Inspiration strikes! A new idea forms, and you're really excited about it. You want to take your time, however– you want this to be great, and no great thing just springs fully formed from one's brow. For years you toil, tweak, refine, moving ever closer to the point ...
Convergent Creation
Amelius at 1:15PM, Dec. 9, 2018Strong Women, Strong Men
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Dec. 8, 2018
A ton of things have been written about “strong female characters”- how we need them in narratives, and what it means to have them in a creative work's cast. Tons of discussions and social media wars have been waged on what it is that makes a female character strong ...
The Double Edged Sword of Stereotyping
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Nov. 24, 2018
Stereotypes permeate our every day lives. Whether we like it or not, our brains are wired for making quick estimations and judgments based on patterns and pattern recognition.
This very pattern we're looking for to identify at a glance is what a stereotype is. And it's very useful ...
Quackcast 401 - Stan Lee, a stupid comedian, and the new prudes
Ozoneocean at 12:00AM, Nov. 20, 2018 LISTEN on our new player!
Listen on Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=224306 his characters weren't simple 2D cut-outs (like Maher's version of political figures), they were complicated and human. These were A-political characters who strived to do what was right outside of mere party affiliations ...
Justifying the Tragic Backstory
Emma_Clare at 12:00AM, Sept. 21, 2018
Throughout literature and modern media, many faults and drives for leads, damsels and villians have often been motivated by a tragic backstory so much so, that to employ one for your story may appear trite or cliche. There is, however, a way to use a tragic backstory effectively and can ...
Quackast 391 - personality mix group dynamics
Ozoneocean at 12:00AM, Sept. 11, 2018 LISTEN!
This Quackcast was based on an idea from Banes. We chat about designing a group of characters with complementary temperaments. In Banes' own words:
“I like the idea of the line between a logical, left brained person and a creative, right brained person, crossed with a spectrum of a ...
Quackast 390 - Imprinting on your characters
Ozoneocean at 12:00AM, Sept. 4, 2018 LISTEN!
We nicked the idea for this Quackcast from a newspost by Emma Clare. What we chat about is the unintentional process of giving your characters you own traits or even traits of people you know without realising it: Every time you draw an expression for your character you're ...
When you hate your characters!
Emma_Clare at 12:00AM, Aug. 31, 2018
You’ve gone through the arduous process of fleshing out your world, the themes and the lore and you’re standing back looking at your shining new playground; but there is a blight standing right in the centre that you can no longer ignore. You hate your characters. Maybe it ...
Quackast 389 - Intimidating Baddies
Ozoneocean at 12:00AM, Aug. 28, 2018 LISTEN!
What makes bad guy intimidating? Tantz Aerine made a great newspost about the question, carefully outlining various key bad-guy properties like confidence, composure, efficiency, and amorality. Banes, Pitface, Tantz and I stomp ALL over that, traipsing about like drunken, muddy rugby players, as we blather on about our opinions ...
Imprinting on Characters
Emma_Clare at 12:00AM, Aug. 10, 2018
The other day, I was discussing my creative process to a poor, unsuspecting soul, who, to their credit, seemed content to put up with a bit of a ramble. They had mentioned that they enjoyed the facial expressions of the characters in our comics, (I did mention they were super ...