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cupil [2014-11-20 10:27:37 +0000 UTC]

Negatives

• The obvious unfinished state. I can't really say much about this, it's entirely up to the individual on how much they'll want to work on an entry or how long they'll stay interested. Life happens, and sometimes a project started months ago may not see its end. 
• I admit to not being very good with maintaining interest in pure text. So there's disappointment that this entry was basically just the script with a few sketches thrown in. 
• One thing I'll say is that maybe try to make a list of priorities. Real life stuff is obviously number one, but stuff like hobbies and such are a different manner. I'm not saying to discard any and all games, movies or whatever else may occupy your free time, but I'm sure that most of these won't go away within the course of the work time. (Okay maybe movies have limited showings, but they'll be on blueray/dvd eventually) Breaks are good, but if they take up entire days or weeks, then something is amiss. I recommend putting the activity on the side, if it's a website fave it, and put into something like a 'for later' pile. Put a lot of fun things into the 'later' pile. Treat it like a highly desired treasure at the end of the grueling dungeon that is your entry/project. 
• It's really cool and neat, that your entry seems to be the only one that matched up with the R5 intro comic. But part of me worries that it might have taken up too much time? Or took too much priority over parts that would be purely your own as opposed to "characters' reaction to real/canon thing." I like seeing others' takes on a single scene, so I'm not saying to discard the idea entirely, just be cautious of it taking too much priority over actual round content.
  

• That cover is awesome! It's unfortunate that there wasn't enough time to color it fully nor draw the actual game that everyone's playing. Though the monochrome is visually appealing and I loved the varied reactions of all the characters. Maybe it's not a huge indicator of character since some of the players are limited, like Lavvy with her broken arm, and Jakobi who's probably never seen a game controller in his life.(okay maybe he's seen Sigi handle one, every once in a while, though I don't think I've ever seen him playing a game himself.) I love the devious smile on Xue's face, I bet he's capitalizing on everyone's shortcomings/distractions and knocking them off the stage as much as possible that jerk haha. (assuming that smash bros is being played here)
• Quite disappointing that the vast majority of the content never made it past the script stage. But from what little is drawn looks good even if heavily sketchy. The expression shine through, and fairly complex character models Like RoyalKenpedramon and Bao Kui are pretty spot on from what I can tell. I noticed that you seem to draw scenes separated from each other like mini storybook illustrations then paste them onto panels accordingly. As a result your paneling seems to be a series of blocks most of the time, with diagonal panels being pretty rare. Nice and basic, but can be sort of dull sometimes. I also get this impression that the current method lacks synergy and it contributes to motivation and/or focus faltering. I apologize if I'm assuming too much. Skimming through past comics I see that you have a good sense of staging, showing appropriate pan ins and outs. Like when a character is emoting it'll be properly close, while needing to establish how a place looks or a sense of distance, it's properly far away. 
• I'm taking forever to get to my point, but maybe try drawing pictures that blend into each other based on a whole part rather than isolated scenes that relate to a single goal. The scene where Badlands is encouraging Zeke is a good example of this, it's clear that the main goal was, but every part felt so isolated it ended up stretching things out longer than it needed to be. Judging from the script I assume you start with typed words first. I think after you write down what you want the characters to say(I noticed that most if not all dialog is excluded,though I'm guilty of this too) or do/look, go straight for paneling and word balloons instead of the character art. This way you may discover that you can have two characters speak at once in one panel, or other such things that may help the workload flow faster.
• I suggest looking up 'comic art composition' or 'art composition' on google or something for more info and/or inspiration.
• Granted though, everyone has different methods and approaches so don't take my tips too seriously, if they don't work for you, that's perfectly fine.
• If you are feeling directionless, at the very least zero in on the round prompt/goal. picture how your characters may achieve that goal. In this case it was to basically look good in front of the judges, as said in the rules contestants weren't required to knock everyone else out, nor even 'win'. As the rules state,"You don’t have to show yourself winning everyone in your comic." In the round 5 intro comic's exact words: "we'll watch which teams get through this the best. They'll win the round." Basically a 'show off your General's commanding prowess, and their Digimon's battle prowess.' thing. Take note of your character's positives and apply them, spice things up and apply their faults too. The good is that I read plenty of that in the script portion of the round. Zeke tries but is still obviously very new to it, and I love that Xue didn't take her bait as a result of such. It shows that she can formulate ideas(thus good potential) but that sometimes those ideas won't pan out.(still a big rookie General/kid)

• Badlands is adorable, that starting scene inside the hotel or where ever they are staying before Round 5 is endearing and sweet. You get a good feel for their character dynamics and it feels like a family, with Cera and Boomer being like parents, and Arny and Ex being siblings. Bait could be that weird uncle that keeps to himself..or gets arrested all of the time. 
• The fighting written down felt fun and energetic, more of a goofy, slap-stick feel compared to other entries that I enjoyed. I really liked how everyone was constantly moving around the field. Though I guess there's so much going on, I can sort of see the parts, where things might've been too intimidating to draw. 
• Everyone had decent exposure, it felt like no one was really forgotten or ignored. I can't speak for everyone but I loved how you handled Xue at least. Since Llamon XD is his trusty stead thus he was more about moving his general/tamer around the battlefield, while Bizarronyxmon only ever speaks in a weird alien language so one can't really get much characterization from that. The Mecha of the Metal Xrosses  
• I love that ending, Lucy's only been around like a handful of pages and she is a treasure<33 I hope that whatever canon is right, that at least the misadventure with Zeke's friends and her mom are at least still canon. Since so much of those events happen away from the core round events and battling, it's probably got to have the biggest wiggle room out of all of the r5 highlights. 

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DanyTaichi [2014-11-15 22:44:35 +0000 UTC]

Funny and nice! I think that the character of each character is well reflected in this drawing... all of them!

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