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The Aethernet Chronicles - A Supernatural Cyberpunk Adventure

guru20guru20 Posts: 72
edited December 2020 in Art Studio

I decided to write a trilogy of novels that combine paranormal elements (ghosts, ley lines, and various religions and mythologies: Catholic, Voodoo, Hawaiian, Navajo) with a dystopian near-future sci-fi setting.... I wrote over 1000 pages since July (245,000 words over the course of the three books) since July, but I also just had to try some artwork in Daz! And they turned out well enough that I made them the book covers... here they are! (one is a "rear cover" and, in fact, the alternate cover for the second book ended up being the rear cover of the paperback)

 

Up next: possibly a tarot card set with the many characters from the series (the covers only show the MC and one antagonist, but the final book has the POVs of 18 different protagonists helping out!), and/or a comic book / graphic novel version!

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Post edited by guru20 on

Comments

  • guru20guru20 Posts: 72

    PS. Everything you see was made in Daz, except the swamp/bayou (that was a creative commons photo)... and then there was some final work in Photoshop (except the stairwell render)

  • guru20guru20 Posts: 72
    edited December 2020

    Starting test renders of my major characters... starting with the first antagonist: Stanislav, the shockdrone-wielding spook from A.F.T.E.R. 

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  • guru20guru20 Posts: 72
    edited December 2020

    Next up... Yaga, the Net Name for a mysterious hacker on the Shadow Net

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  • guru20guru20 Posts: 72
    edited December 2020

    Mrs. Dole is the strict headmistress of NuVo High, and a firm believer in the school's STEM-based "New Vocation" specialties.

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  • guru20guru20 Posts: 72
    edited December 2020

    Mr. Arigato is the the SoftDev teacher at NuVo High... his students thought he was a robot even before the cybernetic implant he had to get as a result of the exploding vidgogs that went haywire in class...

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  • guru20guru20 Posts: 72
    edited December 2020

    WIP... I am working on the first few pages of the graphic novel. Took a LOT of prep work to set up the characters (who knew background characters / extra would demand so much time??), plus tweaking an environment to become the set of Mr. Arigato's SoftDev classroom... but here it is, the first test render. (BTW, Kindred Arts Ghost Lights 3 is a life-saver. I originally bought it for that glowing VR "ghost" cover for my books, and the "god beams" coming down the stairwell, but I now plan on using it in probably every indoor scene I make. Or maybe I'm just bad at working with the native lights in Daz...)

     

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  • guru20guru20 Posts: 72
    edited December 2020

    And... first panel: Alex completes her programming assignment in AR while the ever-vigilant Mr. Arigato checks over student work in his SoftDev class at NuVo High... 

    Unfortunately, I have had to deal with one too many Daz Studio crashes today... really slowing down this process angry

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  • guru20guru20 Posts: 72
    edited December 2020

    Cover art for the first issue that will exist (and it's definitely going to take a while)

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  • guru20guru20 Posts: 72
    edited December 2020

    Test page for my comic... visually, I'm pleased, but there are major problems with my workflow (gotta start setting up batch render queues, plus this comic software is certainly less than stellar... I can't get it to recognize new fonts I have installed!)

     

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  • guru20guru20 Posts: 72
    edited December 2020

    But it's about to get real... 

     

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  • guru20guru20 Posts: 72
    edited December 2020

    Page 2... up next: a change of scenery

     

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  • guru20guru20 Posts: 72
    edited December 2020

    How fitting for Christmas day! ...  a wintry scene inside a church-turned-beacon: 

     

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  • guru20guru20 Posts: 72
    edited December 2020

    Last one for a while... I just wanted to show some of the variety of scenes/locations and styles (a lot of compositing / photoshop involved. Using creative commons images only, or photos I have taken myself)

     

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  • guru20guru20 Posts: 72
    edited December 2020

    Looks like I'll have a couple more before I call it "done for now"

     

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  • guru20guru20 Posts: 72
    edited December 2020

    And page 6 concludes the free promotional first chapter of the comic book / graphic novel... 

     

     

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  • guru20guru20 Posts: 72

    Doh! Looking into printing these as actual comic books, and come to find out my software did not default to standard comic dimensions... oops... (also seems to be 96 ppi instead of 300 for the resolution)

    Glad I caught this fairly early, at 6 pages in, rather than after many more!  (my current plan is to do monthly comics of probably 20 pages each, combining 6 issues into graphic novel / trade paperback that is the equivalent of each of my books. So a 330-380 page book will end up being about a 120-130 page graphic novel...)

     

  • guru20guru20 Posts: 72
    edited January 2021

    Alex's best friend Peter Figaretti a.k.a. "Fig" is athletic, awkward, goofy... and totally loyal (after all, he does have a crush on her...)

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  • guru20guru20 Posts: 72
    edited January 2021

    Julie has been a relentless bully to Alex ever since she showed up to NuVo High. Sky is the popular-but-vapid star Striker of the NuVo Knights grav-ball team. Now they'll have to work as teammates... and allies.

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  • guru20guru20 Posts: 72
    edited January 2021

    Alex doesn't know much about Phoenixx - only that he hails from the Navajo Nation and that he's a beautiful, mysterious hacker who happens to be in possession of EMP grenades

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  • guru20guru20 Posts: 72

    Introducing... the video trailer for Alpha: Apparitions! (I am using primarily Storyblocks an Daz for my trailers)

     

     

     

  • guru20guru20 Posts: 72

    And the spooky voodoo-cyberpunk trailer for the second book in the series, Beta: The Beyond

     

  • Griffin AvidGriffin Avid Posts: 3,764

    It's good. It looks dark on my monitors.

    You're probably going to need some lighting work on the areas you want the reader to focus on- most likely, any faces or heads in the shot.

  • guru20guru20 Posts: 72

    Griffin Avid said:

    It's good. It looks dark on my monitors.

    You're probably going to need some lighting work on the areas you want the reader to focus on- most likely, any faces or heads in the shot.

    Yeah, there are "underexposed" faces, but that's mainly because they are backlit (if I front-light them, though, the compositing will no longer be realistic)... should be visible, though... you sure brightness settings aren't low? (You're the first person who has said the faces are hard to discern)... it's also a bit mystery / "film noir" so a lot of details are intentionally obscured in shadows

    However, in my current vid (for the final book), I truly am having to go back and fix lighting, because the faces end up practically invisible (especially on my darker-skinned characters)... PITA, because these are animation sequences (so the rendering takes a while.)  And then I find out I had the wrong camera pane selected for the render, and have to do it all over again... almost done, though!

  • guru20guru20 Posts: 72

    Presenting... a trailer video for the third and final installment of The Aethernet Chronicles (this one took quite a bit more Daz rendering!)

     

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