I felt inspired yesterday to create a piece of 3D fan art for another webcomic called NPC.

This is one of the comics I read on an RSS feed for another forum I visit. The comic is about a female gamer and features her two blue cats, Chloe and Bink. I'm not a cat person, but I get a kick out of them.

Anyway, I was looking at one of her comics and felt compelled to see if I could recreate Bink & Chloe in 3D. Warning for the saccharin-intolerant, they are very cute characters. Although, in truth, their looks are deceiving. :-)

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I also created an anaglyph version:

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The creator of the strip seemed to really like the images and posted them on her site.

I'm thinking about doing some other webcomics character fan art, so this may be a continuing series...

Cuties!

Very cool, Mark!

Thanks, guys!

Nicely done Mark.
Very cute characters.

I like the idea of cross pollination and sharing your talent with others in webcomics. A talented artist such as yourself has some skills and ways of approaching characters the original artist likely won't. The good will goes a long way and will be appreciated.

Quite nice! Like your choice of rendering setup as well

Cute. I am in the middle of a MAJOR remodeling job on my house that started by having a 'cute' cat piss all over the place.Grrrrrrrrr!

Thanks, everybody!

Continuing in the series, here's a robot character called "Asimov" from the webcomic "Marooned."

He just updated the character design and I thought I'd give it a go! I just finished it a little while ago, so I haven't heard back from the webcomic's author, but I hope he'll like it!

Here it is:

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and here's the stereo anaglyph version!

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He's great Mark!

Nicely done.
I think you've found a new calling in converting/homaging other webcomics creators work.
If these were cards they'd be collectors items for sure.

He like it, he likes it! (Just sent you an email, Mark). Didn't know you used Hash for that. You did a great job. Awhile back I used to be a regular member around here, working toward being an animator. That was awhile ago Hello everyone!

Thanks again Mark!

Excellent, Tom!

It really is a small world. :-)

Thanks! (and thanks to Rodney, too.)

Before I move on, I rendered out a turntable of the Asimov model. I rigged him so that he could be bendy.

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Tom!

I hadn't made the connection but sure should have.
Great to see you again.


That's a spiffy looking turnaround Mark! Very nice.

man, that must have been one big cat!

So, with the big commercial job out of the way, I took some time today to continue this series!

This is a redneck squirrel named Jimbo from the VERY funny webcomic, Fuzznuts!

It's fun trying to adapt different art styles into my 3D style.

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And again, a stereo anaglyph...

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The style is amazing... I like all of them very much!

You should do a tutorial on how you make them that smooth looking!

See you
*Fuchur*

Thanks, Gerald!

The keys to smoothness for me are:

1) Paying attention to spline continuity;

2) Using the x, y, z and combo restraints when adjusting CPs;

3) Placing the splines roughly in the middle between two splines.

I virtually never use the bias handles (I keep them turned off while I'm modeling.) The curves I get just come from placing CPs. I usually use the porcelain material for skin, too. Not really to make it smooth, but to make it seem puffed out.

#4 in the series!

This is "Robot" from the great webcomic, Robot Beach by Matt Forcum!

I was supposed to wait until Friday to work on this, but I started fooling around with his foot last night and just couldn't bring myself to stop working on it until I had it finished.

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And here's the stereo version!

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#5 in the series!

This is Gus the dog from David Wilborn's Urban Jungle webcomic. I shared a table with David at the Webcomics Expo I went to in August. He's a really good guy and does a great webcomic!

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And the stereo version:

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#6 in the series!

This definitely was the toughest one yet! Sheldon by Dave Kellett is bar-none my favorite webcomic. It's also very much a line-art comic, so imagining the characters in 3D was difficult. That said, I'm really happy with how it came out. Arthur the duck just seemed to come alive when I put in rigging, so I ended up doing this one as multiple images, so that I could put him in different poses.

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Haven't done one of these in a loooong time!

This one is a small strip that I really dig. It's a sci-fi strip with all of these lizard people who look exactly alike. (Well, the girl lizard people have curly fins, but they mostly still all look alike.)

It's called "Lair of the Lizardmin" and it's by a guy named Al Moore.

Because the strip is in black and white and I liked that it made it look like it was an old 1950s TV show, I did this one in black and white.

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And as always, I did a stereo anaglyph version:

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great style!

Hehe. Very nice.

I really enjoy your tribute pieces and you always point us to some fun... and in this case really funny... webcomics.
I guess that is the whole point? Now you've got me not only interested in the comic but in it creator also.

I've only read a few of the comics thus far but I'm finding 'Lair of the Lizardmin' a winner.
A+ at first glance assessment! A great slice of life comic that attaches itself directly to the sensibilities of my funny bone.
It's not often I laugh out loud while reading a webcomic.

Its got to be quite a task to capture these guys because they are so 2D... and so simply drawn.
I'd say you've successfully translated them into the 3D world, I can almost see the 2D/3D fully featured animated film now... "Lizardmin vs Lizardmin: Adventures in an Animated World"

Speaking of 3D... I simply MUST figure out a better place to store my 3D glasses!
Every time someone posts something cool like this it takes me hours to dig them up.

Thanks Mark for continuing this webcomics fan art!


Added: I hadn't read your text before launching out to explore the webcomic. You said:

I'd say you must have sucessfully captured that. My feeling was immediately that these two were waiting in the wings to go on an old B&W talk show... say...very early TV such as Ed Sullivan or Johnny Carson.


And yet another return because this is a really fun webcomic.
I've discovered a valuable tool in measuring the worth of a webcomic: The more times you say to yourself, "Now why didn't I think of this!" the higher quality and intrinsic value of the webcomic. I claim full trademark rights to this cool tool and name him "Urekasama!™". Ahem. That's it. That is all. Um, yeah... so... going back to read more Lizardmin comics...

Thanks, guys! (I think Rodney has fallen in love with the Lizardmin.) :-)

Al put the images up on his website along with some nice words.

Wow. he LOVED it.
I get the feeling this practice is going to pay dividends one day ... somehow ... sooner or later ... I'm hoping sooner.
At the very least, you are getting these guys to link to Wannabe Pirates, which is pretty nice.
Keep it up!

Cool! Why does the Lizardmin character remind me of the 'Inspector' character from Pink Panther?

Thanks!

I'm thinking it can't hurt. :-)

There is an underlying (primordial) artistic reason I am drawn to these Lizardmin... and it has nothing to do with alien conspiracies and everything to do with their design.

See, here's the thing...
There is a set of characters that for lack of a better term I call 'flatheads'.
These generally consist of a head whacked off at the top by a horizontal line with eyes on each side of the line.
At the age of 14 I recall struggling to perfect a flathead design with a cousin of mine.
It... wasn't a pretty sight.

This basic design can be seen in several places with Disney's "Phineas and Ferb" (better known to fans as Nachohead... sorry not a fan so I can't comment beyond the design) the best known publicly accepted flathead design. But most of these flatheads fall short, a product of their DNA, Design Noggin Arrangement that doesn't translate well into sequential comics and animation because of their particularly bad front and 3/4 views.

Matt references the inspector from Pink Panther... which is... is borne of the UPA flathead design!

But 'Lair of the Lizardmin' represents one slithering step forward in flathead evolution.
Simply put... these Lizardmin represent a new and improved two-dee-forced-dimensional-perspective-on-the-cutting-edge of flathead design.

...and they sure are funny lookin'.

You've been holding out on us Mark!!!

The Adventures of Elliot Wangley?

Very *HICCUP* intresting.

Not holding out. The Adventures of Elliot Wangley was something I worked on while I was laid off back in 2002. When the first one went up, I emailed all of my friends to check it out and by that afternoon I had a job offer!

If only that would have happened with The Wannabe Pirates!

Suddenly, I was too busy to continue it, so once the buffer ran out, it just fizzled out.

If I'd continued it, I'd be almost 10 years into it!

Hey make another few episodes of The Adventures of Elliot Wangley and email all your friends! Maybe it will work again, who knows?