Best action scene...

Alschroeder · Post by **Alschroeder** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 5:30 am

I was really working on some of my scenes today, which were focused mainly on action...like below:

....and I was wondering, for those of you who do more action/drama type comics....
What do you think was YOUR best action scene? And how did you convey the action? Speedlines, motion blur, photographic strobe-like freeze-frame, what?---Al

ManyWorlds · Post by **ManyWorlds** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 5:44 am

I have'nt had much onscreen action in my comic. The little I *have* had I've done through the motion-blur effect in the photo-editor I use as a JPG converter.

Bekka · Post by **Bekka** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 5:58 am

My drawing style is very static and cartoony, but in this panel I tried to convey the feeling of lots of things happening at once in the heat of a fight with broken glass/mirror lines:

http://www.thenoobcomic.com/daily/strip080.html

Joel Fagin · Post by **Joel Fagin** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 6:05 am

Usually a combination of freeze frames for drama and movement lines. My two favourite are, at this stage, from my last comic. Last frame here and all of this one.

- Joel Fagin

Cope · Post by **Cope** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 6:21 am

My best action scene so far would have to be the fight in part two, but that's speaking entirely relatively.

I spent most of my cartooning life drawing comical newspaper-style strips before I decided I wanted to do something more serious. As such, most of my action techniques are holdovers from my years of drawing slapstick; motion lines, pain stars and so forth.

Netpoet · Post by **Netpoet** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 6:35 am

Well, so far the comic's been nothing BUT an action scene, but my favorite part of it so far has been page 8... I'm *TRYING* to convince Michelle to make the middle scene here a full-on background and what not, but heh.

Edit2: er, sorry about the size of that pic. :p instead of the pic, here's the link to the page in question: http://ttg.keenspace.com/1-008.html

... which, after rereading, didn't quite answer your question.

So far, we've used mostly speed lines and the like, especially on page 5 and 7. But that one's still my fav...

Fadri · Post by **Fadri** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 6:39 am

I have no too many comics to try, but I think I have a good one.

http://dragonmail.keenspace.com/d/20050603.html

In this comic, I used speedlines and "special effect" backgrounds.
I think the effected backgrounds help to increase the visual shock and the adrenalin rush. xD

McDuffies · Post by **McDuffies** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 7:13 am

It's all in construction of the page, character's position, camera angle and so.
In action, you basically have to pick one frame from the entire movement and display it. That one frame should represent the whole movement. It is very important to pick the right moment, and also to make the frame convey the movement that happened before and after that frame. For instance, if there's a fist hitting someone, solely from the positions of the hand you have to be able to see hwere the hand came from, where it is going to be in the next moment, and to make those two directions seamless (as well as the movements of hand and the face that is hit). Also, it helps if the other elements of the page (background objects and shades for instance) are used to underline the same movement.
Speed lines and other stuff can make the image more expressive, more dynamic, but they are not very decisive on whether the action is conveyed well. Take Jordi Bernet, for one: he never used any of those: No speed lines, no effects, no colour, no broken frames - most of his comics are actually made in standard page format, 2x3 frames per page, always the same size - and yet he is one of the most expressive artists when it comes to drawing action. And that's about the only good thing in his comics. Take Richard Corben on the other side, he used most of mentioned effects, and yet his pages are always intentionally massive and static, like clay figures.

Protectmyballs · Post by **Protectmyballs** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 7:17 am

I like to use speed lines for fast movements that are multipart, like here http://protectmyballs.keenspace.com/d/20050204.html
or perspective/freeze frame for big sweeping motion, and just cause it looks cool, like here (todays, actually) http://protectmyballs.keenspace.com/

Derenge · Post by **Derenge** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 7:30 am

Action scenes are a major part of my comic, as such they make up more than a third of the pages to date. The only action scene that represents the sort of thing I want to do more of in the future starts at http://pointless.keenspace.com/d/20040724.html and ends 30 or so pages thereafter. Technically there are lots of lulls in the middle of it but it's all part of the same scene. I hope to put more bits like this in coming chapters.

TheLoserHero · Post by **TheLoserHero** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 8:41 am

I grew up watching and loving kung fu movies with their flamboyantly absurd and fast-paced fight sequences. Action scenes are practically are my comic -- as such, I have a bunch I really like. *ducks* These are in chronological order:

Main Character fighting some bandits:
Page One Page Two Page Three Page Four Page Five Page Six

Another main character in another storyline fighting some old guys:
Page One Page Two Page Three

That very same guy getting owned by the villain of my story:
Page One Page Two

Back to that first main character:
Page One Page Two

...now meeting some pirates (Komiyan and Jim!):
Page One Page Two Page Three Page Four

Another main character, same storyline as above, now fighting Mercury Hat:
Page One Page Two Page Three Page Four Page Five

...annnnnd back to that first main character:
Page One Page Two

Phew.

K-Dawg · Post by **K-Dawg** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 9:05 am

Only action I've really had his Angry D. Monkey vs Godzilla Mulligan:
Angry's comeback
Angry uppercut

Phalanx · Post by **Phalanx** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 9:16 am

Argh! Too many action comics. I can't pick one. Although a few people liked the freeze motion action in Undead Nigh Alpha.

Alschroeder · Post by **Alschroeder** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 9:22 am

netpoet wrote:Well, so far the comic's been nothing BUT an action scene, but my favorite part of it so far has been page 8... I'm *TRYING* to convince Michelle to make the middle scene here a full-on background and what not, but heh.

Edit2: er, sorry about the size of that pic. :p instead of the pic, here's the link to the page in question: http://ttg.keenspace.com/1-008.html

Wow.
There are SO many comics that are good out there that I've never heard of, even though I'm fairly familiar with the field, but I've never gone to y our site before, and I have to say---your art just blows me AWAY!!! Good stuff.
---Al

Zuri · Post by **Zuri** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 9:24 am

I've got entire issues of 30 pages devoted to fighting. :/

although I'd have to say, the fight I'm most pleased with artistically to date is the one between the Maverick and John Sterling in my comic in the issue called " Dogfight "

personal highlight pages from that issue would be this sequence:
http://shifters.keenspace.com/d/20040317.html
http://shifters.keenspace.com/d/20040319.html
http://shifters.keenspace.com/d/20040324.html

Probably one of the best ones I've done.

Netpoet · Post by **Netpoet** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 9:31 am

alschroeder wrote:
netpoet wrote:Well, so far the comic's been nothing BUT an action scene, but my favorite part of it so far has been page 8... I'm *TRYING* to convince Michelle to make the middle scene here a full-on background and what not, but heh.

Edit2: er, sorry about the size of that pic. :p instead of the pic, here's the link to the page in question: http://ttg.keenspace.com/1-008.html
Wow.
There are SO many comics that are good out there that I've never heard of, even though I'm fairly familiar with the field, but I've never gone to y our site before, and I have to say---your art just blows me AWAY!!! Good stuff.
---Al

lol.. I'll pass that on, but thanks.

I'm the writer, Michelle is the fabu artist behind all that mind-numbing artwork.

Chaos Cricket · Post by **Chaos Cricket** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 10:04 am

I generally don't have much action in my comic, but I'm still awful proud of this fight scene.

Jackhass · Post by **Jackhass** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 12:37 pm

Hmmmm...

...the latest comic I put up is about as close to an "action scene" as my comic has ever got.

Warofwinds · Post by **Warofwinds** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 6:33 pm

Hmm, I hate stetching out battle scenes, b/c to me, the comic is all about the story. I hate it when the battles stretch out more than 3 pages without story advancement, so i try to keep mine short.

Starts: http://warofwinds.keenspace.com/d/20050403.html
The main fight: http://warofwinds.keenspace.com/d/20050409.html
Ends:http://warofwinds.keenspace.com/d/20050410.html

La. De. Da.

Leko · Post by **Leko** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 8:13 pm

Action the first: http://thespiphobia.keenspace.com/d/20050519.html last panel.

Action the second: http://thespiphobia.keenspace.com/comics/20050616.gif last panel.

So I guess I use hand drawn blur lines? *shrug* I probably could have gotten away with not putting them in the first one, but the second one wouldn't have looked right without the blur on the knuckles.

The rest of the violence is so horribly unspeakable that I keep it offscreen.