Cool or not?

[The Snoo]

I just want a quick thought on whether or not this pic is cool. Not how well it's drawn, or anything like that, just is the scene being depicted "cool" or not.

[Rkolter]

The concept is cool - lady turns her head around and reaches for gun.

But the execution wasn't so hot.

But if something is not hot it might be cool.

Gah.

No. I don't find the picture particularly cool or not cool.

[Warren]

Once I saw the bullet, I voted for yes. Save for the fact it looks like I drew it, it's pretty cool.

[The Snoo]

Yeah. like I said, just wondering if the actual scene is good, not the drawing. I whipped it up really quick, and in all honesty, from the neck down, the art is total crap, even for me.

[Rkolter]

Ooh, I missed the bullet.

That improves the coolness factor.

[Dracomax]

I dunno. It just seems a little cliche. without any context, it just comes across as a little too..."Matrix-y."

[LibertyCabbage]

I'd like to see more reaction from a bullet whizzing past her face.

[Black Sparrow]

As rkolter said, the concept is pretty cool, even if it is a little "Matrix-y"

Perhaps you can heighten it's dramaticness(is that even a word?)by playing around with high contrast lighting. Also, the bullet needs to be emphasized. I didn't see it until someone mentioned it.

[War]

No. It's incredibly boring. Like it or not, making a cool action scene is all about the art. It doesn't have to be particularly well drawn, or in a particularly attractive style. What matters is the viewpoint, the pose, the reaction.
Here's something I doodled up quick.


Mr "Stuck in the 70s" is doing a classic Matrix dodge. It's not the best viewpoint, but the pose is more interesting than just standing there. If you're getting shot at, would you just stand there?
The second doodle is closer to the original material. Here we have someone being shot at, whilst reaching for his own gun. The bullet could have been fired from someone standing at the viewer's left shoulder. He's leaning/falling/leaping back to avoid it, and at the same time he's reaching for his gun.
The little cartooned I doodled on the side highlights the pitfall of talking heads. Talking heads don't just apply to two people talking to each other frame after frame, if the viewpoint is static and the characters wooden then action scenes can suffer from talking head syndrome just as badly.

Now we're looking down at our character from a higher vantage point (excuse the crappy foreshortening). Just by dint of looking at it from another angle it seems more interesting, as the character here is doing nothing more than reaching for his gun as the bullets whizz past.
In all these cases it is far more obvious that bullets are being fired, and that the character is doing something in retaliation. If the viewer has to look for the bullet before he/she'll realise that the character is being shot at, then the message of the comic isn't being communicated very well.

[[AlmightyPyro]]

Damn War... just damn.

[Prettysenshi]

I'm with War on this one. For an action pose to be interesting, it must be dynamic.

[SergeXIII]

Yeah, I'm inclined to agree with War there.
Simply changing the perspective should significantly improve the coolinetude of that picture. I would try and doodle an attempt at the concept, but my scanner broke, and I also don't have the time.

[Joel Fagin]

He only wanted to know if the scene is cool, not the camera work. War's right, mind, but War is a much better artist and can pull off perspective tricks probably only Humbug could match. Hardly fair to expect Snoo to be able to do something like that. Posed and perspectived people are always hard to come to grips with, let alone both at once. It would take me days to get a picture like War's right.*

Given the level of skill in the original picture, yes the scene is a cool one. However the bullet clipping off the hair is both hard to notice and a little over the top.

- Joel Fagin

* Except not any more because I have War's as a reference.

[Kirb]

I'll have to definitely agree with war here.

Perspective and camera work are everything.

They can make an exciting or 'cool' scene into a bland one or a bland one into an interesting one.

The ol' 3/4 perspective tends to get a bit boring after a while, no matter what happens to be inside the panel.


But the concept of a bullet whizzing by a person's head cutting off hair is always cool. Did you expect somebody to say that it wasn't?

[Mercury Hat]

I thought the hair was a goatee.

[McDuffies]

He only wanted to know if the scene is cool, not the camera work. War's right, mind, but War is a much better artist and can pull off perspective tricks probably only Humbug could match. Hardly fair to expect Snoo to be able to do something like that. Posed and perspectived people are always hard to come to grips with, let alone both at once. It would take me days to get a picture like War's right.*

Given the level of skill in the original picture, yes the scene is a cool one. However the bullet clipping off the hair is both hard to notice and a little over the top.

- Joel Fagin

* Except not any more because I have War's as a reference.

I think that what War presented well was, the coolness of the scene is interconnected with the presentation, ie how it's drawn. Potentially, I see nothing cool about the scene, something similar can be seen in films every day, but artist can make it to look more or less cool. Imagine, for instance, a bit of dramatic lightning applied, and you realise how the scene can be seen completely different.

[War]

But the concept of a bullet whizzing by a person's head cutting off hair is always cool. Did you expect somebody to say that it wasn't?

Ohhh. I thought those were Matrix-esque bullet shockwave thingies.

[Komiyan]

The scene is totally made by the camera work. Presentation and composition seem to be a huge part of art, not just 'cool factor'. Looks to me like War was pretty darn helpful there.

I didn't notice the bullet cutting the hair either. I feel dumb now.

[Garneta]

I did notice the bullet cutting off the hair, but only after I looked at the picture for a minute...something like that needs to stand out a bit more.

[Yeahduff]

War isn't wrong, he just answered a question that wasn't asked. But I guess the answer is, "It can be cool only if it's drawn well."

I'd like to see more reaction from a bullet whizzing past her face.

Give her a break. Bullets move pretty fast.