53: Caution
Update: No page next week, and I’ll have a full news post in that update slot as to cover my progress as I work through this situation. My licence for 3d Studio Max is about to expire and I won’t be able to use it to actually make the comic anymore. I’m weighing options on how to proceed, and exporting back ups of all my files to be capable of being opened in other programs such as Blender. This is likely to lead to significant downtime for the comic since I don’t actually know how to use Blender, and the models don’t transition with their bones intact. This isn’t knocking me back to square one, but it’s a significant blow. I’m not married to the idea of learning Blender, but I wanna get that door open while I can still use Max to export all my assets.
I’d say “get a room, you two” but that is literally what they’re trying to accomplish here, so I’ll hold off. But god, they are a cute couple. Also it’s weird to actually see Bael’s face for so many consecutive panels considering how much time he spent in the last timeline puppeting one person or another. Some part of my brain keeps going “why does he look like that. why doesn’t he have a goate- wait no that’s Victus. Wrong timeline.”
The funny thing is, that I was considering giving Bael Victus’s goatee in the redesign. I already incorporated elements from Victus into this redesign. Bael was originally about the same height as Sally, but now he’s a good bit taller.
The first pass of this script ended with Sally still ticked off and saying a one liner about “there won’t be a next time” and marching off to get violent with the intruder… but when it came time to do the art, it was just downright impossible to show Sally more concerned with some pest than her boyfriend offering to make things right.
I mean, she’s still not impressed with his first offer, but I’m sure they’ll work it out. But seriously, obvious insinuations aside, Sally’s anger issues can make her pretty one note. She has the same depth as any other character in the long run but she expresses herself pretty consistently. So this was a good chance to show another side to our favorite demented rage monster.
If ‘Alchemy Bitch’ is who I think it is, we’re in for a show.