Pretty cool. I can't wait for UGC.

I've got an epic story for both sides thought out and some written. However the way I'd want to convey it much like you is through a comic. Sadly though I'd want to draw it too which would mean I could complete like a single issue a year.

I'm pretty slow at my art.

Do it, man! You can always use game screenshots for story-boarding.

It's hard doing this comic and conveying emotion (since we don't have many facial animations in our emotes). That's part of why the first two issues had such atonality - so it'd make sense when all the characters look like Zoolander's "Blue Steel." Facial animations. Heck, I'd even pay for them. Anything but "Le Tigre" or "Magnum" all the time. :p

=======

The third issue is shaping up with a bit more banter (and it fits the hard drinking Armory and Engineering Chiefs - to a fault).

I'd love to do it but when I say my Art is slow, I really mean it.

I'm decent but I spend on average like 10x the time other artists do on a project. It's horrible. I haven't been able to make any good money off my freelancing because of it. lol everything takes so long I end up charging well below minimum wage on average.

I've been drawing a single drawing of Superwoman for the past like 5 days. Imagine doing that speed for a comic where you need TONS of pictures. Even with guides from this game it would still take forever and I have school and need a REAL job (freelancing ain't cutting it). :p

I'm in school too.

My best advice:
Build a portfolio you're passionate about in your spare time. Learn the tools and tricks of your desired profession. While growing up, my family didn't always have a computer, so I'd stay late in libraries or at school designing websites or multimedia projects. I dug deep.

That's not to say I'm any good - I'm ***** but I'm improving. Doing the proposal-type threads has helped me refine skills using applications like Photoshop - or doing PDF layouts (though publishing my first book taught me a lot about editing and the behind-the-scenes requirements of publishing).

As busy as life is, I hope you can manage it in your freetime, man. It's a balancing act for me too: doing artwork in my freetime, writing my second book, and teaching myself, say, Flash while attending college (I'm taking the maximum number of credits - again). So, I feel some of your pain.

However, don't let it keep you down - work hard. We're in a day and age where you can make an album, a videogame, or a novel from the comfort of a laptop. Just stay on target and find unusual ways to teach yourself (like learning the ins and outs of photoshop via threads on a STO forum).

Find ways to relate your projects to schoolwork (and vice-versa). Make what you're studying more engaging (and it'll just be easier to ace your courses) and also use elements of what you're studying to improve your artwork.

So, get cracking and build a portfolio piece-by-piece.

My stuff is amateur but I know I can eventually get damn good if I just stick to it.

(==| Click to read the first page teaser of Issue #3 |==)

Issue #3 - Coming Soon!

kool, I'm going to have to sit down and read this...

Thanks. I'm putting together the final screenshots for Issue #3 now. Lots of dialogue considering the climax of the storyline involves headbutting a Saurian Diplomat. There are also appearances by the Klingon House Grilka and an Orion female that isn't fan service. Lighter tone in the beginning but it establishes character backstories more.

These are fantastic! /subscribe

I love the shots you got, how did you get your bridge officers to cooperate for filming? Mine won't do anything except whatever the script tells them to do until I leave the bridge and come back again later.

I've actually created separate characters for major characters in the comics. I've also merged seperate screenshots in the same location (I take one screenshot of, say, Cmdr. Reynolds facing the desk in sickbay and another of Vice Admiral Shepard facing him - then blend the two together).

In some areas, it's really quite seamless and keeps people guessing how I did it.

Part of the reasoning is that I don't wan to rely on other people to create episodes. It's a little ahrder but really boils down to 1-2 minutes of photomerge and adjusting the mask layer to convincingly show both characters.

(Also, the separate comic panels oftentimes don't show a character but make it feel as if a character is there).