarily badly drawn, but it was inconsistent wi...

Daily Update 10/30/24

The renders continue. I had to redraw some parts of the first page. The legs and the butt didn't look right. It was like they were spread too far apart and her legs were too skinny. Everything needed more girth. That said, I'm still not completely happy with the coloring on these pages. I hope I can figure out what I need to fix by tomorrow because I'll be moving on to the next two pages at that point. I want to keep the momentum here. "Finished, not perfect." is the mantra for now. I'll let ...

Daily Update 10/28/24

I will try to stay on schedule, but I was sick this weekend, and I'm still getting over it. Luckily these were relatively simple pages and even in my weakened state I was able to complete the first stage of coloring. The basic shadows.

Part 5 - Page 2

Part 6 - Page 2
 

Weekly Update 10/24/24 - HUGE update

BIG Update this week. I've got chapter 4 all lettered and done and ready for you to download, and I have the first page of Chapter 5 and the first page of Chapter 6. I think I've got this rendering down to a point where I can render both chapters at the same time. Finally, I've got some thumbnails for part 4 involving Toph and Katara.

So let's start with

2024-10-24 12:34:38 +0000 UTC View Post

Weekly Update 10/17/24

I got some bad news. The monitor I use for most of my work died tonight. It kind of flickered and then wouldn't turn on anymore. After a few hours of troubleshooting, I concluded that the problem was the power supply and I did not have a replacement (nor the expertise) to fix it. I had planned to finish this up, but I couldn't make it. Now, half of my savings are gone, and I have to wait for a replacement that won't be delivered until the 23rd. I also have a health issue that I don't want to...

Daily Update 10/15/24

I have two more pages for this chapter (including this one.) And I've started to add words and dialogue to pages. I'm worried that I may be rushing this page a bit because I'm so excited to get to the end of this chapter. This chapter had the most redraws and discarded pages and it feels like it's taken forever. It's been so... bad... that I'm considering doing Chapter 5 and Chapter 6's renders at the same time.

2024-10-16 05:15:51 +0000 UTC View Post

Finished Work

Considering I post WIP stuff so often, accessing the things I've finished can be hard, especially for people who have just joined. So here's a pinned post that has dropbox links to completed work. They are all full-resolution ZIP files featuring WIP images, images without dialogue, and discarded pages. This post will be updated whenever I finish something or need to edit things. So keep an eye on it. 

If a link doesn't work, that means it's being updated, give it about 10 mi...

Weekly Update 10/10/24

Not much to update you with this week. I rendered the replacement page, and it wasn't working for me. I couldn't figure out why at first because I liked the drawings. I realized that the story and dialogue flowed better if I mashed two pages together.

So here's the first page

Here's the second page.

2024-10-10 20:02:56 +0000 UTC View Post

Daily Update 10/8/24

I know I said there may not be a post, but then I started working on this extra page, and... well... it's not turning out like I want. It doesn't feel like it "fits" with the other pages. I'm unsure how to fix it, but ideas often come to me after I post something, so that's what I'm doing here. 

Weekly Update 10/6/24

This upcoming week is my Birthday, so I'm not sure exactly how much I will post next week, so I want to post where I'm at with what I've been working on. The following aren't completely complete, but they're close. (Well, except the page that I'm adding)

2024-10-06 07:00:42 +0000 UTC View Post

Daily Update - 9/30/24

I did a lot of work over the weekend even though I know I'm supposed to take breaks. I just couldn't stop. I even added a page for shits and giggles. That makes me goal for this week a whopping 4 finished pages. So let's get to it.

I need to fix her crotch. It doesn't look right to me.
 I don't know why ...

Weekly Update 9/26/24

So this week began with me dropping a page. It was an idea I couldn't execute, and I didn't want to waste time figuring it out. I moved on to the next two pages, which turned out much better. I even managed to take one page and make two versions of it. (The second version isn't finished.)

 I may make some adjustments. Some edge refinement here and there, sound effects, etc. I'd say this is 95% ...

Daily Update 9/25/24

Alrighty, kind of a long WIP post today because I wanted to share some more of the rendering process.

Let's start with the flats.
As you may know, this is a redo of one of the pages. My main problem with the previous page was that it lacked intimacy and wasn't drawn very well. This is drawn better and has more intimacy. It isn't perfect by any stretch, but it's an improvement.

2024-09-26 05:10:41 +0000 UTC View Post

Daily Update 9/23/24

This is the progress I made on the next page. There is something about the coloring that feels.. off. I think the issue is a combination of soft edges and post-processing washing out detail. I need to go through it and make some finer tweaks. I'd say this is around 70% completion, so I may be able to get two pages done this week. I also decided to scrap the three-person titty fuck page. I like the idea, but I didn't draw it very well. I could try to redraw it, but I want to spend as little ti...

Weekly Update 9/20/24

Another week done, once again I only got one page done this week but that's because I was distracted by like 3 other projects. For this page I had to completely redraw the first panel and add some stuff in the second and fourth panel. First I will share the "finished" image, and then what it looked like when I started, and finally I'll go over the changes made and why.

Where we wound up. There will almost assuredly be adjustments in the future, but it is most of the way there and wort...

Daily Update 9/17/24

I almost scrapped this page. However. in trying to draw a replacement page over the past couple of days I realized that I like this one, and it just needed some fixing. So let me show you what I did and explain why.

Old Page

 
New Page
 
OK, so, obviously the first panel is the main pro...

Weekly Update 9/12/24

Apologies to the WIP tier for the lack of updates this week. I wasn't working at full capacity because I injured myself last weekend. I wish I could regale you with an awesome story, but it's as banal as it is embarrassing. I was doing a light jog, hit an uneven patch of pavement, and went down. It was one of those falls that lasted a little too long too. Like, I tried to catch myself and just ate shit. The good part was that I had enough time to make sure I didn't hit my head, but I scraped ...

Weekly Update 9/5/24

Well, I didn't get a page rendered this week like I wanted, but I did get plenty of other stuff done. I finished inking and flatting the three replacement pages. Ya know, I'm not sure about the first one. Somehow I like the idea more than the execution. The rest is great.

I employed a new way of inking and flatting that made things move much quicker than normal. My concern is that these new methods will make these pages stand out aesthetically. But I didn't want to waste too much tim...