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omgdragonfly — Lightning Returns: Character Integrity
Published: 2014-05-03 18:48:16 +0000 UTC; Views: 2166; Favourites: 28; Downloads: 7
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This is exactly how I played the entire game.The Final Fantasy XIII franchise is a repeat of my Path of Radiance experience. I love the first game as a standalone, and then the sequels are a so-bad-its-good, I-laugh-so-as-not-to-cry canon explosion.
AUGH. I have to relearn how to draw EVERYTHING. Because I lost brain cells working crap job to crap job for three years, AND my new tablet and Photoshop CS4 decided not to get along. I spent a week trying every offered solution under the sin, got a "LAWLS NMP" from both Wacom and Adobe, and cried myself to sleep because I had two pieces of expensive equipment that stubbornly refused to cooperate. I ended up buying Manga Studio as a cost-effective way to draw but. MAN. It's nothing like Photoshop and I still have so much to learn with it. I really want to get my drawing groove back.
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Comments: 16
In general those main entry games are specifically designed to be stand alone. Those games (XIII-2 and LR) are a subseries to the franchise. Why? Because:
Story is separate from original numbered entry, many characters are thrown to the side or cameos, development/marketing/production teams are a fraction of the numbered entry and they are recycled from different assets. It's the Final Fantasy equivalent of the Disney Direct to DVD movies. Nobody actually considers them actual sequels.
Not the first series to do this though. Persona has been dipping into that stuff too with Persona 4's ridiculous overhaul of content.
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"I love the first game as a standalone, and then the sequels are a so-bad-its-good, I-laugh-so-as-not-to-cry canon explosion." aaaaaaaaaaahaaaaha
Man, I feel you on the job thing, though. I feel like I draw a lot less since I got out of school, mostly because of Having A Job. Here's to all of us trying to get back into our drawing groove! D:
I've heard such mixed things about these sequels I don't even know what to think, honestly.
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Waaaait a second here, her hat changes every frame xDD
Love it!
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ohgosh this is beautiful and 100% accurate. I love how her hat keeps changing into progressively sillier things ahaha. The characters' poses and expressions have your usual dynamic energy; I love how firmly she's crossing her arms, and the shoulder thrust forward and square clawed hands in the last panel--she looks so stern and unwavering. Really like the bold, graphic shape of the pink sword and its pale outlines.
I'm sorry you're having trouble with the tablet, but it's fantastic to see you around again; I've always loved your bold, dynamic style! This comic also makes me really happy because I love seeing silly things for the FF13 series ahaha, I always feel embarrassed to have apparently gotten enough enjoyment out of the series that I bought all three games (though I haven't really been playing this one, keep meaning to go back to it). My experience with the original 13 was compulsively playing it to completion despite it feeling like a chore most of the time, and then at the end I found I was somehow attached to the characters in spite of myself; looking at fanart sent me deeper down that road until I ended up actually looking forward to 13-2... which I actually enjoyed more than 13 gameplay-wise, although the story was lacking. I don't really have an excuse for why I preordered LR since the dull environments and cringeworthy dialogue make me ashamed to be caught playing it, ahaha, but it's somehow so easy to think of crack scenarios for this series.
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I watched my girlfriend play the Lightning returns demo and her trajectory went from something like "I don't know if I like this, I don't know if I like seeing Lightning like this, I don't think I want this game" to "Oh you can change her outfit... I don't knoooow, I don't knoooow, I don't knoooow'
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YOU RETURN! 8D Allusion to Lightning Returns notwithstanding.
Welcome back, though. Pity your stuff doesn't seem to be cooperating . >:
Manga Studio seems to be producing some pretty nice results thus far, though? Although, I def know the feeling of working with a program you're totally not used to. That's just kinda bum. x[
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GASP how long has it beeeeeen?
I understand the working crap jobs thing! But I always sacrificed sleep for draw time. Or money for draw time. You must be worn and/or pent up with drawing needs!
What was wrong with your tablet exactly that made it so wonky? Mapping? Pen sensitivity? (Then again, I always thouhgt of photoshop as kind of a butt to work with when trying to do fast/natural lineart)
Also, I understand your pain with game sequels. I didn't hate PoR/RD though (most of the characters seemed intact except for weird Black Knight plot holes and lack of proper support convos lol). But man am I mad at Awakening for somehow doing everything but in a wrong way? I still need to finish that thing. I have similar cries about what happened to the Suikoden series because II was so awesome but then I have no idea what happened following.
Glad to see you still want to get back into art and are still gaming too! XD There is still a lot of you in this!
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It's suuuper frustrating. Almost everything is fine except that there's a slight jaggedy-ness to all the strokes in Photoshop. It's almost maddening in how subtle it is.
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I think that's just CS4 itself.
If the checkboxes for noise and smoothing in the brush properties don't make a difference, it's probably the program itself. I notice it has weird line correction alogorithms or really bad reading between pressure sensitivities and it both confuses and frustrates me infinitely.
Did you always use photoshop for your older artwork?
It just seems like other programs such as SAI and OpenCanvas handle strokes a LOT better than photoshop.
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I did. Photoshop was my kid. But my eight year old tablet gave up the ghost so my family pitched in to get me a really nice upgrade. But Photoshop didn't like it no matter what I did.
Obviously, tablets, their drivers, and enormous graphics editing programs are painfully intricate and so many unforeseen issues can come up by any combination of the three as well as operating systems, settings, and so many other conditions. Even my old faithful tablet had issues on the latest drivers, I just kept an older version around. And unless it's a more prevalent issue (no one else had my exact identical problem, though similar came up for a handful of individuals with various tablet+program combinations...with no solution that worked for them...) ... I'm kind of out of luck? I'm just keeping on eye on driver updates.
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Blaah.. that sucks. :U Maybe it's the same problem I have with every photoshop ever too then. I just don't know how artists make nice lineart with it. I always feel the sensitivity bows out at the end and it lags a bunch even when I upgrade all my stuff. So I'm kidn fo forced ot just use it as an actual "photo adjuster" now for filters and text.
How's manga studio treating you so far? I recently bought it and haven't really dug into it yet.
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It's... not bad, really. Perhaps what's most interesting is that it is more suited for publishing comics than Photoshop. It is limited (I think it's only got three filters, including blur, and about a dozen layer blending options), but what it does have is more tailored to be convenient for a comic artist. There's strictly paneling tools, some word bubbling tools that drop about five steps from doing the same in Photoshop, a dead useful set of rulers. As well as cheap and dirty screentones, which I'm trying not to get too addicted too. It's also lets you easily set pressure sensitivity to a visible curve line, which I've found SO WONDERFUL. I've always struggling with a sensitivity setting that lets me comfortable whip out even strokes but easily lay down some variable widths when I need to as well.
The version I have even includes some 3D models, which is handy in a pinch when you're like "Argh, how do I draw someone cannonballing out of a window while duel-firing handguns from the perspective of a below onlooker--OH I'll just make MY OWN REFERENCE."
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Great to see you still making stuff
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