DanSyron

Abysm - (shorts) Into the Abyss

Added 2023-04-21 20:48:51 +0000 UTC

"The start of a journey that was never meant to be, or maybe fate required it."

Test page for visualizing some of the pre-production ideas for Abysm book 1 - Matilda. The idea behind this page involved testing a few things:

1.) Abysm was always pretty cinematic in planning, featuring shots that were much closer to cinema than panels. Originally Ash and I wanted Abysm done with a format between graphic novel and a storyboard, so with a series of 21:9 shots, the idea was to get an idea for if framing panels in this manner was really worth it and established pacing/emotion better. Some work, some can probably be smaller.

2.) The idea in Book 1 revolves around the rather poignant setup between the most important interactions driving a really large expansive concept. The big issue is creating an emotionally deep and simple foundation before overloading the reader with too much info. Each frame is designed to worldbuild without overexplanation, and with the characters accepting their world, not analyzing it for the viewer. Ideally we want something rich, but painting every page might be hard, even with these rough tests.

3.) We want to set up a circumstance where Matilda gets her weapon and the significance of why. This means that overall, Matilda, Juno, the Maze, the threat, and the overall goal has to be cleanly established in one go. Book 1 is shorter than the rest, but this is a pretty good test of its mood.

it's a small fun test of how we hope to deliver the mood of Abysm. Stylistically it does need cleaning up, but I like how it feels.

Included is the HD file for both with and without annotations.