Page Commentary No. 146

Gunwild: I like that if you crop this one, you can make it look like Nizka is lifting Nisa and Max to angrily throw them around like she's the Hulk.

Psu: Hah, I think one of our friends made a sketch or screencap of that back while I was drawing this. That was a fun panel. I like the little story telling involved in making it look like they're falling, but Zeke is still standing relatively straight. The little glow at his feet was a nice call back to the magnets we employ in this comic when things get zero gravity. Well... it's what pirates seem to use. Regency and Vanaa seem to forget the presence of gravity is all relative.

Gunwild: That actually kinda makes sense, like if you have to educate every recruit on the ways to imagine and interact with gravity on their own terms, you'll be expecting a lot of their intelligence and adaptability. It's easier to just focus on having artificial gravity.

Psu: Plus magnet boots are expensive. Speaking of expensive, could you imagine what this sequence would cost if it were a major motion picture?

Gunwild: When producing a comic you do have to measure your budget in time and effort as well as money, and if you overtax the artist you'll probably find yourself in trouble. So this was an expensive page, but yeah, if you wanted to do this visually, on the screen? Millions to a render farm.

Psu: In practical matters, limiting this to one page posed some challenges that you wouldn't have in a film. In a film you could draw a moment like this out across multiple shots, or just have camera work which helps you follow the motion. Here, I had only the one page and a few panels to show it all. So I had to do things like using motion lines, and making sure the colors of the ships are all different. There are a few things I might change, like I might have kept the deck of the Damselfly the same color as the ship, instead of the emergency light red. But helpfully, the previous pages keep you informed. Might need to ask just how long it took Zeke to run up back to the deck, though.

Gunwild: The lesson of this page is not to gloat so loudly you miss the warning beeps.

Psu: Doot doot.

Gunwild: Well yeah, Vanaa tech sound effects should be adorable...