Things I need to get used to: - Not rushing the plot - Showing things through the art instead of using descriptions - Using smaller panels to do just that and to string the larger panels together
@chirpbirb I use the white boxes with red text to keep notes about panels. They're very simple because right now it's just waking up and showing the place, but they'll probably get more detailed for later panels so I don't forget anything.
It's interesting how the intro for my comic sets the mood and direction for the entire story. At first it was more rapid and action-y, with a simpler approach to being reincarnated. You could tell I based it on the dragon hatchling isekai. Now, it's more about a slow "wake up" and how it interacts with the short, but nonetheless important, life the wyvern had until then. He's familiar with his body and his environment. Yet, now there are impulses more befitting a human, baggage carried over from the previous life. How is he going to handle it? I never thought about a story like this in such depth, and that's exciting. Now that I'm getting to the meat of the story, the challenge has ramped up quite a bit.
The font size for the text bubbles was great for the intro, but with panels it gets suffocating pretty quickly. Good thing the comic won't have a whole lot of dialogue.
@Doxin I thought about other solutions, but I'd rather not alter the world to fit artistic choices. I picture their home inside of a shallow cave with a small ledge on a very steep side of a mountain, inaccessible to most non-flying animals. I have a different idea to get my vision across anyway, it just happens a bit later.
Well, the super nice idea won't work. I planned it to be a top-down view of the home on some plateau in a mountain, and the landscape way further down below. Looks absolutely fantastic in my mind, but there is one problem. The nest is inside of a cave. Nothing else makes sense because strong winds would blow it away without something to shield it against them. It's not like wyverns could build well-anchored nests in trees given their size.
Now it's time to revise the pages I had planned after this. It was initially strongly influenced by the dragon hatchling isekai, so it started with a shock, but with this new beginning it's more of a slow burn now. I already have a super nice idea for the next page
I wrote about my goals/anti-goals for the comic somewhere, with added explanations. #volpeonIsekai
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I started off by formulating goals and anti-goals for what I want the comic to be.
The goal is to create a story following the protagonist's journey. He learns how to live his new life, and later on may set out to seek answers for why he was reborn.
As for anti-goals:
Human mind in creature body who lives life strategically
In some stories, the protagonist is reborn and immediately able to think like a grown up human. This never made sense to me because the mind is a function of the brain, and the brain is neither fully developed yet, nor is it human anymore (if they were reborn as non-human).
"Inner creature" as personified antagonist
I just don't like to view it as "human side" vs "animal side", where the animal side poses a threat that might take over the protagonist's life.
Use and understanding of human language without effort
This is a big one for me. I realize that a story has to be conveyed to human readers/viewers, and therefore you need to express what's happening with human concepts and language. But I've found that in a lot of stories, language is actively used by the creatures even if the author tries to frame it as mere translation of the way they usually communicate. Sometimes they can understand what humans say. Sometimes animals as a whole speak one unified language and humans another. They're able to convey complex messages. They use weird made-up words and terms to describe objects that are clearly tied to humans, but use regular language for more abstract concepts that are actually still very human. And this influences their interactions as a whole to be more human-like, too.
It all feels very inconsistent and too convenient to me. So I want to avoid the use of language except to narrate what's happening and what's going on in the protagonist's mind.
Human focus
Humans sometimes are used as a device to create an interesting plot, where the protagonist finds themself getting involved in human schemes. I'm fine with occasional interactions, but I don't want to make them the focus.
RPG mechanics
Something that keeps being used more and more in popular media, specifically anime and manga. I hate it.
Global stakes
Sometimes, it's fine to tell a story that does not devolve into a battle against a huge threat.
Turning past life completely irrelevant
The past life is the point of the story, and the protagonist's long-term actions are motivated by it. If they were able to adapt perfectly, I might as well drop the premise and start with a fully non-human character.
Dwelling on past life
At the same time, I don't want to add blunt reminders that the protagonist used to be human, such as by drawing comparisons to the human world all the time.
Overall, the comic is probably going to fall into the slice-of-life genre. I hope I'll be able to keep it interesting.
I also changed the page layout to use dual pages (Affinity calls them something different). I plan to release two pages at once, but I didn't use this feature earlier because it means I see the layers for both pages together. But it helps a lot to judge if the pacing is good, so that outweighs the cons.
Volpeon Extra
@areon@icy.wyvern.rip
This workflow works really well.