The Making of Dreamland Page 13…
This is the last page of the Making of Series.
i hope you’ve enjoyed them.
Starting tomorrow…we have guest art. There are some spectacular pieces. So please check back 7 days a week for them. There’s a lot. Thank you all!
And to answer some of your questions…
I don’t work too much with some of the artists any more. They’ve moved on to bigger and better (and higher paying) jobs.
But some people like Karen, Ivan, and Stefano are still working with me. They are preparing the next 3 books.
Karen is designing the characters to finish out the books, Stefano the environments, and Ivan is modelling the characters.
Once I have everything…it’s pretty much me and my computers.
As you can see above…I take the assets these wonderful artists create and put it all together.
I guess if you were to look at it from a movie point of view…I’m the actors, the director, the camera man, the lighting person, etc. On top of the writer and producer.
🙂
But just like a movie…it’s NEVER a one man show. So my thanks to the over 20 artists who’ve helped me out over the years, the friends and family who’ve been encouraging me, and you guys.
Dreamland has become its own entity of sorts. It’s got a life of its own thanks to everyone involved. So thank you all.
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Thank you for the behind the scenes look. Since each image takes hours to render, do you use a render farm (several dedicated machines offsite), or do you do it on your own machine(s)?
Question is seconded. If each image takes, say, 3 hours per frame to render, and each comic has an average of 4 frames (barring spectacular action sequences), that’s around 12 hours per comic, just for the rendering, so unless you’ve got some kind of simultaneous action going on, this comic must be a bear to produce.
I LOVED seeing this behind the scenes look at the Dreamland Chronicles…it was very cool and I’m glad you shared it with us.
I’d love a movie on the big screen with Dreamland.
Would be an animation or human played? Both will be great if done well.
Didn’t you say something about making a movie on this? I think that would make a lot of money. Heck, most of the work you’ve already done.
I wonder who would buy the rights.. Dreamworks, perhaps? *chuckle*
I’ve been reading for a few weeks and this is the first time I’ve said anything. I do lick the story and I am having fun during the read. I know Karen from other places and she is cool. I’ve wanted to do a story like this but I don’t have the connections to do so.
err I like the story… I hate typos in the morn…
I’ve always been a sucker for behind-the-scenes stuff. Thanks for sharing this with us!
Thanks guys…
Yes I have 4 render machines…
Moe, Larry, Curly, and Shemp (I kid you not).
They’re a bit old, but hard working machines.
Some frames take only 30 minutes to render.
Others have taken up to 5 days to render (yes…a single frame).
I hate it when one spends a long time rendering a frame, only to find a mistake.
GACK! ‘cough’, ‘coff’, ‘sputter’… FIVE DAYS? Oh well, I’m still inspired to keep learning 3D. I can tell I’ll need more than one computer to make a go of it, though…
I’ve enjoyed all the making of pages, Scott. I knew “The Dreamland Chronicles” was special the first time I saw it.
Thank you, Scott, for this look-behind on how you do your work. Maybe you did mention it somewhere else, and if so, sorry. What are the configurations of your stooges systems? What about your primary workstation?
Um…I’m not 100% sure on all the specs on the stooges.
I do know they’re all dual Xeon processors. 2 gigs of ram each. They’re older machines. Maybe 4 or 5 years old.
My main computer is about 3 years old. Dual 3.2 GHZ Xeons and 2 gigs of ram. Quadro FX 3400 video card and two monitors.
I desperately need an upgrade…but if they keep working…I gotta put money towards new characters.
🙂
Several hours per frame? o.O
I knew this sort of thing takes time… But somehow I still can’t help feeling surprised…
All I can say is… Thank you so much for all your hard work to tell us this wonderful story!
This is cool!
This has been incredibly enlightening. I have a million questions since you’ve given a few answers. Isn’t that how it goes? Thanks for opening the inner workings for your fans to see. Truly an inspiration!
Now we know what impressing system Dreamland is developed on, I would like to know what software you’re using, Scott.
Wow. Just wow. I remember when I first stumbled upon this comic and was completely amazed by it. I can’t thank you enough for the insight you’ve granted us here. I have a huge amount of respect for all of you. Absolutely brilliant!
Scott, it has been a while since I worked on graphic horsepower computers (over 10 years!), but if I am not mistaken, your stooges are perfectly fine for the work you do. You only need to increase your RAM. The 3-D work use a lot of memory. Having a more powerful chips would help, but you won’t see as much of performance improvement as you would with memory for the cost.
While I truly appreciate the “behind the scenes” could we have a quick link to the *end* of Chapter Twelve here? The cliffhanger into chapter thirteen is vital to the upcoming pages.
(Sorry that my only post on your absolutely great webcomic is a negative one. But, at least it is important, yes?)
I thought I recognized Maya. 🙂 Right on! I too remember the hours spent rendering a scene, only to find that it still doesn’t look quite right… argh! lol. I love your work, Scott! Have a great week! 🙂
I have no idea how Scott affords all of this.
Don’t feel bad, Dursagon.
I lick the story too.
>_>
Scott, do I taste a hint of Vanilla Bean?