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Hey guys,

I hope this is the right place to post this: I was wondering if anyone would like to collaborate on a (not-for-profit) Final Fantasy webcomic with me.

Who I am looking for:
-a writer, definitely
-hopefully someone willing to scratch out rough storyboard panels/layouts just to give me a rough idea of what to draw (if I can't find anyone to do this, that's ok I guess)
-maybe a colorist/inker, if I'm really lucky

Comic details:
-if we can't find a colorist, it'll have to be black&white with maybe an occasional color splash page if I have time or if we get a guest volunteer artist
-I'm thinking it could be Final Fantasy-based somehow, and we could simply post the pages in the CoN fanart gallery on a regular basis. I'm open to suggestions on which FF game to do, or do an original FF-themed story (If we go with a game, I'd prefer something that doesn't already have a lot of supporting media, for example, FFVI already has a webcomic, and FFVII has movies and stuff, so they're out).
-as for genre, I'm open to pretty much whatever, as long as it fits my drawing style, which you can view in my "portfolio" below. That means no chibi-like stories (nothing wrong with that, but I just can't do it and don't have the inclination), and btw, I also don't like horror, but I think pretty much anything else might be fun.
-as for workload, I think a page a week might be reasonable, or less. If it turns out to be pretty easy, or we start to get the hang of it, maybe we can do more than that.

My portfolio:
My portfolio is just my submissions to the CoN fanart gallery
As you can see, I'm no comic professional by any means, but I like to draw, and would love this opportunity to sharpen my skills.

Please post in this thread if you're interested in being the writer/storyboarder (please provide at least a sample of your work), OR if you have a suggestion on which FF game to do, or whether to do an original FF-themed story.

It's ok if no-one's interested; if anything, this thread may just turn out to be a nice discussion on which FF most deserves a new webcomic.

This post has been edited by finalalias on 24th March 2012 20:16

I have no idea where I could fit in this, but I'd be interested in hearing out ideas!!

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You're telling me that there's no hope.

I'm telling you you're wrong.

I'd like to help out as a writer, depending on what we wanna' do it up as. Probably could help with colouring, too!

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Games on the Go
Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy: Four Warriors of Light
Baldur's Gate

Too much to play, so little time!

Greg

Awesome!

Relm, if you'd like you could be the colorist or help with the inking. Perigryn, that'd be great if you could be the writer.

Remaining Question: What will it be about? Well, what supplemental media has already been produced for each game? Just a suggestion, but maybe we should choose a game that hasn't gotten any supplemental media attached to it so that we have more free reign over the content.
-FF1 has 8-bit Theatre
-FF2, 3, 4 (and 4: after years), XI, and Spirits Within have been novelized in Japan, though as far as I know, these novels haven't been released in English.
-FF5 has the anime "Legend of the Crystals" as a 200-year-later sequel to it
-FF6 has the FF6 Comic
-FF7 has a bunch of movies and stuff already. Personally, I think this one's been focused on quite enough.
-FF8 and up are pretty cinematic in and of themselves, so I'm not sure how "worth it" (both for the makers and for the readers) it would be to put them into webcomic form, plus the only game numerically above FFVII I played was FFX.
-FFT and FFTA...I don't know of any extra media surrounding them

Looking at the above, I think I have 2 top choices:

-Make an original FF story. I think this might be pretty exciting, both for its unpredictable quality, as well as its potential for creatively blending FF elements into it.
-Do an FF5 comic, as it's a game I'm more familiar with and one of my favorites. It does have an anime, but the anime takes place 200 years after the game, so that still gives us quite a bit of freedom.

These are my top choices, but I'm still open to discussion. What do you guys think?

As for FFT and FFTA, to be honest, the whole "corrupt religion" thing was kind of tiring for me for personal reasons, though the battle systems were lots of fun.

Once we do get started, I think we could probably use the CoN Chat and the CoN PM system to stay in touch and coordinate. Would this be ok with you guys?

This post has been edited by finalalias on 25th March 2012 23:02

Well, for one, I'd keep it closer to what you know, like with FFV. The other thing, though, are you going to keep it canon?

Thirdly, would you want to just follow along in the story, or do a side story and focus on a character that wasn't the lead in the game? That would open up your options a lot, then.

Just some thoughts.

This post has been edited by Perigryn on 26th March 2012 07:44

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Games on the Go
Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy: Four Warriors of Light
Baldur's Gate

Too much to play, so little time!

Greg

Ok, let's do FFV and keep it canon, if that's ok with everyone. Thanks, I couldn't think of the right word at the moment (canon). Personally, good fanfics that follow canon are more interesting to me 'cause it's like viewing a clever solution to a well-defined problem.

A side story sounds great too. As the writer, let me know what you'd prefer.

In order to make sure this collaboration proceeds smoothly, I'd like to lay down some guidelines and advice. Again, at this point everything's open for discussion:

Make sure you are clear about deadlines and expectations.
-This is important for small, remote collaborations. People tend to disappear and reappear unexpectedly on internet collaborations, and issues tend to drag on for days when communication is relegated to post-reply systems. We should establish a clear schedule so that no one's in the dark about the status of a task or stuck wondering whether any replies will ever come or will come too late. We should also be explicit about what is expected of each person so that there is no misunderstanding, and feel free to ask if anything is unclear.
-When you post something for feedback, if you establish a deadline for accepted feedback, you won't get blindsided by issues at the last minute or left wondering whether to wait longer for replies or just go ahead with your idea. Also, make sure your work is at a point where it is still open for change when you post for feedback. Huge changes to nearly finished work are a pain not only for the person making the change, but also for the people waiting on that work who will probably have to wait extra long now that new changes have to be made late in the project.
Be honest and open
-Be honest about your progress and about the problems you encounter.
--Regardless of the reason, if you cannot or do not wish to pursue the collaboration, you must inform the team and explain why you are no longer interested. This will help the team adjust to the situation, and avoid hard feelings and disappointment.
--Similarly, if you are falling behind on your work, it is as simple as contacting the team about it. Other members may be able take on some of your tasks in order to keep things rolling, or adjust their schedules based on yours. It's a lot more fun when everyone's on the same page.
-Be objective about feedback
--If something you make looks bad or sounds bad, wouldn't you want to know about it? I know most people here are pretty mature about this, so I won't dwell on it, but if you ever feel offended, please try to talk with the offender. Maybe it was just a misunderstanding or maybe it can lead to an improvement in our team dynamics. I hope we can have an open and friendly environment in our team so that this can be as fun as we all hope it will be.

Here's a proposal:
The 3 week page lifecycle:
Week 1: scripting
-What this involves:
--building/revising the overall arc(s) of the story
--tentatively breaking up the arc by tentatively assigning specific events to pages
--fleshing out the specific actions displayed on this particular page
--putting it into a clear script
--posting to other team members for feedback in case something needs to be changed
Week 2: drawing
-What this involves
--building the storyboard based upon the script
--thumbnailing the layout
--designing the look and style of characters and scenes
--posting to other team members for feedback in case something needs to be changed
--penciling the page
--inking the page (this might be done by the colorist too, depending on what we decide)
Week 3: coloring
-What this involves:
--coloring
--posting to other team members for feedback in case something needs to be changed
--posting the finished page after any feedback

What this looks like:
-at any point in time, there will be 3 pages in rotation, one page worked by the colorist, the next one by the line artist, and the next one by the writer. Pages will be published after the colorist has completed her work.
-in order to implement this, it may be more organized if we had a dedicated space for this such as a mailing list. I've had good experiences with private google groups, but am open to suggestions. If we did Google groups, we could have a different thread for each page, so that things would all be in one place and would automatically be communicated to other team members. Posting something for feedback would be as simple as posting it in its corresponding thread.

Advantages to this method
-It's simple, really! I know at first glance that the above looks like a lot of information, but in practice, it's actually quite simple. I just wanted to lay things out explicitly and clearly so that everyone's on the same page and clear about expectations and schedules. Think of how much writing it would take to describe in explicit and complete detail how to play soccer, but in practice it's pretty straightforward.
-Everyone always has something to do.
-Everyone is as involved in feedback as they want to be.
-If we wanted to speed up production, we could simply each work on 2 or 3 pages each instead of 1.
-It's not driven by one person, but rather team-driven. The work is clearly set out for everyone, so there's no need for a central "slave-driver" constantly trying to get everyone coordinated and tasks completed in a timely manner.

This post has been edited by finalalias on 28th March 2012 02:03

If it's not too late, I was wanting to suggest doing either 'scenes' from each FF, maybe particularly memorable or underrated scenes, kind of like the Martian Chronicles, one of my favorite novels. Instead of just being a long novel of one family/particular Martian, it's little 'episodes' of several different aliens, and their experiences, which give subtle clues to the unerlying plot, which unfolds situation by situation.

I think this would be advantageous, because a LOT of FF-related, start-to-finish game recaps like webcomics and fanfics (mostly fanfics) get only the beginning in. Everyone knows the beginnings, but what people generally anticipate are the climactic, tender, or shocking moments. I think pacing could be super fun; we could follow several games at once, and have them tie in simultaneously, kind of like how a TV show has all the character's sub-stories parallel in ways, then tie in in the last few episodes.

Also, much like Dead Piro Days of Megatokyo/ any other artists' lazy day sketches, FA, I think you and I should have an array of last-minute sketches for filler, just in case! We could either do collabs, esp. now, as we'll have to work very closely with each other's style. We could also keep concept art sketches for this, which as a reader, are always fun to see.

Also, I FA is totally right on communication being key. I think a skype call would probably be best, personally, how about you guys? Even something on MIRC would be fine, if we could.

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You're telling me that there's no hope.

I'm telling you you're wrong.

A collection of snapshot stories is a great idea, Relm. I like that a lot and am intrigued about how we could tie it all together, or whether we would even need or be able to. What do you think of this idea Perigryn?

Skype is fine with me- I use it regularly already. CoNChat is also fine with me.

Let's set a deadline for determining the subject matter of our comic. How about the end of this week? Maybe also we could meet this weekend sometime. I am free in the evenings after 9:30pm US Central Time (i.e. after my kids go to bed). If that doesn't work, let me know and I can try to make some other time.

I'm pretty free about then, too. I'm off tuesdays/thursdays, so those will be your best shots at communication, etc, but either way I still pop on every day.

I think I like the idea of Skype, as with any big project, I like actual talking versus typing, as for me it seems faster.

--------------------

You're telling me that there's no hope.

I'm telling you you're wrong.