A Different Approach

First off, I thought I should let you know that yes, I am working on "The Phoenix Imperative".  As a Matter of fact, I managed to finish scripting two episodes and started the script for a third before starting this post.  Well, almost finished two episodes.  The scenes and dialogue is done, I just have to figure out the poses and animations I will be using.

And that more or less leads into the main part of this post.

Up until now, the way I have been doing the work on the episodes for the comic have worked for me quite well.  I would write down my ideas in a note book I carry around with me just for that purpose.  In it I would put episode outlines, thoughts on story progression, what characters I would be using and the parts they are to play.  Also included are a list of the various factions and organizations in "The Phoenix Imperative" and how they will interact with each other as well as with Cameron.  From there, I would type out the scripts on my computer, and then go through the long process of scanning through all the different images of the poses I have and chose the ones I need for each screen shot, and jot them down on paper so I know what I need while in game.

Having these three separate sources of information has not really posed any problems for me in doing screen shots, until now.  Normally, I have no problem remembering what lines of dialogue go with what images.  Keeping both connected in my head has helped with getting angles, lighting and some other details just right.  While doing the last three episodes, however, I lost that connection in my head.  I couldn't remember what lines of dialogue went with what poses and expressions.  I was constantly having to exit the game and recheck my script, then restart the game again and reset up the next image.  It was time consuming and annoying, to say the least.  Mind you, I blame this lack of connection on how much time had passed between when I finished writing the scripts and finally getting back to taking the screen shots.

My solution to this is rather simple.  I just have to add more information in the scripts, then print the relevant pages off for reference while I get the screen shots.  The scripts already contain the dialogue, initial scenes and notes on character interaction.  All I need to add in are the specific poses for each character in each image, as well as facial expressions.  Nice and conveniently all in one location, enabling me to put dialogue and poses together in my head, then transfer them to image.  I don't know why I wasn't doing it before...

And since I am here, I will share a couple of screen shots of Cameron pretending to be Vasquez from the movie Aliens.