This is a test page done a few years ago; the Webboid character is a morphed version of the 3D model “Chibi-Boy”, while the test page was assembled in Comic Life on an iPad. The Webboid featured in this sample page is roughly a fifth- or sixth-generation Webboid and this particular design and character was created in 2012. This semi-painted style was tested to see how it would look as a children’s storybook character and style. A Topaz filter or two were used to give it the more “illustrated” look and, hopefully, make it look a little less computer-generated.

The beauty of 3D artwork for this type of storytelling is the ability to use multiple cameras – this allows the artist to set up one scene and from it derive multiple “shots”. For example, the four images below are actually one scene and pose. By moving the camera and re-rendering, we have four different images from which we can choose the one we want, or chose multiples to add to the story. In the 4-panel comic page sample, the first two panels are colour versions of this single scene; I then moved  and re-posed our hero and rendered four more shots, moved him again and rendered four more action shots, etc. The four panels in the comic page are actually one scene with the character’s position and pose changed once, rendered two times for each pose with different camera positions.

Often setting up the scene can take a huge amount of time, but shots from multiple angles can greatly reduce the per-render “price”.

Much, much more Webboids in the days to come!