Introduction:
What is Outsider?
It is a space opera chronicling the adventures of a young human
officer thrust into an alien society in the midst of a galactic
war. It is presented in a for-web, full-color comic format,
which combines digital 2D, 3D and hand-drawn artwork. And yes, it's free.
Outsider is written and drawn by me, Jim Francis (a.k.a. Arioch). It's something of a learning project. Visit my gallery if you'd like to see more of my work or learn more about me. Outsider is updated irregularly; when available, updates are usually posted on Monday morning (PST). The first pages were posted on October 31, 2001.
Outsider is a copyrighted work; please do not alter or redistribute these materials without consent. For more about questions of use, see the Legal Stuff section here.
Credits:
Outsider is created (written, designed, penciled, inked,
colored, modeled, textured, rendered, lettered) by Jim Francis, with the
following assistance:
Additional Mechanical Concepts: Francois "IgnusDei"
Cannels
Additional Character
Concepts: Lauren Francis and
Amy "DeepChrome"
Leeds
Additional Texture Image Sources: 3DStudioMax f/x (Dave
Jerrard),
Startopia (Gary Carr, John Steels, Mark Smart, Richard
Franke)
TrueType versions of Loroi Hand and Loroi Block fonts:
Jesse "Quazel" Israel
Cameo Appearances: Dylan Meconis (as Ellen Kirkland) p.2-12; Jim Kroutch (as self) p.3-5; Faith Hicks' Raven (as Loroi medtech) p.19-25; Jennifer Anderson's Orin (as Loroi medtech) p.20-25; Lauren Francis' Luma (as Loroi Unsheathed, p.22-26).
Acknowledgements:
The Loroi borrow stylistically from previous space sirens (especially the Elerians from Master of
Orion 2, and the Syreen from Star Control 2) and from
the blue-skinned aliens of Japanese animation (most notably the Gamilas and
Deingil from the Space Cruiser Yamato series). They are intended as an
homage to the "Space Amazon" archetype... blue and otherwise.
Artistic inspirational nods also go out to: Patrick Owens & Judith Peterson (Master of Orion 2), Rob Cunningham & J. Aaron Kambeitz (Homeworld), Yoshikazu Yasuhiko (Crusher Joe, Venus Wars), Shoji Kawamori (Macross, Crusher Joe), Kazutaka Miyatake (Macross), Leiji Matsumoto (Space Cruiser Yamato), Hideki Kakinuma (Gall Force, Mospeada), Masaki Kajishima (Tenchi Muyo), Wendy Pini (Elfquest), Hayao Miyazaki (Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind), Masamune Shirow (Ghost in the Shell), Joe Johnston & Ralph McQuarrie (Star Wars), Syd Mead (Tron, Blade Runner), Hijiri Yuki (Chojin Locke), Jes Goodwin (Warhammer 40,000), and Gerry Anderson (Thunderbirds, UFO, Space: 1999).
Frequently Asked
Questions:
Q: What software & hardware
tools do you use?
A: For drawing and inking, I use either I use a Wacom
Intuos2 6x8" pen tablet, or an ordinary #2 pencil, plain paper and Micron Pigma
pens, scanned with an
Epson
P1200U scanner. Coloring is done by computer
in Photoshop. 3D models are created and rendered with
Newtek Lightwave 3D
[9]; pages are colored, composited and lettered with
Adobe Photoshop
7.0. Fonts used include those from Fonthead,
Comicraft and
Blambot. I
have a basic tutorial that
shows how I color with Photoshop.
My main system ("Greywind") is a Dell Dimension XPS Gen5 Pentium D Dual-Core 3.20GHz running Windows XP with 2GB of RAM, a two-disk 500 GB RAID, and a Dell 1600x1200 20" LCD display. I do most of my 2D and 3D artwork on this sytem. My secondary system ("Fireblade") is a Dell Dimension 8200 Pentium 4 2.40GHz running WinXP with 1GB of RAM, 370 GB of disk space, and a Dell 1280x1024 19" LCD display. I do most of my writing and web-wrangling on this system.
Q: How
long does it take you to do a page?
A: Right now, each page takes 3-5 evenings or somewhere in the
neighborhood of 20 hours to complete, depending on the number and complexity of panels. 3D
models and textures can take several days to weeks to create.
Q: May I link to your comic/website?
A: Sure, no need to ask permission. Banners are located here.
Q: Do you do "link exchanges"?
A: No, sorry.
Q: Will you add Flash animations and sounds?
A: Not planning on it.
Q: How long is this comic going to be?
A: The story as currently outlined is 7 chapters (of about 50
pages each), plus a short prologue and epilogue. I originally
thought it would take 4-6 years to complete, but unfortunately I
haven't made as much progress as I would have liked, and the story continues to grow.
Q: What are your long-term plans for this
comic? Will you ever finish it?
A: I promised myself that I will finish through the end of
chapter 2, and then I'll decide where to go from there.
Q: Will you ever have the comic printed and marketed?
A: Maybe, but I’ll worry about that if and when a lot more of
it is finished. Unfortunately, color is very expensive to print.
But, if I decide to do so, information about it will certainly
be posted on this site.
Q: Will you upload your 3D models so I can use them?
A: No, sorry.
Q:
Is Outsider based on the game Master
of Orion II?
A: The game was an important inspiration
for Outsider, yes.
Q:
Is Outsider based on the anime series Crest
of the Stars?
A: No. I have seen the series, but that was not until I was
already several
years into production of the comic.
Link Banners:
Here are banners for
linking-type purposes (the URL is http://well-of-souls.com/outsider/):
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
