I completed page three last night, although it seemed to take a long time – not sure why. The renders themselves are actually going quickly, but for some reason the post work is taking awhile. Now that I have three pages done, I could probably put up the preview for the next chapter on the website. Looking at what I have so far, however, I’m wondering if the preview would be all that compelling (ie: no space ships or beautiful scenery).
I’ve also worked a little more on the role-playing game, but it’s kind of two steps forward and one step back: every time I make a breakthrough with something, I find myself thinking other parts are a mess. Right now it’s more a problem of how to organize the information, etc. Instead of having all the relevant stuff in one place, it seems to be spread out too much. At times it becomes a bit overwhelming.
I'm enjoying your story very much. You have a well designed universe, and the listings of characters, races, worlds, and Houses practically scream intrigue.
ReplyDeleteI work with Poser sometimes, as well as Vue and Shade, and have a good idea of how much work is involved in getting your highly detailed scenes prepared. They were pretty good in the Prologue, but by chapter 6, they were no less than extraordinary.
Your poses are pretty good and, as I've stated before, I'm blown away by the amount of detail you put in, but I wonder if you couldn't improve it a tad with your facial expressions - especially the eyes. At the very least I would add an anisotropic gleam to make them more realistic, and perhaps tilt the head from time to time, use a few askance looks, a raised eyebrow on one side, a few asymmetrical twists to the mouth and so forth.
Also, while I love the slick professional appearence on your home page, and it is easy to navigate once you figure out that "Story" contains the comics and chapters, and not a description of the comic, I think that you are losing readers with it. When I first came, I kept looking for a link to the latest comic. My user instincts clicked the picture, which took me directly to the Prologue - not so good, as it led me to believe that I would have to negotiate the entire story from beginning to end, which I actually did the first time.
I would seriously think about relabeling "Story" with "Comic," have a "Latest" link, and show when the story was last updated, all things users have come to expect. I say these things, not just to critique, but to hopefully get you a few more readers for the story, who normally blow-off a new comic at the slightest excuse.
As I said, I am enjoying your story, and will check in from time to time to see how this is progressing. The scope of it is fairy awesome and it is getting pretty interesting with Katherine being taken. I hope Lucy isn't dead, I like her.
Congratulations for a great story and keep it up!
Aardvark (Doug)
Thank you, Doug. This was very helpful, especially the parts about navigating the site. I’ve noticed that there have been several visitors who have come to the site, but then left right away, perhaps put off by the very issues you mentioned. I will take a look at the site again, and make some changes to improve it.
ReplyDeleteThanks again!
William