Chapter Four sneak-peeks, progress, and discussion

[Nekomata]

This thread is purely for Chapter Four related discussion- mostly predictions since it'll be another three months before the chapter officially starts (maybe less if the challenge goes well!). I'll be posting some progress updates and the occasional sneak-peak here. No worries- all updates/previews will be spoiler free. All the sneak-peaks will consist of random panels (or WIP panels) of pages that I feel like sharing- I won't ever post anything that gives direct spoilers.

So- what are your predictions for Chapter Four?

Progress:

Spoiler:

Planning/Writing
Note: All percentages are estimates with fancy colors.

Planning: 80%
Outlining: 60%
Scripting: 5%

Pages

Sketched: 0
Lined: 0
Flat Colors: 0
Shaded: 0
Backgrounds: 0
Finished: 2

Sneak-Peaks

Spoiler:

[Nekomata]

Here's the first official sneak-peak. I was debating whether I should post this or not, but eh- I'll just do it. It's a preview of the Chapter Four cover- already uploaded onto Smackjeeves (since I'm an author, it'll show as the 'latest' page for me- and Snowy.)

Though it isn't a spoiler, I'll still put it in spoiler tags for those who don't want to see anything related to Chapter 4 until it starts.

Spoiler:

Anyway, on that note- let's start some discussion. What do you guys think will happen in Chapter Four?

[PTGigi]

I'm holding off on posting thoughts for Chapter 4 until Chapter 3 is wrapped up but it looks to be going in interesting directions!

Really love the cover you have there, can't wait to see it in its non-thumbnail glory c:

[Grassy_Aggron]

We all know the twins are going to blow SOMETHING up.


The chapter isn't finished, but I have a feeling Nyra will play a major role... But I also sense that "barrier" she spoke about is going to fail, just from that falling fiery feather we saw in that one panel. Much as a rose loses a petal, a bird losing a feather is often a sign great illness or loss. Not always, but it often has a foreboding feel.


Also dat cover page. So much fiiiiire.

[Nekomata]

@PTGigi

Fair enough! Chapter three will be over in under a month now. Feels like forever ago when I started it. xD And new cover was fun to make. As always.
@Grassy_Aggron

The twins are guaranteed to blow something up. That's just a fact. It'd be no fun without explosions. =D

And you'll have to see regarding the barrier. Always nice to see what people think will happen in the coming scenes! I haven't responded to all threads so far- but you've got quite a few thought at theories! It's always fun reading them. =P

And yes. All my cover pages have fire in them so far. This was not intentional.... but considering this story arc involves Moltres, I guess it was bound to happen. xD

Anyway- I'll try to get a weekly sneak of sorts- no spoilers.



^ I finished Page One of Chapter Four. ^

And here's the weekly sneak-peak. It's nothing much- just a landscape panel. There probably won't be much I can post without spoilers for the first few pages of the chapter.

Spoiler:

[Suicune's Fire]

GREAT JOB FINISHING TWO PAGES, DUDE. DUUUUUUUUUUDE. Yay.

Also I like how you said "sneak peak" then showed us a mountain background...with peaks. Nice pun. ;] (Though I'm pretty sure it was unintentional. The spelling you're looking for is "peek." xD) P.S. If you need some grammar/spelling checks, just lemme know. ;D

I love the focus on fire. Fire types are my favourites. c: I really love your backgrounds too. You put a lot of effort into every stroke, which is very admirable.

I'm keen to find out what they discover in the temple! The fact that Naya is going along with them - somewhat against her will - is probably the thing which makes it the most amusing for me. xD I can't wait to see what she finds. And I'm really curious about Nyra. O: I wonder if those kabutops will find her... and what they were doing there. It's a shame her father was how he was, but hopefully she can bring some honour back to her family. x) That might be nice. xD

[Nekomata]

GREAT JOB FINISHING TWO PAGES, DUDE. DUUUUUUUUUUDE. Yay.

Also I like how you said "sneak peak" then showed us a mountain background...with peaks. Nice pun. ;] (Though I'm pretty sure it was unintentional. The spelling you're looking for is "peek." xD) P.S. If you need some grammar/spelling checks, just lemme know. ;D

I love the focus on fire. Fire types are my favourites. c: I really love your backgrounds too. You put a lot of effort into every stroke, which is very admirable.

I'm keen to find out what they discover in the temple! The fact that Naya is going along with them - somewhat against her will - is probably the thing which makes it the most amusing for me. xD I can't wait to see what she finds. And I'm really curious about Nyra. O: I wonder if those kabutops will find her... and what they were doing there. It's a shame her father was how he was, but hopefully she can bring some honour back to her family. x) That might be nice. xD

Well... one page is a cover page. xD Those don't usually take too long to get done. =D

And oh god. How did I not notice that earlier. D8 -scrambles to fix- I would make silly puns like that completely unintentionally. And you're always more than welcome to point out spelling/grammar issues. Photoshop lacks a spell-check, so I often don't catch all the typos before posting a page. xD

I love fire types- they've been my favorite since forever. Can you tell? xD The entire comic won't focus on fire types, but for now, we'll see plenty of them! And my backgrounds? What is this insanity of which you speak. I rarely slow down to work on backgrounds on pages. I abuse gradients a lot... though, I guess I did put some background effort at the end of chapter three. O_o Wonder what possessed me to do that. -shot-

Poor Naya got herself into this. Maybe eventually I'll actually give her choices.... PFFFT. Yeah. I can't say too much about Chapter Four at this point (spoilerssss), but I can say there will be Kabutops, Naya, and Nyra! 8D -shot-

[Suicune's Fire]

Reckon they'd take me a while. xD I suppose it depends what's on it, but yeah. I reckon ANY comic page would take a while.

Ahahaha that's okay! LOL you would. I like that you pun without meaning to. Yeah, true. xD And I know that a lot of them are so small that they go unnoticed no matter how many times you read over them. xD Happens to me all the time! WE'RE ALL TRAGIC VICTIMS OF TYPOS. ;A;

Oh my gosh me tooooo! 8D Well especially when there were those pages that talked about winter and the absence of spring... I LIKE THEM OKAY? Gradients are helpful though. Yeah, that's what I meant. xD

Yep, true. xD Yay! 8D I NEVER WOULD HAVE GUESSED ANY OF THOSE THINGS.

[Nekomata]

Reckon they'd take me a while. xD I suppose it depends what's on it, but yeah. I reckon ANY comic page would take a while.

Ahahaha that's okay! LOL you would. I like that you pun without meaning to. Yeah, true. xD And I know that a lot of them are so small that they go unnoticed no matter how many times you read over them. xD Happens to me all the time! WE'RE ALL TRAGIC VICTIMS OF TYPOS. ;A;

Oh my gosh me tooooo! 8D Well especially when there were those pages that talked about winter and the absence of spring... I LIKE THEM OKAY? Gradients are helpful though. Yeah, that's what I meant. xD

Yep, true. xD Yay! 8D I NEVER WOULD HAVE GUESSED ANY OF THOSE THINGS.

The reason cover pages don't take long is because I don't use any lineart in them- they're usually a bit more abstract. I'm faster at painterly stuff than I am at lining, though I HAVE gotten faster with lines in more recent pages, but that's mostly due to the increased line width I've been using for the last several pages.

Puns are always awesome. I don't care what people say, I love bad puns. =D I typo everywhere. Being a fast typer means that I make more typos... but it also means I get more done. TYPO MONSTERS ARE EVERYWHERE.

Fire types are awesome. Oh- THOSE pages. xD Those were fun to do.... you know, now that I think about it, I haven't been THAT lazy with backgrounds in Chapter Three. I wonder how many panels I actually made backgrounds for vs. gradients. I should count.

Of course not. MAJOR SPOILER WARNINGS EVERYWHERE. 8D

---

With NaNo starting this weekend, production on Ch. 4 will slow down quite a bit unless the hiatus is cut by more than one or two weeks (in which case I'll have no choice but to update!)- so sneak-peeks will be scarce. I'll see if I can get a page done tonight or tomorrow night though. I don't think I'll be able to post anything significant from that page though without potential spoilers.

[Nekomata]

Unfortunately, not much progress has been made on chapter four in the last two or three weeks. Life dumped a group project on me and well... yeaaaahhh.... Everything went downhill.

That coupled with NaNoWriMo, I just haven't had free time. Or sleep time. My mind has been focused more on my other story than on PRS lately- but no worries! I'm still working on it a little in the background. Mostly on the brainstorming and mental sticky-notes for long-term plot stuff. I hope to outline the rest of chapter four by the end of the month- I've been putting that off for too long!

Anyway, with the hiatus starting this week, I'll be setting up the contest this weekend- it should be up by Friday or Saturday evening. I've got a theme in mind and all- just need to put together some background info on some stuff for people that might help with the contest. I'll probably feature the contest entries on the SJ site (they'll be removed before Ch. 4 starts to minimize clutter) and possibly let people vote on the winner!

The hiatus challenge still has about 36 hours remaining- so if we're going to shorten the hiatus, post! Right now we're still looking at January 2nd. Part of me is kind of glad we didn't hit a few hundred posts- I'm not sure I can get a decent enough buffer done before January let alone in two weeks. xD

And yes, I know I've been neglecting the tumblr ask page. It's been busy- it'll get more love during the hiatus... to make up for time.

So there's all of the updates for now. -goes back to working on NaNo-